epic...

Seems to me like this project is taking forever or is it just my imagination? My first post on this was almost three and a half weeks ago - that’s a long time for me to have something in the works. You won’t believe this, but summer has got in the way and is continuing! Usually if we get two nice days in a row, we are pretty lucky and we make jokes about summer was on a Tuesday this year. Many times, we have a hard frost around Labour Day but not this year, it’s still really lovely and green and I’m taking advantage of the nice weather! I just had to share this photo – my favourite piece of graffiti ever, spotted at the top of a hill on my favourite local hike!
Finally got both pockets done, put the sleeves in and can try this on to decide further design elements and I just remembered I promised a little note here about the needle arrangement and where to have your underarm shaping end to give the nicest

following the black line

seaming. According to my schematic, I should be decreasing to #50 at the end of the underarm and then continuing straight up to the shoulder line. #50 happens to be a rib stitch and I know that won’t look so great (experience!). The seamline will look best if there are two purl stitches at the edge, one for the seam and one beside the rib stitch so I actually decrease to #48 which gives me the two stitches on the main bed at the edge – you might wonder why I went smaller instead of bigger? Mostly because this being a rib fabric, it is stretchier than just stockinette and I like my shoulder/sleeve to fit nicely, not sloppy – I am going for a close fit here, not like I’m wanting to layer a fleece jacket under this cardigan.
Another note – at the top of the shoulder, I did shortrow about a 1.5 cm slope which is about 5 to 6 rows. Bearing in mind that I’ve said to shortrow on the main bed only (transfer rib stitch up before holding), at the end of the shortrows, everything is on the main bed, I knit a row to get rid of the wraps and remove the shoulder on waste. When rehanging to join the shoulder, on the first piece that is hung, purl side facing, pull out that row of stockinette. Then, after hanging the second side (you can't rip out this row because it's the wrong way), pull this set of stitches through the first/back set to make the join and there will only be one row of stockinette which gives a nice dividing line between the two pieces.
Happy seaming!

 

is it synchronicity? ...

or déjà vu? Last week I got an email from Stephanie telling me that someone (Pamela) had posted a photo of a poncho she had made from Winter 2004 Knitwords (means nothing to me, I go by the issue number which was #31) on Facebook Plastic Midgauge Machines KAL group and she wondered if the pattern was still available and how she could get it. I am Facebook-challenged, I admit it!. She sent me the link and I could see that the poncho in question was one I had made, called Tweed Angel. The funny/strange thing about it was the fact that the poncho was plated, and I was just working on a blogpost

talking about plating, whether to do it or not. That particular poncho is made on the LK150 and one of the really awesome features of that machine is plating - I did a garment in Knit'nStyle, Dec 2013, #188 that was a sideways Swing Jacket, along with a good article (I thought anyway) explaining plating, why and why not. Back to Tweed Angel, it is actually two reverse-shortrowed triangles that are grafted together, leaving an opening for the neckline. We showed it as a sideways knit, which made sense to me because the wider portion fits better over the arms and then the slash neck opening becomes a vee neck look.

I dug out the pattern, set it up as a pdf for those who might wish to purchase and realized there were a few things missing from the original pattern – how to finish the neckline and how to wear it. I re-knit it to make sure I hadn’t missed anything else, plating a strand of cashmere with a finer tweed wool that I had. It turned out pretty nice, but I knew I didn’t have enough yarn for the fringe, so I’ve added one of my 1X1 tuck trims.

Hold piece evenly up to needle bed, stretching very slightly, to determine number of stitches. Purl side facing, hang each end. Hang back half of outside row on every other needle, missing the odd one every so often and then fill in opposite needles with front half of outside stitch. I used 70-0-70 ns. (Single Crochet-Look Tuck Edge from The Handbook  for Manual Machine Knitters by MAO)

See my old blogpost  https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-slip-cord-experiments.html for more options on using this shortrowed triangle. P.S. I would have posted a link to this on that Facebook page, but I couldn't figure it out! ;-)

the big reveal...

first pickup for band

The pocket top/band is ribbed, with an RTR in there to give a nice division between the band and the join onto the garment. The stockinette patch is made and waiting.

