Groovy Re-do

From last week...
I told you my daughter wanted her own version of our cover garment from No 47. I had worn it to Winnipeg in mid-September, the last time we met. I left Thunder Bay on the noon flight - it was lovely and warm, the perfect fall day! I wore ‘Groovy’ with dark wash jeans, my ‘Rocket Dog’ wedge sandals that have the cutest black/red/grey print and my charcoal ‘Namaste’ bag as a carry-on over my shoulder. I thought I was looking quite fine if you know what I mean. Laura did too, because when she saw me, she gave me one of those turnaround-lookovers and then said, ‘I want a top just like that!’ She’s a chemical engineer, works in Northern Alberta, says she’s always cold at work and needs to wear a sweater or jacket all the time, even in the office. She thought this would ‘up’ her game a little too, instead of always being very casual. But - and here’s the thing, there’s always a catch - she wanted the same red - no problem, I had a second cone of the same thing - most of the time I like to have two cones of whatever, just in case - and, she would rather have long sleeves - it was totally cute with the short ones, but for her work situation, long sleeves would be better and she would like the buttons/closure to come down a little lower. Hey, that’s no big deal - I even got the same buttons. We are basically the same size, though she is a bit taller than me (like the rest of the world) and her arms are longer.
Now, you might wonder where I get the time to do stuff like this - everyone is always saying they are just so busy, blah, blah, blah. Well, considering this really would be ‘recreational’ knitting for me, it’s not like I would take an entire day to make it although there are probably 6 to 7 hours worth of work in remaking this. I fit in bits and pieces here and there. Because I didn’t have to do any of the experimenting and swatching that usually goes with creating from scratch, on Wednesday afternoon, while I was hanging around waiting for the printers to call back, I cast on for the back and made the hem, thinking I’d have that ready to start next morning. They still hadn’t called back by the time I had finished, so I turned on the laptop, fired up DAK, downloaded the stitch pattern and began knitting the back, exactly same as my original. Sure enough, 35 minutes later, I was removing the first shoulder when they called and I didn’t mind the wait because I had accomplished something.
Next morning, before heading out to my exercise class at 10 am, I made one front, adding the extra stitches for the overlap at RC070, splitting the distance from the original. When I returned, I made the second front, then went off to do mail, bank and run errands. We had an extremely gorgeous day - it got up to about 18C/64F by 3 pm and I couldn’t resist getting in one more cycle for the year.
I had planned to make the long sleeves using the tuck pattern, recharting the sleeve to be a closer fit overall, thinking it would be warmer, but discarded that idea when I realized it might look too bulky. To have a bit of tuck in the sleeve, I made a cuff of 21 rows with the tuck pattern (same as the bottom of the original) which would only be a slight flare at the wrist and made the rest of it in reverse stockinette. Both the sleeves and collar were made yesterday, between exercise class, updating the subscription list, other office work and handing out Hallowe’en treats. Today all that needed to be done was finishing the front edges, seaming sides and underarm, and stitching down the neckband facing - easy, peasy!
Oh, I love the long sleeves!!! It’s too cold here now to wear the original as an outdoor thing... Do I give it to her now or save it for Christmas???she probably forgot all about it - I could wear it, except, I purposely made sure the sleeves would be too long for me...

Trick or Treat?

