Spots in Dots...

I have felt rather bad, almost like I’ve been dissing the brother machine unnecessarily after that thread lace thing - I felt that I should give it another chance. Lace knitting is one of my favourite looks and I love coming up with something that looks crochet-like. I had this idea in mind to make a mesh-like canvas and then have random spots or squares or whatever, similar to filet-crochet without the picture thing. I began swatching on the brother - it was really easy, once I came up with my mesh fabric, to simply push back some needles after passing the lace carriage, to de-select some of the mesh and get a spot of knit stitches here and there. After looking at the results, I went to Designaknit and made a large swatch of the mesh and then used the ‘eraser’ to make spots similar to my swatch, so it would be automatic. Back to the brother and knit 2 swatches at differing stitch sizes to find the optimum. Turned out tighter was better, because of the openness of the stitch pattern.
Now, to knit lace on the brother, it means at least 4 passes of the lace carriage and then knit 2 rows with the main carriage; the yarn stays threaded up in the main carriage. Not really a big deal, once you get into the rhythm, but as I was swatching, I kept dreaming of my Silver Reed, with which I can simply knit plain lace as quickly as stockinette. I couldn’t resist. I re-designed the stitch pattern for the Silver Reed and made a swatch. Hummm...interesting! What I thought was plain lace really wasn’t and the swatch did look better from the brother than the plain lace on the Silver Reed. Might look the same to the casual observer, but the holes stay more square on the brother swatch. To get exactly the same thing on the Silver Reed, I would need to knit it as fashion lace: take out the yarn, change the cam to fashion lace, pass 2 rows, re-thread the carriage, change the cam back to stockinette, K2R and repeat throughout. The re-threading of the carriage can be tricky and if not careful, you can easily dump everything. I decided to stick with the brother.
Cast on 80-0-81 needles. Now, I forgot to say, with this mesh knitting, I found that I liked the edges to have at least 2 plain stitches for seaming, so, while knitting this, on two of the rows of the lace carriage, I need to be watching the end needles and push back any that are selected on the 2nd needle from each side. I have already programmed my shape file into the box, but it’s a fairly simple body, just straight to the underarm. I knit a couple of rows and I realize the pattern has not advanced like it should. Reset to the proper row, pass the lace carriage and I get this error message, something like ‘No 48 error, carriage has not passed row tripper’. Sigh. Go find the manual to see what the answer is - there isn’t one that applies to the lace carriage. I changed the sponge bar, thinking maybe the lace carriage is sitting lower than the regular carriage or something. Try again, no difference. It’s after 5pm, so I won’t find any tech support anywhere right then, so I manually clicked the row tripper after passing the lace carriage and it worked, advancing the pattern to the next row. So feature this - pass lace carriage, check end needles, click row tripper, lace, watch end needles, push one back, click row tripper, lace, end needles, row tripper, lace, end needles, row tripper, knit 2 rows! I’ve got a mantra going - lace ends trip, lace ends trip, lace ends trip, lace ends trip, knit 2 rows. I’m concentrating so hard on keeping all this straight, I’ve got about 40 rows done and the box is indicating that I should be decreasing stitches. The darn thing thinks I’m at the underarm already!! I realize my tripping the row counter is racking up garment rows which the lace carriage does not usually do. Fortunately, I do have a manual row counter on this machine that I use faithfully, as well as the one in the box and I have charted out my shape on graph paper, so can follow that. I manage to complete the garment - somewhere around the middle of the front, the row tripper decides to get back in the game so I never did find out what went wrong, but my finished garment is beautiful and just what I had imagined!!! See KNITWORDS No 50, coming soon!! The yarn is Cannelé from Yeoman Yarns and the edging is from ‘Band Practise’, perfect with the filet-knit!
My working title for this was Testing, 1, 2, 3... but you never would have known what that meant!!
PS - yesterday, I went back to the brother. I wanted to make one of those shopping bags (Take an Old Bag Shopping - KW No 44 and see previous blogs) for a gift and, still high on my success with ‘Spots in Dots’, remembering I had thought doing the bag on the brother might be quicker because of being able to use the lace carriage for the transfers to every other needle....NOT!! (for me anyway!)

