purple peril...

I hope your knitting room looks like mine! The place is littered with waste yarn worms, issues of Knitwords all over, all the trims books open to certain pages, old swatches everywhere, partial and empty cones corralled! I’m in my glory, true production mode, like the good old days and I’m not cleaning up between! Nobody’s coming over to inspect or see! Why waste the time! No, I’m not showing you a photo!

I’ll admit, I felt a bit of defeat on that ‘sock-yarn-for-the-save’ top. After all, I had big plans to use the lace carriage and it’s been bugging me since then. I’m going to try it again, hoping I can pull it off. Fingers crossed.
I picked a ribber trim, #26 from the orange book, Ribbed Scallop and Eyelets. It starts out as 1X1 rib with the manual wrap cast-on, has a manual tuck stitch to make a little automatic scallop, yada, yada, yada. I just thought maybe I’d try some ribber – after all, other than that button band for Skinny, I haven’t used the ribber for anything since socks last Christmas – don’t want to get too rusty! Well, as usual I didn’t read the fine print. There are like 4 RTRs (Remove, Turn, Rehang using garter bar) in there so this really isn’t the quick and easy I envisioned. Perseverance gets me through and done. Oh, maybe I should tell you I am using a part cone of purple Panama, 284g, should be plenty. This top is a size smaller that the gold one and it weighed in at 216g finished. Now, concentrating on using the lace carriage, but only stockinette for now, I do the shortrows in the centre using the ravel cord method to reverse shortrow to round out the bottom hemline – here’s a refresher on that: https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2017/01/life-lessons.html
Get to the underarm. In my mind, I started the Back, but things are going fine, so who’s to know if I change this into the Front, get that lace motif going and then knit the Back plain? I had pulled out Knitwords No. 6 with Laced with Diamonds and figured seeing as how this was going to be for my Toronto sister-in-law – I don’t even know if she likes purple but what the hey? – I could do a portion of that just to satisfy myself that I could read instructions and get this done. I had the stitch pattern in my machine and all I’d need to do was turn it on! Started shortrowing the underarm shaping at the same time as the lace motif, got 24 rows done, cast off the shortrows and spotted a dropped stitch back on about row 10 of the motif. Fudge! Dropped it off, pulled out the 24 rows, rehung it, tried again. Ditto! Walked away, thinking it might be time for the hard stuff.
Next morning, shaped the underarms, cast them off and tried the motif again – who said it had to start at the bustline? Watched every row, got it done flawlessly! I felt I was on a roll, but the neckline was a little too high to be used for a Front! The second hem, we won’t talk about. Suffice it to say my third attempt worked (I did rewind each time, not taking the chance on wasting any!). Got up to the underarm and jumped right in, carefully shortrowing and lace carriage motif-ing! It worked perfectly but the remaining yarn has diminished to the point that I need plan A, B and maybe C!

earth to MAO...

After knitting all those different lace patterns, most of them being fashion lace (multiple transfer rows between the actual knitted rows) it dawned on me – who am I kidding? the plan is to knit BLACK (hard to see at the best of times), wool crepe deluxe (drop a stitch and it runs like a bullet!)  and I’m going to add 12 to 16 rows of transfers to the equation? Get real, MA! Back to reality! at least I used up all that orange (VBG)! Remember before we had emojis?
I’ve looked at virtually every lace garment I’ve ever knit and paged through the old Knitwords, looking for something and I found one! Lace Luxe from No 38, Autumn 2006 – I loved this stitch pattern but had forgotten it because the garment was knit in Wagtail Yarns mohair,  lilac – not exactly a colour at the top of my most-frequently worn list. Mostly I did keep the garments that were in the magazine but that one I gave to the Wagtail people because it was the first garment they had that was machine-knit! No wonder I forgot it!
Programmed in the stitch pattern and it knit up beautifully in Trenzi. Switched to a leftover WCD and knit an adequate amount to examine it – I’ve used WCD in lace enough to know that my optimum stitch size is T4 – I’m on a roll – swatch knit with a suitable trim added on, all washed and dried – looks great! Now to work on the shape!

in the pocket....

