Needles of Steel

Passap to Japanese, a quick guide

2012-02-08T12:30:00.000Z

Passapese isn't that hard to learn, although it does look like some sort of code to the untrained eye.

Where the passap pattern talks about the front bed, you work on the main bed, and vice versa (ie the beds are reversed).
N = knit everything
LX = knit everything, but where a pusher is in rest position, do not knit - equivalent to partial knitting on g a Japanese machine
CX = circular knitting - on a Passap, this is done clockwise
GX = free move on one or both beds
Lock = carriage
Stitch size (ss) = tension dial setting. Passaps go from 1 to 8 with increments of 0.25, Japanese machines go from 0 (sometimes minus) to 10 (or more) with increments of a third.
KX = knit with pushers up, tuck with pushers down
EX = knit to left, tuck to right (fisherman's rib)
SX = preselect pushers (does not knit) - equivalent to a preselect row on Brother/Toyota
AX = knit or tuck, depending on pushers
BX = knit or slip, depending on pushers
DX = knit to right, slip to left with pushers, knit to right, tuck to left with pushers in rest
FX = knit when pushers in work, tuck to left and knit to right with pushers in rest
HX = knit to right, slipt to left with pushers, slip in both directions with pushers in rest
Orange strippers - these are used for double-bed work
Black strippers - these are used for single-bed and circular work
Arrow keys - these reverse the selection of the pushers on the back lock, so if you had 10101 it would create 01010
Handle up, handle down - these refer to the racking position. Handle down is half pitch.

For further info, see this post

FO: Dishcloth-a-rama

2012-02-07T12:30:00.000Z

DSCN0057
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

The crochet one happened because I had leftovers.... :)

Addiction

2012-02-06T12:30:00.000Z

Ok so I'm Jonesing on lizard ridge again at the moment - made a hand-knit LR dishcloth last week, and the project on the chunky machine is also lizard ridge related. Some clever soul on Ravelry came up with a crocheted "gecko edge" version, too...

I also cast on this at the weekend, the sudden snow on saturday night having curtailed my plans to get a bit spendy in Birmingham this weekend. It's kind of addictive, too - I'm using Texere Olympia, which is a rowan colourscape chunky knock-off, and I think I'll have that much yarn left over that I might well add top-down sleeves, too...

Watched "Mad Max 3" (dire, don't bother!) and "Bronson", which was rather creepy.

Stashdown update #1

2012-02-02T16:30:00.000Z

End of January 2012 and I’ve 121 stash entries on Ravelry. Target is to get it below 100 by the end of the year. So why oh why am I being taunted by adverts for Kauni? It’s just not fair!

Of course, the Rav stash is only about 95% accurate, and there are some photos missing. It’ll have to do.

Been doing some updates on the Machine Knitter's Treasure Chest site lately. Hand-coding with Wordpad is somewhat tedious, but it's all I have on this 'puter.

And no, the sheep cushion is not for sale, but thanks for the interest. Maybe I should start a production line...

February eye candy

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000Z

First olympic cushion! Shown "stuffed" with another cushion

Quick handknit case for the other half's video camera. No, I'm not sure why I bought one ball of Rowan Spray either, except that it was on sale (which is never a good enough reason).

Popping into Hobbycraft is always dangerous to my wallet, even if I DON'T buy yarn. Hmmm...

Cushiony

2012-01-31T12:30:00.000Z

Well, I knitted two pieces for a cushion last night - a chocolate brown with cream sheep on. I think the next one might be a knitweave one (more swatching is required).

Fairisle works better on a 950i when you remember to remove the contrast yarn for the plain rows. Otherwise, tangles ensue!

Sewing the cushion up tonight, I hope.

Cushions for the Olympiad

2012-01-27T16:30:00.000Z

If you've not been paying attention, you might not have realised that the Wool Sack is running a drive to make cushions for all of the Olympic athletes. They need to be 40cm square - the only caveat is that they have to be made from British wool. You don't even need to stuff them - just sew up three edges. They've been having stuffing stations at the major yarn shows. I got rather excited until I realised that the wool I've bought from Uppinghams is actually from New Zealand. Texere have British wool, though.

I've had some wool donated to me - two cones each of natural white, brown and grey - and I have plans to make at least one cushion this weekend, maybe two. I need to try and get that passap top finished, too. I'm also posting half of the donation to the Manor House machine knitters, for them to produce some cushions hopefully.

Knitting machines and spreadsheets

2012-01-23T12:31:00.000Z

I can't remember who I got this idea from, but someone shared this idea on Ravelry a while back. If you are working a pattern that involves a lot of counting (eg hand-manipulated lace etc) then you can create a spreadsheet where one cell equals one needle. I'm working something up in a partial knitting pattern, so the red bar indicates the eight needles I'm working on, and the blue square indicates an extra needle which is wrapped.

I did this in Openoffice, which allows you to resize your columns in cm. It's possible to do this in Excel, but you might have to fiddle about a bit, because I've never discovered what unit of measurement Excel uses for this. It has really speeded me up no end, so I highly recommend it. I have to do 28 repeats of this pattern for the length I want.

All the parts for the passap top are done. Not having a lot of joy with it though. The v-neck has been done, just needs casting off and sewing down to hide the cut edges. The sleeves were mounted on a 2mm needle and cast off - alas, they are too tight, and made a "gorilla" sweater (sleeve heads too tight). So I need to do something with them. I'm determined to get there - it's just taking longer than I hoped it would. Unpicking a cast off is thankless work (yarnmonger has suggested I take the serger to them, it's becoming quite tempting!). It might be because the main fabric is tuck and the cast off was done on a single stocking stitch row.

Finished the first pompom sock and need to cast on another one. Crocheted a "salsa belt" from the recycled sari silk but have now run out. So much for the yarn diet - does "finishing off" yarn count?! I could wait until the Sewing for Pleasure show in March at the NEC (I will be on the guild stand on the Sunday) but it's highly unlikely they'll have sari silk (it was an Ally Pally purchase in 2010).

Startitis strikes again...

2012-01-18T12:47:00.001Z

Well, I guess it had to happen. I had a bit of a sort-out of my knitting basket over Christmas, and relocated/frogged a few UFOs in the process. The sari silk I bought at Ally Pally in 2010 was being crocheted into a round bag, but it didn't look as if I had enough (despite a donation from a friend) and anyway I didn't really like how it was turning out. The yarn's been sitting on the stairs, glaring at me, since being frogged.

I've got a book I shall probably sell on - "Double stitch" - which is a book full of very contemporary crochet designs. It's not really my thing, being more suited to fashionistas and teenagers (and I, alas, am neither!) BUT there's a very simple pattern for a "salsa belt" that I really liked the look of. It's basically a long strip of plain crochet with a fringe on one side, so can be worn as a belt (kind of "grass skirt" like) or as a scarf. Perfect use for the sari silk, which is rather rough and very uneven. I realized that I didn't really do any new crochet last year at all; in fact, the only thing I did was rework the Cameo top because I'd made it too snug around my waist (and make the aforementioned, doomed bag, of course).

So, have started the belt today. Really struggling with a 6mm hook though - this stuff is THICK!

Estonian spiral sock has been frogged, and put into timeout to think about what it did. Am determined to finish the pompom socks first.

Sock off...

2012-01-17T08:23:00.000Z

Just for posterity, this is the recalcitrant sock right before I ripped it off the needles:

And this is a rather blurry pic of it on my foot:

It's ok actually - I think it fits ok, although there seems to be a hole in it. No matter - when I get some time, it will be frogged right back. Lifelines will be in use when I try again - but thanks to Bindeej on Ravelry, I have some Regia pompon so I might just finish those socks first. Nice, simple rounds of stocking stitch. No pattern to try and follow whilst watching tv.

In machine knitting "news", this is a close-up of the garment I am working on:

It's passap pattern 1138 I think, it's in the E6000 pattern book.

I have made a cut and sew v neck and am now desperately trying to do the special passap neck on it. Currently it's mounted on the machine, I think I probably should have cut it a bit closer to the stitching. It's giving me hot sweats and I've left it somewhat crucified on the back bed, whilst I try to decide whether to carry on or take it off and trim it. I already managed to sew the parts together wrong already (ie not right sides together) and had mounted it on the machine before I realised, hence the slow progress. I'll only have an hour tonight and then no more free time until Friday night. Trying to take it slowly so that it doesn't turn out like a pig's ear. Anyone who knows me will know just HOW hard that is for me! :)

MKKI event - update

2012-01-17T00:31:00.000Z

Well, this weekend my memory stick decided to wipe the contents of the directory I’ve been keeping all the MKKI day records in. Luckily I have managed to recreate the documents I need, and the rest is on my email program.

So far we’ve 7 people coming. A gentle warning to people who originally expressed an interest but haven’t yet paid - this event is now up on the UK Guild website, and it will be appearing in the newsletter which is due out soon. Payment secures your place on the list, places will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. I am limiting it to 20 places, as the room won’t comfortably hold more than that.

If the event is a success, I'm thinking maybe next year (or later on this year) I could run it further north (I'm thinking about Metropolitan, but I will have to ask first - and it's not quite so acessible as regards public transport). We shall see - I want to see how this goes first I think.

Insult and injury

2012-01-12T16:32:00.001Z

My first attempt at a non-plain sock isn't going well. I had to frog back the first attempt after 3" when I completely messed the pattern up. Having since checked out other knitters on Rav, they all state it could do with being a bit bigger. Top that with finding one of the DPNs completely out, when I took it out to work on it last night, and I'm starting to wonder if the knitting gods aren't trying to tell me something!

Now I'm not sure whether I should rip it out and start again. Argh!

FO: Vest and dishcloths...

2012-01-10T17:30:00.000Z

Cotton vest in PnC cotton, calculated with Knitware.

Loving these Peaches n creme dishcloths made with leftovers....

Potpourri dishcloth

Blue dishcloth - this turned out a little short, and as I have more of this as part of a swatch, so I'll probably unpick the cast-off edge and make it a bit longer. I've got a black and white one n the go now (in Lion brand cotton).

I've more leftover PnC from the pastel top I made for Leah last week. I've one more cone of PnC - 14oz of fiesta, which is a very loud colourway in bright reds, pinks, greens, blues and yellows. I've got plans for a knitleader project for it, although I'll probably use Knitware to calculate some of it.

I'm also trying to source 4 balls of discontinued sock yarn via the lovely folks on Rav. Seems the ones I need are all in the US - no matter, I'm happy to pay postage. I managed to strip the thread on one of my Knitpicks Pro Harmonie needles, so now I need a new pair of 4.5mm tips - not impressed! I'm also thinking of entering this year's Guild of Machine Knitters competition and TRYING to talk myself out of buying yet more yarn just to work on it. So, despite my best attempts to not buy anything much this month, costs keep coming up nevertheless!

Argh. I hate January! Best to stay indoors, knit, and avoid the shops and temptation.

Have turned the heel on the first Estonian spiral sock - think there's a typo in the pattern somewhere, so adjusted it somewhat. Not very keen on how tidy the heel stitches were when I picked them up. Will try to do better on the other sock. Hey ho.

FO: Cotton top for niece

2012-01-02T22:02:00.000Z

Cotton top for niece - another Peaches n creme special.

Determined to have a serious tidy-out at home this year. Get rid of surplus books, freecycle, recycle or dispose of items that are no longer in use at home. Have a good sort out in the attic too, as I've several sets of crockery that will probably never be used. On the crafting front, I'm aiming to get through some stash - it's out of hand right now - so to that end I've been calculating patterns in Knitware and then drawing them up as a diagram.

Himself asked for a wedge monitor (kind of guitar amp) for xmas, which was duly ordered. Darn thing is approximately 75cm square and there's little or no room for it. Turns out it was the wrong one, too - it had no plug attached, so another one is now on order. He's officially filled up the house now - I don't think he realised just how big it is, and as it's a wedge shape it's not even as if it will slide into a cupboard easily.

Next time I think we should pick such items out in person - far less room for error, and at least we'll know how big it is!

Happy New Year, knitting from stash 2012

2012-01-01T15:57:00.000Z

Finished last year and started this one with a bit of a tidy out. The Ravelry MK group are doing a "12 projects knitted from stash in 2012" project this year. So I've felt slightly odd, knitting a few things from stash on my week off, and wondering whether I should "save" them for a busy month?! :) I made some fingerless gloves from mini-mochi, a yarn that felts almost as soon as you look at it, a blue jumper for a boy, turned the Finnish-bought mohair into a scarf just to finally use it up, and made another charity tee.

I have plans to buy a few yarns this year - I purchased 3 50g balls from a now defunct local yarn shop, and have realised that that's 50% short of a pair of socks in each case, so will be hunting out three matching balls. Annoyingly, the shop in question has a red-white-and-blue themed window display (presumably it folded around the time of the Royal wedding) - if I wasn't an honest citizen I'd be inclined to break in - the yarn in question is fading behind the glass, it'd be a mercy crime :).

Also I want another set of 2mm DPNs, my metal ones seem to have disappeared somewhere. Although I love my knitpro harmony needles dearly, their dark burgundy colours are not at all conducive to sock knitting with dark yarns and winter nights.

I see the above yarn purchases as necessary - I'm really not into trainer socks, and I don't think knitted ones would stay on anyway - but, those purchases aside, I am going to try and get my stash down below 100 on Ravelry and halt the march of cones across the floor.

