Thursday, March 30, 2023

never...

tuck stitch dishrags
 is a hard word. I was watching a cooking show on PBS – it’s called A Chef’s Life with Vivian Howard – I really like her because she tells the good, the bad, and the ugly, not like some of them who are all so perfect and everything turns out, tastes great and looks good too. Anyway, she was saying that she spent time in her early career saying, oh, I’d never do that or I’d never use that and now she feels like she is always finding ways to do those ‘never’ things. Ha! I thought it was just me! Way back, when people (mostly men) asked if I could knit socks on that thing (I was demo-ing the knitting machine at a fair or home show) I used to say, you can get a lot of socks at Walmart! and you know, knitting socks has become a big thing with me!

I have also, not so long ago, pooh-poohed knitting dishrags,
https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-power-of-suggestion.html

but here I am, today, not only knitting a dishcloth, but knitting-from-screen, using DAK! Ha!


And as I was starting off, I recalled Cathy at the seminar in TN, asking about a two-needle ewrap cast-on, (which I had forgot all about!) and thought, why not try that – you know, just for practise…gosh, seminars are good for everyone! Not that I’m making a new career knitting dishcloths, but I was experimenting and helping a friend sort out her Silver Reed/DAK issues – maybe more on this later! The good thing is, I think I got my mojo back! My knitting room is back to normal, swatches and projects-in-planning all over the place!

Friday, March 24, 2023

shoulder workout...

finished

On that ivory Two-Faced, with the hand-transferred lace vees, Back and Front, I had one shoulder joined, did the armhole band and seamed one side at home, planning to make the neckband at the seminar. At the show, I got the neckband done just fine, using the same method I had used on the armband, an 8-row stockinette hem with graded tension, see below. Got that done, it looked beautiful and it was time for lunch. There were a few questions and I promised to show seaming the other shoulder and the neckband, but some how got on to other things and didn’t get back to it.

The perfect stockinette band, Sample in Wool Crepe Deluxe, stockinette T6, 34 sts and 50 rows to 10 cm/4 in. To determine number of needles required, for this weight of yarn, hold edge up to needle bed and stretch slightly to add 10-15% extra. Add extra stitch at each end for seaming if necessary or joining. For neck band/open stitches, take number of sts and reduce by 5/6.

hang second shoulder
1.  Cast on WY. Knit 10 rows.

2.  Ravel cord, knit 1 row, ending Carriage At Left.

3.  RC000. T7, MC, K1R. Hang clip on yarn tails at ends to add a bit of weight so they don’t knit too tightly.

4.  Tighten tension by 2 dots, K1R, 3X.

5.  Tighten tension by 1 dot, K1R, 3X to T4 at RC008.

6.  T8, K1R.

7.  T4, reverse back up to RC017.

unravel last row

8.  Hang hem starting from right end. Pick up second stitch and put on second needle - this makes it easier to find first stitch. At left side take beginning tail of yarn and loop oven end needle to hold the end together and puts the yarn tail at the right place to begin seaming end of band.

9.  T8, K1R.

10.  Remove on WY or garter bar.

Leaving end ns empty, hang garment, picking up whole outside edge stitch, gathering slightly as necessary. Turn band and rehang, open sts in hooks. Pull through. Manually knit loose row and chain cast off. Basically, start hem at one or two numbers number higher than main tension and grade down by one or two dots to the fold row, reverse on other side of fold row. After completion, thread Double Eye Transfer Tool through band, hold on fold and stretch band out to set stitches, passing tool along inside band as
necessary.

manually knit loose row

Anyway, one of the questions was, double end stitches of neckline when hanging and I’d said no, because the method I use for seaming the shoulder (on the machine – see below) and seaming the neckband (see below) …

Take first shoulder, hang knit/right side facing, remove waste. Hang second shoulder, putting right sides together, leaving all stitches in hooks. Remove waste yarn and carefully rip out
last row of stockinette of main yarn – I always knit a plain row at the top of the shoulder to get rid of any wraps from shortrowing and it’s easier to rehang/pick up a plain row after pattern stitches. Separate the two sets of sts and pull the front sts through the back set. That ripped out row should give you enough yarn to make that manually-knit loose row to cast off and it eliminates another couple of extra ends to darn in. Shoulder looks better because you don’t get a stacked couple of plain rows and there is nothing to double up for the neckband!

pin curled-in edges

Pin out the curled-in edges of the neckband and steam. This steaming defines the edge stitches, making the whole thing easier to handle and see. Then, using the longest tail available from the inside edge, hand stitch from the top/outside, through bar of half outside edge stitch from one side, across to corresponding bar of half stitch of adjoining piece, to next bar, etc. (going into each half stitch or bar only once) to end and thread the tail in the inside of the band. This makes a nice, flat, almost invisible, no bulk join/seam, when done neatly, blends right into the band, making it continuous, both inside and out!


