Wrath of the MK gods?

Well, I said I wasn’t superstitious...maybe I should be or maybe I spoke too soon. It’s probably just the machine knitting gods doing a little pay back. I haven’t said anything for a while, hoping it was just my imagination. BUT... now that No 51 arrived, safe and sound from the printers with no mixed up or missing pages, I can finally talk about it.
Not to alarm you, but it was touch and go for a while. Some things that were promised fell short at the last minute, but we had enough to fill the magazine, no sweat. Then it happened. Rick and I were in the middle of layout and we both had computer glitches - ohmigosh, talk about a little stress.
He had updated one of the programs we use for layout, to the latest and greatest. Everything was going tickety-boo and all of a sudden, the program kept shutting down. He decided to go back to the original program and I went home early. We re-convened the next night and I spent an hour watching his hunched shoulders and listening to ‘computer-speak’ as he vainly tried this and that to no avail. I went home early again, trying not to panic.
I had sent my desktop computer out the previous month to be tuned up. After getting it back it took a while for me to realize that although it was speeded up there were a few quirks, such as I was unable to burn a cd - it kept telling me that something was unhooked or missing...I had spent a bit of time trying to figure it out on my own to no avail. Needing to make some disks to go out in the mail the next day, I thought to use my newer laptop which had a cd burner but, the information was on the desktop machine. The cd drive on the desktop would read, just not burn with the program that was installed on it. I knew there was a drag-to-disc thing and attempted to use it. Having successfully loaded the stuff on a cd from the desktop, following instructions carefully, I took the new cd to my laptop, got the information installed on the laptop, and checked to see that it was there. Opened the cd record program, told it what to do and then went to eject the cd to put in a new, blank one - got a blue screen with a very scary message - I had heard other PC-ers describe this but never experienced it - the message said to shut down immediately, that everything was lost and if it failed on re-boot, oh well, too bad - or at least that’s what I thought it said. I tried to shut it down - nothing worked, just this awful blue screen with the same words over and over again. Because it was running on battery, I couldn’t even unplug the darn thing. I just left it bluescreening in the dark and went to bed.
Next morning, it was just sitting there, black. The battery had run out. I thought, okay, what’s the worst thing that can happen if I turn it on - it already told me it was done, so I had nothing to lose. I pressed ON and it booted up like nobody’s business and acted just like nothing happened. I burned my cd’s and went to the mail.
Meanwhile, back at Rick’s, he’d finally sorted out the problem and we were able to finish up No 51, leaving it a little tight at the printer’s end to meet our deadline. But all is well and we did it!!
Meanwhile, I realized I had made Nathan’s hoodie (Little Scrapper) too small - what was I thinking? - oh well,I’d make another - it was using leftovers so I didn’t even really think about it - Panama has great yardage, right? I did the back, the pockets, the sleeves and the hood and now, the fronts which are plain, are left and I’m down to the cone showing through and a swatch from his vest from No 49....this never happens to me!
You can see, the ‘happening’ (see below) made our front cover, renamed ‘Preppy’. Hope you like!

what I learned today...