I’d like to give you a preview of our new issue - I don’t have my copy of it yet - it won’t be here till Monday, but I’m going to go ahead and scoop Rick again. Here’s the cover. This little jacket/cardigan, ‘Groovy’, has been my fall travelling staple - I’ve worn it steady for the past 2 months. I still love it and have had many compliments from knitters and non-knitters! I’m re-making it right now for my daughter Laura who saw it back in September - she wants a few modifications, of course and maybe I’ll tell you about that tomorrow. Shown also are Ev McNabb’s ‘Fisti-cuffs’ - they went so well with the style and colour of ‘Groovy’!
I hooked up with Susan Guagliumi at the Cleveland seminar and she very graciously gave us the pattern for ‘Knotty But Nice’, the top that she wore on the Friday. It looked great on her and when I received it in the post the next week, I was amazed at the versatility of her design - she did tell me to be sure to get a model with ‘no boobs’. I tried it on and I loved it on me, even though her and I are about exact opposite in figure type - I will be making one of my own!!! It is a sideways knit top, with unique construction and very little seaming, shaped through the body with shortrows to create the A-line shape. Susan has also promised future patterns for the next couple of issues.
My grandbabies Nathan and Rhiana, are such a big part of my life, I just have to show them off too - Nate is wearing a button front hoodie jacket done on the mid gauge and Rhiana’s Christmas dress turned out so perfect! She’s a bit of a tomboy, so I wanted to keep it simple, but had to add some ruffles - lots of learning tips and techniques in both these patterns to help beginners improve their skills.
Of course, there is a ton of other stuff too that I’m sure you’ll love... stay tuned!!
Happy Hallowe’en!

Middle Of Nowhere??

Sorry to be silent for so long but I've been sorta busy. I’ve just returned from a knitting road trip. Sometimes I wonder what makes me do what I do... Here’s what I did this past week. Last Thursday, the 16th, I got up at 3 am and set off to drive to the Middle Of Nowhere, Indiana, 800 miles away. I set off that early because I wanted to get through Chicago before rush hour but I would still have a couple of hours to my final destination. You might wonder why was I going to the M.O.N.? Well, Lea-Ann at ‘Knitting Today’ in Wolcottville, IN and I go way back. I did my first workshop for her in 1995 -1996 - or somewhere around there and I’ve been back several times since. We always have a great time. Anyway, back in June this year, she asked me to do a ‘hands-on beginner ribber class’ and I said sure. I drove instead of flying because, coming from the middle of nowhere and going to another middle of nowhere, it’s easier to drive than fly - at least when you talk about it - and I wouldn’t have to rely on airline schedules - had to make sure I got No 47 off to the printers before I left - and I could come and go whenever, take whatever I wanted, not have to worry about load/size restrictions - my own table, extra yarn, 2 full suitcases of samples and garments...you get the picture. Also, this road trip would give me the opportunity to get in a visit with my favourite Hoosier, Donna, in Goshen, IN., (30 miles from Lea-Ann’s shop) whom I met when on a wool tour of Scotland back in 1990 and the real reason I do so much at ‘Knitting Today’.
So, after a day’s visit with Donna, I get to the hotel for the workshop. While setting up and meeting the ‘students’, it suddenly dawned on me, I’m the oldest person in the room!!! *&%#!!! first time that’s ever happened!!! Usually at these machine knitting events if I see one person whom I think may be younger than me, I get pretty excited!! My next thought was, wow!! this is great!!! There is hope in the world - we do have new, younger, machine knitters. And I’ll be honest here, those 12 gals were great. Talk about enthusiastic and willing to learn, many of them being less than 1 year machine knitters - some from almost as far away as me (New York state)- I had a great time, watching them absorb and try new things - after I got over the shock of starting at 8 am!!! We ended the second day with most everyone completing at least one circular sock - it was the most successful hands-on class I’ve ever participated in and though I never had to pick up one dropped stitch or fix someone’s mistake, I was exhausted, answering questions and supervising!
The next day I was on the road again to another MON, Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario, another 550 miles/9 hours of driving. Driving up to Canada through Michigan gave me a different outlook on coming home. After being out of MY country - a foreigner, really - away from home cooking and all that - there is the trepidation of crossing the border, back through customs, trying to recall what I need to declare and what to hope they don’t find if they did decide to search - though nowhere near the gut-wrenching experience going down...
So, coming into Sault Ste Marie, Canada, the border crossing is virtually right in town. After the relief of getting through customs with no problem, the welcome sight of the familiar ‘Canadian Tire’ store sign, with ‘Tim Horton’s’ almost beside it, homecoming felt really good!! I could stop for duct tape AND coffee and donuts!!! On to Elliot Lake, 2 days of lecturing and demos; back on the road for the 900km/550 mile/9 hour drive to Thunder Bay over the toughest stretch of the TransCanada Highway in the entire country, arriving home at midnight Wednesday - who ever thought this was a glamourous job???