I am so glad those blues didn’t work out because this cream lace long cardi hoodie is gonna be gorgeous!

marker row for pocket

One of the big things about knitting lace is bad needles and the horizontal line stitch pattern will show everyone, because it uses every single needle to transfer one way or the other. On my sleeves, everything behaved perfectly but when it came to the wider Back, every time #63 Right transferred to #62, when the carriage was moving to the left, it dropped. This happened every 6th row. After fixing the dropped stitch a few times, to prevent the dropped stitch, on the 5th row, I transferred that stitch manually and left the empty (#63) needle in work and the subsequent row would be perfect. At the end of the piece, I replaced both #62 and 63, because you don’t know which one was messing up. BTW, do me a favour and throw out those needles – there’s no use saving them – you usually can’t tell by looking at them and you’ll only have messed up stitches again by re-using them! I’ve been to your house – I know you keep them!
Of course, there are pockets! No question, but I’m going to do an inside-bag pocket – the Minneapolis Founder’s Fest (July 28, 29, 2018 - http://www.midwestmachineknitters.org/events/foundersfest/ ) knitters are bound to be impressed. In fact, I will leave one off, to complete as part of my demo for them! Not sure if I’ve told you this already or not, but, where to put the pocket opening? For patch pockets, you can pin them on after the fact, try it on, change your mind and move them, but with this one you need to know ahead of time. What I do - I want the opening of the pocket to be below-the-waist/high hip area where it feels comfortable to have your hand in a pocket so measure down from the underarm 35 cm, a little lower than I explained because there is a 2 cm pocket top above this point, added after.

swatch with marker row

 

hang first side

If you remember, there needs to be plain stockinette above and below the marker row of where the actual pocket is to be attached. Last time, http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-pocket-in-lace.html to get that stockinette, I unknit the lace and untransferred the stitches to make it stockinette and here, over the 32-st width of the pocket opening, it took some time. For the row above the marker row, it was easier to hand transfer the stitches that were supposed to be lace, leave the empty needles in work, turn the cam tto stockinette and let the carriage think it was knitting a whole row of stockinette - I felt like a brain surgeon for figuring that out! Just remember to switch back to lace for the next row. When I turned the work for the next pattern, for a minute, my heart dropped like a stone - I thought the pocket was going to be on the wrong side! False alarm, it's all good! 

hang pocket top, wrong side facing

 

hang bottom edge after knitting bag

If you would like my handout on this pocket technique, you know the drill – email me!

-MAO, aka pocket scientist
P.S. I shouldn't have to tell you I'm using my Silver Reed, but all this can be done on a brother machine too.

next...

After the dust settled on Lipstick and Smoke, the remaining yarn tally of my Cotton Tale 8 was charcoal, 194g; silver, 292g; black, 350g; white, 400g. The garment weight of L&S is 750g. As I was finishing up, I was pondering my next project. White is the largest single amount and you know I love lace. I still did not have a really perfect white summer cardi. I want to take my raglan shape, add the extra wide full-fashioned decreases from Rich Raglan (Serial Stuff 2), use the lace stitch pattern of Sampler Lace from KW#12 and the variable here will be the bands. I am picturing a nice, half sleeve raglan cardi in a mixed-up version of the lace sampler with white or possibly black or red bands all round. My pattern for Rich Raglan is based on the fact you may not have enough of the main colour for the bands so they are all added after in case you need to switch colour.
I made a quick swatch of the lace at T7 with the lace carriage – just to be clear, this yarn is so nice, I really do love it – it is about the same weight as Bonita (I have used extensively with lace carriage!) which is a mercerised cotton but this washes up very soft and seems a little thicker than  Bonita, so in comparison, Bonita was at T6 with my Silver Reed lace carriage and I’ve decided to try T7 with Cottontale 8 (Bonita in stockinette at T8 and CT8 at T9). Got the quick swatch made with little issue and got right into making the first sleeve. You’d think I was a beginner! oh man! I laboured over that sleeve. Stitches were dropping, hanging up, not knitting and the air was blue! Got it done in three hours. Should have been maybe one hour with a coffee break in there! I didn’t know what was wrong. I was ignoring that voice in my head that always says if you’re having trouble, stop and figure out why…

Next morning, I felt like a brand-new baby duckling, fresh into the world, no knowledge or experience and repeated the same thing again! At the end of the second sleeve, I was worn out and I thought that maybe Cotton Tale 8 was not for lace. Suddenly it dawned on me – what would MAO tell someone else who listed all those issues with lace – she would immediately say, ‘how’s your sponge bar?’ OMFGG!

