stuff...

Well, it’s late Monday afternoon, in the already second week of January - OMG - where is the time flying to?? I just finished my article for the June Knit’nStyle - I’ll give you a hint - it’s about tuck patterning on the LK150 and there is a garment pattern to go along with it - I’m having a hard time keeping up with their schedule - they work so far ahead compared to what we did at KNITWORDS!!! Now, I have to get moving and do my garment for their August issue - cripes, it was hard enough thinking summer knitting in March and April in Thunder Bay, but it’s way too cold here!! One of the other things I do for them is to translate 4 or 5 of the hand knit patterns to machine language and I picked a pattern from Jodi Snyder that I was intrigued by. A couple of the ones I did in the February issue were pretty simple - I can’t change too much and I’m trying to convince them to do something different, but anyway - I learned some stuff from Jodi’s pattern! I used to be a hand knitter, way back in another lifetime, before knitting machines. So, now, what I do is knit - that should read HAND KNIT - a swatch - using a similar weight yarn, just to get the pattern in my head and then I can figure out how to do it on the machine - I think that makes a lot more sense than just taking a stockinette sweater and telling you to use the hand knit version of bands and finishing etc...Back me up on this one, people!!! 

   Here's my machine knit swatch after I knew what was going on - check out the tuck at the top of the swatch - I'm not saying too many machine knitters will do this, but it's what was in the hand knit instructions, in my opinion anyway - I may just check with Jodi befoire I send it into KnS. Anyway, I love a challenge and this is working for me!

   I’ll tell you what I do have almost ready - it’s the Pattern of the Month things I promised to start in January. There will be 2 different ones available each month. One on the mid gauge/LK150 and one on the standard gauge - different techniques and different patterns.

For January, the standard gauge one is called ‘Sophisticate’ and is made with Zephyr Marl from Silk City Fibers (or the old BT Yarns/Knit it Now) and is using One-Row-Tuck with ribber for the longstitch facings and hems. I wore it to Inspiration ‘10 in Cleveland so if you were waiting for the pattern, it’s ready - we just have to finalize the details of getting it up on the web.

   For mid gaugers, I did a sideways stockinette jacket that is a grown-up version of Rhiana’s ‘Red Riding Ruffles' from No 52 - my daughter, Laura, saw that one and loved it and ordered one just like it - the yarn was discontinued, so I had to find something else (BTW, Laura was here for Christmas and I didn’t even show it to her because she can’t have it) - I added some shortrowed darts to make an A-line shape to the body of it -I settled on a hand knit yarn - Tatamy Tweed by Kraemer - it’s a DK weight tweed-look cotton/acrylic, not too pricey, good yardage - that I just loved working with - knits beautifully and easily on the LK150, it washed up great and LeaAnn McGregor at http://www.knittingtoday.com/ has agreed to offer kits for this project, so you could check it out and be ready to knit! I think it’s really cute on!! and you'll notice how well it blends in with my livingroom carpet!

Stay tuned for more details of the POM - they will be pdf’s available for download only, I’ll let you know more - when, where, how, and cost, soon! I'm planning to run a 3 month trial.