Garter Carriage Sweater for Me!!

It seems that I am always knitting for someone else. Either one of my charities, or kids, or g'kids etc. I have bins full of Trenzado in my garage that I use for them. Now I decided to make some things for myself as it has been a while since I've made anything for me. Millor yarns wear like iron. I can't remember one actually wearing out, altho occasionally one of the kids will snag a thread & pull it out. Usually I can fix it so it isn't a major catastrophe. (Millor has D'cd it's yarn) I like my sweaters to be hip length & looser fit. I know the sweater in the pix looks huge but it isn't. I just have a very small dress form for pix. It is a size 42" with a comfortable sizing, pattern worked up with KnitWear. I have had Breast Cancer so like all my clothes to have a higher neck as the surgeon went up to my collar bone to remove the affected tissues. This is pattern 489 for the GC in the Stitch World book. It is a cut & sew neck with half length sleeves. I do have Designa Knit 7 but unfortunately haven't learned it as well as I should. I have the 5 books by Tricia Schaffer from the KnitKnacks Shop that is a beginner course on DAK, & am slowly working my way thru it. I say slowly because I have had it for a couple of years & just haven't buckled down & studied it like I should.

I am worried about my Brother 965i. Lately when I use the GC it works fine for a while, then the GC light that is on the machine goes out as the GC is moving from right to left. Then the GC starts to mis-pattern. It has happen several times now. I am going to talk to Jerry at Needletek & see if he has any ideas about what is going on with it.

The construction workers are still here painting & patching. We had a leaky roof so the ceiling in the kitchen had to be replaced. It has rained the last few days so they haven't been able to finish painting the outside yet, but the house is looking better every day!!

New Sweater for My Daughter

This is a swatch for a wool sweater for my daughter. It is going to be a scoop neck & long sleeves. For those of you with a GC it is pattern #483.The wool is King Cole DK Superwash. This wool can be machine washed on gentle & then dried flat. I wash these with Eucalan & usually wait 'til I have enough for a full load. My daughter doesn't like to hand Wash anything so this is a good yarn for her. We both have drying racks from Wal-Mart(where else) that we use to hang & dry this wool on. It is a soft wool that is not scratchy or irritating. I knit it on Tension 8 on the GC. It makes up into a very warm sweater. I have used this yarn to make up the 'Dutch Fisherman's Sweater' & it is beautiful if I do say so myself. I will get a pix of it so that I can post it in another post. I do love this yarn.

We are having some work done on the house. We decided to paint & found a window that is about ready to fall out so need to get that fixed ASAP. The crew is coming tomorrow to start work & hopefully it won't take too long to fix. The window that is bad is the one in my knitting room so I won't be able to go in there 'til they are finished. Then we are having the house painted . It will be white with blue trim. We have paid this house off twice, but have had to borrow against it for repairs.

Also, had the car in the shop for repairs. We had a very hot summer for this area of the country & my AC went out. I am thinking about buying a new car in the next few months but am waiting to see if business picks up any.

Longbed Knitting Machine

This is the longbed knittiing machine from Canada. I bought it from Peter Smith's store. It is a punchcard machine & has 272 needles rather than the usual 200 on a standard gauge machine. It is modeled after the Brother KH 860 punchcard machine. It comes with the ribber, altho that isn't shown in the picture. It will operate with either the KG 88 Or KG 88ll Garter Carriage. I bought the KG 88 but haven't had the chance to get it going. I had to buy some extra rails for the machine as the ones for the KH 860 are only 200 needles wide. I managed to get a couple of extra ones from Ebay but don't have them cut down just yet. I haven't used the machine yet, other than to run the carriage back & forth some. My next big buy is going to be the bulky longbed machine that is modeled after the Brother KH 260 punchcard machine. It has 150 needles rather than the 110 of the Brother KH 260. I haven't worked a punchcard machine in years so this will be a learning experience for me.