remake of a remake?

do you believe in coincidences? I was talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago – somehow we were discussing who had stashes of what yarns and turned out she had a couple of cones of that old Bonnie Triola denim bouclé – I just loved that stuff and  did knit quite a bit of it – I mentioned that I’d really like some more – I was down to only half a cone left –  I had a lace poncho (worn once) out of it that I was considering (wait for it) unraveling – OMG is this getting to be a habit? not likely – anyway, my friend shared with me and sent me a full cone of her denim bouclé, 21 oz of pure  treasure! After I received it, she asked what I would be making and I admitted I was thinking of doing another remake of ‘Hoods Up’ from KNITWORDS#22 (See blog May 2013) – that attempt was also a denim cotton yarn, but I ran out and didn’t get the hood done and ended up doing a button front, so it was no longer ‘Hoods Up’.
Now, the coincidence part, the other day, I got an email from Lynne in Nova Scotia – her and Nancy have decided to do a knitalong with their group and have chosen ‘Hoods Up’ for the project!! – anyway – here’s the link to their blog – http://www.mkkal.blogspot.ca/  - it should be fun to follow along and see what happens! Why they chose this pattern and how they are going to make changes – different yarn, different gauge machine, etc… read what they have to say - I’m going to  do mine and maybe jump in here and there.

The original was made in Honiburd Cotton Rainbow  and I would love to make it from that again also but again another discontinued yarn – there is a limited amount of colours left, but I do have several part cones of that too and I’m wondering if it might be a worthwhile contribution to the knitalong to plan a two-colour version of the hoodie…my original red one weighed in at 17 oz/480g for the first size (finished bust, 42.5 in) and it is 
short-ish/waist length…there is 18.5 oz of the black which should make it but very close -  I’m not going to chance it – besides, probably the reason I still have the black is because I finally realized that black regular cotton (unmercerized) is only going to become shades of grey as it is washed and worn.
I could put a chest-high, wide band of the paper bag tan (love that name!) around, maybe 2 to 3 inches deep and at the top of sleeve, so it looks like you cut the garment across horizontally and inserted the other colour…I hate it when you see a garment that looks like you ran out of yarn and had to add something else to finish it off… but planning it with 2 or 3 colours…hummm… the PBT goes nicely with the fisherman too…

a little upset here...

I was watching my new favourite show, ‘Call the Midwife’ on Netflix – I like it so much, I got the book from the library and am reading it along with watching an episode or two (okay, or three) per night and am loving both of them – the book fills in what you miss on the actual show, so I like that. Anyway, not to spoil things, but it’s nice to see actual knitting going on in the show, the two needle kind, mostly by Sister Monica Joan – you might say, she’s my favourite character, but I do really love them all! Maybe the lead character, Jenny Lee seems like she’s a bit stuffy and uptight, but she’s the author of the book and she really is.
So, I’m getting toward the end of the second season and they’re trying to give Sister Monica Joan a bit of a make-work project and she’s supposed to be knitting squares to be sewn into either baby blankets or an afghan. There’s a scene with Trixie and Jenny working the two needles, supposedly helping to knit more squares and then, oh so disappointing – they are sewing together CROCHETED granny squares!!! Wow! hard to believe BBC has no one on staff or even that any of the cast didn’t see this major faux pas!

finally, #190

I’ve been waiting to see how it’s going to look and there is a new website too!

 
 