So, what projects to pick, what to knit from stash this year? I've three more cones of Peaches n creme to knit up, and alas they are all different shades and do not contain enough yarn for an adult garment. I might JUST about squeeze a vest for myself out of one of them. I've two blasted cones of chenille to knit up. Blasted, because the purple one made a very odd-shaped garment one xmas - I had a disastrous week's machineknitting in the days 'twixt xmas and new year, henceforth to be called "chrimbo limbo" - both garments were binned as were both made from unfroggable yarns), and the blue one, though knitted up, just didn't look very nice, even when knitted by machine. I want to knit up as much as possible with the chunky machine before I take it down. I've already swatched for a double-bed tuck stitch jumper on the Passap e6000 - the tension measurements were something daft like 40 sts and 91 rows to 10cm, so that one is going to be quite an upper body workout - it's going to be a v-neck cut and sew jumper in a cream industrial yarn. I've three or four cones of 4ply that need to become jumpers and/or cardigans - a garter pattern jumper and a lace cardigan.

On the handknitting front, I finished the chunky cabled jumper a few weeks ago, but I'm not entirely happy with it. The neck is a deep scoop cowl neck. I had to stitch it down at the front to stop myself looking like some bizarre pastel-striped funnel - can't decide whether I casted off too tightly, or whether the neck just doesn't sit right overall. I think I shall have to unpick it right back and just have a simple 5cm band of ribbing. I will be far more likely to wear it then.

I've also been working on the "Estonian spiral sock" pattern from "Socks that rock". It's a very simple pattern which appears to slant. Alas, I mucked it up so badly, and couldn't repair it, so it's been frogged and restarted. I'm knitting it in Crazy zauberball. I think the yarn company meant crazy to mean the variegated colours, but it also accurately described my mental state after spending 20 minutes trying to wind the ball into a proper cake, when all it REALLY wanted to do was bias, tangle, and become yarn vomit.

Whilst having a sort out, I have been putting oddments of yarn into a clear plastic bag as and when - it'll either go to a friend for charity knitting, or will be used as sewing-up yarns. Either way, it's all good! In the process I rediscovered a crochet shawl I started eons ago (it's only 5 small squares at the moment - seemed like a good idea when I started it, HA!).

I'm just about to update my "Projects of 2011" post. Looks like I had a pretty productive year, and seems to be rather a lot of blues in there!

Himself and I spent a fairly quiet xmas at home, we haven't been out and about much as the beer 'fridge has been stocked to overflowing (himself had quite a lot of beer as presents too). We've leftover stuffing to finish, and leftover home-made apple and pear crumble, and a roast chicken for dinner. For tomorrow we die(t)!

Here's to a happy and hopeful 2012, and more knitty fun to come!

FO: Fisherman's rib scarf in mohair

2012-01-01T15:28:00.001Z

100_2366_1
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This mohair was purchased in Helsinki and has had two previous incarnations. Luckily it's not that hairy and has unpicked fairly easily both times. Hoping this is the last time I'll knit it - it's not itchy against the skin so someone will like this scarf I think.

Almost FO: another charity tee

2012-01-01T15:26:00.001Z

100_2365_1
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is mostly made from leftovers from the Stylecraft brushstrokes chunky yarn, finished with the looks-pretty-horrid-to-knit boucle, which was the nearest yarn colour and thickness wise I could find. Needs sewing up.

Almost FO: Blue jumper

2012-01-01T15:22:00.001Z

100_2363_1_1
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is the first of the"bought some Peaches N Creme because they were closing, not realising 14oz isn't enough for an adult garment" series. Yeah, I've three more cones of this in other colours. I'll be lucky to get a sleeveless vest out of one cone for myself. Never mind!

This just needs two buttons, and was finished on Dec 31st.

Completed Projects 2011

2011-12-31T23:30:00.000Z

Mohair jumper

Lambswool dress (made on fine gauge)

Red gloves

Hair scrunchie

Shrug

Cowl

Beret

Socks for G

Dishcloth

Bath mitt

Felted slippers

Fingerless gloves for G

Pink jumper

Orange cardigan

Doll outfit

Green and pink cardigan

Charity tee in progress

Frou-frou scarf

Baby vest

Baby cardigan

Baby cardigan

Dream week cardigan

Intarsia waistcoat

Lilly wrap

Dream week shrug

Rebecca cardigan

Charity tee tops

Lilly wrap

Blue v-neck top in marble chunky

Dishcloths

Brown jumper for G

Blue garter carriage cowk

All in one shrug, blue lurex

All in one shrug, blue artistic plus lurex

Charity tee tops

Hats

Dalek scarf

Fingerless gloves

Lilac scarf

More fingerless gloves

Socks for G

Passap socks for me

More fingerless gloves (for me this time!)

Black shrug for me

Blue cotton jumper

Fishermans rib scarf

Another charity tee

Imperia CSM needle

2011-12-29T10:32:00.001Z

csm
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Posting this for Dyuknitsu - the CSM needle is against the ruler, and a Passap needle is shown above for comparison.

FO: black shrug

2011-12-29T10:30:00.001Z

black shrug
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Belated pic of the black shrug which is made from a Bill King pattern. One end of a 4ply acrylic and one end of a fine black and silver lurex. Made on the Brother 950i.

FO: fingerless gloves in mini mochi

2011-12-29T10:29:00.001Z

gloves_multi
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This yarn is an unplied single and feels lovely but shrinks in the wash. Owing to the long colour repeats, these gloves are fraternal. Made on the Brother 950i.

FO: purpley socks

2011-12-29T10:28:00.001Z

purpley socks
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

These were made on the passap. The first sock was made at a demonstration at the Passap club. I did the 2x2 rib by hand. Then I lost the yarn for a while so couldn't make the other one. Luckily (?) I had a minor accident with the Passap colour changer (knocked a bobbin holder off and lost two tiny springs), and whilst looking for the parts, discovered the yarn hiding under the machine! :)

FO: black socks

2011-12-29T10:25:00.001Z

black socks
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Made the first sock on xmas eve and the other one I finished yesterday. Made from Danish hjerte sock yarn, which is very nice!

FO: lilac scarf

2011-12-29T10:24:00.001Z

lilac scarf
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Finished this a few weeks back but couldn't post it because it was a secret santa gift. This is just a straight piece of fisherman's rib, which adds thickness and loftiness to the DK yarn.

FO: black gloves

2011-12-29T10:23:00.001Z

black gloves
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

These were knitted for my brother-in-law. Yes, black is a nightmare to cast off and sew up, even with a daylight lamp!

Change my picture

2011-12-23T16:31:00.000Z

Well, it's been a busy week. Work has been really busy, and when that happens (and it's a GOOD thing) I get rather behind with the websites and blogs etc that I follow online. I don't get much chance to be online at home, it's almost rather a luxury when the housework is constantly calling me!

The Cog and I had a short weekend break to Copenhagen. It was rather cold (0-2 degrees) when the wind blew, but no snow. Food was 50% more expensive and alcohol 100% more expensive, luckily it was only a two day break, because my bank account was in the negative by the time we got back. We walked lots (they have the longest pedestrianised shopping street, Stroget) and visited the Tivoli christmas market, which is kind of a giant christmas theme park really. Picked up a traditional "angel wheel" - not sure what else to call it - it's a small propeller suspended over candles, and there are cherubs that revolve and strike bells. I put it up the other night and just popped it over the gas fire - no need for candles. It's a traditional Scandinavian thing I think, though I have seen small ones (that use a tealight) on the Brum xmas markets. We also popped to Malmo on the Sunday - Sweden and Denmark are connected by a railway line that runs below Copenhagen airport and the line then ascends up through the sea and becomes a bridge. It was a bit wet that day but we met an old friend of Greg's and we tried moose burgers. I suspect Sweden is even more expensive than Denmark but I was blissfully unaware of the exchange rate - only way to relax, haha! We didn't get to visit many attractions in Copenhagen, unfortunately - we tried to visit the church with the spiral spire on Saturday but it was closed because of a wedding, and when we headed to the Botanical gardens we discovered that Monday was the one day they shut. Pah!

I did pick up two skeins of some plain black Danish sock wool. Unfortunately, it was on our last day, so I didn't want to have to withdraw more cash, and the shop owner had a minimum on the VISA machine, so I had to put the dusky pink yarn I'd chosen for myself back. She had scads of Noro, Annie Blatt (?), angoras and merinos etc - and I'm sure I spotted the surprise jacket in the front window too. A proper yarn shop, and I didn't go mad. The Cog was checking my temperature afterwards, I think I shocked him with my abstinance.

Finished up another quick xmas knit present last night - only a little something - I'm not daft enough to start a major item three days before xmas. Photos when they've been gifted and when I can remember to actually bring my camera with me. Was kicking myself for making them in black, though - nightmare to cast off and sew up even WITH a daylight lamp.

So, what else? Ummm.... had two xmas meals to go to, the works one in a local pub was great but the staff got confused and I didn't get to eat the thing I'd ordered (salmon risotto) because they then brought out fish of the day (also salmon) and they thought it was mine. The Knitwits visit to Pizza Express was ok but I reckon the serving staff forgot about us because we didn't leave until almost 10 o'clock (and had to pay in the carpark - must be a time limit to the free xmas parking thing!). I've just won a pussycat money box in the works raffle - it looks kinda cute and Japanese and the cat apparently swipes your money (as long as you put some batteries in). Got two more things to wrap, and then got a big pile of ironing and some house-cleaning to do. But all in all, no last minute panic. The supermarket was rammed this morning at about 7.15am so a lot of people haven't planned at all it seems! :)

Merry christmas and happy holidays to all my readers, and here's to a peaceful, knitty, New Year!

Lesson learned

2011-12-13T08:11:00.000Z

So I went to bed rather cross on Sunday night, thinking I was going to have to frog rather a lot of fluffy, sticky yarn. Checked the measurements last night and all was well, the only mistake I'd made was to put the armhole markers too high on the back, hence it looking as if I'd gone wrong. The Cog chuckled and looked at me bemusedly - "A lot of your knitting seems to go wrong. Isn't it time you got better at this?" Cheeky git! So the fluffy cable-y jumper is all sewn up. I think I need to put a stitch into the collar to keep it down at the front, it seems to want to flip up like a funnel, that is not the look I was going for.

Started another "All in one" shrug (Bill King, MKM June I think), this time in black and silver lurex. Didn't get to finish as himself dragged me down the gym, and then it was bedtime.

The lesson learned? Sewing things up at 10pm at night is never good, and will lead you possibly to do something disastrous and unnecessary.

FO: Fingerless gloves

2011-12-12T08:24:00.001Z

2011-12-12 06.56.15
Originally uploaded by steel breeze
These came out a bit big, might make a smaller pair.

FO: Dalek scarf

2011-12-12T08:24:00.000Z

2011-12-12 06.56.55
Originally uploaded by steel breeze
Hand-selected the needles on my 950i to produce this. Apols for the poor picture quality, it's the best my mobile phone can manage in low light.

Meh

2011-12-12T08:09:00.001Z

Spent weeks knitting up a fluffy jumper, and two evenings knitting 15cm of 2x2 rib on the collar. Only to find out that somehow, the back is 2" longer than the front.

Now, I either unpick the neck and fix it, or I sew it up with the shoulder seam not on the shoulder...

Yup, the word I'm looking for is meh.

Now we're cooking...

2011-12-09T12:37:00.001Z

Finally, my SK860 is fully functional (does happy dance). I mentioned before that G spotted the back rail wasn't square to the rest of the machine. It was only 2mm further back on the left hand side, but that was enough for the carriage to be unable to sense the magnets in that area - so it really was a "blind spot". Seems to me the QC department at Silver in Japan need a kick up the bum for letting that one go! Just my luck to get the Friday afternoon machine... Andeeknits has been very helpful and her hubby has been acting as courier so I haven't had to trek down the M5 again, which is good, as I'm running out of time this year for such long jaunts!

The gloves for G's dad are now done, and have been modelled by a work colleague as to their fit. Haven't got around to taking their photo yet. I'm onto the second sleeve of the fluffy jumper - I think it's highly unlikely it'll be finished by next Friday though, unless I can somehow spend all weekend knitting whilst also finishing up the xmas shopping. Lost an hour of knitting time on Wednesday because I forgot to take the pattern with me to knitting club so had to stop. Duh!

Not speaking Japanese

2011-12-06T16:31:00.001Z

Well, I've been somewhat restricted from machine knitting this weekend, because an installation guy came to fit an aerial socket first thing Monday morning, so I had to move machines about to clear the corner, thus making two of them unusable. It's all back to normal now and Santa is bringing me a small freeview tv - the Cog'll never see me soon, haha! It was strange and slightly amusing that although there wasn't anything I actually wanted to machine-knit right then, the fact that I couldn't made me slightly twitchy. Like being told you can't have chocolate, and there's some in the kitchen, I suppose.

My Passap E6000 cable arrived yesterday, fully repaired, so last night I got it back onto the machine and the console is no longer complaining about mystery microbes or other mythical "dirt". I had a quick go at a tuck sample, but the leftmost needle was playing up and wouldn't knit off (possibly operator error) so I had to give up after about 2 inches. I also decided to have a play with the mylar patterning function of the Brother KH950i - it knits preprogrammed fairisle beautifully, but refused to produce the snowflake pattern I tried to input, although it did appear to read it in ok. It would only knit a column of dots and produce massive floats. I have heard that the mylar sheet reader can be cantankerous, and as I have a PPD I'm not too worried if it doesn't work, but it would have been nice to get it working as it's the quickest way to get data into the machine. Hence the post title - I find the manual a little dense, it seems to jump about a bit in this area. A simple flow diagram instead of pages of dense diagrams would help no end.