Replaced the sponge bar – it was pretty flat – oh and by the way, I always keep a somewhat used sponge bar to put in for lace – if you put a brand new, super firm one you’re just asking for more trouble – it will hold the needles too tight and close and you’ll have almost the same experience as the well used, almost flat sponge! Got the remaining pieces done in record time! Bonus, there is 90g white yarn left – just enough for narrow 1X1 tuck hems (#32 Band Practise) and stockinette bands for neck and fronts. Here’s me, super happy! I’ll be placing an order for more CT8 soon – Charlene sent me a printed shade card – thanks!

P.S. I’m giving you a rest from my knitting for a while – I’m off to Ireland with sister Janet for a hiking tour – back here on June 21!

Join us on our trip at travelwithmysis.blogspot.com for travel, food, fun and hiking stories and tips.

 

do i take a chance? ...

I’ve been quietly knitting this longish, lace cardigan that I mentioned a week or so ago in the medium brown wool. I started with the sleeves – I always feel this is a good thing to do – it gradually gets me and the machine in the groove for lace carriage work before the heavy stuff of knitting lace across the whole bed, like for the back. I can practise my ravel cord shortrowing on the sleeve cap http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2017/01/life-lessons.html and think about the other details of the design. I took a chance without making a whole new swatch (kids, don’t try this at home!) and deleted a few rows from the hem band, as it seemed a little deep, two less after the circular rows and two less between the racks, so 20 rows total instead of 24 and it looks nicer.
While knitting the back, the widest piece, I took my time and broke it up into 44-row spurts – that’s my row gauge, so it reminded me to hang the yarn marks at the edges for seaming and it gave me a breakpoint for the yarn spray which I found worked better when I left it sitting on the cone for a few minutes before proceeding. https://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2013/02/addicted-to-yarn-spray.html My method: put the cone into a larger, soft plastic bag with the opening at the top. I opened the bag, gave a couple of squirts and closed the bag over it for a second or two and then went back to knitting or took a coffee break.
While knitting the back, I sorted through my initial concept and decided to break up the back with a yoke across the top, going sideways and contemplated putting pockets in the fronts. I’ve never done this in lace before, so I was going over it in my mind. After I got the back off the machine and pressed out, I knit a 4X5 inch stockinette patch that would be the inside of the pocket – I figured an inside patch would be the better option here as a bag-style can pouch out sometimes. I do have a back-up plan, to sew a small snap inside in the centre of the pocket top opening, if necessary. Where does the 4X5 inch come from, you ask? Just my own idea of how big a pocket in knitting should be, basically the width of your hand across the knuckles and the depth from fingertip to the fork of your thumb. You don’t want it too big or it will bag and sag – to me the point of a pocket is to hold a credit card/money, maybe i.d. or your hotel room key and that’s it.
I pinned the patch inside the back where it would be positioned on the front and held it up in front of me, with a light-coloured backing on, so the brown lace fabric would show up better, to the mirror and I think I can live with this! I’m going for it!
Have a great weekend!

sheer mania...

I am currently obsessed with sheer fabrics! And with those ‘bold shoulder’ sleeves! It’s almost Canada Day – not only Canada Day, it's our birthday, 150-year celebration!
I should admit I do remember the centennial - fifty years ago in 1967… there were centennial projects all over the place although I didn't do anything specific, must have been too young! ;-)
Now, we, in Canada have been hearing about the 150-year thing for almost a year and I have been thinking about it a bit - the other day, I had an epiphany! I could make a Canada Day sweater and call it 'Canada, Eh?'! It will be red and I could be finished it by Canada Day, maybe! Not that it really matters because it isn’t the sort of thing I’d be wearing on Canada Day for fireworks out in the boonies – for that I usually need an overlarge hoodie and tons of bug spray! But I can always show it off when I go to Monroe, Michigan for the 29th Monroe Area Knitting Seminar (so excited!) – you know how I always like to have something new especially for such an event!
Mark your calendar! MAO is making a pullover! It doesn't happen often but that's what this is! I'm using my favourite yarn, Wool Crepe Deluxe which I have in passion red. After my  success of using the rayon yarn at a very loose tension with the one-row-tuck pattern (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2017/01/i-was-wrong.html) I wanted to try using WCD with lace at a very loose tension.
 -actually, I don't think I told you but I had made the hoodie again using sage linen and gave it to my friend Cathy who loved it for the thinness and being so lightweight.
Normally, I would stockinette knit WCD at T5-6, getting a gauge of 33-34 sts and 50-54 rows to 10 cm and for lace knitting I would use T4 which results in a gauge of 31 sts and 50 rows (I'm using my Silver Reed of course and the lace carriage knits looser than the main carriage). To get the sheer-look that I want, I am using T7 (gauge is 25 sts and 40 rows!!!) and it's knitting perfectly. I am using the shape of 'Gossamer' -love the lace and the extended A-line which makes those dipped points at the sides (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2012/02/gossamer.html)  but making it a pullover instead of the split front of the cardigan – got the back and front knit perfectly, so happy! And look at that front neckline – it's beautiful even if I do say so myself!
Now, I'm going to draft the sleeve same as I did for my sewn dress (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2017/05/cross-training.html) from a few weeks ago…2 days to go!
P.S. Janet got her 'Sydney' and was pretty impressed! ;-)

