Happy feet

I just know you’re not going to believe what I did yesterday! We finished up No 49 on Sunday night and got it sent off to the printers. I had a bit of office work to occupy the morning and then I was wandering around trying to come up with something to do. I looked at all my yarn and tried to invent a project, but mostly on days like this, I find it hard to focus - kind of like after the sugar rush of putting all my energy into getting the magazine finished and now, what should I do?
I had gotten my bicycle out over the weekend, even though my back yard is still full of snow. So, I went for my second spin of the season - it felt good, in spite of my sore butt!!
So, back in the office, looking for something to get into - not that I really have nothing to do, but, again, the focus thing. What CAN I do??
Here’s the part, brace yourself - I re-knit some socks. Yes, you read right! MAO actually re-knit something! Now, don’t get too excited, I didn’t unravel and reknit - I actually had a couple of pairs of socks (KNITWORDS No 24; No 39) - double bed socks of nice, expensive sock yarn with worn-out holes in the toes and bottom of the feet - I couldn’t bear to throw them out, they were my favourites! Before Christmas, while cleaning out drawers and cupboards, I’d set these aside, promising myself I’d do something, but I really felt I was just prolonging the agony. The tops of the socks are still perfect, nicely ribbed in stretchy 2X2 rib - that part will never wear out. But the holes in the stockinette part - couldn’t even be darned if you even would think of that, which I wouldn’t.
I had leftovers of the same yarn and figured, why not? I cut off the sock, below the rib - it’s still in a circle and it was quite easy to follow a fairly straight line because of the colour changes of the self-patterning sock yarn. Picked out the bits of broken stitches and unravelled a whole row. Then, knowing exactly how many stitches, I hung the rib bed stitches first - this is the trickiest part. Then brought the ribber up and hung the main bed stitches. Threaded up the new yarn and whipped off the new foot - too simple.
Have your sock right side out - that’s the correct way for rehanging! Find the seam that was at the back of the leg and put that part in the centre of the main bed, same place where you are going to shape the heel.
I just thought this - my Dad used to wear ‘Happy Foot’ socks - now I have some!!

trashy or sassy???

Been pretty busy lately, working on No 49, our next issue - it’s our summer publication and is always the most popular, first one to sell out - I guess because new subscribers almost always order a back issue or two and most often, they pick a summer one, maybe because they live in a warm climate. Probably looking for lightweight stuff, I guess - don’t really know, but anyway - summer it is, and actually for me, the most difficult. We don’t get really hot weather here and it will usually only be in mid-afternoon, so not worth too much worrying about. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be happy with what we have - hint - this issue is all about options - intended or otherwise... tell you more about it later!
I’m supposed to be finishing up an article right now on successful yarn substitution and it’s almost finished, but I needed to take a break - actually, other thoughts keep intruding! Hope the boss doesn’t find out! I’m also - in my spare time - working on a few extra things for the seminars at the end of April.
I’ve always been secretly attracted to animal print - I say secretly because it seems sort of trashy - you know like you see some blonde bimbo in a comedy sketch or in a country music video, with tight pants, too tight leopard top and a cigarette, in a double-wide...on ‘What Not To Wear’, there's some poor lady with leopard pants and a furry leopard jacket and you kind of die inside for her because you know what they’re gonna say! I do have a pair of skin print pj’s that I got from VS a long time ago that I still love! and on my recent trip to MSP, I picked up a leopard (??) print cami. You might remember, last Fall I got the cutest animal print pumps that went perfectly with an outfit I’d already made. It’s been winter here for a long time, so they’ve been hanging on a shoe rack on the back of the door to my sewing room...oh, and another confession, my glasses have a tortise-shell frame that's kinda the same thing!
Now,way back in 1996, I bought these sweet skin print buttons, on sale - I was going to knit something to go with them. I did knit a fairisle skin print - not sure what animal it was - that I cut’n’sewed into a vest. By the time it was finished, I decided the buttons would be overkill and had put them away for the next time skin prints made a comeback.
Now, back to knitting - I get a germ of an idea and I play around with it. I saw a cute little cardy last year with a double ruffle on a deep vee neck that’s been in the back of my mind since then. I actually took that idea and somehow it turned into a cardy, yes, with a deep vee neck, yes, but the ruffle ended up as a peplum thing below the waist and around the bottom of elbow-length, fitted sleeves. Totally cute and I love it! But that double ruffle was still playing in the back of my mind. So, to divert my mind from the writer’s block, I began experimenting with this ruffle idea again.
Here’s what I’ve got so far - 3 new edges!!!you’ll have to wait to see the end of the story - will it be in No 49 or be held over for No 50? will I use the buttons or save them for the next time I get an animal notion?