2nd pickup to attach patch

To put it all together, with the purl/right side of garment facing you, right side up (hem below), hang the main yarn loops on top of bottom loops of ravel cord. Turn band over and hang, wrong side facing you, pull through and using long tail from pocket top, manually knit loose row and chain off. 

before pulling out ravel cord

Without turning anything, hang the row of main yarn that is under the top of the ravel cord loops. Hang patch, purl side facing, pull through other stitches and cast off. From the front,

front of garment

it really looks wrong – the band is below the un-opened opening and the patch is above. When you pull out the ravel cord, the band folds up, the patch tucks inside and it’s all good!


finished, inside

My techniques handout to tell you how to do this pocket?
email me knitwords@shaw.ca and ask for the Oxymoron Cardi pocket.

to plate or not to plate...

‘member last week, I mentioned plating? Said I didn’t do it but I’d ‘splain later. I am knitting the Oxymoron Cardi with two strands of yarn, one is a greyish mid brown and the other is a darker, olive colour. I threaded them up without plating because I was sure I’d like the tweedy look that would result, and truth be told, I was really taking the easy way out because I had no idea where the ribber plating feeder was.

I am at the point of finishing the pocket, an inside patch with a ribbed top using the knit side as the right side for a contrast to the purl side of the main fabric. I generally have a fair amount of confidence and I think I know what I am doing, but even I know to make a swatch of a new technique to be sure. And, it will be another sample to take to my next workshop. WooHoo! I’ve been invited to do a two-day seminar in Pigeon Forge, TN  for the Tennessee Valley Machine Knitters at the end of March 2019! So excited! I’ve never been to Tennessee – just think, the Grand Ole Opry, maybe a little Graceland, Dollywood…

finished plated swatch

Anyway, back to the swatch! Was remembering the plating thing so, after searching high and low to find the plating feeder for the rib arm, I knit the swatch. It’s a little finicky to thread up for plating, but for the first half of the swatch, I had the dark green in feeder B (it shows predominantly on the purl side) with the lighter shade in A (shows on the knit side). I swapped them for the top portion so you could see what happens. And I am even more happy that I decided not to plate. ;-)


inside of plated swatch

Made the sample pocket top 14R – the 2 cm one on Milky Way is a bit skimpy. And the inside patch is just stockinette – notice how it is random stripey  - not plated and that’s what happens with two colours in stockinette and maybe why you might want to plate that fabric....
More on the actual pocket execution later, I promise.

more notes....

Needle set-up for A-line shaped side

 I like the A-line shape, similar to Pocket Change and Lipstick and Smoke, so have gone back to that – the side seams will be decreased evenly from hemline to underarm but did not add shortrowing at the centre bottom to even out the hemline, so the hemline/side seam will dip slightly.

3-prong tool decrease to rib stitch

Decreasing in rib with an uneven needle arrangement like this – what to do:

. . . 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 . . . .

transfer rib stitch up, 6 sts on MB

When setting up the needle arrangement, add an extra needle at the right side and select from the centre so that you have the same thing at each edge. For the Back and Fronts, which will be decreased at the side seams, I had my edges with three stitches on the main bed at the ends and these remained constant throughout, meaning that the three edge stitches were moved in one space, putting the decrease on the now third needle from the edge. If there was a rib stitch within that, then, transfer it up to the main bed (knit the tuck stitch through before transferring up) and put the empty needle out of work. After getting rid of the rib stitch, there will be five stitches on the main bed. Continue decreasing with the 3-prong tool on the main bed, moving the three edge stitches in one space and only transferring the rib stitch up as it occurs within the main bed decrease. Remember to put the empty needle out of work.