www.knitstylemag.com is the new link. I sent in my garment back in September and then you tend to forget about it for a while. I was happy with my design but, like I’ve said in the past, I make it in a finished 36 bust size, so there is really no hardship in parting with it because it doesn’t fit me and the yarn was chosen by our new editor, Cari and I really didn’t like the colour, a tealy green, but that’s just me. You can check out some of my background story, ‘anatomy of a design…’ Sep 6/13.
In early December Cari sent me this photo of my cardi and I was totally impressed! She did ask me to keep it to myself until the magazine came out, so I couldn’t share it earlier. It looks great and the more I studied at it, I knew I was going to regret not having one. Thought about it on and off between my getting-ready-for-Christmas projects and was planning to get some yarn to make it – what am I thinking? I prefer standard gauge garments and I already have a stock of innumerable selections of suitable mercerized cottons to make it on the standard gauge. Yes, that’s the way I’ll go! I did a swatch of the drop stitch and it looked lame - actually the drop stitch is an easy way to make a lace pattern on the mid gauge, but with the Silver Reed lace carriage available why bother with a hand transferred technique.
I did some hybrid knitting (see - Jan 16/13) – I used the lace stitch from No 40, ‘Lacy in Red’, the hem from ‘Borderline’, No 25, the shape from my KS design in my size, oh and the yarn I’m using is Yeoman Yarns Cannelé which is the same as 'Borderline' and I had done a remake of ‘Lacy in Red’ for myself using Cannelé back in ’08 so no swatches needed!!! I re-gauged the hand-transferred yoke stitch pattern, using a 7-prong tool for the waves so 2 repeats still looked good on the sideways knit yoke – just need to do the final putting together!
Did I mention they had a sucky name? ‘Lots ‘o Lace’ – I did try to rename it. When I sent in the pattern, I made a compromise and called it ‘Lace Waves’ – but it obviously didn’t take and you know what? Isn’t that apostrophe in the wrong place! LOL!

 

what am I?

So, I was away, had a nice holiday and I come back and there’s, like, a bunch of messages, some asking for the minion hat pattern and they, like, wanted it for last weekend (I do feel really bad that I wasn’t able to get it to them in time), someone else was asking frantic questions about integrating shape files with stitch patterns, an OPP, BTW…and then a nice lady from PEI asking me about programming a lace pattern into her Brother 970. Seems she reads this blog and in the past, I offered an apology and a ’how to fix this’ (with a little help from Alice from ND) (see ‘hanging my head in shame’, Mar 21, 2012) about entering memo info into the Brother 970 CB1 box.
Basically, if you follow me, you know I’ve admitted to being somewhat biased in favouring my Silver Reed/Studio machines, but I have tried to provide the proper information for making my patterns and designs on Brother machines as well.
So, my PEI knitter writes (I know she is a good, accomplished knitter and won’t just be blowing me off) that she’s tried to enter a punchcard pattern, #18, into her machine, not to holey, blah-blah- blah, she includes a scan of the fabric (of course, it’s an OPP) she is trying to emulate – turns out the original was hand-transferred. I do not know what #18 punchcard looks like.
Then she says:
I thought I had the programming correct, following Page 44 of the instruction book and putting in N beside every lace row and 2 beside the 2 stockinette rows. However, when I finished and tried to enter it to knit, up pops a snide little "this is not a lace pattern" note on the screen, even though I indicated using the lace carriage. My original pattern was numbered 910
(sidebar: the  CB1 gives you the next number, starting at 900 for your own entered stitch patterns)
- should I give it a different number -  I can't see how to do THAT in the book!(no, you shouldn't) and I’m thinking, cripes, I thought she did a ton of knitting! My new entry pattern is at #950 and I’ve only really used this machine to test out lace patterns – gosh, does that mean I’ve done 50 lace patterns on this thing? sounds about right… Maybe it's not possible to adapt a punchcard lace pattern to the 970? Could you point me in the direction of an electronic lace pattern like the "Berry Crush".
I first send her a note asking if she still needs help because it’s happened in the past that I answer some involved question and they’ve already moved on…yes, she is still interested and awaiting my solution. Damn, maybe I should have just hit delete…I do some more unpacking and tidying up but this is starting to bug me – I do not have the answer off the top of my head and if she followed mine and Alice’s and the Brother instruction manual’s advice and still can’t get it…I know it means a trip to the machine (in the basement). Just before New Year’s I had a problem with my hot water tank and there is a bunch of stuff I had to move to get at the tank and it is laying on the floor, blocking the 970. (heavy sigh). Get the stuff put away  and gain access to the machine.
I take a closer look at her swatch, see it’s similar to SR#15, electronic, a 12 st X 28 row repeat and mess about with that. Enter it in DAK and print it out so it has big enough row numbers to read and go down the  2 flights of stairs and enter it in the CB1 box . It looks fine but when I go to air-knit it (no yarn, just passing the carriage) the lace carriage is screwing up and it’s not hitting the sensors properly to advance to the next row – drat! I can tell it’s because the sponge bar needs replacing – the needle butts are basically all over the place and the carriage is sitting too low to contact the sensor properly. I do not have a new sponge bar. Maybe if I cast on and knit for real it will work. Back upstairs, get yarn. Go back down, forget instruction manual. Up, Down. Forgot something to write with. Up, down. At least I’m getting some exercise…I remember she said about the punchcard thing, so I’m thinking, if that’s her problem, my SR pattern isn’t going to solve it. Back up, find a Brother punchcard lace stitch pattern in an old book  that is 8 st X 18 rows (#623) – the photo looks like exactly what she wants! Armed with the manual, the new stitch pattern printout, the punchcard book, the 970 Stitchworld book, printout of the blog, and pen, back down to the machine, saying to myself, ‘why the heck am I doing this??’ I can’t just let it go, I have to solve this!
BTW, the brother instruction manual IS the crappola!! You have to go to page 33 for pattern creation, page 36 for modification and then you need to jump to page 44 for memo info input AND the example they give you has nothing to do with lace!!! WTH? so, I’m pulling up a built-in lace pattern and trying to see how that memo information differs – Ar-r-r-r-g-g-gh! 4 hours later, I have it!! 