Well, maybe it wasn’t all just today. I had Nathan over last Saturday - we were supposed to go to a local farm for their pumpkin fest but it was raining, so we spent the day indoors. Anyway, the point is - Nathan had on ‘Nathanware’ from No 39, Winter ‘06. Although it’s close to getting a wee bit short, it still looks nice and what impressed me most was the zipper still looks really good, lays nice and flat and it works fine - he can zip it up and down, and start it, no problem. He’s now 5 1/2 and No 39 was 3 full years ago. Got me thinking! I examined the zipper and saw that it was metal. Strange, mostly I use the plastic ones because somehow I thought they were sturdier and although they always seem to end up with lumps and bulges after the garment has been washed a few times, I took that as just a fact of life - heck, even bought garments are like that! So, when I took him home, I asked to look at the other ones I’ve made him. Sure enough, all the ones with plastic coil zippers had buckled - the only other one with a metal zipper was nice and flat like this one, even though I always wash the garment and the zipper before putting them in. I came home and checked my sweaters with zippers and same thing - only the metal ones stayed flat. I had even taken some out and restitched them in an attempt to make them flat, but it never seems to work after the next washing.
So, guess what I made for Nate for this next issue? Yep, a hoodie, with pockets and a zip front! He loves hoodies and he loves pockets and I thought, okay, I can come up with another one, a bit different from any of the others, can’t I? (I’ve made him 9 different hoodies since No 29.) I did and he likes it - but he’s such a nice little lad that he’d act like he liked it even if he didn’t.
I had just put the zipper in and by co-incidence, the only zipper I could find locally was a metal tooth one that was just a bit too long - well, truth be told, the metal ones are much easier to shorten...
Use a thin, flat blade screwdriver to pry/loosen the top stopper on each side and gently pull it off - be careful not to damage them - use needle nose pliers to pluck off the extra teeth on each side and then replace the stoppers at the new top on each side, using the pliers gently to squeeze them back on. Leave the tape long - I just sew it along inside the neckline - if you cut it, it frays and it’s hard to sew it neatly if folded under.
Pin the zipper in place, making sure to match each side. I always handstitch the zipper (the garment and the zipper have already been washed and dried same way as it will be later on), with a stab stitch and sewing thread - so the stitching is invisible from the outside - close to the zipper teeth and then whip stitch the edges of the tape to the inside of the garment to stop it rolling in.
Final step, with the sewing machine, stitch up and down through the band and the zipper at the bottom of the zipper - it’s usually too heavy or reinforced with something, to be able to hand stitch through. It helps to begin sewing toward the bottom so as not to pull up the knitting from the bottom edge of the zipper.

Here’s Nate in his new hoodie (Little Scrapper) - what was I thinking? It’s too small! oh well, I have plenty of yarn to make another and this one’s sort of unisex, so Rhiana can wear it! They’ll be matching.

What’s Happening?

I’m having one of those days, I call it puttering around - you know, at the end of the day you don’t really know what you did, but you were busy all day doing something...it’s Sunday, not that it makes a difference, but it’s Labour Day long weekend and not that that makes a diff either, but...
I’m doing odds and ends with a little multi-tasking at the same time - you know, teeth-whitening, breaking in my newest pair of shoes, writing, sewing on buttons, getting ready to go out to my next workshop... Westchester, NY , next weekend.
I’ll be staying with Grace. Actually that’s not her real name - I met her a while back - usually I’m quite good with names and faces - people are amazed at my good memory, usually. Well, one day, I was doing a workshop somewhere in CT - it was in a lady’s house, the room was packed, like about 35 knitters seated closely, in the livingroom. This gal came in a bit late and the only room left was up at the front, beside me. I recognized her, welcomed her and called her Grace all day. At the end, we’re saying goodbys and I told her it was really nice to see her again and she said yes, me too, but my name isn’t Grace! OMG! I was mortified, but it really was funny. Anyway, the story spread and Grace has remained Grace to me and her knitting friends to this day. It’s funny, I have never even ever known anyone named Grace - I’ve always thought it was a lovely name and she looked like a Grace to me - that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
So, back to the puttering, I have a couple of new workshops I’m doing for this fall season and I get to try them out on this NY gang, so I want to look my best, of course. I have most of my knitting done for No 51, which isn’t due out till November 1 - it seems like a long way off, but it’ll be like, tomorrow... anyway, one of the new workshops is on facing techniques so I’ll be taking garments from the past few issues that I’ve used facings for collars, and front edges - I have a new cardigan that might get into No 51, that has a whole lot of things happening - in fact that might be a good name for it... 4 colours of yarn, different stripes on body and sleeve, different ribs on hem and yoke, raglan top with great shaping detail, hidden sewn snap closing (I might fake it with buttons sewn on top just for show - there’s another good name - Faked or Fake Out) and front facings that I did in intarsia because of the black/white top/bottom...
I very rarely use black for knitting something for the magazine, because it’s so hard to see and photograph and show good detail, but I really love black clothing - it goes with everything...I’ve been meaning to tell you about a re-make. It’s called ‘Let’s Swing Again’ - in black - I’m wearing it in the photo with Nathan on our welcome page this time - the original was in No 44 and shown in a variegated rayon from BT Yarns - although I’m not a big fan of variegated, I did like the autumn colourway so I made that cardi - I really wore it a lot, but unfortunately the yarn did not stand up very well, it got a bit fuzzy with wearing and washing and it stretched some - what can you expect from a $19 cone? - so I reknit it using black Wool Crepe Deluxe, one size smaller because the first one seemed a bit long - I used the exact pattern, got the same gauge from my swatch - the WCD is not as soft and drapey as the original yarn, but that's one of the great things about WCD and it’s become my go-to standby for where ever, whenever...