 

oooops....

the cover garment

What are the odds? That I would pick a pattern with a mistake in it! Well, actually, maybe I don’t want to know…the fact there was a mistake or that it was never found…does it mean no one actually tried this pattern, maybe…or did they get frustrated and simply give up? I can only laugh about it now and apologize.

back in the day before digital photos!

I had been thinking about lace –  been a while since I’ve used my lace carriage and its always been one of my favourite techniques, especially on the Silver Reed as the single action lace carriage allows one to knit a simple lace pattern as easily as stockinette because this lace carriage transfers and knits with the yarn in the feeder. So, my choice is ‘Ruffles and Lace’ from KW#10 – back in Autumn ’99. I made the original one for myself and did wear it many times. I remember, in particular, at a show in Dallas, while standing in line at the fashion show, Danis McWest commented on it and asked where I got the lace carriage for the bulky machine? I explained that it was done on the standard gauge but every third needle was out of work which made for the larger holes. He thought I was brilliant (or at least that’s what he said! ;-)) The original was made using Bonita cotton (4ply mercerized, 1850 yds/500g, T8-9 stockinette) and though I still  have several colours of Bonita, I wanted something lighter weight – thinking of that summertime thing and checked to see what I had. Going through the index files, I saw I used Yeomans Brittany ( 2ply cotton, double stranded, 3000m/350g, T6-7 stockinette) quite a bit, but had never done an entire garment of lace so that was my starting point. Last week I had briefly entertained the thought of making another GirlFriend Hoodie in lace and was going to try the Brittany. D

Brittany washed

id a quick swatch (no hem) just to test out the lace pattern and make sure  of the correct needle selection. It knit up fine – the holey-ness was excellent but I wanted a better drape than this soft cotton produced.

mushroom swatch fresh off the machine

Then, Mina Dina (2200 yds/lb, T5-6 stockinette) popped into my head – it’s a rayon/cotton blend, very nice drape, a nice little sheen, quite a bit lighter than Bonita and I had this great mushroom colour, not brown, not beige, not gray but close. Began to make the Mini Dina swatch and as I knew that this would be the one, I started with the full needle ribbed hem and was shocked to find this glaring omission – not enough information for the average knitter to make this band! I am devastated! I felt simply awful and even after this length of time I feel obligated to share my shame with you! Here is the corrected info (because I, ever hopeful, know you’re going to try this out):
Ruffly Rib
Full needle rib, all needles working. Cast on waste yarn, knit about an inch. Circular, ravel cord, K2R.
CAL, MC, T4/4, knit zigzag row. Set to circular, T6/8, K2R. RC000. Cancel circular, everything knits, T8/8, K1R. Starting at centre, at each side of 0, *using 3 prong tool, transfer #2, 3, 4 , one needle space to n#1, 2, 3. n#4 is empty, #1 has 2 sts. Transfer #6, 7, 8, one space to n#7, 8, 9, #6 is empty, #9 has 2 sts. Repeat like this across row on knit bed only. Leave empty ns in work. Bring needles out, stitches behind latches, both beds. Knit 2 rows.* Repeat required number of times.
Got my swatch knit (see photo above) and even though it looks pretty loose and random, after washing, it looks fabulous! (see photo at right)

mushroom MD washed

Early this morning, I awoke with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach – I have a cold but this was different - that edging would be in one of my trims books…was the error there? You know that ole cut’n’paste trick? The good news - it is in ‘Knitting on the EDGE’ and it is correct, so I did obviously make a new swatch and have the correct information there (big sigh of relief).
Machine knit like you wrote the pattern!
 

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!

practise what i preach...