To enter the memo information, put '2' on row 8, 14 and 18 and 'N' on all other rows and it will work and it will recognize it as a lace pattern. So, the trick is, put a 2 on the even numbered row that is the end of the transfers, will indicate you are then going to knit 2 plain stockinette rows with the main carriage – the 2 plain rows look like they are entered in the stitch pattern but they are the 2 rows it take the lace carriage to get back to the left side after all the transfers are made - the stitch pattern does not advance when the main carriage is used. SO, the upshot is, any Silver Reed fashion lace stitch pattern can be used on the Brother electronic, as is, and you can add the memo info as above.
With a small feeling of satisfaction, I email Gill the good news – this morning, she messaged back:
EUREKA!!!!!!!  I did, and it did...knit, I mean! Can't thank you enough for that. The C.B. behaved like a dream and all is well.
Hope this helps someone else!
-your public machine knitting servant, MAO

BTW-by the way

CB1 – control box one
DAK - DesignaKnit

PEI-Prince Edward Island

OPP – other person’s pattern
SR – Silver Reed
WTH – a little more polite than WTF

All the best for 2014!

I did get my Christmas knitting done! or at least the most important one. Here’s Rhiana on Christmas day with her doll and my outfits. She loved them - not sure whether the doll cared or not! Forgive me the poor photo - I got a new ipad mini for Christmas and obviously need more practise with it!
Anyway, what I did was a basic re-make of ‘Red Riding Ruffles’ from KW#52, Spring 2010 (at right) – I always liked that hoodie and she did too, -in fact I was able to lengthen the sleeves for her to get a bit more mileage out of it – that was easy, because the sleeve was knit down so it was a simple thing of opening the sleeve seam long enough to rehang the cuff edge and add another 2 inches – and she wore it until earlier this year - I think her Mom had to finally take it away!
This yarn was slightly lighter/thinner – Sirdar Crofter Baby Fairisle Effect DK, 50g/179 yds – I picked it because of the colour (0150), so totally her and also, when I was at the store, because it has a suggested gauge of 22 sts to 4 in/10 cm, I thought I might be able to make it on the standard gauge. But, after swatching at T10 on the 4.5mm gauge machine, I thought the fabric was quite firm and I knew it would take a lot more yardage than with a gauge of 22 sts. So, back to plan B – mid gauge which was what my original design was. I did have to re-gauge, but I use the knit radar/KR10/11 so no big deal and I wanted to add shortrowed gores to it, more like my ‘Swing Jacket’ from KnS#188 – I knew I wouldn’t find a doll zipper so was already planning on using buttons and the bands from the swing jacket.
I added 7 gores, from the underarm point to hem (hold 20 sts, KWK, 3X; return 20 sts, KWK, 2X – 10 rows total at bottom edge), at  middle of fronts, side seams, middle of half of backs and centre back. Rhiana will be 7 yrs old in March and on the slim side, so I used the size 8 for length but used the size 4 for the chest and sleeve widths. For the doll, I had the old Michael’s 18 inch doll that I had bought to use as a model for the magazine and I measured it up and made a pretty close  version in that it was sideways with the gores and same style sleeve and hoodie that had to fit the doll’s head – I think it turned out pretty good – I made lots of notes so I could write it up if anyone was interested…7 balls and I have a small swatch leftover!