The Cog's dad fancied the fingerless gloves the Cog was wearing on Saturday, so I've had an order to make some for Christmas. I think the Cog's must have been the smaller size, because this pair seem quite a bit bigger. Oh well, I shall sew them up and see what he thinks. They are from a pattern published in the Guild newsletter a while ago, designed by our Chairman, and they are very quick and easy to do, so it's no great hassle to make up a pair in the smaller size and see which ones he prefers. I suspect they might stretch a little so smaller is probably better.

Google managed to mess up my diary when it was imported from my old Palm PDA, so I didn't realise until yesterday that I was attending a rock concert whilst simultaneously attending the Passap meeting over in Dudley. This will be a problem for any dated-but-untimed event I booked before I got the new mobile 'phone in September - like birthdays. But at least I'll be a day early - better that than a day late I suppose!

On the handknitting front, I am now onto the sleeve of the fluffy jumper. They seem to be three-quarter length sleeves, with very little shaping, so shouldn't take too long. Mentally aiming to have this jumper ready for a trip I'm making before xmas, but not sure it will actually be finished in time.

I also seem to have face-ache today, my right upper wisdom tooth is having some sort of growth spurt. I wish it'd leave my face and ear alone! Made serious inroads to the xmas shopping this weekend, and hoping to complete most of the rest of it on Sunday. The sooner it's done, the sooner I can relax.

Time

2011-12-02T16:33:00.001Z

Well, some good news on the electronic front - it looks as if pin 5 on my passap curly cord was dodgy, so the repaired cord should be on its way home soon. I do think Passap ought to have made the cord just a bit longer so as not to cause this fault, but there you go! I also managed to pick up another cord on Ebay so now I have a spare - always worth having I think.

The fluffy jumper is continuing slowly - haven't had much time to handknit lately. The first two balls of yarn (it stripes in three colours!) are striping in one direction, and then the next two are striping the other way. Now, I'm not completely anal about self-striping yarn normally - but something as obvious as that has meant some ripping out to correct it. I don't want it to look any more amateur than it has to. Quite surprised that something mass-produced is not standardized, actually.

The other half has responded to my suggestion of a freeview box in the knitting room and there's a Freesat engineer round right now messing about with the house. The Cog wants it because he wants a HD feed to the living room. I guess this means I need to tidy up in the knitting room because he'll be back at some point to put some cables in for me. It will be nice to be able to watch tv in there; currently I either listen to CDs or Classic FM as Kerrang and Absolute radio have very poor reception for some reason.

Manor House was fun last night, and a further five people signed up for the MKKI event so there aren't many free places left. Who says machine knitting is dead?!

FO: Brown sweater for G

2011-12-02T12:53:00.000Z

100_2331
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Ably modelled by its new owner. G says he thinks the neck is a little gapey, so next time i will double the depth of the rib I think.

Machine Knitter's Knit-In day in 2012

2011-11-30T16:30:00.000Z

I am organising a Machine Knitter's Knit-In day in 2012. The details
are as follows:

Saturday, May 5th, 2012 in the Coventry Artspace, 16 Lower Holyhead
Rd, Coventry, 10-4pm. More details here - this is the mysterious extra tab at the top of the blog.

The basic idea is that I will bring all my knitting machines and
attendees will have the chance to play on a machine they've perhaps
only ever seen online (or in a shop). There will be some optional
demos done throughout the day by other attendees. Attendees are
welcome to bring their own machine and table and just knit amongst
like-minded people. I'm hoping it will be a lot of fun! I'm also
hoping that if someone has a useful technique they might feel they can
share it.

Cost will be £10 per person, I will be sending out payment information
in January. Places are limited to 20.

Please email me privately at the address opposite if you wish to attend.

Machine knitting as performance art

2011-11-30T07:46:00.000Z

This was shared on FB and on Ravelry and I thought I'd share it. Blisters and back-breaking work - now, who said machine knitting was cheating again?

An Army of Knitters

Harrogate show

2011-11-29T12:31:00.000Z

This was my haul from the Harrogate show - six skeins of Texere Olympia that looks exactly like Rowan Colourscape but was only £20 for 3 skeins - I can see knots, mind you, but it feels lovely. I also picked up their catalogue which is a real treat. I'm hoping we can talk the rest of the Manor House group into taking a trip to Texere soon - I think it would probably do some serious damage to our bank balances though.

I also picked up two of those "magic clip" hair things (two combs attached with fancy beads etc). However I don't think they're anywhere near as good as the African Butterfly one I picked up at Ally Pally last year, because I can't get them to stay in my hair - a cheap knock off I reckon. Oh well, never mind!

Harrogate was fantastic - I went around with a lady called Olga who only has the one knitting machine. Every time we thought we'd seen everything, there was another hall of things to see. There was one hall that had a "Bayeux tapestry" - except this was of the battle of Prestonpans - ranged up both sides. Marvellous amount of work.

FO: Cowl

2011-11-28T07:42:00.000Z

100_2329
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is Kriskrafter's pattern. More details and a link on Ravelry. Made on the Brother KH950i with the KG93 garter carriage. Uppinghams baby acrylic 4ply, T7.

FO: Brown v-neck jumper for the Cog

2011-11-25T20:00:00.000Z

Finished this on 20th November - hope it fits him!

The perils of electonics...

2011-11-25T08:28:00.001Z

Finally established that my Passap E6000 has a damaged curly cord last night. I borrowed a continuity tester from work, and could only get a positive signal from the central pin (it's a 6 pin DIN), and then I also plugged the console directly into the lock and hey presto! It works perfectly. It's just a pity you can't set it up like that and then plug it back in - once it's set up it seems to work perfectly. Unfortunately, it also detects "unpluggedness" - those Swiss engineers thought of everything - so it probably wouldn't work (and anyway it's very tricky to hold both locks and console).

The machine is pristine now so have ruled out everything else. Luckily Yarnmonger on Ravelry reminded me that Richard Croucher can fix these things (and he's in the UK) - otherwise a new cable is $299 CAD plus postage and import duty. Ouch!

On the plus side, my KG93 garter carriage has chugged away happily for 470 odd rows and nary a dropped stitch. There are some errors on the right hand side because I put the turnaround cam a little too far in and the pattern hasn't quite reset in a few places, but it's hardly noticeable. I'm hoping I'll have time to finish it off tonight.

Garter carriage in action

2011-11-24T12:59:00.000Z

gc_in_action
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

I also videoed this but it's not a very exciting video. This is what is currently beavering away on my Brother 950i.

Still no further forward with the Passap E6000 (well, I managed to change the program, but not to get past error 200). I'm taking the hoover to it tonight, and then also checking the cable to see if it is damaged.

The saga continues...

2011-11-23T08:30:00.000Z

Got my repaired SK860 carriage back on Tuesday. Was very excited to try it out. Guess what? Same problem still - put a cam between approx. 28L and 73L and it disappears. Then himself spotted something - the back rail (on which the cams slide) is 2mm further back into the machine at the left hand end, meaning the cam is also 2mm further away from the back of the carriage. Could this be why it can't "see" it?

It's gone back down south for inspection and testing. And possibly a few incantations whilst waving a rubber chicken. Sigh.

Put away my SK840 combo last night and got the Brother 950i and the garter carriage out and deliberately did NOT get the ribber out - this will force me to use the Passap for ribbing. Started a cowl a la Kriskrafter. Can't get past error 200 on the Passap. Grrr.

FO: sparkly shrugs

2011-11-22T12:31:00.000Z

Blue shrug with lurex thread - knit side

Blue shrug with lurex thread - purl side

Blue lurex shrug

As always, click through for a bigger picture.

Back on the horse

2011-11-21T16:31:00.000Z

Well, from a week or two of feeling as if I'm drifting aimlessly, to finishing three projects (almost) within one day. Actually, the parts for one of the project were all finished on Saturday, Sunday was mostly sewing up by hand.

I also made two shrugs (from the Bill King "All in One" pattern that appeared in MKM June 2011). The plan had been to make some sort of sparkly shrug - the kind of thing you wear over an evening dress - as I attended a works dinner last week and realised I really didn't have anything suitable to wear over my rather summery dress.

The first shrug was made with one end of Bramwell Artistic, and one end of a black/silver lurex thread. I think there should be another 2 rows added at the start of the pattern, because the collar looks a bit uneven to me. I discovered the perils of not using a yarn twister, when I was already half way through - I got a lovely sparkly shrug, but it's sparkly on the WRONG side. Oh well, at least it's reversible.

The second shrug was made with a leftover cone of lurex, already plied. Not the easiest thing to knit with as it's quite stiff. As the yarn was thinner, the shrug came out a little smaller.

I still have more of the black and silver lurex, I am wondering whether a little black shrug might be just the thing.

Photos when I have some.

Normality, somewhat...

2011-11-17T16:30:00.001Z

Still plugging away on the fluffy handknit, and have started a project for himself. Got my own car back today, gearbox feels really weird - it's lovely and shiny and clean though, and it looks like they did a good job.

Winter nights

2011-11-10T16:31:00.002Z

There's not been much knitting to blog about, but only because I've been busy sorting out the car and various other things. I've just started a new website for the Manor House machine knitters (www.manorhousemk.org.uk) so that has kept me busy. I've not had the time nor the inclination to do much knitting, but I feel sure my mojo will be back soon.

FO: charity tee

2011-11-08T16:32:00.000Z

...and I've STILL got more of this yarn left! :)

Very little progress since my car accident last week. Still waiting for my insurance company to get their butts into gear and sort out the hire car. Gawd knows how I'd cope if the car was undrivable. Not very impressed with thei snail-like speed, really.

Finished objects

2011-11-04T12:31:00.002Z

Life's been a bit manic lately with lots of social/knitty things on in the evenings. Couple that with my car getting bumped on Wednesday night, and things have been pretty fraught round here!

Charity tee made on tuesday at a workshop with Manor House Machine knitters

Reversible charity hat made same day

V-neck cardigan

Hat for me

Hat for child

My current handknitting - it's a jumper with a scoop neck

Written vs diagram patterns

2011-10-31T16:31:00.001Z

It seems a curious aspect to British knitting (and crochet) patterns that they are nearly always written out long-hand. I once spent a year working on a Debbie Bliss pattern (her patchwork cable cardigan, which was a selection of four different cable patterns in various positions) – and the first thing I did was to chart out the cables. Bearing in mind, the simplest cable was a 4 row repeat, and the most complex one was 16 or 20 rows. I don’t quite understand why British publishers have such an aversion to using a method that is (a) universal, regardless of language and (b) takes up much less space. The same goes for complex lace patterns – a chart is so much easier to follow.

I much prefer American crochet patterns where diagrams are used – T for a UK half treble, T with a slashed trunk for a UK treble etc. It means I can forget mentally converting from US to English crochet terms in my head and just get on with it.

It also helps no end to have a dimensioned diagram of the finished item. Machine knitting patterns always have dimensioned diagrams, so that those of us with a knitleader can use the same pattern with a different yarn (or even a different machine). Rowan patterns usually have a basic schematic – it’s useful to have something to refer to when blocking the garment to size.

Two favourite machine knitting publications (both now defunct) used pattern diagrams as the main means of communicating a pattern. I’m referring to Modern Machine Knitting and the Passap model books. In both cases, I imagine it was partly to save space, and partly so that the publications could be communicated to a wider audience, not all of whom would be native English speakers.

The first thing I do, having calculated a new pattern in Knitware? I sketch the pattern out as a schematic, and transfer the shaping details to it. Takes up a lot less space and is much easier to follow, especially if you get interrupted part way through. MMK had a similar schematic - except on the right, they'd put row and stitch measurements, and on the left, measurements in cm. So you had the best of both worlds on the same diagram.

This was my design for a waterfall cardigan. As discussed in the previous post, I didn't think the front was very successful so it got frogged. This is the kind of thing I draw up to work from. I guess I'm just a visual person. I also add row counts after each batch of decreasing/increasing - it's useful to have a check figure.

Assembly diagrams are also a good idea - the Rebecca cardigan being a case in point. It took me much longer to sew it up (aprox. six hours) than it actually did to knit it!

What do you prefer - written instructions, or a diagram pattern?

Productive weekend

2011-10-31T12:31:00.001Z

Well, I had grand plans to make one of those waterfall tops with the leftover Marble chunky, but although I calculated a pattern using Knitware (based on a round-necked jumper but with wrap-over fronts), I only knitted the back and one front before deciding I just didn't like it. Although I'd done the open edge of the front as six stitches of 1x1 rib, it still curled, and I don't think it would have hung properly. I'm not sure a chunky yarn - well, this is an aran weight - is ideal for something like this, and I think the front would probably benefit from being a 2x2 rib, which means it would need to be recalculated anyway. So it got frogged.

Instead, it became a child's v-neck cardigan (calculated in Knitware), an adult hat and a child's hat, and another charity tee jumper - and I've still got more of the stuff left! It goes a long, long way, this yarn, and is very good value for money. With both hats I substituted the hem (or lack of one) for ribbing. I never find hems sit that well (although I MUST try Erica Thomson's technique of picking up every other stitch over two rows), and the rolled brim look just makes me think of condoms - yes, I have a dirty mind, apparently.

Pictures of projects will be posted when I have actually taken some, haha.

There's probably at least enough of this yarn for another child's hat I think. I've also got almost two balls left of the lilac DK to do something with this week.