You know, I’m always saying to place yarn marks at the edges of your work as you’re knitting - it will help greatly in the putting together part of things and I’ll admit, I don’t always do what I say (I get to a stage where I figure I’m okay and I can do without them and every time I do that, I wish I hadn’t) - and it’s not a big deal to add them as you go if you’re properly prepared from the start.

Why bring this up now? you say... well, this is my second time knitting this wonderful lace cardigan, and I’m working with a very fine mohair yarn that is almost thread-like - the putting together is key here, for matching up when seaming and it is virtually all done on the machine, so the more help you can get, the easier and better it will be.

Usually I’ll say to hang yarn marks every 10 cm/4 in. - it’s easy to just take your row gauge and for this one, every 40 rows, hang the markers. Reason being, it’s easy to calculate and remember and because I’m usually working with my knit radar, the 10 cm increments are simple to see. Also, if you were blocking and steaming, that 10 cm mark is good for keeping the measurements in line. Another reason if you're not already convinced is the seaming - the 10 cm marks are easy to convert into the stitches from your row gauge for the seam line if need be. But, there are always exceptions to the rule and for this garment, I decided that the pattern repeat (24 rows) was the best place to have those yarn marks - the 10 cm increments are a little long - trust me on this. Putting the facing together to get the lace holes to match up, it is pretty nice having the yarn marks close together.
To get the yarn marks hung quickly, without too much bother, while you’re lace carriage-ing, have a bunch (like, lots) of 4 to 6 inch pieces pre-cut (you’ll need 22 for each piece of knitting basically) and on the 24th row, loop the yarn on the hook of the needle and clip it below with these nice little clippy things (electrical department at the hardware store) - the clip adds enough weight so the yarn mark knits along with the main yarn, doesn’t get tangled and is easy to pull out later. 24 rows later, the clip is just hanging there, waiting to be put on the next yarn mark and it can also be a reminder to move the edge claw weights up.

 

 

Happy yarn marking! - MAO

lacy daze...

I just finished my prototype for the next design in the current Pattern-of the-Month/Serial Stuff series - I had promised a lace cardigan with a vertical shawl collar (see blogpost - ‘ideas, ideas' Jul 24/11) - now, I hope you realize, nothing is ever carved in stone with me...What really struck me with this design was the vertical shawl collar. I did see another episode of that show and I think the cardigan I saw was actually a dressing gown - she had been in a bad confrontation and was almost raped, managed to escape and it showed her later at home with this thing on, so that’s why I think it was a dressing gown - you know, something cozy and comforting....Anyway, it was the collar that really stood out - so my guest began with the lace stitch pattern - I like geometric lace and usually what I do is play around with something and see if I can expand it or whatever...
5 trial swatches later, I had what I wanted.

I liked the idea of a luxury fibre for this - I love some of the old yarns that are NLA (no longer available) and Forsell’s Naturell was a real classic - I had enough leftovers to do my test garment and OMG, I love it!! Changed the shape of it a bit - went with an exaggerated A-line for the body which creates these great ’points’ at the side seams. The collar/front/facings is fab!! I’m so pleased - it is knit separately from the fronts, but in one piece and attached very neatly on the machine - great techniques here, even if I do say so myself!! It was a challenge to figure out a way to get a nice fold line for the edge, in order to make the facing and collar in one piece, but it’s beautiful!

I am making the real thing using Cigno Super Kid Mohair (cream) from Yeoman Yarns - it’s a very fine mohair/nylon that is quite soft (not scratchy) but strong and quite a bit thinner than the finished look of the Naturell prototype - available from http://www.knititnow.com/ (US) or http://www.cardiknits.com/ (Canada) - so be warned - check your stash or order what you need - the Cigno comes on a 300g cone, but there is a ton of yardage, so 1 cone will do whatever size you want and the pattern is written for the gauge of the Cigno (25 sts and 40 rows over the lace pattern at T5) - if you happen to have some Naturell laying about, my finished cardy is 275g (T5 lace, 25 sts and 45 rows)...the pattern, called ‘Gossamer’ will be ready next week.

- MAO

ideas, ideas...

