A Finished Object

Finished the Rosey Lap Blanket!

The body knitted by the knitting machine. The edge crocheted with a size I hook and 7 rows of a shell border.

Ellie Mae likes it.

No, she doesn't get to keep it. It will be mailed this week to my mother-in-law. I hope she likes it.

WIP Wednesday

Once again I'm trying the knitting machine. I think I have it figured out. Maybe. Kinda.

Anyway... I used the knitting machine for the body of a lap blanket.

... a close-up...

and at a distance

And now to crochet a border. I'm hoping by adding a 7 row border the blanket will be 30" x 40" when finished.

... and you thought I only knitted socks.

WIP Wednesday?

... or is it "Lessons Learned" ?!

I was all excited to start a new project (not like I don't have enough going on, right?!) AND I wanted something new to show for WIP Wednesday.

A baby sweater knitted mostly on my knitting machine...

Step 1: get out instruction book to remind self of how to set up machine
Step 2: get rhythm going back and forth
Step 3: measure length allowing for some shrinkage once it is off the machine

.... is good

... so I then take the knitting off the machine and let it rest on the table... so far so good. I check the length. It had shrunk up 3 inches!! not to worry, I'll just knit the missing inches by hand.

Then I checked the stitch gauge (big mistake, I should've just pretended everything was fine) Gauge for this pattern is 20sts=4"
I got 16sts=4" !!!!!! ok.... I just need to use a smaller plate on the machine.

I had used plate #3 the first time so I got out plate #2. I increased the rows so I wouldn't have to hand knit so many to make up for the shrinkage.


Excitedly I take the knitting off the machine, let it rest, and then measure... what the ?#! it only measures 17sts=4"

Patience grasshopper.... you can do this....
For the third time, I set up the machine and knit using plate #1 (I'll show this machine whose boss, grumble, grumble... I do have patience, I do, I do...)

The knitting looked good; it was a denser fabric. Yay I thought... and then I measured...
18sts=4"

Now when I was younger, I would've thrown the knitting in a closet and shut the door, never to knit again! But I am older and wiser.

So I rewound the yarn.
Aha! I thought, I'll just hand knit it so I can still show something new for today's WIP.

I knitted a small gauge swatch (key word, "small") using recommended needle size. Eureka! it came out to gauge. So I started knitting. After an hour of knitting and admiring how nice it looked, I measure for gauge again. (BIG mistake!!) I got 21sts=4"

The yarn and the pattern are now in "time out"

LESSONS LEARNED:
1. machine knit a gauge swatch before jumping in and knitting the whole piece
2. once you have a knitted fabric you like, check the gauge, then look in the "the knitter's handy book of Patterns" by Ann Budd
3. matching your gauge to one in the book, you will now know how many sts to cast on the machine
4. Scooby Do, Where Are You?! Call SuKnitWitty for help! She's a veteran machine knitter having logged in many hours of machine knitting hats, sweaters, bags, and so on.


So... for today's WIP I give you....the brown sock... again.
I will probably finish the toe today and it will become an FO (finished object). That's if I knit today.

I may decide to read a book.

What have I done?!!

I told myself, "no new craft projects!, you will not take up quilting, you will not start spinning, and no, you may not start rug hooking!" "You do enough other crafts to keep you busy for a 100 yrs!"

And then...
I was seduced by the Bond Knitting Machine...



It is wonderful! It is quick! and I can think of soooo many knitting projects to do on it and still have some hand knitting as part of it.

It all started when I mentioned She-Knits Mystery Bag KAL to my friend, SuKnitWitty. We immediately signed up!

And then a few days later, SuKnitWitty shows me her Knitting Styx Bag she made with the back having been knitted on the Bond Knitting Machine. Well... I had never heard of a Bond and asked her about it. She then explained, she knitted the back on the Bond and then knitted the Berry Stitch on the needles. Well, I thought how wonderful it would be to knit the backs of sweaters on the machine (time saving, yes?) and then hand knit the front in whatever stitch pattern I wanted. I might even be able to figure out how to knit the sleeves on the machine (again saving time!)

A week later I was visiting SuKnitWitty and she showed me her bond machine. She showed me how it worked. She even let me try it out (bad idea), I was hooked!! I machine knitted the back of a bag for myself. I came home all excited and chatted endlessly about how great this machine is and all the wonderful stuff I could make if I had one.

I hand knitted the front of the bag, stitched it together, and SuKnitWitty helped me with the lining ('cause you all know I know nothing about the sewing machine).

Ta da... the Blueberry Styx Bag

front
back knitted on the Bond machine

inside lined (with what else?... butterflies of course!)
and the handles done in Tunisian crochet and folded in half and slip stitched closed.

Yes, I have asked Santa for a Bond Knitting Machine. Now if I can just wait that long.