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac was amazing!! My friend Donna, and I drove down to St Paul, MN for the concert on Tuesday night - well, actually we went Monday, shopped Tuesday, took in the concert Tuesday night and came home yesterday, a great winter break!
Stevie Nicks looks great, hard to believe she’s 60!!! We loved her costume changes - she had on very high red boots and a black dress throughout - she used several shawls - one was gold, one was red and a black one too!! she didn’t do much moving or dancing, but did a lot of twirling, flipping and playing with the shawls, back-lit, centre stage - very girly-girl - we weren’t close enough to see what they were made of, but the gold one, I felt sure, was knit. Her voice has that great raspy, gravelly tone, even better than her younger days, that I love. Lindsey Buckingham was absolutely incredible - he worked it every second of the full 2 hours the band played. The drummer, Fleetwood, also put everything he could into the performance.
We got to lunch with my friend Mar, in MSP - she took me to a really great yarn shop called ‘Skeins’ in Hopkins - definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!! Be prepared to splurge!!! And she'd made me a personalized, knitted tote bag - I'll bring it to the spring shows.
For any Canadians who know what it’s like coming back through the border, after a shopping trip, you might like this - you’re driving up to the Customs window - even if you haven’t over-bought or anything, there is still that little guilty feeling of doing or saying something wrong and the fear of them catching you doing something you shouldn’t have...and you never seem know if you’re under your allowable limit - well, we know, but hope we’ll get through without having to pay or worse, a search of the vehicle...anyway, at the window, I see a nice, older guy I recognize - he never acknowledges that he ‘knows’ me, but is always polite and says something pleasant at the end. He asks us our names and where we’ve been. Donna says Minneapolis which is how Thunder Bayers think of a trip to the Twin Cities, but I put in ‘St Paul’ because that’s where we actually stayed, right across from where the concert was. He asks what we’re bringing back and we both say our amounts, a few dollars over the allowable. Then, he says, ‘and the most important thing..’ and pauses - we both hold our breath, wondering what is coming??? He says, ‘how was Fleetwood Mac??’ Thrilled, we both told him how great it was - he asked if we’d go again - hell, YES!!
Safe drive, he says as he closes the window!

what every brother knitter should know...

I’m not going to name all the names, but, this problem occurs every now and then - usually involving a tuck pattern. I get a bunch of emails or frantic phone calls from knitters insisting that there must be a mistake in the pattern. The first question I ask - what machine are you using? but I already know the answer... ‘my brother’...of course.
This time, the pattern in question was ‘Take an old bag shopping’ , our ‘go green’ shopping bag from No 44 (also see April 2008, 'a bag or two'). The original one was done on a Passap by Pat Holbrook - oops, I said I wasn’t going to mention any names - I was so intrigued with the idea of the stretchy, mesh fabric that was created, I converted the pattern for the Japanese machines. But, I never said I was perfect! I guess I figured all brother knitters would know about needles out of work and the end needle selection thing and I forgot to mention it. If this has caused you grief, I apologize.
So, here it is (and a few other pointers) in BLOCK CAPS!!
1. When working with every other needle or needles out of work, such as tuck lace - DO NOT USE END NEEDLE SELECTION - set to KCll instead. If you use KCl, the needles beside the out of work needle become an end needle and you will get no pattern on that needle. So, think about it - this applies to any time you have needles out of work - tuck lace or even a double bed pattern, when there are needles on the rib bed to fill in the empty needle on the main bed... what I do is a dry run or ‘air knitting’. No yarn, bring out some needles. Pass the carriage across to put the needles in B position. Go outside the turn mark, set to KC1 to select the pattern, and move the carriage across. Look at what you have. For a regular tuck pattern, most of the needles will be brought out. These will be knit stitches. The needles left in B will be the tucked stitches if the pattern is properly entered... if it doesn’t look right, you may need to reverse the needle selection or, in the needles out of work scenario, set the carriage for KCll and voilà, you have your tuck pattern!! Use this to make sure you have the correct needles in work for tuck lace also.
2. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN ‘read/select’ the pattern from EITHER side of the machine - it does NOT have to be from the left side only.
3. On the 970, when programming in your own lace pattern (i.e. one that is not built-in), because there is no actual option for doing this, enter the pattern or download it as a 2 colour fairisle. You will have no memo information, so you need to pay attention and know when to use the lace carriage for transfers and when to knit rows with the knit carriage. Sometimes you may need to flip the pattern horizontally - DAK flips it automatically for you but you don’t want that for lace. In the patterns in KNITWORDS, we show the pattern the way it should be entered on your punchcard, mylar or screen.
4. That funny little wire thingy on the tension mast - that is a sub take-up spring, used for your fine yarn to add extra tension for thread lace knitting. Put the thin yarn in the left side and then into this spring.
There’s sure to be some other things...stay tuned!