For the Centre Front edge (and the armhole, after the underarm shaping, straight part up to the shoulder, seaming will look better with a 2-stitch main bed edge from the tuck rib line – hope you know what I mean – I’ll reference this later in another blogpost when I’m putting together.
By the way, these increase and decrease methods apply for both knit side and purl side fabrics

pocket opening for later

marker row for pocket opening

Pocket in rib fabric (this will be an inside patch with ribbed pocket top, added after); on row before the pocket opening, transfer rib stitches to main bed and put rib needle out of work – mark the needle numbers so the next one will be same, and you know where it should be. Knit one row – this makes a plain stockinette row on the bottom side of the pocket opening (to be picked up later). Now, manually knit a plain row of ravel cord on the needles for the width of the pocket only, aiming for the same stitch size as you have with the main yarn. Pull the ends of the ravel cord down between the beds in front of the work, out of the way. Knit a row with the pattern yarn – this makes the stockinette row on the top side of the opening. Now, transfer the stitches back down to rib bed following set needle arrangement. Finish knitting Front. Pocket will be completed later, and I’ll tell you more then!
I forgot to mention, just in case you didn’t know, I am using the yarn double stranded and that means each strand  is threaded  up into each side of the tension mast separately and they are only joined together as they feed into the arm on the carriage – that way, you don’t get loops of one strand travelling up on the other and causing trouble. Just saying…

look at that seam....

Got a few notes for you here:
1. Increasing in rib with an uneven needle arrangement like this – what to do:

l l . l l l . l l l . l l l . l l

. . l . . . l . . . l . . . l . . .

1st step - 2 edge sts

First, when setting up your needle arrangement, add an extra needle at the right side and select from the centre so that you have the same thing at each edge. For the sleeve, which will be increased, I had my edges with two stitches on the main bed at the ends and these remained constant throughout. Meaning that the two edge stitches were moved out one space, bringing a new needle to work on the

2nd step - 3 sts on MB

MB and then the heel stitch of the second stitch from the edge was hung on the now empty third needle from edge to complete the increase – don’t worry about the rib needle until there are three needles past (which means six needles on main bed) and then transfer that main bed stitch down, leaving an empty needle, to continue the existing needle arrangement.  

3rd step - 6 sts on MB

4th - transfer st to RB

In other words, the rib stitch isn’t brought to work until there are six needles in work at the edge on the main bed.

 

2. Shortrowing for sleeve cap: on the row before it is to be ‘held’ or shortrowed, transfer the rib stitch to the empty main bed needle and then put it in hold on the next row as needed. This way you won’t be having held stitches on both beds and when it is time to cast them off, they are already up on the main bed. Oh yeah, that tuck rib stitch, turn it into a real stitch before transferring it, either by manually knitting it through the tuck, or by bring the needle up  (fully out, like D/E but no hold buttons on) on the rib bed on the row before which will cancel the tuck and make it knit.
3. Seaming a purl side fabric on the machine: this seam needs to be flat to open out and look neat. Hang first side, purl side facing you, hanging only half the outside edge stitch. Hang the second side, putting purl sides together – looking at the knit side now, still hanging only half of the edge stitch – this one is a little tougher but its worth the effort to take your time and of course, you’re matching the increases (or yarn marks, if you remembered them – I didn’t put them because I knew I would be able to see that new rib stitch and use it as the match point). After it is all hung and looking good, bring the needles out, leaving the work behind the latches and using one strand of the yarn ( I used the darker one to blend in better), by hand, manually knit a fairly loose row and chain it off. This allows each side to open out flat and make a really nice seam, looking good on both knit side and purl side so the turned back cuff is very neat too. Hope you agree!
More on decreasing and a new pocket technique later!

blame it on Mike...

As I was knitting the second sleeve, it occurred to me that I’ve made this stitch pattern before. Way back in the early Knitwords issues, when I got a Passap pattern that I knew could be done on the Japanese machine, I would copy it and ‘Japanese-ify’ the pattern – I don’t know how many knitters liked this, but I learned a ton about double bed knitting for my experiments. Anyway, for issue #3, Winter 1997, Mike Becker sent me a pattern and garment that he had done on the Passap and he told me it was stockinette rib, so I called it the Oxymoron Pullover.
This is a variation of that stitch pattern – he used a 4X1 needle arrangement and for my old version, it was 5X1 rib. I’m using 3X1 now because I’m lazy and I have a 3X1 needle selector!

You guessed it, this is going to be the Oxymoron Cardi!