FO: Another charity tee

2011-10-24T12:32:00.000+01:00

100_2288
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Very pretty loopy yarn picked up at a show years ago, completely evil to knit with. It has tucked slightly, hence the rather cropped length. The remainder is going in the destash bag - never again!

FO: Rebecca

2011-10-24T12:31:00.002+01:00

100_2290
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Fairly easy to knit, complete nightmare to sew up - took three attempts to get the sleeves in correctly. I think a diagram might have helped the pattern no end. The words made no sense so I sewed it up to look like the photograph. It's very warm and smooshy, and it needs a button adding.

Scrumptious

2011-10-19T12:39:00.000+01:00

Well, I had a fantastic (if busy) day at the annual Long Buckby Knit and Natter day. I was supposed to be teaching chain-free (aka foundation) crochet, but the tunisian lady, already advertised. couldn't come, so I ended up with that as well. When I got there, there were two massive tables pushed together, far more than I could reasonably shout across. I spent a very hectic morning teaching Tunisian, foundation and ordinary crochet, sometimes at the same time. People were still coming up to me at 12:30, by which time I was packing up. Methinks there's a great need for crochet classes in the Midlands. Maybe something I should think about, although I would only rate my own skills as intermediate. After lunch we had a fascinating talk by Iris Bishop. Although I had heard/seen some of it before, she always makes it inspiring. She seems to be going in for glitter and sparkles lately, should we worry?! :D

Accidentally (yeah, who am I kidding?) I managed to snatch ten minutes to buy 7 balls of James C Brett Marble DK in lilacs from the Uppingham's stand, and had planned to buy two balls of Zauberball sock yarn, but had used up most of my cash so had to put one ball back. I've already started using the Marble DK, I bought it specifically for the Karabee Design's "Rebecca" cardigan pattern that I bought at Dream Week. It's a cardigan made up of a long strip of fisherman's rib which is draped in a way I haven't quite figured out yet, with fringing (which I might leave off). It has a kind of shawl collar.

It took me three attempts to get the rib started correctly - it's not easy picking up dropped stitches in Fisherman's rib, and the drapey part has a pointed edge. I love the feel of the fisherman's rib though - I've never made a garment with it. It feels scrumptious and makes the yarn feel more airy/fluffier than it really is. It is knitted at T5/5 on the Brother KH260 - I would normally knit DK yarn at T4, but that's just my personal preference. Knitted the main body last night - himself has a cold and isn't feeling up the gym so it became a good excuse to duck into my knitting nest. Just got the sleeves to knit - they are fairly straightforward. I also started to get the dreaded static - this seems more of a problem in the winter, despite our heating not yet being on. Decided to follow my own advice for once and RTFM - and the manuals suggest a lot more places to oil than I've ever bothered with. Made heaps of difference! Waxing and spraying the yarn with water/silicon didn't seem to help that much. I have one of those Ballistol oil pens from Metropolitan and they are really easy to use.

When this is done I need to use up the rest of the blue Marble chunky - I have a plan, based on a Knitware pattern. We shall see!

Some FOs

2011-10-17T08:25:00.000+01:00

Lilly wrap for a charity shop:

I was without a ribber whilst making this - Thomas the cat having used my ribber carriage as a trampoline - so the hems are latched for about 5 rows. Didn't get time to wash/press. I know ribbed welts are considered somewhat passe, but at least they stop the curl!

Charity tee top made on an LK150:

Made this on Heritage weekend in September, only just got around to finishing it. There's another half somewhere but I am out of DK at the moment and the mid-gauge has been taken down.

Charity tee top made on my KH60:

This is a skein of very pretty blue boucle yarn that I bought as a four pack ages ago (the other skeins were all different). I had planned to use it for myself, but there was not enough for much more than a hat. This used most of the ball - someone else can benefit from my impulsiveness.

The charity tee top patterns are based on the Guideposts knit for kids pattern and they are linked on my Free patterns page.

FO: Blue v-neck jumper in marble chunky

2011-10-14T12:52:00.000+01:00

100_2263
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This was made on my Brother KH260. Love love love the colours!

Calculation breakdown

2011-10-11T12:30:00.000+01:00

I've almost finished knitting a short-sleeved v-neck sweater in the beautiful blue Marble Chunky I picked up at DW 2011. I used a preset size in Knitware, and I weighed my swatch, in order to calculate whether or not I had enough yarn (I only have 500g). Well, I've only one sleeve left to knit, and yet I've 200g left over. Not sure now whether to carry on with the design, bearing in mind I've done the front/back and v-neck ribbing, or whether to rip it out and start again. Not sure how come the weight calculation was so off - by my calculations, I should only have had enough for three quarter length sleeves. Knitware is usually spot on when it comes to calculating yardage, so not sure where I went wrong. I've only one more sleeve to knit, and it is only 34 rows in total.

Looking at what is left, I could have long sleeves and still have enough for a matching scarf and hat. Decisions, decisions. The yarn is plied from two colours which are variegated - so there is indigo, green and purple in amongst the blue, which is a sea blue itself. Being variegated means I am less keen to re-knit it too often as yarn changes will be obvious.

I tend to get quite hot when wearing jumpers (especially long-sleeved ones in acrylic) so perhaps I'll leave as is - it's more likely to get worn with short sleeves. The irony is that the winters here are usually mild enough that jumpers are rarely worn - doesn't stop me knitting them, of course, but it does mean that the local charity shops often benefit from my work. I knit them for the fun of the process but do not always like the end results. I do have another 1000g of this yarn in a pastel colourway - most of it is currently a crocheted top which is far too warm to wear, so needs unpicking. I'm thinking (seeing as I still have the tension details for it) that perhaps that can become some kind of waterfall cardigan, because there is more yarn to play with.

Of course, the last two winters have been very cold and the cold weather went on 'til May this year (at least, that is when it warmed up enough for us to turn the heating off at home) so perhaps the trend is for cold winters for now. An excuse to dig out and wear my jumpers at last! Cold is relative, of course - I'm sure my friend in Finland will think our winter temperatures pretty balmy. Last winter's record for us was minus 7 centigrade, I think.

The Dream Week cardigan is in a kind of limbo at the moment - when it is washed, the ribbon part pulls up - so it's like one of those ruffle blinds that were all the rage in the 80s. Luckily it's not permanent shrinkage, but I'm thinking I might need to do some more tacking down with the sewing machine. Or never wash the thing. One or the other! It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Oh well, never mind!

I've plans to start swatching with some lovely Peaches 'n cream worsted cottons, too. I've made a few nice things with the cotton - a top for my niece, a peg bag, a shopping bag or two, but not gotten around to making anything nice for myself with it. It seems to go quite a long way so hopefully there'll be enough to cover my ample curves. I'm trying to get my stash down a bit. Yes, I've said that before. Ironically, I still don't seem to have the exact yarn thickness or colour when I want it. Funny, that!

The Amazing Passap Neck

2011-10-06T16:31:00.002+01:00

Went to our third Passap meeting last night. The theme was how to do the famous "Passap" neck. I've seen it described in print a few times, but never quite understood how it worked. Being a doofus I don't seem to have brought the beautiful sample home with me in order to photograph it (which means I shall have to have another go at it).

The principle is as follows:

1. Hold the neckline (or edge to apply band to) against the machine and estimate the number of needles required when it is slightly stretched.
2. Put that number of needles into work on both beds (or set up for whatever rib you require - we did FNR or K/K).
3. Cast on and knit the band rows (we knitted 20). *
4. Knit 3 (or an odd number) enclosing rows on the back bed only, ie N/GX
5. Knit the same amount of enclosing rows on the front bed only, ie GX/N
6. Place the item requiring the band, right side uppermost, with the neckline along the needle bed and the rest of the garment draped down the back of the machine
7. Using the single-eye transfer tool, pull each back bed needle through the garment piece JUST ENOUGH to clear the latch
8. Rack the machine slightly so that the front bed needles are almost opposite the back bed needles
9. Using the double-ended bodkin, place each front bed needle onto the corresponding back bed needle, and pull the needle fully out this time.
10. Fiddly bit: Draw lots of yarn through the feeder and anchor it somewhere to stop it springing back.
11. Working from one end, lay this yarn into each latch hook and close the latch on it (pull the back bed needles downwards to just close latch).
12. When done, the yarn should slide freely along the length of the knitting. Hang the right hand end over the racking handle so it can slide freely
13. Using a spacer (someone brought a spacer that was a 13mm wide strip of plastic), and working from the left hand end, knit each back bed needle back so as to hit the spacer.
14. This now encloses the garment edge between the rows knitted in (4) and (5).
15. You can now open the beds and drop the garment down between them
16. Cast off loosely.

*If you've done a needle out rib eg 1x1 now is a good time to bring those empty needles into work and knit two extra rows FNR or K/K

You can change the amount of rows used in 4 and 5, as long as it is an odd number. P recommended 5 rows for a cut and sew edge, and 3 for a shaped edge. The finished result is very neat and the cast off edge is on the inside of the garment.

This kind of band is very useful for cut and sew garments, which is especially good for Passap machines as there is no holding position as such (just slip) and for complex double-bed patterns, slipping stitches is awkward, slow and prone to error. Far quicker to knit two backs and deal with the neck later. You can also use this to edge other things e.g. P had done one of Norman Whitfield's pillowghans (a pillow stuffed with a baby blanket that is attached to it). She also brought some lovely tops and some handknitted dresses where she'd applied a scalloped edge with this method.

There is no reason you couldn't do this on a Japanese machine, either. It's time-consuming and a bit fiddly, but the result is worth it.

I had a lovely meeting and now I can see what the books are talking about. After that, we had refreshments and got to have a look through a lot of Passap-specific books and patterns that someone had donated. I finally got a copy of Passap Model book 3, can you believe it? Been on the lookout for that one for forever.

Nightmare drive back home, though - they'd decided to close the M5 at junction 1 (and I'm not sure where the diversion was supposed to go, but I didn't fancy an extra 20 miles in the wrong direction) so I drove through Handsworth and got back on the motorway at Spaghetti. Then we came to a complete stop (both sides of the M6) at J2 for pedestrians (!) on the carriageway - I should point out it was dark and raining. Nothing to see when we got going again, no idea what that was all about. Took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get home - himself was trying to decide if he'd time for another beer as I was picking him and his brother up from a German night at the pub, and had texted me whilst I was driving - duh, not checking texts whilst I drive 'cause 9 times out of 10 it's Facebook! I had my hands-free kit on, but there's no way I'm checking texts at 70mph on a dark and wet motorway.

Not getting much machine knitting done at the moment, because I'd need to actually be at home for that - I did find a bit of time to get my Brother KH260 chunky set up and pack the midgauge away, but that's as far as I got on Sunday. I have a bit of time Saturday afternoon I hope. Tonight I'm planning on going to the Manor House machine knitter's meeting in Leicester.

Happy days are here again....

2011-09-29T12:47:00.001+01:00

The reseller (Andrea of Andeeknits) has loaned me her ex-demo PC10 - and it arrived yesterday (I do love new gadgets! Shiny shiny!). And the fault remains - any stitch cam between L72 and L28 becomes invisible - so it is the carriage at fault, as I suspected. I'm glad I kept on with this because I'm not ready to pension off my EC1/PE1 whilst they still work, despite Silver's lack of interest/support in their old kit. Their response was very disappointing considering this knitting machine is the most expensive thing I own, after my car!

I'll be posting my carriage down to her again in the next few weeks (it will take a while for the part to arrive I suspect). The good thing is I can now pack the durned thing away and get on with some chunky knitting I've been eyeing up. I did try the yarn in question (worsted Peaches n crème cotton, bought in a mad fit of passion right before Spinrite bought them out) on the midgauge and practically broke my hand, in fact I gained a lovely bruise as that was the first yarn I foolishly tried to cast on with on this machine. Technically it OUGHT to work - it's a DK thickness - but in actuality it just doesn't have enough stretch. I've knitted various things (peg bag, jumpers) with it on the KH260 so I know that beast can take it. Also I picked up five balls of James C Brett Marble chunky at the Dream Week - and although the midgauge knits it just fine, it is at the top end of its range really.

So I'm rather chuffed - we finally have a conclusion. It's been doing my head in now for a few weeks. I cannot praise Andeeknits enough - she has listened to my woes on the 'phone and in person, and has trusted me with some kit which I haven't yet paid for. Having played with it, I might now buy - it has the standard cards built in, which I didn't know. Yeah, touching stuff is fatal when it comes to yarn and gadgets - fatal to my credit card, that is.

The PC10 is a rather poorly-thought out replacement for the EC1/PE1 combination. If Silver had thought to ask machine knitters what they actually wanted, or if perhaps their machine knitting division had the heady budgets of yesteryear - we might reasonably have expected a USB connector for DAK, or WinCrea, or some other computerized patterning. We might have expected a connection from the old EC1, because feeding 20 odd cards in for a 200st wide design is still far quicker than drawing white and black dots on a dinky strip of a screen. We might have reasonably expected the ability to read stitch patterns directly from a USB stick, and the ability to accept modern memory cards (CD? SD? MicroSD?), instead of the rather outdated and highly specific card it WILL read, which is not even compatible with the card that the PE1 uses - that was another mistake! You could have feasibly thought that you could design your pattern on an EC1 reader sheet, saved it to the memory card on the PE1 and then be able to use that pattern on the PC10 elsewhere - but apparently not!

Apparently the PC10 is being discontinued - presumably it didn't sell. Ooh, I WONDER why not?! (yes, that was sarcasm). If they'd thought it through better and put a little more effort into the design, things might have gone a different way. As it is, Silver sell expensive electronic knitting machines that cannot pattern without further expense - and they no longer sell anything that does the patterning. Go figure.