DSW forever!!!

I spent yesterday checking out my wardrobe, sewing on buttons for the No. 47 garments, adjusting some things from previous issues - took the zipper out of ‘Outlines’ from No. 44 and put a couple of big hooks at the top and changed the buttons on ‘Curve Appeal’ from No. 46 - preparing for Inspiration ‘08 in Cleveland. I fly out early Thursday morning and I’m so looking forward to being there. I sent Sue J her linen jacket and tiered skirt and she got the package on Saturday - I thought she should have them ahead of time so she could co-ordinate her seminar wardrobe. You’ll be surprised to see what colour they are!!!
I was trying on and taking off and seeing which shoes go with what - I found the cutest leopard print with black patent high heels to go with ‘Fit ‘n Flare’ and ‘Print It’ from No. 46 - you’ll think I had them and made the outfit to go with instead of the other way around! I also have the sweetest ‘Rocket Dog’ high heel wedges in black with a red/ivory/grey print that look perfect with my black tiered skirt and the red ‘Mazatlan’ from No. 44. The fashion show is always fun and I like to make sure things look good and not just thrown on - I’m hoping to recruit a few models and do an issue-by-issue presentation of the past year, with several models and garments out on the runway at the same time.
I’ve got everything laid out in piles by issue number - now to see if it all fits in just 2 bags - otherwise, I have to leave something behind...tough decisions - but I’m down to just 5 pairs of shoes... sure hope I see you there!!

Confessions of a green-aholic..

I must have something drastically wrong with me...maybe if I get it out in the open, I’ll be able to deal with it...I really become attached to what I’m knitting. Even if it’s a colour I’m not particularly fond of, by the time I’m finished, it’s my favourite! Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem because, after all, it’s not like I’m custom knitting or anything. But, here’s the thing. Sue from BT Yarns sent me 2 colours of that new linen yarn and asked me if I’d make her something to wear for the Inspiration ‘08 - surprise her, she said - use whatever you want for you and give me the other, whatever, I’m not fussy - is how she put it. Now, she knows I have a thing for green lately, so she sent a beige and a green. When I saw the green, I tried to convince myself that it was too bluey for my current wardrobe so I figured I’d make her the green and I’d get the beige, which is a lovely shade also. Well, I made several swatches - stockinette in the beige at T7 to start with and get the feel of the new yarn - washed and dried it and oh my, (yawn) how boring...then I used the green, experimenting with a couple of new one-row-tucks and tensions. Oh-oh, that old feeling, all of a sudden this green is starting to appeal to me. To round out the collection, I made another swatch in the beige, using my favourite of the one-row-tucks, sub-consciously I believe, trying to fix in my mind that the beige would be mine. In a real effort to dislike the green, I had picked stitch patterns that I knew I wouldn’t just love.
Anyway, fighting the feeling, I had switched directions - I told you last week about the tiered skirt - I’ve got three made - mine’s black because it’s the shortest - no problem there. There’s one in shades of ivory/beige/taupe that I deliberately made long, for Sue. And then I made a green one of in-between length, that I’m on the fence about - though I really like it, it’s a tad too long for me and Sue does colour well....
Back to the green linen - time’s a-wasting and it’s only 2 weeks to Cleveland. I pulled out all of my green things from the past 2 years, laid them on my bed and tried to convince myself that the last thing I needed was another green cardigan of any shape or size. Impulsively, I grabbed the green, threaded up the machine, put Sue’s schematic in the KR11 and quickly began to knit her first sleeve, which will be too long for me. Many times, I’ll make sleeves first, because it gives you a larger piece of fabric to look at and another dilemma was deciding to whether use the knit side or the purl side as right side. Did I mention the hem turned out beautiful on this thing? And the sheen of the yarn, even after I threw it in the washer AND dryer!! By the time I finished the second sleeve, I’m trying to think up a way to have a turn back cuff...
Thank heaven my next project is a Christmas dress for Rhiana - I’m using red...