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!!

In-betweens...sometime last week...

I usually take this time to do a little ‘practise’ and lately, I like to do a remake of my favourite garment from the last issue, sort of to get myself back in the knitting groove and just take it easy - for me, it’s almost like cheating, not having to think too much and just taking a ‘done’ pattern (not even making a swatch) and tossing it off, so to speak. Yeah, right!! So my pattern of choice is ‘Me-Cozy’ a lace pullover hoodie in alpaca. The one in the magazine that you’ll see soon is gray and I really loved it, but it looks much better on Lindsay than me. I had the same yarn in a denimy blue so I’m making it in the next size up - I must’ve been dreaming to think I’d fit that one!!
Okay, casting on is a snap - gave you some tips about that already -
see ‘Wasted...not!’ And I’m cruising along, knitting lace. I glance down and notice that I have some strange but nice, vertical lines - not the pattern that I’d planned! Ooops! forgot to unlock the pattern and it’s repeating the same row - but it is pretty! So, okay, let’s go with this. I knit a total of 10 rows the same and then release the pattern. Works for me!! I'll call it a deliberate mistake - I love oxymorons - it’s only a mistake if you don’t know what you did - if you can repeat it, it’s a design feature!! How do you think I came up with so many new trims?
Now, I know this will be my favourite go-to garment for the next couple of weeks!! I just love it!!

Really fine for '09

Happy New Year! better late than never, right? Anyway, been kinda busy, getting all my stuff done. Got No 48 off to press - it seemed so dragged out this time!! We had a photo shoot back in early December with only about 6 garments - someone wanted theirs back to give as a Christmas gift (you know who you are!!). I don’t usually make such rash promises, but I was caught off guard and I did agree so had to have an early shoot before everything was in and ready and then it was too close to Christmas to try and round up models and oh man!! I hate when that happens!! I knew I was getting a bit stressed when I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I had completely forgot about sending renewal notices!! rats!! It’s a lick job, but someone has to do it! Whatever! it’s all done and I’m happy!!
What’s in No 48? Love & Kisses, Made to Match, Almost seamless, All-Aruffle, NVee, Blue Ribbon, Ultimate Poncho, Me-Cozy, Barely There, Spring Bling, Crosswise, Threeway, Dragonfly. Can you figure out what they are??
We have a ruffled wrap and a shrug on the mid gauge from Susan G. Eileen M sent a beautiful, hand manipulated lace top on the LK that she had made as a cover-up for her MOG outfit, as well as a shell and lace cardy in velveen on the standard gauge.
We have our very first Bond pattern, a great poncho thingy with sleeves from Michael Hale of Toronto. This is Michael’s first submission, he’s 77 and took up MK-ing as his retirement hobby. He’s planning on sending us something done on Passap soon!!
I did hoodies for Nathan, Rhiana and myself - not matching, and a couple of other cardys.

Evelyn McNabb’s ‘Spring Bling’ made the cover, a vest, wristlets and ankle socks - she designed it for her daughter, Hannah. Our model, Tyra, is such a little cutie and she is developing into a great model. She is a member of my son and daughter-in-law’s ‘Rafiki Youth Choir’, does Ukranian dancing and is a figure skater - not just another pretty face!
We also have Mar Heck’s very popular ‘Do it in DAK’ column with 20 questions (with the answers, of course), an article on lace carriage knitting and lots of other stuff to keep you inspired and entertained.
It will be in the mail for February first.

I even got my last year’s worth of bookkeeping done AND my office cleaned up and ready to go for another year!!

Oh, by the way, in all the fuss, I totally forgot that this is our 12th year anniversary!! Whoo-hoo!! Who woulda thought...