silver lining...

So glad I made that mis took the time to knit that prototype of the collar! It was way too big! I had the cardigan all put together, shoulders and side seams joined and sleeves on – so I put that on and then held the collar around my neck and I could better judge the actual size needed. Took 10 stitches off each side, reknit the whole thing, (placing the N1 correctly ;-)) and it’s perfect! Added bonus, I could use the longer edging from the outside of the first collar to judge how many stitches needed for the front bands.
OMG! You’re not going to believe this, but I re-purposed that band. I kept holding it up to the front and measuring and it seemed like the exact length that I would need for the button band. I pulled off the lace part until there were 2 rows of stockinette left above the ribbed edge that I had before beginning the lace patterning. I rehung into the row below which worked perfectly because everything was well steamed, and stitches set, leaving one full row of stockinette across the entire piece. I removed the last row, did an RTR and knit a row so I had that nice garter stitch ridge, took it off on the garter bar, hung the left front, turned the band and rehung it and presto! my button band! I did do a swatch of the buttonhole and I went with the 15mm (smaller), 2-stitch hole rather than the 20 mm, 3-stitch hole. I thought it suited the size/width of the band better than the larger one.
 BTW, you know how I like to name my projects, this one is called ‘Pocket Change’.
P.S. I'm watching 'Ozark' on Netflix - I'm really liking it and I'm becoming obsessed with a long cardigan that the Laura Linney character is wearing in the 7th episode - watch this space!

battery operated? ...

After checking over my wardrobe, I made a few lace swatches using Forsell Pure New Wool. Referencing my only lace design in that yarn, ‘Uptown, # 24, I made the first swatch at T6 (driftwood/tan), using a lace pattern that I knit several times in the past (KW#40, Lacy in Red). It seemed rather stiff in the knitting and sure enough, the pattern did not come off as cleanly as I am used to – seems funny as you’d think there is more give/elasticity to the wool as opposed to the 4 ply mercerised cottons I usually used. I did add a lot of yarn spray hoping to help it out but by the time I finished the swatch, I didn’t like the stitch pattern or the ribbed hem (full needle rib with racked cast-on, same as above) so moved on.
My next swatch, again trying a previously used stitch pattern was from ‘Comfy, #28  http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2013/11/who-needs-sudoku.html .
I’ve mentioned that I have a very old system – Silver SK580 electronic with PE1 and the PE1 design controller came with this nice little memory card on which you could save the stitch patterns and call them up to re-use. I have three of them and knew that this day would come sometime, but it’s been like 30 years! There is a small battery in the card and way back when I was a dealer, we were told that the battery would need to be replaced at some point. I, like a good little Do Bee, went and purchased the proper battery from Radio Shack for that eventuality.
I used to keep a record of the pattern number, and description for each card so I could recall anything ever stored in the card but over the years lost that practise so now, I still had the mylar sheet of my original and I went to read it into the knitting machine and save it on the PE1 card and I got a message saying ‘change cel’ – OMG! I tried another card, unused for a few years, before going into panic mode and got the same thing. When I tried to pull up a design for that card, it said ‘no data’. Ar-rr-g-g-gh!
Then I remembered that I thought I had an old ‘new’ battery but where on earth was it? Well of course, it was with all my other batteries! In spite of my swelled head at the thought of my amazing organizational skills, I was able to replace the battery – I had a very vague memory of using the end of the single prong tool to push the lock button over on the end of the card and using tweezers to pull out the end to bring out the old battery – OMG, it was the one I thought, a CR2016! Put it in, re-read the pattern and Bob’s your uncle! it worked! My ‘comfy’ swatch in medium brown came out beautifully at one dot higher than the last swatch – check out that ribbed hem – it’s from ‘Frame of Lace’, #17 – a little intricate-looking but fairly easy to do with a few racked rows.
Bands, adapted from 'Knitting on the EDGE' by MAO, #35 Racked 1X1 Look Rib.
Side facing is right side. Swing H5. Arrange ns for full needle rib, end ns on RB. CAL. T1/1. Knit zigzag row. Hang comb and one weight in centre. Set to circular. T2/4, K2R.  T4/6, K2R. T5/7, K2R. Swing P. Transfer to EON on RB only, by moving sts to MB, empty ns out of work.

  l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l

  . l . l . l . l . l . l . l . l . l.
Cancel circular, set to knit both ways. Swing H. RC000. T5/7, K2R. H3, K1R. H5, K1R. H7, K1R. H5, K6R. H3, K1R. H5, K1R. H7, K1R. H5, K2R. RC016. Transfer all sts to MB. T8, K1R. RC017. K1R. Lace carriage, eyelet row, K1R. Stockinette, K2R. RTR. RC021.

I looked at the note that said, ‘side facing is right side’, said to myself, why would you do that when lace knitting is side away right side? In the ‘Frame of Lace’ pattern, there is a bit more happening and I did have a few RTRs (remove, turn, rehang) in there. Decided to chance it, this is a swatch after all! I didn’t want to have any RTRs because that would mean taking out the ribber comb in order to use the garter bar to turn the work and I like to have the ribber comb in to evenly weight the work for lace knitting…instead of transferring to every other needle in work on the rib bed, I did that on the main bed and it worked, the side away is the right side! that’s why I got paid the big bucks! ;-)