Sunday, March 19, 2023

the skinny...

What I thought I’d do over the next couple of weeks is to go over things from the Pigeon Forge seminar and either clarify details, things I forgot say or stuff I realized were mentioned and we ran out of time.
http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/02/brainwaves.html 

That’s the link to the start of my Skin Game cardigan/jean jacket. If you click on that link, it takes you to the blog, you’ll see it is dated Feb 21, 2020. I was planning on having the finished garment to wear or show at the 2020 seminar that didn’t happen. There were 8 posts in all, ending with  http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/03/winging-it.html, March 12, 2020, about The Skinny, which I thought gave a brilliant tutorial on design,  
knitting fairisle, making an inside patch pocket, a new ribbed button band and buttonhole, the collar and a ton of other stuff – not much response. Of course, in the next 3 years, I kinda forgot all about it but I did take it this year and I was rather surprised that so many people were excited about it, at least the stitch pattern. The ‘skin print’ is made with two-colour fairisle and I ended up with an electronic stitch pattern that was 40 sts X 60 rows. 
You may have noticed I don’t often do much fairisle and I think it’s because I am not usually attracted to prints, too many colours and with fairisle, the issue of long floats. I think I should say that I didn’t write that pattern for this because who else would be crazy enough to go through all that? But if you have any experience knitting MAO patterns, the things I put in the blogposts should help you through the process. Margie asked me if I had a 24-stitch version, which I did and promised to send her, so here it is. If any one wants the electronic DAK version of it and/or the larger 40-st one, email me at knitwords@shaw.ca and I’d be more than happy to share, even if you didn’t make it to the seminar.

Friday, March 17, 2023

tennessee re-visited...

I’m back home from Pigeon Forge, finished unpacking and had to get back on here to tell you about it! I had been sitting here at home for, like, the past four years and as the time approached to get packing and actually going to Pigeon Forge to talk knitting, I admit, I was getting a little leery about the whole thing. In preparation, I made pieces, back and front of a new Two-Faced Tank (just to prove, maybe to myself, I could still do it and to have something to work on if things went south!) - I was going to show making the neckband and joining the shoulder. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/03/lost-your-knitting-mojo.html That’s the link from March of 2020, to take you back to the start of my making at least 15 tops for friends and family just for something to do when the world shut down, hopefully inspiring you to get on the bandwagon and knit. I also made a 1RT (that’s MAO’s short form for One-Row Tuck) https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2014/03/1rt-raglan.html tunic, kind of a copy of this green, sleeveless tank tunic that I planned to wear at the seminar - the new one with sleeves, this red/black thing (arguably the hit of the whole show) - did the back and front, made the neckband, attached one sleeve, had the other sleeve on a garter bar to show attaching the set-in sleeve on the machine and finishing the cuff with one of my 1X1 tuck edges that has a crocheted look.  https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-latest.html  Both of these are made with my, probably, all-time favourite yarn, Wool Crepe Deluxe.

Get to the seminar and oh wow! What fun to see old friends, some expected (Hey Sonia, Eloise) and some surprises (Janet came all the way from Utah! and Christine and Terrie – they came to just about everything I ever did in Indiana over the past 20 plus years! – after lunch of the second day, they told me they wished they had a video of my presentation because they made up a MAO-drinking game for every time I said Wool Crepe Deluxe – it was pretty funny. Ah, maybe you had to be there!) and some new people (Hey Cathy!), and some  familiar faces, Margie, Sharon – shout out to all the rest, thanks for coming. I had a blast!!

Apologies for my not keeping up with the blog – I guess I was feeling like I was talking to the wind, not thinking of you and not realizing how sometimes reading my dumb blogpost might be the bright spot in your day – Janet told me she felt like she’d lost her best friend when I stopped posting, so, sorry! I’ll keep trying to say something! My plan is to finish off those things I was working on and tell you the details – please stay tuned!