It's sad, because the short-sightedness of the one manufacturer still in business, doesn't help promote a hobby that has already gone "underground" (online) to keep itself going.

Ok, rant over - it's too sunny outside to be cross. Things are looking up in my knitting room, and that's good enough for me today.

Only slightly excited...

2011-09-27T16:35:00.001+01:00

I’m borrowing a PC10 patterning device from the seller, to prove (or disprove) once and for all, what is wrong with my SK860. I like playing with new toys but this has become a necessity – one way or another this little saga must come to an end, not least because I have lots of things I want to knit in my queue and the SK860 is now holding that up. If it works, I’ll buy the PC10 I guess - hadn’t planned on it so it will have to go on the credit card. If it demonstrates the same fault, then the carriage is definitely at fault and will need to be returned (possibly with the machine) for repair. So although I’m slightly excited to be playing with a new piece of kit, I’m going to have to wade through the manual first as to how to get a pattern into the blasted thing. I’m out both days this weekend so I’m hoping I’ll have the time to put it through its paces.

In other news, I’ve only had one bid on my Ebid auctions (and that for an Alan Dart handknitting pattern, which we all know is like knitter’s crack for some people). So I have had no choice but to list other things on that famous auction site – just because it seems to get the most exposure. Luckily these are mostly books and small machine knitting items so there shouldn’t be too much hassle with postage/things going wrong. It seems to be a necessary evil, alas. Trying to limit myself to about 20 auctions a week because that’s a lot of postage and packing to organise when one works full time.

Cameo is growing steadily (when I don’t mess up and have to frog a row). Frogged my one and only attempt at slip stitch crochet, and will probably frog the first Eve's rib tunic top I made with the rest of that yarn, as I doubt even I’LL ever wear something QUITE that loud. Bearing in mind that yarn was originally a cardigan, it's taking quite a while for me to work out what to do with it. Why, yes, I did buy it on a whim, how did you guess? Which is why "Ooh, pretty!" is never a good enough reason to buy any yarn. Even it it's made of rainbows, sparkles and unicorn poo. Ahem.

I am also part-way through machine-knitting another Lilly wrap top, and need to finish the first one - whether or not the second one gets finished in time for its intended recipient remains to be seen. Somebody will get some use out of it.

Weaving

2011-09-26T12:31:00.001+01:00

Only just got these photographs off G's camera - these were taken on Heritage weekend (Sept 11th), at the Weaver's house in Spon End, Coventry. The house was really interesting and you could see straight up to the roof (originally it would have had an open pit for a fire, the chimney breast was a later addition). I didn't have time to see much unfortunately. Better luck next year I guess.

Demonstrator at work on the portable folding loom - the IKEA stool was rather wobbly, the loom was better made!

Back of the weaver's house from the garden

These strips were woven by members of the public and then sewn together

Loom inside the house

In other news, have run some diagnostic tests on the SK860 using the PE1 and everything seems to check out. Have uploaded PE1 shots to Flickr - not sure how they are supposed to look, so it doesn't really help. Started another Lilly wrap on the SK840. Hoping to get my standard ribber working again soon.

Drawing assymetrical and oversize garments on a charting device

2011-09-23T12:36:00.001+01:00

These sketches were done as a result of a question by donnydl on the Ravelry group - thought they might be useful here for reference.

If you have a garment that is too wide you mirror the missing bit on the edge of the paper - "fold" the garment drawing in a definite place eg 60 so that the extra bit is easy to work out. Of course, make sure you have enough needles too! See picture below, the missing bit is hatched in the second picture.

If you are knitting an assymetrical garment and do not have a wide enough sheet, you can mirror that line about zero. This is a rough sketch of a ballet wrap top - the front neckline is in red, the sleeve is in blue:

Checkmate

2011-09-21T16:31:00.001+01:00

No responses so far regarding my borrowing some kit to help diagnose my midgauge problem. Although, it's early days yet (only posted my requests yesterday). I'm beginning to think it might be a faulty carriage because I now know of at least two others with the same fault. We shall see.

Am going to be listing more MK books and things for sale on Ebid this week. If that link doesn't work, my username on there is steelbreeze23. UK only sales at the moment, I might open them up if they don't sell first time around. No offence to anyone outside the UK intended, but the hassles I had with the last batch of auctions have put me right off. In most cases, the international postage cost will be higher than the actual auction value, which is a bit of a struggle for me financially at the moment as it comes out of my own money up front. Been an expensive month one way or another, and I owe himself £300 for a short break he's booked for us in December also!

Right, well I'm off for chinese before knitting night. Hurrah for noodles!

Argh - (accidentally) talking like a pirate

2011-09-20T12:27:00.002+01:00

So I went down to reunite my SK860 with its carriage. It performed beautifully. However, when I got it home, it started to play up again. Turns out if I put the left cam between 70L and 30L it "disappears" as far as the EC1 is concerned - so the pattern stops advancing. We only tried it out over 40 stitches, of course, so did not find the problem.

Hoping I can find someone local who can lend me something so that I can establish whether (a) the EC1 needs calibration or (b) it's actually the carriage at fault. If I recalibrate the EC1 I risk it not working with the SK840. Argh!

Alternatively I can just suck it up I guess and make sure I either knit items assymetrically (would cause problems with the long ribber comb) and/or make sure I travel to 70L whether I'm knitting that wide or not (can cause yarn take-up problems though).

In other news I made another Lilly wrap and a tuck lace scarf this weekend - both need some finishing. And the cameo vest re-crochet continues inexorably. Really need to get working on this stash!

Lost mojo and non-plussness

2011-09-14T16:32:00.001+01:00

After such a wonderful week at Metropolitan, you'd think I was raring to go, right? Well, I was. But rewinding some yarn I bought last week took forever (and I've still two balls to do), and I've discovered that Thomas the cat has been using my SRP60N as a springboard to get to the window, and he's damaged the left Rusell lever on the ribber carriage. It knits, but makes a rather scary zipping noise. Woe is me!

Got to reunite the rest of my midgauge with its carriage at the weekend, oh joy. Doesn't sound like it can be fixed - so I have a very expensive, plain knitting machine. Not happy - if I'd known that was what I was getting, I'd've stuck with the LK150 and not bothered upgrading. I understand the sellers are keen to talk us into buying new machines, but I can't see any incentive when they don't work as expected. Silver's patterning is separate, which means if it doesn't work, your machine doesn't pattern. If they hadn't, in their wisdom, withdrawn their punchcard midgauge, that is the machine I would have gone for.

Very glum. The only saving grace lately is that I treated myself to a new (second hand) mobile. Having a bit of a game trying to transfer all the useful Palm stuff I need onto it, though. It's going to take some time before I'm fully swapped; and in the meantime the old Palm Treo is showing its displeasure by discharging itself every day, and being completely flat when I want to use it for something. It had better battery performance when it had a SIM card and connected to the network - nonplussed!

FO: Dream Week simple shrug

2011-09-13T08:05:00.002+01:00

Anne Brown's simple shrug pattern wowed everyone last week - it's a simple strip of knitting, approx. 800 rows, steamed and sewn in a few places. I think these would make great Christmas presents too. I panicked a bit on the day - the class notes said not a natural yarn, Grigna would be great. I'd no idea what Grigna looked like - labels fall off cones in my house - so grabbed a cone of Uppinghams baby 4ply acrylic. As it turned out, it was perfect! After knitting I got to kill it, too, which is normally only done by mistake! :)

When worn this way up, you get a waterfall collar

When worn this way up, you get a rolled collar and a split back

Dream week competition highlights

2011-09-12T08:10:00.002+01:00

This is just some highlights of the competition garments. Ably modelled by Rachel, Tricia and Anne Brown. Bill King modelled a bow tie at the end, but my camera batteries ran out at that point so the only pics I have, had no flash. These were taken on the run in a room full of people, so apologies for the poor angles. The whole set is here

Second prize

Carol's waistcoat.

First prize (also a necklace which wasn't shown the first time)

First prize (non-wearable)

The teddy won second prize

Some Dream Week highlights - pics of Metropolitan

2011-09-12T08:03:00.004+01:00

Warning, rather photo-heavy post, although some of them don't seem to want to show.

Vintage hand flat machine - Bill King worked on this. You operate the large lever with one hand whilst pushing the carriage with the other. Looks like quite a work-out, but the machine isn't used much and would be smoother. The knitting it produces is very fine. One of these machines is manufactured by a company with the common spelling of my surname - a knitting ancestor perhaps?

The tearoom - purveyor of coffee, pavlova, and Bailey's cheesecake, to name but a few delights!

The shop and classroom - Anne Brown of Posh Frocks between classes

The "miscellaneous" yarn room - lots of single cones here.

Two views of the museum classroom. Pig sound effects extra for free! (the pigs live right outside this room) :)

Lots of literature in the corridor, plus odd doodads for your machines.

More yarn - the new stuff is Shamal and Metropolitan Crepe, there are two more small rooms of yarn via the door

Main corridor looking towards the entrance, coffee shop on the left (with photographs of garments worn that week in the window).

Big classroom - did my hands-on classes in here.

Bill King's masterclass in the museum.

Dream week swatches

2011-09-12T08:01:00.000+01:00

Iris Bishop class - knitting a square onto the reverse side. Location is marked on the material with needle-out columns and loose rows.

Iris Bishop class - basketweave ruching, using lace holes as markers. I only have a few ruches at the top (and Iris did two of them) because I ran out of time. Will repost when I've finished it!

Erica Thomson class - Rather poor swatch of tuck lace - went a bit wrong and didn't get time to steam it, but never mind.

Last day

2011-09-11T08:52:00.004+01:00

The last day we always have a surprise lecture - this year it was a slideshow of images from the Norwegian students. One of them travels 18 hours on various buses just to get to the college - with a ribber! They meet every seven weeks for a class of a week. I loved the fashion show where the models had mad space-age "wigs" made from neon dyed tights and polystyrene balls. Carol presented certificates to everyone who entered the competition, and I finished up with a coffee. Bill King did an impromptu demonstration of one of the vintage cast iron knitting machines, in the hallway outside the "museum" room.

Took mmryse back to the hotel as the coach wasn't leaving until 2pm and had some soup before getting on the road. It never fails to amaze me, the amount of drivers that sit in the middle lane of a motorway. Yes, even on the toll road, when there is almost nobody to overtake. Very sad!

Spent all day yesterday demonstrating the CSM and making charity jumpers on a borrowed LK150 at a Heritage open day near Warwick, which was a lot of fun - the weather stayed pretty good, too! Today I'm hoping to see a few Heritage sites myself.

Dream week, day 4 (Thursday)

2011-09-09T07:10:00.003+01:00

Today my first class was with Anne Brown of Posh Frocks. She gave us a sideways knitted skirt pattern, which has flares and short pleats that rise about 25cm into the fabric. She also showed us how to steam the skirt properly using wires. I was so inspired I got three cones of crepe and a pattern book - but what I really need is a decent steam iron with a reservoir.

Second class was also Anne Brown, a "surprise" lecture - this was for her fingerless gloves. I think she developed it from a Knitwords pattern that was rather complicated. Hers has a hand-manipulated lace edge and a pin tuck. The thumb was done by doing a little bit of short rowing in waste yarn and it is then knitted on later. This woman casts off with a latch tool very very fast - I need to learn that! She also uses the garter bar very confidently.

Last class was with Anne Smith of MKM - "Cunning Cables". She explained her foolproof cabling method and showed us lots of variations that can be achieved with no more than a double or triple transfer tool.

Got back to the hotel and started packing (I hate this bit!). The competition is judged on Thursday nights. The non-wearables were on an end table (there was a bikini! Ha!). After the meal the wearables were ably modelled by Tricia, Rachel, Anne Brown and (briefly, to much hilarity) Bill King. The standard was excellent as ever. The first prize went to a five piece suit which included skirt, top, cardi, bag and necklace, and the second to a large cape made of lace knitting sewn into hexagons (It looked like crochet from a distance). A peg bag won the non-wearables and a teddy was second. There was also a very clever bird about 75cm high with a knitweave body. Managed to get photos of most of it before my batteries died, there will be a photo post soon I promise!

All in all a really good week and I hear they are already taking bookings for next year.

You better, you better, you bet

2011-09-08T07:06:00.003+01:00

Yeah, more song titles as blog titles, am thinking about my poorly SK860 carriage and having to traipse down the M5 with the rest of my kit in a few weeks to see if we can't get to the bottom of it. There's no way I'm posting a knitting machine AND my EC1, because if the latter got wrecked, then the SK840 is left high and dry also. I'm hoping we can replicate the fault and that this isn't just some stupid operator error I'm making. Anyway, by the time I'd paid for postage and insurance, I might just as well go in person anyway. At least the schools are back so the M5 might actually be moving.

No, I don't have Designaknit, although that might be a future option. I'd need three different cables for my various electronic machines though, so to buy three cables and the software would be teetering on the edge of £1k. Who said machine knitting saves you money again?! Guess if I go that route I'll have to work my way up to it - I've another 40 years I reckon! :)

Yesterday I had three more classes (I opted out of the trip to Chester - I'm maximising my machine knitting time this week!). First thing was Bill King - an amazing array of samples and mockups using a myriad of techniques. He showed us how to do godets, which I believe was in a previous issue of MKM. Full fisherman's rib (every needle), move to half fisherman's rib, then gradually transfer every 10th stitch to the main bed and knit 4-6 rows. On the next row, transfer a needle either side of this and repeat until all needles are on the main bed. This produces an interesting godet and the changing ribs mean the knitting width drops and produces a flare. You could also change this about for different effects.