I just caught the tail end of an episode of ‘The Closer’ - I like the show - never seem to catch the whole thing though - not sure when it’s on - I think she wears some weird stuff sometimes... too fancy and fussy for me and I’m not sure it really suits her profession or her personality... but in the final scene, she was talking to her mom and she was wearing an awesome sweater!!! It was camel-coloured, and soft looking, like it was cashmere or at least a fine alpaca...and the stitch pattern was a fashion lace design - very pretty! It had snug-fitting, long, set-in sleeves and a shawl collar, (I love shawl collars!!) but the collar was made of the same fabric/stitch pattern as the rest of the sweater - quite unusual - mostly a collar on a sweater like that would be a ribbed thing, worked horizontal, but this was knit vertical...got my gears spinning...stay tuned! I told you, I’m on a lace kick!

spoiler alert!

I cracked it! You probably don’t know what, but I did it!!! Let me backtrack a bit...back in March, I think it was, I was doing that green lace hoodie on the LK150 that was a hand-manipulated lace pattern - you can check it out in the archives at the right side of the screen here - click March and ‘on designing’ and read up to ‘the hood’s up’.
Anyway, I had several people ask if this stitch pattern and garment could be done on the standard gauge machine with the lace carriage...well, mostly, I said yes, but you’d need to know how to program lace and I vaguely filed it under my ‘to do’s’ list.

I did get everything finished on the old list, even that pesky accounting stuff that I usually manage to put off for almost anything - the deadline for filing is June 30, so I’m ahead of the game! And, my walking partner and I are up to 12 km this week...

Well, yesterday afternoon, I had nothing specific to do besides waiting for a couple of swatches to dry and that lace idea came back to my mind. I thought, might as well give it a shot - it turned out to be easier than I imagined (either that or I’m just getting better - no comment necessary, really!). I got it on the third try!! (just before I got carried away and accidentally dropped it off the machine...that brings you back down to earth real quick!)

Now, I’ll figure it for the Brother machine -that won’t be too hard because this is fashion lace on the Silver Reed machine and it only takes a tad of tweaking to make those work for Brother! This will be one of the new Serial Stuff patterns, starting in September - stay tuned!

And guess what colour I’ll use? you’re right, not peach or purple!

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!)

Wasted...not!

I just have to tell you, I finally figured out how to use the ribber comb for a single bed cast-on!! ‘Why would you want to do that?’ you say. Well, I’m working on some lace things for No 48 and I’ve always found one of the most important things with lace knitting is to have the work evenly weighted and most times, I like to start out with a double bed hem, just to have the ribber comb in the cast-on which gives me the even weight. See, I work on a Silver Reed machine and there is no single bed hanger comb - you don’t need one, because it usually casts on fine with the weaving cast-on or a ravel cord cast-on, but for lace, you need to knit several rows of waste yarn and then hang weights in that and it can be rather awkward.
After several experiments, I couldn’t come up with a double bed hem that I liked with my fashion lace pattern, but did come up with a single bed one that was just the thing. Now, to knit lace - I have my rib bed on - it’s always there - I never take it off - the work has to come out over the front of the rib bed for the lace carriage to transfer stitches successfully without them dropping. So, to begin lace knitting, you need to have enough waste yarn on there to have it over the front, before you even start. I was contemplating casting on with 1X1 rib in the waste yarn, just to get that hanger comb in there and then transfer all to the main bed - which I have done in the past, but it suddenly struck me there should be an easier way. And what do you know, it worked!! Now before you all start emailing me and saying to buy a Brother cast-on comb, I already have one and I hate it. It’s always tipping off when you least want it and it’s a p.i.t.a. (think about it).
So, here’s how I did it. Bring out the width of needles you want, every other needle only. With waste yarn, T10 (as loose as you can get), knit one row. Move the carriage out of the way, take the ribber comb, with the wire out and insert it from below, poking the fingers between the sinker loops. When it is successfully in there, with the sinker loops on your side of the prongs, tip the bottom of the comb back so the prongs come forward, allowing you to insert the wire, without catching the needles or sinker posts. Drop the comb. It falls below everything. Bring all needles to work, set stitch size to 8 or 9, and knit 10-12 rows. TIP: and here's an oxymoron for you, knitting the waste yarn at a higher stitch size will get you there faster, wasting less waste yarn!!! Now, go down to what ever your waste yarn tension would be and knit a few more rows. That will be enough to bring the comb up and over the ribber. Hang two small claw weights at each end of the comb and get ready to lace knit!!! This is my first front (it's a cardigan)- I already did the back and hung the ribber comb in 82-0-82 needles just fine, added one bar weight at the centre of the comb, knit the entire back, 202 rows of fashion lace without one single dropped stitch. Life is good!!!