Hanging my head in shame...

I got the following email this morning: I have made a few of your lace garments and am now knitting Lacey Blue. I enter the lace information in the Memo information. You have to enter either a N for normal lace or F for fine lace on the lace rows and then the even number of rows to be knit in stockinet. I just put N every row until the knit row I put the number. It talks about it on page 44 of the instruction book. Just thought I'd let you know it does work and helps a lot especially on this last one. Thanks for writing all the great patterns. Alice R, ND
Back in the day, I had been told by the so-called Brother experts that there was no way to enter lace pattern memo information in the Brother 970 and I took it on their word. I sincerely apologise. Alice is right; it is right there on page 44 of the 970 manual - couldn’t be easier. The best thing about this is if you’ve input a lace pattern, you can go in and add the memo information anytime - I just did it for ‘Lacey Blues’ and for ‘Gossamer’ and it works!! This totally takes the guesswork out of when to actually knit and when to use the lace carriage.
Now, in the set-up for the pattern, choose the lace carriage (not the fairisle carriage like I previously said) and put in the memo-corrected pattern number and Brother lace knit your heart out!!
thanks Alice!

Spots in Dots...

I have felt rather bad, almost like I’ve been dissing the brother machine unnecessarily after that thread lace thing - I felt that I should give it another chance. Lace knitting is one of my favourite looks and I love coming up with something that looks crochet-like. I had this idea in mind to make a mesh-like canvas and then have random spots or squares or whatever, similar to filet-crochet without the picture thing. I began swatching on the brother - it was really easy, once I came up with my mesh fabric, to simply push back some needles after passing the lace carriage, to de-select some of the mesh and get a spot of knit stitches here and there. After looking at the results, I went to Designaknit and made a large swatch of the mesh and then used the ‘eraser’ to make spots similar to my swatch, so it would be automatic. Back to the brother and knit 2 swatches at differing stitch sizes to find the optimum. Turned out tighter was better, because of the openness of the stitch pattern.
Now, to knit lace on the brother, it means at least 4 passes of the lace carriage and then knit 2 rows with the main carriage; the yarn stays threaded up in the main carriage. Not really a big deal, once you get into the rhythm, but as I was swatching, I kept dreaming of my Silver Reed, with which I can simply knit plain lace as quickly as stockinette. I couldn’t resist. I re-designed the stitch pattern for the Silver Reed and made a swatch. Hummm...interesting! What I thought was plain lace really wasn’t and the swatch did look better from the brother than the plain lace on the Silver Reed. Might look the same to the casual observer, but the holes stay more square on the brother swatch. To get exactly the same thing on the Silver Reed, I would need to knit it as fashion lace: take out the yarn, change the cam to fashion lace, pass 2 rows, re-thread the carriage, change the cam back to stockinette, K2R and repeat throughout. The re-threading of the carriage can be tricky and if not careful, you can easily dump everything. I decided to stick with the brother.
Cast on 80-0-81 needles. Now, I forgot to say, with this mesh knitting, I found that I liked the edges to have at least 2 plain stitches for seaming, so, while knitting this, on two of the rows of the lace carriage, I need to be watching the end needles and push back any that are selected on the 2nd needle from each side. I have already programmed my shape file into the box, but it’s a fairly simple body, just straight to the underarm. I knit a couple of rows and I realize the pattern has not advanced like it should. Reset to the proper row, pass the lace carriage and I get this error message, something like ‘No 48 error, carriage has not passed row tripper’. Sigh. Go find the manual to see what the answer is - there isn’t one that applies to the lace carriage. I changed the sponge bar, thinking maybe the lace carriage is sitting lower than the regular carriage or something. Try again, no difference. It’s after 5pm, so I won’t find any tech support anywhere right then, so I manually clicked the row tripper after passing the lace carriage and it worked, advancing the pattern to the next row. So feature this - pass lace carriage, check end needles, click row tripper, lace, watch end needles, push one back, click row tripper, lace, end needles, row tripper, lace, end needles, row tripper, knit 2 rows! I’ve got a mantra going - lace ends trip, lace ends trip, lace ends trip, lace ends trip, knit 2 rows. I’m concentrating so hard on keeping all this straight, I’ve got about 40 rows done and the box is indicating that I should be decreasing stitches. The darn thing thinks I’m at the underarm already!! I realize my tripping the row counter is racking up garment rows which the lace carriage does not usually do. Fortunately, I do have a manual row counter on this machine that I use faithfully, as well as the one in the box and I have charted out my shape on graph paper, so can follow that. I manage to complete the garment - somewhere around the middle of the front, the row tripper decides to get back in the game so I never did find out what went wrong, but my finished garment is beautiful and just what I had imagined!!! See KNITWORDS No 50, coming soon!! The yarn is Cannelé from Yeoman Yarns and the edging is from ‘Band Practise’, perfect with the filet-knit!
My working title for this was Testing, 1, 2, 3... but you never would have known what that meant!!
PS - yesterday, I went back to the brother. I wanted to make one of those shopping bags (Take an Old Bag Shopping - KW No 44 and see previous blogs) for a gift and, still high on my success with ‘Spots in Dots’, remembering I had thought doing the bag on the brother might be quicker because of being able to use the lace carriage for the transfers to every other needle....NOT!! (for me anyway!)

Battle of the sexes...