After lunch it was Erica talking about her tuck lace skirt. The pattern for the skirt goes from a tuck diamond into EON fabric with a column of tucks - an interesting idea. Despite having a helper I somehow managed to mess it up a bit and got out of synch, also had to wait for the second card to become available. Kudos to Erica for doing all the punching she did, though - that was a LOT of punching! Ended up with a big hole in mine too somehow - the machine wasn't playing entirely fair methinks! There might be a picture but it's a rather embarrassing swatch to be honest!

We overran a bit so I only got a few gulps of coffee before going into my last class, which was a hands-on with Iris Bishop. I'm always telling folks to RTFM but I wasted time knitting a sample and didn't realise it continued on the second sheet. Duh - not even the staple clued me in. We did two techniques - knitting squares onto the purl side of a base fabric marked with a grid, and using columns and rows of lace holes to rehang the base fabric and produce mini hems that give a basketweave effect. Very effective and I did manage to get enough done to hopefully remind me about it later (pictures to follow)

I may have accidentally bought some James C Brett Marble chunky in peacock blues - Nick from Uppinghams was in attendance. Fatal (to my bank account).

The evening's entertainment was a chap from the "Colour me beautiful" people. He was very funny and had us in stitches. I think I have the book somewhere. Said he was Gok's dad - ie the Gokfather (groan).

Ojolly, I accidentally hit delete on your comment when I was trying to accept it. Am surfing in bed and my finger slipped - many apologies! Please feel free to comment again and I'll try not to be such a doofus next time! :)

Dream week, day 2 (Tuesday)

2011-09-07T06:30:00.004+01:00

Today we started our personalised program. In the morning, I had Anne Smith of MKM talking about "Racy Raglans". She had started with the basic fully-fashioned way of decreasing, and gone onto various different methods producing different effects and come up with about 22 variations including mini cables and an arrowhead one - unfortunately we rather ran out of time. Also learnt that cardigan, balaclava and raglan all had military origins. We had a bit of a giggle because she mounted her samples upside down and they rather looked like bikini bottoms!

After lunch, I had a hands-on with Anne Brown of Posh Frocks fame - knit a simple shrug in 90 minutes. It was a straight strip of 800 rows and I had chosen to wear my blue lambswool dress, so was sweating buckets by the end of it. It was made with Uppinghams baby 4ply and killed - I started the sewing up during the class but ran out of time. Two people managed to complete it, though! One knits for a living I think. I just wished I had a motor! The noise was unbelievable when 10 people are in full flow.

Last class of the day was a talk by Iris Bishop about plaids and checks. She showed us some wonderful samples using knitweave and other techniques - and today I've a hands on with her so can hopefully try some of them out for myself. It amazes me where she gets all of her ideas from.

When I got back to the hotel, mmryse borrowed my laptop for a bit whilst I sewed up the rest of my shrug, and whilst I got changed she wove in the ends for me, meaning I could wear it for dinner over my evening dress. It turned out really well - will photograph it at some point for the blog and for Rav.

I won another bottle of wine, and the woman sitting next to me (whose ticket I was looking after) also won - so two bottles of wine for our table! Might refrain from voting today, give someone else a chance! After dinner, Nick from Uppinghams gave us a great talk about the various yarns and things he has available and handed them around. He also does things for spinners, I had no idea you could get acrylic as tops.

Had a message that my recalcitrant mid gauge carriage has no problem talking to the seller's PC10. So I'm a bit stymied as to why it won't work with my kit.

Starter's orders

2011-09-06T07:18:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm at the Metropolitan Dream Week this week. Arrived at the hotel yesterday around 11am and almost instantly met a fellow Raveller from Holland, mmryse. She's lovely and we hit it off straight away. My room is a lovely one overlooking fields and the bed is a pseudo-four poster (it has drapes at the back). First "talk" was by Karabee Designs - she handed round lots of variegated yarns eg Wendy Happy, King Cole Zigzag and Riot (which is lovely - not seen it in the flesh before). She showed us interesting swatches in these yarns, including ones that were tuck/slip combinations - only doable on Brother and Toyota machines automatically, alas.

I voted for two garments being worn by other people, and this year voting might win you a bottle of wine - and I got a bottle of red! How cool is that? The evening meal was lovely and then we were treated to a fashion show by Anne Brown of Posh Frocks - lovely classic garments with drape. Wish mine came out like hers (and wish I was 6ft and slim, too, haha!)

Classes start in earnest today, so gotta dash, got to dry my hair and go to breakfast.

It's alright, baby's coming back

2011-09-01T20:30:00.003+01:00

Well, I bloody hope so, anyway. The SK860 mid gauge carriage is all packed and ready to go back to the seller tomorrow. It doesn't want to talk to the EC1, and I've tried everything to make it happen, but have failed. I DID manage to get fairisle out of it - once, a few weeks back - but it took a few attempts. I put that down to my own inexperience with this machine. But, two extra side levers and a slightly rearranged cam layout isn't exactly a big technological jump from the SK840 std gauge.

Tuesday night I had some free time and thought I'd try a tuck lace scarf, and because it involves non-working needles I needed to run the carriage without knitting to figure out which needles to lose. But as soon as the "set up" rows were done - the carriage is passed past two magnets twice, to tell it the width of the knitting - the EC1 refused to respond, almost as if the carriage wasn't connected. Swapping cables and magnets made no difference. Made a few 'phonecalls the next day, and a suggestion was to clean the sensors with surgical spirit, which I did - got quite a lot of black, which is surprising when it's only been used in the last six weeks or so. Tried again - and now the EC1 will read the first row (so that's a slight improvement) but then it will not feed down on the next pass - so the EC1 can "see" the carriage, but it can't tell if it's changed direction. So - great if I want vertical stripes, but a bit crap for anything else.

I compared its underside to the SK840 (which has no such problems with the EC1, despite the advanced age of both pieces of kit) and I cannot see anything amiss. I think the SK860 build isn't quite as good - some of the magnets aren't quite square, and the directional magnet on one side appears to sit slightly further out than its neighbour - but these are VERY minor details and I'm only nit-picking here - I cannot understand why it won't work.

As I don't think I know anyone else with a similar machine I can test it out on, it's off on a holiday of its own next week, in the opposite direction. I wanted to use it tonight, so I'm feeling rather out of sorts. £24 to post it, and £75 to repair the car's front windscreen (and it turns out mine's not even the fancy heated option, which actually explains a lot) - I've gotten through almost £100 this month already and haven't even paid any bills yet. That has to be some sort of record for me!

Fingers crossed the carriage can be repaired or replaced - I've insured it for £500, because apparently that's the replacement cost. Have double-boxed it though, so it should be ok.

PS The post title is a song by the Eurhythmics, in case you were wondering!

Quick guide to pattern knitting with the EC1

2011-08-31T16:31:00.000+01:00

Connect EC1 to carriage and power
Turn on; it should beep
Inspection light ON
Set card in reader and to correct row/width
Select needles to be worked on
Set cam to 0 (stocking stitch)
Set Russel levers to II (normal)
Set side levers to triangle (if you have them – the SK840 doesn’t)
Disengage weaving brushes
Set the point cam and end cams as required
Cast on and knit a few rows, ending COR – alternatively, if knitting is already in progress, pop the top and do two free passes to memorise the cam positions
Select pattern switches as required
Turn inspection light OFF – EC1 should memorise first row
Set cam to pattern eg F, T
Continue to knit

Bad luck comes in threes?

2011-08-31T12:42:00.004+01:00

Nope, not dead. This was my view all last week. Spent most of it sunning myself on the shores of Camp De Mar in Mallorca. I have some interesting tan lines. Didn't take any knitting with me as I couldn't figure out what would be portable. Weather was fantastic - 28 degs most days, and hardly any cloud (this photo was taken quite early, it had burnt off by 11am). The only minor downside of the holiday was that the hotel entertainment was loud cabaret every night until 11.30pm - and it being on the poolside terrace, and the bay being quite small - you couldn't exactly get away from it. Even with the doors shut and the television on, you could still hear it. I'm not a great fan of staying up late getting plastered - I'm afraid I'm a lightweight and tend to fall asleep! :) Apart from that, the holiday was lovely and I've eaten far too much food!

Back to earth with a bump on Monday - cold and overcast, had to pop to Sainsers en route to buy fresh food, had to run and hide in the car when himself spotted someone I really don't want to talk to right now. The cat was secretly rather pleased to see us, although he has figured out that G's brother (the cat sitter) lives over the road so he now goes over there to beg to be let in/fed. I got a rather disgruntled 'phone call saying he seemed to have our cat and could we get him before he peed up something - Thomas loves to mark his outdoor territory!

Today I managed to leave my mobile at home (which isn't a disaster but makes me feel kinda naked and disorganised). On the way to work a large stone skipped across my windscreen and 10 seconds later it was a 10cm crack - in fact, it's only the heating element stopped it going further - so I've already spent £75 on insurance excess today. Thank goodness it's payday! Last night I tried and failed to get my new-fangled and blooming expensive SK860 to talk to the EC1 patterning device - so I have a rather elaborate doorstop for a knitting machine. I've got some things to investigate tonight when I finally do make it home around 10pm - otherwise the carriage will need to be serviced. I tried swapping magnets, swapping cables, different combinations etc - and the EC1 functions perfectly well on the SK840 so I think it might be the carriage. Weirdly enough, I DID get fairisle out of it last week - but it took me a few attempts. Remember I had difficulty getting fairisle patterning on the main body? It took me several attempts. That was the first indication that something was amiss. Apparently there are some magnets at the front of the carriage that move about and tell the electronics I've changed direction, so perhaps something is sticking. I hope so, because replacing the EC1 would be very difficult.

They say these things come in threes, and as I'm not sure the leaving mobile at home quite counts, I'm just a bit nervous as to what will come next!

Current mood: grumpy

FO: baby cardigan

2011-08-20T21:45:00.002+01:00

101_1986_1
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Didn't do the bands quite right. Buttons now added.

Principles of Ribbing Cast-on in Machine Knitting

2011-08-19T12:30:00.001+01:00

The principles of a ribbing cast on is always the same for Japanese machines:

1. Arrange needles for your desired rib.
2. Knit 1 zigzag row (set both beds to knit). Hang cast on comb and weights symmetrically.
3. Knit 2-3 circular rows - this means set the main bed to slip left and the ribber to slip right (or the other way around, as long as one carriage slips in the opposite direction to the other).
4. Knit another row with both beds set to knit - this is row 1.

There is also a step 1.5 and 3.5 which are not always necessary:

1.5. If you want to do a 2x2 rib, or any rib that has two or more stitches on the main or ribber bed together, you set the needles up first and then rack 1.5 positions before the zigzag row so that the needles are arranged KPKPKP (knit purl etc) - you cannot start with KKPPKKPP as it will not work - on the next pass KK and PP will become one great big stitch, and disaster will ensue! You may have to add a stitch at one or both ends to keep the alternating pattern consistent.

3.5: Rack back again to the original position. If you added any end stitches at step 1.5, now is the time to decrease them again.

NB: to do a wide rib such as 5x5 you would have to rack a LOT of positions to make this work, and the yarn would probably not stretch enough to make it possible to rack back when you get to step 3.5. In this case, it's better to do steps 1-3 for 1x1 rib and then transfer your stitches between beds for your desired rib. The selvedge (circular) rows will barely be visible in the finished welt.

Table of machine needle sizes

2011-08-17T12:47:00.002+01:00

I'm working on a spreadsheet of machine needle sizes - measuring total length, centreline of butt to end, and the height of the butt. I'll not share the live spreadsheet here just now because it's a work in progress, but if you think you can help me with missing machine(s) or data, please leave your measurements in the comments. It'd be much appreciated!

This is the list so far - please click for the original, tables + blogger are a nightmare....

Knitting with the lights out

2011-08-15T16:31:00.002+01:00

Good weekend. I was booked on the final pattern drafting course with the English Couture Company, but it was cancelled due to lack of numbers. So it meant I had a whole weekend blocked out in my diary, to do with as I wish! Might sound daft but that doesn’t happen very often! As himself needs to make up the hours this week to offset holiday time (he’s a sub-contractor), it meant I had a whole day and a half to amuse myself in. Maybe I should book more weekends for myself like that, ho ho!

I’d managed to get two Ravellers combined into one, in my small hazelnut of a brain last Wednesday - (sorry Unsure and Covknit!) so had accidentally given some vintage Knitmaster items to the former when they were actually for the latter. Luckily Unsure was happy to meet me in Coventry to give them back – I went straight to Covknits and we got to grips with her machines. Hubby had bought her a vintage Knitmaster (the kind with sinkers) and before he knew it, three more turned up – two sinker-type and one modern punchcard. Although the Knitmaster 4500 was interesting to me from a mechanical point of view, the carriage had had some damage and it wasn’t being consistent when doing partial knitting. Owing to its design, one has to lay yarn into open latch hooks on every row – in fact, it works rather like an intarsia carriage on the modern machines – and if one latch is shut, or you miss the ideal “slot”, you’ll have either a dropped or slipped stitch. The advantages with this machine are it can knit straight from a ball (because it is by your feet) and the spring-loaded sinkers push down on the knitting so no weights are required. The disadvantages, apart from those listed above, is that getting spare needles or repairs will be almost impossible, and any patterning would be manual (although we didn’t try patterning).