Tiers of Joy

You know, I’m so happy I could just knit! Have you ever had what you thought was a great idea and then it turns out to be a great idea? Well, I’ve just had one of those days! I’m on a roll! First of all, my son Rory, took my new bike and adjusted it for me - raised the seat, lowered the handlebars, and tightened all the cables and it’s great. So, I’m back to cycling - it’s less than a month to Cleveland/ Inspiration ‘08 and I have a few pounds to take care of before then. I’m feeling confident that I can do it - I’m up to about 25 km in 90 minutes - which is good for me. Then I got an email from Cindy in NM, inviting me to do a workshop in November. WOW! I love to travel!!
I’ve had this idea for a skirt rolling around in my head for a while and something just clicked the other day and I had a pretty clear picture of how I was going to proceed. My prototype is - get this - in black!! I know that I’m going to have to make the skirt a couple of times to iron out the kinks, to get a workable pattern to put in K’words, and although black is my favourite wardrobe colour - I don’t care what Stacey and Clinton think - I rarely knit with black, at least that you get to see. Every once in a while I treat myself and re-knit something that’s been in the magazine in a more photo-able colour, in black. Last month, once I got No 46 off to the printers, I knit ‘Let’s Swing Again’ from No 44 with this gorgeous ‘midnight black’ Wool Crepe Deluxe that I’d been saving for something special. The one shown in the mag was done in a variegated rayon. It was really nice and I’d worn it quite a few times, getting compliments from non-knitters, so I wanted to re-do it in something really good. Anyway, the long and the short of it is I had some of the black WCD leftover. I also had Mini Dina and Skinny Majesty leftovers in close to the same shade of black.
My vision of this skirt is a tiered thing, that really needs a taller person than me, but I’m okay with that. I wanted the bottom tier to have hankie points, sort of, so it’s sideways knit, using a slip stitch program to shortrow sharp angles that worked out cool. The next tier is lacy with the Mini Dina and the third tier is stockinette in the Skinny Majesty. So, I knit 2 sets of each panel for the back and front and I’m thinking about how to join it all together and make sure the whole thing is not too heavy. So I used the WCD at a much looser tension - it goes further and produces a thinner fabric.
My on-the-fly plan was to hang the edge of the bottom flounce on the machine and then knit the underskirt up to when the next tier would be joined. I hung it on without really thinking and when I was finished, realized I’d hung it with the knit side facing me. Which meant that knitting over this, the purl side would be facing. But then it dawned on me - to add the next tier, I would have to remove the underskirt, hang the tier with the wrong side facing, replace the underskirt and continue to the next tier and repeat that. Way too much work and what the heck - who cares if the purl side of the "underskirt" that no one will see, is on the outside?? Hello!!! Knit up the way it was, add the next tier, keep knitting and only turn it at the top for the yoke part!!! Sometimes I do feel like a rocket scientist!!
Look for various lengths and versions of this new skirt - Tiers of Joy is my working title - in No 47 and also at the show in Cleveland - I’m going to make one for Sue J to wear too!! Her and I are about the same size, except she’s about the eight inches taller that I’d like to be - but hers won’t be black...

Silver words of wisdom....