Summer is coming (sometime, I guess - but it’s been so freaking cold here - if Clinton can use that word so can I!!). It’s rather hard to get my head around cool knitwear - that might be my new oxymoron - you know, I just realized that ‘advanced beginner’ is an oxymoron...gonna have to change that - any ideas???
Okay, so back to planning my summer issue. I do like thread lace and Mar Heck’s Dragonfly shawl pattern and article in No 48 (it's in the mail!!) inspired me to make a new stitch pattern from of a leaf design I’ve been tinkering with. I want something light, airy, cool and suitable for my hot friends in hot places. In going over Mar's article (she does all her knitting on Brother and I do the majority of mine on my Silver Reeds) she had me convinced that knitting thread lace on the Brother was going to work better than on my Silver Reed. You might ask why? Because the machines knit differently. In particular, on the Brother in thread lace, the ‘selected’ needles -the ones brought out - knit only the finer yarn and the non-selected needles knit both threads, so it is possible to get a better edge on Brother, by using the non-selected end needles feature and, if the end needles are selected because of the pattern, you can push them back before knitting the row, resulting in a better edge. On the Silver Reed, in order to make sure the finer yarn knits properly, the end needles are brought out at the beginning of the row, with hold set on one way. This means the end stitches are knit only every second row, with the finer yarn only, making a rather wimpy edge that can be difficult to seam, depending on yarn choice. Even if it knits without bringing out the end needles, moving the point cams still won't make the edge stitches knit with both yarns, in fact the opposite. So, like I said, Mar had me convinced I should use the Brother for this new project. I go to my Brother 970 - I do know how to operate it, but... excuses, excuses...
I have tried out my stitch pattern on the Silver Reed, making a swatch with the yarn I intend to use, a slub rayon (putty) and a very fine cotton rayon yarn in the same light shade. Happy with it! Now, move to the Brother 970. I have planned my shape, drawing it to scale on graph paper in preparation for making notes from which I will write and grade sizes for the pattern for the magazine. It will be a cardy with drapy fronts, and 3/4 sleeve, so the front pieces are asymmetrical. Normally I would draw the shape on mylar for my KR11 knit radar which links to any of my Silver Reeds. I attempt putting the shape into the CB1, something I have not done for quite a long time, but with instruction manual in hand, I get the back shape in, relatively quickly. I entered it as a symmetrical shape, not realizing until after the fact I cannot just alter it to make the fronts and I did not make detailed notes of the places where the program takes over. I have a few choice phrases for the poor CB1 box, decide I will deal with the fronts later, just continue as if only to make the back. I fiddle a few moments, trying to get the ‘box’ to accept my shape file - I begin to feel empathy for poor Steve in the cereal commercial when his wife asks, what else does box say? Box says, shut up, Steve!
The box wants the swatch information and I haven’t made it yet!!! okay, scrap that idea, I’ll put that in later. Download my leaf thread lace into the box, which means, take the box, remembering to take converter and power cord with me, up to my desktop computer which has DesignaKnit and the cord that goes to the box. Do the do, take the box back down, put it on the 970, plug it in, turn the machine on and proceed to make the swatch. Cast on with waste yarn. Knit a row of disposable ravel cord - the only one handy is a light brownish mercerised cotton and, knowing I’ll likely regret this, do it anyway. Remove waste yarn and thread up my 2 yarns - I have 2 tension assemblies on the Silver Reed, so can have waste yarn always threaded up. Knit 16 rows of graded tension hem and sure enough, as I pick up the first row, berate myself for using that beige ravel cord. Half way across, break down and go in search of my work-station bi-focals and florescent lamp. Get to the end of the row, pull out the ravel cord, check all is well with hem. Use next row to join hem and read/select for first row of pattern by setting the carriage to KCll, congratulating myself for making sure I’m outside the turn mark.
Back on the right side, strangely, all needles are selected, instead of the every other I was expecting. Fiddle with the box, make sure I have not inadvertently locked the pattern or something dumb like that - one of those silly little omissions... I push back all the needles and confidently depress both part buttons to get a free pass to re-select and be back on the same side as the yarn...do this several times with same results, before remembering ‘the box’ sometimes doesn’t know it is really attached to the machine - turn off machine, unhook cable, rehook, turn on again and pass carriage across.
What the?? my hem is dangling in mid air - oh yeah, I forgot, on this fifth time, to push the selected needles back!! Holy hell! another oxymoron, emphasis on the MORON!! The needles are selected for my pattern, though!! But just wait!! Against everything I’ve ever taught and preached and know in my heart, instead of breaking it off and remaking the hem, I decide to rehang it. Why does it amaze me when, at the end of this agonizing row I see I’ve missed the second strand on 10 or 12 stitches??? Still calm though, I fix them, taking pride in the fact I shall use this swatch in a teaching demo some day.
Everything back on, re-select without incident, rethread, set to thread lace and knit several rows. Hummmmm - long floats. Why? check both the centre buttons are properly depressed as per thread lace, click them out and in a couple of times, knit a few more rows. Set it to fairisle, top button only to see what happens. Yeah, it’s different, so the thread lace was working. It dawns on me the wrong needles are being selected. Guess I forgot to check the main and contrast in my DAK pattern before I downloaded it - that screws me over all the time!! Okay, I go to the box, find the variation screen, change it to select the opposite needles, go back to my pattern and knit again. Same thing. Oh, maybe I need to be outside the turn again. Do that. Nope. Still the same. Okay, go back to the variation screen, pick up the manual and see that I need to actually click the solid or #2 key to lock the variation negative ON. (Note to self, oh yeah, back on the knit screen, it will have a (v) to indicate there is a variation working!!!) Fix that, go back to the knit screen, re-select, outside the turn just in case. Humph! it works, thread lace knitting as it is meant to be.
What I’ve learned?? I think the Silver Reed is a female machine and the Brother is a male machine!!