All Ribbing Aside...

Back in mid-April, I had a few hours between things, I think I was hanging around waiting for the proof copy of No 49 to come in from the printers and decided to use the time to try out an idea. I had seen a girl at the bank wearing a wide rib sweater that was cute. Hers was a chunky knit and it was the collar that interested me. It was a wide rib also, that circled her neck and was buttoned with a large button in front. I often get vague ideas like that, mull them over for a bit and it develops into something to make. I did up a couple of swatches of various ribs, on the standard gauge machine, in a discontinued yarn, Forsell’s Thistledown Silk, even using a colour (pale blue) I didn’t particularly love. I chose the yarn knowing it would steam out fairly flat and it stay that way - I’m not such a masochist that I really wanted a stretchy, clingy ribbed sweater! So, short story, I ended up with a really cute raglan A-line cardy and since I was teaching a class on facings, threw it into my suitcase when doing my Spring seminars and called it my prototype - they loved it!
Back home and settled into knitting for No 50, I had to re-do the 3X3 rib. Having experimented with the facings, one method worked much better than the other and it needed to be made in a current yarn. I chose Yeoman’s Twister in the red/black colourway - actually, there were a couple of cones on the shelf just waiting to be picked. I’ve used this yarn in a couple of double bed garments and found it to be very nice to work with and although soft, doesn’t seem to have much stretch too it, which was one of the properties I was looking for. Twister also has great yardage, 1 cone will do it, with plenty leftover, but I always like to have 2 of one dyelot of anything, just to be on the safe side. It was a very quick knit, with great raglan seams, an excellent teaching project.
I wanted to really check out my pattern and instructions so I asked Cindy from ABQ if she’d be willing to test knit it for me. She likes to learn new things and accepted the challenge. We emailed back and forth a bit, but between the accompanying article and the pattern, other than re-checking numbers - the pattern had not been to my proofreader’s yet - she was able to get her garment finished without extra help from me - she loved the fact it was such a quick knit and marvelled that she usually has to re-knit pieces over - she refers to it as the body count and was pleased she was able to get 5 pieces done only once each! She sent a photo of her completed garment just 10 days after starting. I was impressed! She was able to point out a few things from a beginner’s standpoint that needed more instruction, so we were both happy!.
Along with her photo, Cindy wrote: ‘The way the ribs decrease together at the raglans is really a thing of beauty, Mary Anne. It really fits well too; I guess I need to do the loop and button to finish it up? Thank you for letting me knit this; mostly I had fun and now feel like me and the ribber are friends, after all!’
So, just to give you the head’s up on what’s coming, it’s ‘Just Ribbing’! in No 50 - told you it was a bad hair day...

absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I know, I know...where the heck have I been?? I’ve got lots of excuses, but why bother, I’m back, thanks to Cecile in Florida! She called yesterday to renew, order a book and to ask me what happened to my blog - she had become a silent, dedicated reader and told me she checked every week to see what I was up to and she’s really missed me - I felt so bad, like I let her down and I promised to get back into it.
I saw a local ad the other day, ‘50 years later and we’re still in business’ - forget the 50 years, 50 issues later and I’m still here, WOW!!
Anyway, we did the photo shoot for No 50 the other day and I’m so happy! It was amazing - you probably don’t realize how stressful the photo shoots can be. Lining up models, figuring out when they can come and then hoping that things will fit and look good. Most of our models are friends, family and friends of friends and nobody’s professional. Sometimes, I get girls showing up that I’ve never seen and don’t even know what size they are. I’ve had it all - someone who tells you they are a size 14 ( you need a 12 to 14) and they get there and they’re really an 18!! yikes, try to be polite and make it work??? Or, just as bad, you need a ten and she’s a two. And, yes, the gal who was an 8 last year and forgets to tell you she’s gained a few...or a girl you just met and she looked fine, but shows up with a new haircut and yikes, what was I thinking!! and you know, they are all doing this for free and doing me a favour and I really do appreciate it.
So, here’s the inside scoop. I went to get my nails done on Tuesday and there’s Shanley (aesthetician, cover of No 41, dark hair, 5’7", beautiful, 30) and Alex, the massage therapist who works with her (new girl, 25, tiny, petite, totally cute). I casually asked them both if they’d like to come and try it out. Knowing they are self-employed, I expected them to be too busy, but after juggling their appointment book, they say they can both come late Thursday afternoon - wow!!, but oh fooey, I’m not quite ready! I’ll make this work if it means staying up all night! Buttons to sew on, final pressing, always a few more ends to darn in and, what to have to go with what???
I generally try to have 4 to 5 girls for 10-12 adult garments, put the same garment on at least 2 girls and it takes some doing, sometimes lasting all day and at least 2 to 3 different days, which means getting everything pressed and ready and shlepping it all over to Bill’s a couple of times. I guess what I’m trying to say, it isn’t just a snap of the fingers.
Okay, it’s Thursday afternoon and they’re due at Bill’s at 5:30pm. The day’s muggy and quite warm, all the requirements for bad hair; mine’s frizzy already and I know fine hair goes limp, yadda, yadda, yadda... I’m worrying already that Alex is going to be too tiny and she’s never modelled before. The girls arrive, and we all hustle around. Bill and I’ve already checked out the lights and his camera settings. I’ve got all the clothes laid out and I have a basic plan of what to start with, until I see how things are fitting and how the girls are posing. 45 minutes later, they’re heading out the door and Bill and I are both feeling like we’re not really sure what just happened! But, we’ve got 340 photos, and all 10 of the adult garments are done and everything looked fabulous!!
Well, the proof is in the pictures!! Stay tuned for a few sneak peak previews of what’s in No 50!! It’ll blow you away!! Now, just the kids to do, later this week and we’ll be all ready for you!

Happy feet

I just know you’re not going to believe what I did yesterday! We finished up No 49 on Sunday night and got it sent off to the printers. I had a bit of office work to occupy the morning and then I was wandering around trying to come up with something to do. I looked at all my yarn and tried to invent a project, but mostly on days like this, I find it hard to focus - kind of like after the sugar rush of putting all my energy into getting the magazine finished and now, what should I do?
I had gotten my bicycle out over the weekend, even though my back yard is still full of snow. So, I went for my second spin of the season - it felt good, in spite of my sore butt!!
So, back in the office, looking for something to get into - not that I really have nothing to do, but, again, the focus thing. What CAN I do??
Here’s the part, brace yourself - I re-knit some socks. Yes, you read right! MAO actually re-knit something! Now, don’t get too excited, I didn’t unravel and reknit - I actually had a couple of pairs of socks (KNITWORDS No 24; No 39) - double bed socks of nice, expensive sock yarn with worn-out holes in the toes and bottom of the feet - I couldn’t bear to throw them out, they were my favourites! Before Christmas, while cleaning out drawers and cupboards, I’d set these aside, promising myself I’d do something, but I really felt I was just prolonging the agony. The tops of the socks are still perfect, nicely ribbed in stretchy 2X2 rib - that part will never wear out. But the holes in the stockinette part - couldn’t even be darned if you even would think of that, which I wouldn’t.
I had leftovers of the same yarn and figured, why not? I cut off the sock, below the rib - it’s still in a circle and it was quite easy to follow a fairly straight line because of the colour changes of the self-patterning sock yarn. Picked out the bits of broken stitches and unravelled a whole row. Then, knowing exactly how many stitches, I hung the rib bed stitches first - this is the trickiest part. Then brought the ribber up and hung the main bed stitches. Threaded up the new yarn and whipped off the new foot - too simple.
Have your sock right side out - that’s the correct way for rehanging! Find the seam that was at the back of the leg and put that part in the centre of the main bed, same place where you are going to shape the heel.
I just thought this - my Dad used to wear ‘Happy Foot’ socks - now I have some!!

trashy or sassy???