I’m off on holiday – talk to you again in 2 weeks or so!

progress...

after 9 minion hats, I changed it up a bit and made Hello Kitty for Rhiana and a MineCraft hat for Nate – I may never knit another earflap hat – but you never know! got news from the North Pole that Rhiana is getting one of those 18 inch dolls for Christmas – now that’s something I always thought I’d never do, but here I am planning a ruffled cardigan for my favourite little doll and a matching one for hers! Between pieces for my KnitStyle 192 project and a couple pairs of circular socks for my snow shovellers – boy, they deserve to be paid this year!!

I loved  Google’s knitting  picture for the first day of winter!

Happy Holidays!

my favourite minions...

I have never knit an earflap hat – well, actually, I don’t think I’ve ever machine knit any hat. So, where does one start?  A few weeks back, I mentioned that Valery, a newbie mk-er from San Diego had told me she was knitting earflap hats and they were selling like hotcakes every time she took them into her workplace. She gave me her pattern source, which was a bulky machine pattern from the San Diego mk guild site (Knitten Buds) and I used that as a starting point (thanks Valery and thanks Knitten Buds!). Went to Michael’s and Wal-Mart in search of minion-coloured yarn – it should be a bright, lemon yellow, I think – suitable for the mid gauge machine.
When I checked on-line, minion hats are mostly crocheted, and since I’ve spent most of my machine knitting career trying to get the crocheted-look on the  knitting machine, felt it only appropriate that I do that again. The eye is the big challenge because it is a circle and knitting a circle is not the easiest thing. If you haven’t seen the movie (Despicable Me 2), the minion is a small cartoon character, bright yellow in colour like a big jelly bean on legs, with one or two eyes, wearing goggles (that’s the way I see them anyway) over the eye(s) and dressed in denim overalls with black hair varying from a single tuft to individual sparse strands.
So, back to the circle for the eye/goggles – I thought the chain cast-on would make the outside nicely so incorporating my ‘outlining the patch pocket’ idea – did the chain (35, 42 ns) in gray, knit 1 row and then took it off on waste yarn. Using white yarn, cast on ( 5, 6 sts) and shortrow a circle, hanging a chain stitch from the edging on every row, graft it together and Bob’s your uncle! a minion eye! For Nate, I used a brown button – he and minions have brown eyes. Rhiana, she wanted 2 green eyes to match her own.
I made the original pattern – it turned out too small of course, but gave me the general idea. After adjusting stitches and rows, the size was okay, but I didn’t like the top of the hat being gathered into a circle so I reworked it using the ‘decreasing evenly across the row’ several times that results in a spiral top – this is good – probably not what you’d do if you’re wanting to mass produce but I’ve got the time for my grandkids! (and a mid gauge garter bar! nah-nah-na-na!) I did the earflaps in a denim-look yarn  to simulate the minions’ jeans and added hair – put a tuft on Nate’s and for Rhiana, I unraveled some black WCD from a steamed Boondoogle swatch that had some lovely kinks for curls…
anybody want the pattern? here's the link to the PDF… 
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A041462a5-a915-4d62-a343-9f0225812913