So, I’m back at my knitting - actually I already have 3 garments ready for the next issue - I’ll tell you about them maybe another time. Today, I’m working on a light green top with a gathered neckline to wear under a jacket or cardy, using Bambu7. It’s quite thin and to make a wider stitch gauge - stockinette at T4 gives 37 sts to 10 cm which restricts the finished width you can get from 200 needles - I’m using a one-row-tuck, what I call a tuck pattern with a row of stockinette on every other row that gives a nice, subtle texture on the knit side, similar to a garter carriage look. The tuck on every other row is enough to add extra width (stitch gauge at T4 is now 29 sts/10 cm) and the every other row stockinette takes the ‘bubbly-ness’ out of the tuck.
I have the Silverlink4 with DAK7 and my standard gauge Silver Reed machine. I’ve been using this system to knit all my garments for the past 4 years and I love knit-from-screen because it shows exactly what needle is doing what on which row - you can’t go wrong!! Before that, I used the SK580 with built-in electronics and the PE1.
The curl cord can get blown out with improper use. Also, I hate to say how old some of my curl cords are and not surprisingly, I have had 2 burn out recently. When this happens, nothing else does, meaning you can program and re-read till the cows come home and no signal goes to the machine and DAK will keep telling you you’re on the wrong side.
How do you know it’s burned out??
Okay, so I have replaced a couple of curl cords and I am pretty careful (I think) about hooking up the electric to everything - I always make sure my SilverLink4 is unplugged from the power source whenever I’m not using it - in between pieces of knitting, even if I’m only taking a break to grab a cup of whatever, I unplug it from the power bar. If I am not using the patterning for a garment, I unplug the curl cord from the carriage, and I park the end in an old pill bottle attached to one of the antennae, to protect the prongs inside from inadvertently coming in contact with anything.
Now, I use this stuff often enough that it comes second-nature and I’m a big short-cutter and when on auto-pilot, may forget to check something - you know what I mean. So. I’m putting in a pattern and everything’s cool and working fine. On row 8, I’ve hung the hem and then go back to knitting in pattern. I usually watch the red/green flash of lights on the end of the SilverLink to make sure the pattern is continuing properly and I’ve also become attuned to the sound the needles patterning make, so I noticed right away on row 12 that the tuck pattern hadn’t happened by the sound or rather, lack of it. So, rip out a row... re-read the pattern and begin again. I get 4 rows knit and again, the familiar little click-click-click was not there. Sure enough, a pattern-less row! At least it has the courtesy to actually knit the row when you are doing tuck and the signal is lost - if I was using the lace carriage, there would be major drama happening!! When the signal is lost with the lace carriage, all stitches act as a selected stitch and transfer off, resulting with everything on the floor!!! Also, it occurs to me that I did not get a signal from ‘Matthew’ (that’s what I call my DAK screen in honour of Matthew Bragg, the creator of DAK)telling me I'm on the wrong side. So, third time is a charm, but I decided to investigate first. I checked my curl cord - I had put a tag with the date on it up near the top, out of the way and yes, it’s a new one. Remembering that my last garment was stockinette, I checked my connection into the carriage and wouldn’t you know, I had not pushed it down fully, probably resulting in a weak connection. Re-read one more time and zip-zam-zoom, in no time, I’m shaping the underarm and then finishing off the shoulder, 357 rows, no lost pattern once!!
So, here are some Silver Reed/SilverLink/DAK/knit-from-screen safety rules from me for you.
1. Always unplug the link from the power source when not in use. Leaving it plugged for an extended period of time creates a constant heat and can cause the wires to burn out in the SilverLink or the curl cord. Do not leave it plugged into a power bar unless you are turning off the power bar each time.
2. When making connections between the SilverLink and the carriage (which is your curl cord), make sure there is no power to the SilverLink - it can be connected to your computer, but not the direct power source. If you have the USB connection, this protects the SilverLink and the computer and allows you to connect those two things without unplugging everything, but it does not protect the curl cord.
3. No need to unplug the SilverLink from the curl cord each time.
4. To prevent the curl cord from stretching out unnecessarily, unplug it from the carriage when not in use and protect end (see above) or park carriage in the middle of the needle bed.
5. It’s a good idea to have an extra curl cord on hand.
Oh, and the Bambu7 top turned out great - look for it in the next issue!!