Been pretty busy lately, working on No 49, our next issue - it’s our summer publication and is always the most popular, first one to sell out - I guess because new subscribers almost always order a back issue or two and most often, they pick a summer one, maybe because they live in a warm climate. Probably looking for lightweight stuff, I guess - don’t really know, but anyway - summer it is, and actually for me, the most difficult. We don’t get really hot weather here and it will usually only be in mid-afternoon, so not worth too much worrying about. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be happy with what we have - hint - this issue is all about options - intended or otherwise... tell you more about it later!
I’m supposed to be finishing up an article right now on successful yarn substitution and it’s almost finished, but I needed to take a break - actually, other thoughts keep intruding! Hope the boss doesn’t find out! I’m also - in my spare time - working on a few extra things for the seminars at the end of April.
I’ve always been secretly attracted to animal print - I say secretly because it seems sort of trashy - you know like you see some blonde bimbo in a comedy sketch or in a country music video, with tight pants, too tight leopard top and a cigarette, in a double-wide...on ‘What Not To Wear’, there's some poor lady with leopard pants and a furry leopard jacket and you kind of die inside for her because you know what they’re gonna say! I do have a pair of skin print pj’s that I got from VS a long time ago that I still love! and on my recent trip to MSP, I picked up a leopard (??) print cami. You might remember, last Fall I got the cutest animal print pumps that went perfectly with an outfit I’d already made. It’s been winter here for a long time, so they’ve been hanging on a shoe rack on the back of the door to my sewing room...oh, and another confession, my glasses have a tortise-shell frame that's kinda the same thing!
Now,way back in 1996, I bought these sweet skin print buttons, on sale - I was going to knit something to go with them. I did knit a fairisle skin print - not sure what animal it was - that I cut’n’sewed into a vest. By the time it was finished, I decided the buttons would be overkill and had put them away for the next time skin prints made a comeback.
Now, back to knitting - I get a germ of an idea and I play around with it. I saw a cute little cardy last year with a double ruffle on a deep vee neck that’s been in the back of my mind since then. I actually took that idea and somehow it turned into a cardy, yes, with a deep vee neck, yes, but the ruffle ended up as a peplum thing below the waist and around the bottom of elbow-length, fitted sleeves. Totally cute and I love it! But that double ruffle was still playing in the back of my mind. So, to divert my mind from the writer’s block, I began experimenting with this ruffle idea again.
Here’s what I’ve got so far - 3 new edges!!!you’ll have to wait to see the end of the story - will it be in No 49 or be held over for No 50? will I use the buttons or save them for the next time I get an animal notion?