Tiger’s eye & tobacco pizzaz...

I know it doesn't have the same ring to it!
There was a lull in the action here yesterday and I had a few moments to knock off a scarf. Now, being a small town girl from Northwestern Ontario, it’s taken me a while to get my head around wearing a scarf as a fashion accessory, rather than a winter necessity - here, winter usually means close to 6 months of the year, so by the time you can leave that winter scarf off, it’s not soon enough!
I really liked Ev McNabb’s ‘Shiraz Pizzaz’ from No 50 and I loved the weight the beads added to the ends. Last week, I knit one in Panama, same as Ev’s pattern, but I used a tuck lace of my own, same number of needles as hers. Mine turned out too wide because, instead of every other needle like Ev’s, my needle arrangement had 2 needles out of work in some spots and 4 together in others which made mine heavier and wider. I liked the resulting look, but needed it to be thinner yarn. Experimenting with Yeoman’s Janerio, I found it’s perfect! (3750m/500g cone, quite fine, 50% viscose (rayon), 25% linen, 25% acrylic)
I used the stitch pattern from ‘Cocoa Beach’, No 42, 92 sts wide and 700 rows. It took about 20 minutes to knit and five to steam press it out. The great thing about Janerio is, it really flattens and stays, because of the linen, I think, giving a nice ‘loft’ to the scarf. I had tracked down some beads - it seems the key is to find beads with holes that your yarn will fit through and then, how to get the beads onto the yarn? Ev said she ended up stripping a twist tie to get a thin wire that would loop the yarn and pass through her beads. The beading needles I found were all pretty fine and the yarn wouldn’t go through the eye. A flash from the past!!! we used to use dental floss threaders to show beginners how to thread the loopers in a serger, back in the day... I dashed out and got some - worked slick!!
While watching ‘So you think you can dance, Canada’ - yes, we have our own version and it’s fabulous - after fringing, I put two ends of yarn in the loop, threaded my sequence of beads on the firm, straight end and pulled them easily onto the yarn, knotted it off and Bob’s your uncle!!

rainy day

Went to the movies on Saturday afternoon - it was raining and I didn't feel like knitting- saw ‘Julie & Julia’ - I loved it - made me want to buy a string of pearls and cook beef bourguignon!! Well, actually, I love to cook already and though I’ve never been a Julia Child fan, I think it was only because I had never been exposed to her in the right way, I guess.
Anyway, the movie was totally fun and I went, thanks to Richard Crouse on CanadaAM the other day - he’s my go-to movie critic and I know I can trust him to give an honest review that will tell me whether I should see that particular movie or not - he gave it 4 out of 5 stars, a pretty high rating for him - he admitted to being a bit leery going in, which was my thought exactly. But both Meryl Streep and Amy Adams were very good, totally believable; likeable throughout and loved by the end.
I came home and dug out my one, previously ignored, Julia Child cookbook, 'From Julia Child’s Kitchen' - I think my daughter-in-law picked it up at a garage sale a few years back. I felt like I could identify with her style of writing and explaining what she did - I've always thought writing machine knitting patterns and articles were like making recipes.
I had already invited an old friend to come to lunch on Tuesday and had asked her if there was anything she was allergic to or couldn’t eat. She said no, not really, just she didn’t like spicy stuff. She had called me back to tell me she didn’t like eggs, like not in anyway you could actually identify the egg - I thought it was kind of weird, never had anyone tell me that before and then, in the movie, here’s Julie, trying to psyche herself up for the eggs chapter and telling her husband she never ate eggs, not fried, boiled or whatever - she finally managed to perfect Julia’s poached egg and pronounced it lovely, like eating butter - should I try this with Helen? maybe not...
Nobody said I had to keep this strictly knitting... I was going to give you my new recipe for jellied cucumber salad, but I'm not pushing my luck!