So anyway, I suggested that we got to grips with the 323, which isn’t nearly as scary as it looks. Turns out Covknits has got pretty much everything you can get that goes with that machine, with the exception of a lace carriage (and I’m not sure if one was made for that machine – early Knitmasters had inflexible needles). She’s also got some Brother bits which are no use at all to her. I worked through my crash course leaflet - could have spent all day chatting – and Covknit’s hubby kindly made us lunch, too. Despite the parlous state of her needle retainer bar the machine coped admirably – we even got fairisle and tuck out of it, and accidentally, teacosy stitch, when I forgot to unlock the card – it was supposed to be slip!! :D

Sunday the Cog decided he’d work another half day, so I pottered about on the Passap. I’ve managed to get a copy of the old Duo 80 manual from a fellow Guild member, which actually has lessons in – and they all make something “useful”. No need to switch on the electronics.

The first exercise is an exercise in various K/K ribs (fishermans, half fishermans, long stitch, FNR) with some decreasing and increasing in the middle. It’s supposed to make a “mitt” but I was using leftover sock yarn so reduced the amount of rows – it could make a purse, I suppose. I finally nailed the cast off – it’s done between the beds by transferring all to the front but leaving the back bed in work, knitting a slack row, pushing the knitting towards the back and then latching through the loops at the front. Last time I tried it, I must have done something wrong because it immediately came undone.

The second exercise is the back of a batwing jumper for a toddler, mostly in stocking stitch. I was going great guns until the yarn snapped and the whole thing fell off. Will have to restart I think. I never had a Duomatic, but the manual for the E6000 is aimed at upgraders not beginners, and there were no lessons in it, so I think it’s a worthwhile exercise.

After lunch (himself home and dozing off on the sofa) I knitted a little pink cardigan in my Easy DK pattern – accidentally did the fronts/back with the prototype measurements so guessed the V neck decreases. I was testing the electronics on the SK860 for the first time – at first the card refused to move so I got a strange pattern on the fronts/back – had managed to fix whatever it was that was wrong by the time I got to the sleeves, but didn’t do all-over fairisle as planned because the inside floats were longer than I thought they’d be. Also managed accidentally-on-purpose to mount the button band the wrong way around – so there’s a not-very-tidy ridge all around the fronts. Interesting, but I shan’t do it again. The cardigan is for a friend’s new arrival – I have been so busy that apart from registering my congrats on Facebook I’ve not acknowledged the birth – and figured, this is more useful than a belated card.

It’s the most machine knitting I’ve done for myself for ages, it seems, and I really enjoyed it! Except for the unpicking of mis-patterned fairisle…

FO: Intarsia waistcoat (back)

2011-08-12T12:32:00.000+01:00

100_4070
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is the back. Debating whether to swiss-darn something on the back, or leave as-is.

FO: Intarsia waistcoat (front)

2011-08-12T12:31:00.000+01:00

100_4069
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Just a bit of fun doing intarsia using holding position on the SK860 midgauge. Needs buttons (although I rarely button up unless I'm cold).

History of Toyota Knitting Machines

2011-08-10T12:39:00.001+01:00

Found a folder full of interesting knitting history in amongst the stuff I am selling for a friend. Thought this might interest the Toyota owners (not sure if the machine history is complete):

Company Profile

Aisin Seiki Co Ltd, founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of automotive parts and sewing machines, has since grown into a principal international supplier of components for engines, driving systems, suspension, brakes, clutches and bodies, as well as home appliances and industrial machinery.

An important member of the Toyota Group, which supplies parts to the Toyota Motor Corporation, Aisin is also known for its strong independence. For home use, Aisin manufactures knitting and sewing machines, electric appliances, and beds: for industrial use, it makes precision metal molds, large transfer machines, and sewing machines.

Aisin’s intensive research and development continues to produce new products and improve on existing ones, such as metallic fibres, cryogenic freezers, the Stirling engine, and a drive unit for artificial human hearts.

As leader of the Aisin Group, which comprises eight affiliated companies in Japam, Aisin confidently offers innovative high-quality products and home and internationally. The company has nine subsidiaries overseas and one affiliate each in North America, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

History of Toyota Knitting Machines

1954 Model NT10 - pitch 5.5mm, 170 needles, sliding handle, hanging weights style). Single knitting machine of needle orerating type

1955 Model MT20 – pitch 4.5mm, 170 needles, sliding handle, one ste bed dropping, one pitch swing. Double bed knitting machine

1959 Model K202 – 180 needles, two step bed dropping, 10 pitch swing, 3 colour changing device. Double bed knitting machine

1960 Model K104 – 210 needles, wide stainless steel bed, fixed handle, non-hanging weights style. Single bed knitting machine

1962 Model K106 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage. Single bed knitting machine

1965 Model 109 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage, limited number of needle selections. Single bed with pattern trace knitting

1969 Model K600 – needle selection mechanism built into the carriage, 12sts in one punchcard, built-in weaving pattern device, lace carriage. Single bed with easy operation of fairisle knitting

1971 Model 700 – single bed knitting machine with knit tracer (optional)

1972 Model 210 – pitch 3.63mm, 252 needles, two step bed dropping. Double bed knitting machine

1972 Model KR450 – pitch 4.5mm, 200 needles, step bed dropping. Rib knitting machine.

1977 Model KS787 – Carriage needle selection mechanism, 24 stitches in one punchcard, manual selection of 12 stitches, motif magic, attachable knit tracer. Single bed knitting machine

1981 Model KS901 – Carriage needle selection mechanism, 24 stitches in one punchcard, lace carriage needle selection, motif magic, extended pattern, transferring stitch lace by lace carriage

1981 Model KR501 – two yarn feeders, fold down style handle, built-in feature called Simulknit (no slack yarn on the back).

Hurrah!

2011-08-08T22:15:00.002+01:00

Finally finished the Dream Week project this weekend. It came out quite well, although I did have to resort to fabric glue near the end. I will be taking photos at some point, of course.

Now I can relax and get on with some non-deadline knitting - adding a 2x2 rib to a Passap sock I made last week as part of a demo, for example. Finishing off the loud intarsia waistcoat, for another.

Ironically, just as I've finished a major project, a whole weekend has become free owing to the cancellation of the last pattern drafting course. I'm sure various chores will expand to fill it, though - they usually do!

(h)Armless

2011-07-28T16:31:00.001+01:00

Yes, the Dream Week project is dragging along, slowly. Hoping to add the last band tonight and get it into the wash this weekend. Had to take the arms off - despite the garment length itself coming out just fine, the arms are about 10cm too long. Decided, just for once, to override my denial - "it'll shrink in the wash" - and actually fix it now, instead of being pig-headed and making myself more work because of it. I know I'd rather have three-quarter length sleeves than monster sleeves. I've done a fancy-pants lace edging on the bottom, so the garment is currently... yes, you guessed it.... Armless!!

Himself has gone to Hungary (he's already nicknamed it "goulash side") for this weekend's Grand Prix. Although he often creates chaos in his wake at home - kitchen littered with washing up, paperwork strewn everywhere there's a flat surface - he also creates yummy food for me. It's too quiet without him (and I was only awake an hour this morning before I left for work!). I may starve, also.

Missing ya already, Cog!

Shenanigans...

2011-07-26T16:31:00.001+01:00

Yes, I'm still alive. No, not getting much knitting done. The Dream Week project is inching along, but every time I think I have a free day or evening, something comes up. Yes, it's like that!

Went to Fibre East with M on Saturday. The weather was lovely for once (it's been very unsettled lately) - sunny but windy/cool. Resisted buying any more yarn but did buy a really nice peg-loomed scarf that took my fancy (because clearly I don't have enough scarves already).

Been quite stressed out lately, and sleep has been in short supply. Presumably that explains why I blacked out at one point and knocked some poor woman into the side of a tent. If the woman was you, I apologise! One minute I was walking away from a tent, the next thing I knew I was on the ground and they were trying to get me into the recovery position (not aided by the fact I had a rucksack on). I think the first aiders were a little miffed I didn't want to sit down and have a cuppa, but I'd just had one - perhaps there was something in my coffee?! :) Actually, I thought I was having a panic attack, which I haven't had for some time, so I wasn't expecting to go down like a ton of bricks. Ah well, nothing seems to be broken, although my right leg felt like it might bruise at some point, it hasn't so far. The last time I fainted due to stress I was going through a very stressful period with an estate agent some 11 years ago. Don't faint on a train going to Coventry - they end up taking you back to Birmingham! :)

So why the stress? Well, I shan't go into too much detail, but suffice to say that when I select "local pickup only" on a certain auction site, I do not expect to find some dingbat, with selective reading ability, from outside the UK has bought my item. The item in question was very large, very heavy, and boxless, otherwise I would have considered it - but the postage costs would have been more than the item's sale value. The buyer refused to listen to reason and denied my request to cancel the transaction, so the auction site still gets to make a profit, which comes out of the total I've made for my friend (the item has since been sold privately). I did appeal, but got a cut and paste e-mail response, which bears no resemblance to the question I actually asked, and which appears to indicate I cannot pick and choose my audience - it's either all or nothing. The telephone contact number just gives you scads of recorded messages - I'm not sure any actualy people work there anymore. The whole thing has become very expensive for a private seller, and is geared for profit (their cut is 10%, and the payment company seems to calcuate fees on a random scale). If one chooses to offer second class postage (which is cheaper), one has to use one's own funds for this. The payment company only has the choice of first class and a few others, which in no way reflects Royal Mail's complex pricing system (and is more expensive). Royal Mail does not use online payment services, only VISA or a prepaid account. So guess who went overdrawn last month? Sellers can only leave positive feedback, despite the website itself seeming to indicate it's democratic - it's not! It is, alas, all tilted in favour of the buyer, which is fine most of the time, because I rarely sell online.

I do have some small items left to list, but they will be advertised elsewhere.

Black strippers in the Black Country

2011-07-14T21:39:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to say I had a smashing meet-up with some fellow Passap machine knitters last night - W, M, J and P - at J's place, which is nose-bleedingly high up in the Black country (level with the Urals apparently). I just love the view out of her front door - although I don't envy her in the winter - had to leave my car parked in first gear to ensure it was still there when I came out again! That driveway looked to be 45 degrees!. Whoever said the Midlands was flat obviously never came to Dudley. I used to live about 10 minutes away at the bottom of the big hill, and I also lived about 20 minutes away in another direction on Charlemont Farm later on (sounds romantic, but it was a refurbished 60s towerblock!). Almost failed to recognise the big roundabout (M5, junction 2). It used to be a bleak island with just a Toys R Us, a Maccie Ds and a small powerstation - it's now got landscaping and a flag (not to mention a Holiday Inn!). The power station is still there but it's a lot harder to spot now.

Haven't been to that area in more than ten years, after a painful breakup with a control-freak dickhead boyfriend in 2000 - the relationship almost exactly coincided with my residence at the foot of Portway Hill. I'd forgotten how much I liked the whole area, because said dickhead got into some VERY pervy things after we broke up (for which I convinced myself I was somehow responsible) and I developed an unnatural fear of the entire area, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Felt just fine about it yesterday (if a little disoriented - my mental map of the area is 11 years out of date). So, a good few ghosts laid to rest yesterday. But anyway, I digress...

J made me a plate of sandwiches and a salad and we got on like a house on fire. She showed me her knitting "shed" - a lovely custom built room in the garden, so jealous! Then the others arrived and we had such a good time I didn't want to leave. W especially impressed me as due to some severe health problems he has a short-term memory problem - but the machine knitting keeps his mind turning. I've no doubt they'll all bring some lovely garments to show off next month. Looks like I'll be demonstrating my favourite passap sock pattern next month. It's such a pity I'm now a good 50 miles away on the 't'other side of the Midlands now. Ah well, ya can't have it all your own way! Might avoid having a coffee though - still buzzing when I got home and didn't sleep last night.

Right, that turned out to not be a very quick post. The bath calls me! G'night!

PS post title - Passaps use strippers, which are orange, black or blue. Yeh, machine knitting "in joke", sorry! :)

More pattern drafting and other things...

2011-07-13T16:37:00.001+01:00

Attended a second weekend course on pattern drafting - this time for trousers (I keep wanting to type "draughting" because I started work as a draughtsman - is "draft" an Americanism?). Anyhoo, having been measured all over for the skirt class, it was somewhat gratifying to discover I'd lost 5cm from my waistline and a similar amount from my hips. I've lost over a stone now, following Weightwatchers (the old points system) but not attending meetings. I have the books, and anyway I don't have time for meetings and I already paid them once :) I was already aware I'd lost weight, having had to put quite a few pairs of trousers and jeans into the charity bag because I really don't think the "dustman's trousers" look is appropriate for work, and most of my work trousers don't have belt loops to help keep them up. Discovered I can remove certain pairs of jeans without even undoing them, which is rather handy after a few beers! It was nice to have the results in black and white, though - I did measure myself at the start and put the details into a computer program - alas, this was on an old hard disk and himself has replaced it with a new one.

The skirt class had been very interesting and I was expecting to have to make similar adjustments to the front and back seams. What I wasn't expecting to find, was that I have a slight stoop. It must be my bust, I tend to stoop so as not to take someone's eye out with it. So my spine is a slight S shape, and my waist-to-floor measurement is 4.5cm lower at the front. We made our toiles from the standard "classic fit" model from the Winifred Aldrich book. That was the easy part. Then we were fitted. The top half of my back trouser block (from hipline upwards) was basically rotated a bit to make the back fit better. I also had to add some material into both side seams from the crutch down. As there wasn't enough time to do both legs, I only did one leg, but it made it very obvious when compared with the non-adjusted leg. We only just had enough time to finish (and guess who panicked and sewed her crutch seam inside out - frayed crutch, anyone?!). But the finished result was great. It also explains why my bought trousers always gape at the back like an old welly top. The only way around it is to pick elasticated waist trousers (not much choice of those about) or to choose stretch fabrics and wider leg styles. Or to make my own.