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac was amazing!! My friend Donna, and I drove down to St Paul, MN for the concert on Tuesday night - well, actually we went Monday, shopped Tuesday, took in the concert Tuesday night and came home yesterday, a great winter break!
Stevie Nicks looks great, hard to believe she’s 60!!! We loved her costume changes - she had on very high red boots and a black dress throughout - she used several shawls - one was gold, one was red and a black one too!! she didn’t do much moving or dancing, but did a lot of twirling, flipping and playing with the shawls, back-lit, centre stage - very girly-girl - we weren’t close enough to see what they were made of, but the gold one, I felt sure, was knit. Her voice has that great raspy, gravelly tone, even better than her younger days, that I love. Lindsey Buckingham was absolutely incredible - he worked it every second of the full 2 hours the band played. The drummer, Fleetwood, also put everything he could into the performance.
We got to lunch with my friend Mar, in MSP - she took me to a really great yarn shop called ‘Skeins’ in Hopkins - definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!! Be prepared to splurge!!! And she'd made me a personalized, knitted tote bag - I'll bring it to the spring shows.
For any Canadians who know what it’s like coming back through the border, after a shopping trip, you might like this - you’re driving up to the Customs window - even if you haven’t over-bought or anything, there is still that little guilty feeling of doing or saying something wrong and the fear of them catching you doing something you shouldn’t have...and you never seem know if you’re under your allowable limit - well, we know, but hope we’ll get through without having to pay or worse, a search of the vehicle...anyway, at the window, I see a nice, older guy I recognize - he never acknowledges that he ‘knows’ me, but is always polite and says something pleasant at the end. He asks us our names and where we’ve been. Donna says Minneapolis which is how Thunder Bayers think of a trip to the Twin Cities, but I put in ‘St Paul’ because that’s where we actually stayed, right across from where the concert was. He asks what we’re bringing back and we both say our amounts, a few dollars over the allowable. Then, he says, ‘and the most important thing..’ and pauses - we both hold our breath, wondering what is coming??? He says, ‘how was Fleetwood Mac??’ Thrilled, we both told him how great it was - he asked if we’d go again - hell, YES!!
Safe drive, he says as he closes the window!

what every brother knitter should know...

I’m not going to name all the names, but, this problem occurs every now and then - usually involving a tuck pattern. I get a bunch of emails or frantic phone calls from knitters insisting that there must be a mistake in the pattern. The first question I ask - what machine are you using? but I already know the answer... ‘my brother’...of course.
This time, the pattern in question was ‘Take an old bag shopping’ , our ‘go green’ shopping bag from No 44 (also see April 2008, 'a bag or two'). The original one was done on a Passap by Pat Holbrook - oops, I said I wasn’t going to mention any names - I was so intrigued with the idea of the stretchy, mesh fabric that was created, I converted the pattern for the Japanese machines. But, I never said I was perfect! I guess I figured all brother knitters would know about needles out of work and the end needle selection thing and I forgot to mention it. If this has caused you grief, I apologize.
So, here it is (and a few other pointers) in BLOCK CAPS!!
1. When working with every other needle or needles out of work, such as tuck lace - DO NOT USE END NEEDLE SELECTION - set to KCll instead. If you use KCl, the needles beside the out of work needle become an end needle and you will get no pattern on that needle. So, think about it - this applies to any time you have needles out of work - tuck lace or even a double bed pattern, when there are needles on the rib bed to fill in the empty needle on the main bed... what I do is a dry run or ‘air knitting’. No yarn, bring out some needles. Pass the carriage across to put the needles in B position. Go outside the turn mark, set to KC1 to select the pattern, and move the carriage across. Look at what you have. For a regular tuck pattern, most of the needles will be brought out. These will be knit stitches. The needles left in B will be the tucked stitches if the pattern is properly entered... if it doesn’t look right, you may need to reverse the needle selection or, in the needles out of work scenario, set the carriage for KCll and voilà, you have your tuck pattern!! Use this to make sure you have the correct needles in work for tuck lace also.
2. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN ‘read/select’ the pattern from EITHER side of the machine - it does NOT have to be from the left side only.
3. On the 970, when programming in your own lace pattern (i.e. one that is not built-in), because there is no actual option for doing this, enter the pattern or download it as a 2 colour fairisle. You will have no memo information, so you need to pay attention and know when to use the lace carriage for transfers and when to knit rows with the knit carriage. Sometimes you may need to flip the pattern horizontally - DAK flips it automatically for you but you don’t want that for lace. In the patterns in KNITWORDS, we show the pattern the way it should be entered on your punchcard, mylar or screen.
4. That funny little wire thingy on the tension mast - that is a sub take-up spring, used for your fine yarn to add extra tension for thread lace knitting. Put the thin yarn in the left side and then into this spring.
There’s sure to be some other things...stay tuned!