Fresh out of pink...

Have you ever had one of those laundry malfunctions where your clothes come out pink? I did a small load of light coloured things, a couple of camisoles, some undies, a shirt or two and when I took them out of the washer, two items were pink and the rest were all fine - how weird is that? I know what happened - I had washed a red satin cami - its third or fourth wash and dye was still coming out -in fact, the dye had been coming off on the top of my jeans and even on my skin - the night before and I’d forgot about it. There was obviously some residue left in the washer and my good white shirt soaked it up and only the trim on an ivory cami. I re-washed them right away thinking that would take it out. Nope.
This happened early this spring. I had hung the shirt to dry and it was still there, with all it’s pink!! I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. I couldn’t even wear it pink because it has a small, random motif screen painted on it in black and gold and the pink really did not go with the print.
The other day, I was in the grocery store and for some reason, instead of doing my usual mad dash from the produce to the meat counter and out the door as quick as possible, I wandered down an unfamiliar aisle and saw a display of RIT fabric dye. Suddenly, I remembered an experiment several years ago when I was playing with bleaches and dyes and I recalled there was a product that would take some dye out of fabric, to make it more conducive to over-dyeing. And there it was, packages of RIT Colour Remover. Oh, I had nothing to loose! Took a package and went home to try it.
Dissolved the stuff in hot tap water in a large stainless bowl and tossed in my pink shirt - there was a chemical odour and a few swishes with a wooden spoon and presto, pink’s gone! I pulled out the shirt and put the cami in - it worked too! I’m so happy, I had to share this!

Hand job...

Manual work, non-automatic...when talking about a machine, you expect the machine does all the work, right? Well, yes the machine does the knitting, but how the stitches come out, in this case, largely depends on a fair amount of hand manipulation by the operator.
Don’t know if I mentioned this before, but there are times when a careful eye may notice a link in some of my designs. I have something I like in one way in a certain design and I find myself incorporating it in another way into another design - sometimes I think I work it to death, but I feel compelled to keep using it to get it out of my system.
I told you about ‘Spots in dots’ and how I came up with this mesh knitting thing that made ‘square’ holes - it is every other needle, but there are actually 3 sts on every 4th needle instead of 2 sts on every other needle. I liked the way it raised the column of stitches and it seemed to help hold the fabric more flat, instead of curling around like stockinette does. So, it seemed natural to incorporate EON with 3 sts on every 4th needle into my mid gauge project for No 50. You may also have noticed I don’t often take the easy way out. Why not add an extra little detail to keep raising that bar?
Planning out ‘Midway’ (yes, it’s another hoodie! - the popularity of this item does not seem to be diminishing), I just happened to have this wonderful wool/alpaca blend hand knitting yarn, slightly heavier than regular DK weight - I think anyway - in a perfect olive-y shade - I think anyway - and like, to back me up, the girls at the photoshoot were just loving this little cardy - both Alex and Shanley WANTED it - Alex even said it made her want to learn to knit!! Shanley began imagining where she would wear it and it turned out to be just about everywhere, from camp to partying. I knew we had a winner even though they didn’t realize the intricacy of the manually transferred lace pattern.
Admission - I knit this on the metal bed SK860 because I wanted the ribs to be 2X2 and with the ribber on that machine, it is totally easy, but I think I finally figured out just why I love the plastic bed LK150 so much. Hand transfers are so much easier on the LK150 because there are no sinker posts to get caught up on. The sinker posts on the metal bed - especially when the ribber is attached and therefore the knit bed is angled - make the transfer moves more exaggerated than with the channels dividing the needles on the plastic bed. If I were to make this again, I’d knit the ribs on the ribber, transfer them up to the main bed, take them off on waste yarn and rehang the pieces on the LK and thoroughly enjoy the hand work!!!
Here’s our cover garment for No 50 - ta-da!!