However, the rate I'm losing weight at, means I'll need to be remeasured and will have to recalculate these blocks. Probably should have waited 'til next year (when hopefully I hit my target weight) to take the course. Ah well, never mind! To that end, I've set up a spreadsheet with my measurements on the first page, and then various block patterns on other tabs that refer to these measurements. Update the measurements, and you can recalculate your block.

The next training is at the beginning of August and is three days because it's bodice and sleeve fitting, and is even more complicated - you have to measure the armscye before you can do the sleeve, and there are more parts.

What else? Well, I sold quite a bit of the yarn, but still have 2 bags of industrial, 4 bags of 4ply and 1 bag of "DK and up" yarns. I've sold two knitting machines and one ribber, I have another one that might sell soon and then there are various doodads and gadgets that will be going onto Ebay before the end of the month. It takes a lot of time to photograph everything, estimate how I'd pack them, weigh them, write them up and post them online (I'm steelbreeze23 on Ebay in case you're interested). And time is at a premium at the moment.

But (gasp) there has also been some actual machine knitting. I can't post much about it at the moment, because it's for the Dream Week in September. Suffice to say it's a cardigan, and I debated whether to do a peplum, but have decided against it as the yarn is quite stiff and I don't think it will hang right. Glad I ordered two cones, the gauge is something like 47 rows to 10cm so it's going to take more than one cone. I daresay it won't win, but I'm trying to make more of an effort than last year's last minute bikini for Flat Eric(a). My only concern is running out of time - every time I think I might have a free slot, something comes up that must be done. Looking at upcoming weekends, I only have about 9 days free between now and September. Blimey, where did the year go?!

Happy 6th blogiversary to me...

2011-07-04T08:15:00.003+01:00

Well, this is the first time I've actually remembered to record the event. I'm crap with dates, ask anyone. This blog was not my first, but I decided to split it off from my personal one, which went elsewhere (where I could better control its audience) and then died a short, painless death. Well, who wants to read the whinges of a complete stranger online?! I've never been good at keeping a diary - too much obligation and not enough to say - but the odd post about my creative exploits, especially concerning the specific craft of machine knitting, I can manage.

Back in 2005 I was younger and more innocent, and the posts were short n' snappy. It's slightly surreal to read your own history online. Who was this person?! Me, of course, but do I recognise her? What would I tell her if I could talk to her today?

Probably something along the lines of, stop buying yarn, stop doing so much surfing/reading ABOUT machine knitting and get to your craft room, woman! :) Although sometimes surfing/reading is all I get time for.

I've met some lovely folk via "tinternet" (and via Ravelry/Yahoo) and I would miss the community enormously if I had to go completely offline for more than a week. My online presence can be sporadic at times (gotta work, gotta sleep) but I can't imagine a world without blogging now. So thankyou to my readers, you know who you are! And here's to another six years.

Now, anybody want to buy eleventeen sacks of acrylic yarn and a box of assorted doodads?!

Thomas - an update

2011-07-03T07:36:00.002+01:00

Well, we had a very scary week, although to be fair, he was most sick on Monday and Tuesday. The vet called on Friday with the blood test results - Thomas has poor liver function and his blood cell counts were all off (which might be because of his liver, or because he is dehydrated). Saturday he went in for a 48 hour steroid injection, to see if his appetite would pick up. Luckily, it has - he's been licking at special pate ever since, and when we came home last night everything he'd been given (including biscuits) had disappeared. I am so relieved! He's got to go back on Monday - he was going to get x-rayed and possibly opened up otherwise - but as his appetite is now back, he'll just get a few weeks course of steroids. We did get him a syringe, but he hates people poking in his mouth, so hoping we don't have to use it. The easiest way to get food into him when he's sick is apply it to his legs, alas, which is very messy and upsetting for him. He is a fastidious cat, and very proud of his white forelegs.ca

Doing a happy dance here. He's 11 and has a lot more life to live, I hope!

Thanks for the lovely comments, it's appreciated. These little critters break your heart sometimes, and drive you up the wall at others, but you wouldn't be without them.

Yarn counts and equivalents

2011-07-03T07:35:00.001+01:00

Finally found five minutes to get me and the info in the same place. This is from my Uppingham's Yarn guide (they hand them out free).

Yarn count/ply equiv.
2/10 to 2/8 = 4ply
2/12 to 2/15 = 3ply
2/16 to 2/18 = 2ply
2/28 to 2/32 = 1ply
3 ends of 2/30 make 4ply
2 ends of 2/30 make 3ply

Yarn count ie 2/30 WC (Worsted Count). The 2 denotes two yarns folded (twisted together). The 30 is the number of 560 yard hanks, which weigh one pound.

I prefer the WPI system myself because as long as you have a ruler you can work out the thickness. But it's not commonly used.

How to handle a major de-stash or estate sale

2011-06-30T16:32:00.002+01:00

Well, this is the second one I've done now, so I thought I'd impart some of my wisdom in the hopes it might help someone else.

1. Spreadsheets are your friends. Split the stash into yarn, machines/accessories, and publications, and have a fourth tab to keep track of the money
2. All the yarn must be photographed, weighed and inventoried. This is best done directly onto the spreadsheet if possible - especially if (like me) you have bad handwriting!
3. If at all possible, sort the yarn out first so that all the cones/balls of one colour are in the same bag (I missed this one this time!)
4. Photograph as many cones at once as you can, and arrange them with clear colour contrasts. Each bag might need several pictures.
5. Designate each bag with a number, and label each bag with it (or in my case, pop a piece of paper with a number on it in the bag). It also helps to identify the bag by its colour or if it has a logo (charity bags are excellent for this).
6. When inventorying knitting machines, print out the "this machine comes with" page, so that you can visually check off all the bits that are present or missing. Do this for any item that has several parts, and keep the checked print with the items (plastic totes are great for boxless machines).
7. If someone asks for a lucky dip, £x amount of yarn, save your legs and work out which ones they'll get from the comfort of your armchair.
8. It's important to have a money tab, because buyers may want a mix of yarn, books and accessories, and it otherwise makes it rather hard to track between tabs who owes what and for what item
9. Don't rely on mental arithmetic at 11pm at night. It's not worth the hassle!
10. Don't forget Paypal and Ebay charge a fee; make sure you subtract that from the total raised.
11. Use a courier quotation service eg Parcel2go for the larger boxes - Royal Mail isn't cheap for large items.
12. Make sure you have lots of empty boxes, jiffy bags and parcel tape to hand. You have to weigh the packed item to give the buyer the final price.
13. Try not to curse if the buyer changes their mind and you have to reopen the package! :)
14. Make sure you put the weight and the recipient on the parcel. You may have more than one to send at once.

Still drowning in yarn but it's going down slightly. Next stop Ebay I guess.

Thomas

2011-06-29T08:28:00.001+01:00

thomas jun10
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

(this is an old pic) Thomas is not well, I don't think he's eaten since Sunday. He's moping about and seems lost, and if I offer him food he just starts vomiting up saliva :(
Vet could find nothing yesterday, taking him back tonight to get blood tests done and possibly an X-ray. He's only 10, too young to leave us yet! :'(

Massive estate sale - acrylic yarn

2011-06-23T08:02:00.000+01:00

I'm not one for advertising, but I have 11 sacks of coned yarn (mostly acrylics, some fancies) to shift for a friend who is giving up machine knitting.

Spreadsheet here, photos here - paypal only please. Any sensible offer accepted. I will make you a lucky dip bag if you tell me the total weight and preferred colours. For those outside the EU, postage above 1kg gets expensive and will require a box - please bear this in mind.

Almost FO: boa scarf

2011-06-23T08:01:00.000+01:00

boa scarf
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Rico Can Can, 5mm needles, 7 stitches, garter stitch. Needs ends sewing in. Making a smaller one with the leftovers.

The grump

2011-06-22T12:32:00.001+01:00

Well, believe it or not I've been too busy to do much knitting lately. I've made one boa scarf from the Rico Can-can and am knitting another from the remainder. Probably shouldn't have cut the yarn on the first one. Probably should have weighed it so that they both use exactly half the yarn weight. Hey ho, hindsight is a wonderful thing, no? Not felt up to much lately. Having some health issues which are making me moody, snappy, hypersensitive, stressed, and grumpy. I'm sure the Cog would say I'm like that all the time, but I don't think I am. Not been sleeping well - have invested in new pillows and blackout curtains. So much to do at the moment, my mind is still too busy to sleep at bedtime, which is no fun for anybody.

Saturday I attended the annual Machine Knitting Guild AGM in a tiny village called Newton Regis, near Tamworth. It was lovely to see familiar and new faces. The competition entries were on display - the one I liked the best was a garment (I think it was a cardigan?) made in sections, with free-motion embroidery over the "slashes", I presume some sort of dissolvable interfacing was used. I don't think it won though. Ann introduced me to some other Passap owners who are thinking of starting a club, they are west of Birmingham so not too far away from me to join if they do. We had an interesting talk from a PhD student who showed us lots of ganseys made for ex-boyfriends (all of which had rude names in garter stitch) and some excellent lace wall hangings she'd made on knitting frames like the ones at Ruddington. I may have accidentally bought some coned cotton from Uppinghams. It was variegated and pretty. I'm only human.

Sunday I went and did a "garage clearance" for an ex guild-member. I didn't think to ask, on the 'phone, how much they had - turned out I'd filled the car almost to bursting (couldn't fill the passenger footwell because the Cog was with me), so had to go back for the rest of it on Monday. There are four Brother knitting machines, lots of paraphernalia, two stacks of books and 11 refuse sacks of yarn (mostly acrylics), half of which are taking up space in my tiny dining room area. I need to inventory that lot tonight, because I've got company coming on Sunday and there's no way I can get four people around the table at the moment. Last night we had a major tidy up downstairs in preparation. As long as nobody looks in the office, the bedroom, or the knitting room, we look like a tidy household! I also need to get the machines at least together to be sold - the accessories are all in boxes, and the ribbers have no boxes, so not sure if everything is complete yet. I do wish people wouldn't chuck their ribber boxes - they have polystyrene inserts for everything, so you can tell at a glance if you are missing anything. Not having a box makes things so much harder to post, too. I have a fine gauge ribber at home with no box, currently out of use, and I don't like it not being stored properly, that's how brackets get bent.

Onwards and upwards through adversity!

I can can-can, can you can-can?

2011-06-16T12:58:00.001+01:00

Quick update. Handknitting mojo has gone a bit AWOL lately - stress and some health problems contributing to my rather grumpy mood at the moment. So the pompom sock has stalled in favour of a fast fix - a boa scarf in Rio Can Can. The yarn is a kind of mesh tape and you knit into the top edge of it (instead of using the whole tape). Just plain garter stitch over 7 sts makes ruffles and is very effective.

Behind the scenes, I am swatching away for a secret machine knitting project. Ok, no secret, it's for this year's Metropolitan Dream Week challenge. I'm sure I shan't win, but there's no need to give the game away 3 months in advance, so don't expect any photos for a while. :]

Also knitted the third panel of the intarsia waistcoat. It's not getting any less loud. I am going to look like Joseph of the musical, but with less style, I suspect. No change there, then! Ha!

Drafting a skirt block

2011-06-14T12:31:00.001+01:00

I had a great time this weekend. I spent the weekend doing a 2 day course at the English Couture company in Syston, which is north of Leicester. We had a bit of a giggle measuring each other (there were three students) and then drafted up a skirt block for ourselves and made a toile, and then adjusted the skirt block. This was based on the very good Winifred Aldrich book, which is very easy to follow. I managed to mess up the sewing machine (it was a very scary one with a computerized display) and I spent an hour adding some fabric to the wrong half of the skirt, but we got there eventually. I've since drafted the finished block up in CAD - found an excellent free 2D drafting program called Draftsight by the same folks who make Catia. Seems to work exactly like AutoCAD so I had no problems in using it. We also had a go in designing our own patterns using the basic block as a template. Great fun!

Now I want to use the measurements to draw up some other standard blocks. There is also going to be a trouser and a bodice class this year, which I may well sign up for!

Alas, it meant I missed National Knit in Public day. I'm hoping the girls had a nice "indoor" picnic at Mrs Ts! :)

Some things in progress...

2011-06-07T12:56:00.001+01:00

Baby waistcoat in bamboo. Just needs some press studs sewing on.

Intarsia waistcoat for me, back and one front.

Although I've not exactly lost my knitting mojo lately, work's been very, very busy since May Day and I've hardly had time to get into the knitting room (apart from dealing with the tumble dryer - yeah, Mount Washmore never seems to go away!). When it's quiet at work I get bored and demotivated but I have more "head space" in the evenings/weekends I suppose. When it's busy, my concentration is somewhat compromised. Spent a quarter of my weekend getting my hair done - no particular reason, it just desperately needed recolouring and a good cut - and the rest of the weekend re-organising the Machine Knitter's Treasure Chest website. Next weekend I'm away on a sewing course all weekend, so not much chance of getting machine-knitting then either.

And... I'm a bit grumpy at the moment. Not sure why. Himself is grumpy too. It must be catching!