Getting Busy

I am working on a sweater that is knitted on my Brother 965i from the Stitch World Pattern book. It is pattern number 333 slip sts. It will be a cut & sew neckline. (I really can't say how much I love this technique. All machine knitters should learn this. It is easy to do & makes a beautiful neckband. Be sure & do a search of my blog for it.) I'm not sure if this sweater is going to the Women's Shelter or my g'daughter. I started it for her some months ago & didn't get it finished so don't know if it will still fit her. She is 4 & they grow so fast at the age.

 

 

Hope that you can see the pattern. I have the front, back & sleeves finished & am knitting the neckband on the GC. Some time ago I took my ribber off the machine & have been doing all my ribbing on the GC. I don't mind setting up the ribber but my space is kinda tight &  it is easier to use the GC.

 

I have listed some 220 Cascade Yarn on eBay. I am trying to get control of my stash. My little house is so cluttered up there is just no more room for anything. (Also, donating some books to the local library. I have tons of unread books in containers my garage. I am reading them & then donating them.) I have a tendency to collect things that I am interested in. It goes fine for a while, then gets completely out of control. I am sorting out all my fabrics & am going to make small appliance covers with any that are appropriate, possibly also making children's clothes for the shelter with others(have lots of kids fabric) & selling off some. I have some flannel & might make some 'blankies' with it.('blankies' are small flannel blankets about the size of a fat quarter that are made to be babies first blanket)My middle g'son carried around his blankie & always slept with it, even on sleep overs, until he was 5.

 

I have lots & lots of options to lift my spirits. I have never been the kind of person that just lays around sad & depressed, but for the last few months that is how I have been living my life. My whole family is worried about me. I am doing my best to overcome. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odds & Ends

Lately I have been using up small amounts of yarn for scrappies. I made this little vest for the Women's Shelter. It is a size 2 with a grafted neckband. I ran out of the yellow so finished the armholes with some pink that I had. There wasn't enough of the pink for anything other than trim.  I grafted the trim onto the armhole to avoid lots of bulk. I know some knitters make the armhole & them attach it to the garment but that just Creates unnecessary bulk at the armhole & that is uncomfortable for the wearer. I decided to embroider a ladybug on the front although after I finished it I wished that I had used red or black rather than the blue.

 

 

I have lots of little bits of yarn that will make some smaller items for the shelter.

 

I am way behind in this years shelter donation because I have been in a funk & just haven't seemed to have the 'git go' to get anything finished. I don't know why I am so depressed or why I don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning. Usually I bounce out of bed everyday ready to go.

 

Last year was a tough year for me & I may be experiencing some of the depression that I went through last year. I still miss my pets very much but haven't replaced them. I have my 12 year old Australian Cattle Dog & don't want to upset her with another animal. She is still in mourning & waits by the door everyday for her friends to come home. I feel so bad for her, I just wish I could explain to her. 

 

I have a customer that wants a toaster cover & potholders in a 50's fabric. He found what he wanted & sent it to me. I am going to work on it today. 

 

 

    

 

Anyone Have A Good Method of Weaving in Ends???

I had a customer ask me to make a longie for her baby that was striped with 7 different colors. Usually I stop at four colors as knitting more than that on the machine is problematic.  I have a four color tension guide from my standard gauge machine set up on my mid-gauge & it works well. Using more colors means having to hand feed some of them, & I don't like to do that. When I do multiple colors I run the yarn up the right side of the knit if not using a color changer. The mid-gauge doesn't have a color changer so you are changing colors by hand. This particular pair of longies had 7 colors with 4 repeats.

 

 

                         I had so many ends that carrying up the side was not working. Too bulky. After the cover was off the machine I Kitchener stitched the yarn ends on the wrong side. I didn't really like that method but that is what I used. After I finished I did a search on You Tube looking for ways to knit in ends while making the garment. I only found a couple videos including one from the Answer Lady. I haven't tried it but am going to knit up some swatches & see how it works for me. I hope she doesn't mind my uploading her video to my blog. I emailed her but she didn't respond. Let me know what other methods are out there & if you have ever tried this.

 

 

 

I remember that I made several jackets one time & did an e-wrap on the side where I put the zipper to give it more stability.

 

 

 

A Moment Of Silence

Let us all observe a moment of silence with the passing of Knitware. As of January 1st of this year, Knitware has been discontinued.

Sponge Bars

As machine knitters we all know that to knit the machine requires a good sponge bar to do it's job correctly. My SR 860 was giving me trouble so I took out the sponge bar to check it. As I feared the sponge bar was shot. I had several sponge bars available & while I didn't have one for the 860 I had one that was close & thought I would use it. Wrong!! I had orders to get out & didn't want to wait for the new one to get here so I stuck in a sponge bar that looked pretty close to the old one. After I stuck it in there the machine knit fine but would not knit on hold at all. It just jammed every time. So then I tried to get the thing out & it was stuck. I tried poking it out with a screwdriver, grabbing it with needle nose pliers etc etc. Finally had to enlist the help of DH & take the bed off to get the darn thing out. I still have orders to get out so I put the old one back in & am knitting slowly with it until the new one arrives. NEVER put the wrong sponge bar in any machine. I knew that but conveniently forgot it but will not do that again!!

The 'Pie Crust' Edging

The 'Pie Crust' Edging

 

 

The 'Pie Crust' edging is a cute simple edging to add to your knitting It can be used on blankets or other places where an edging is needed. There are lots of different edgings available to machine knitters, but this is the easiest & the most fun I think.

 

 

These are a pair of my ruffled shorties. I make them for baby girls. I use the 'Pie Crust' edge on the bottom of the ruffle to give it a little pizazz'

 

 

Here is a close up of the edging. To make this you are going to take your project off the machine. Then rehang 3 complete stitches from the edge of the project that you want to edge. Knit 6 rows. Then, rehang the next 3 stitches on top of the 3 stitches on the machine. Knit another 6 rows. Continue in that fashion all the way around the edge. When you are finished you will have an edging that looks similar to a pie crust.

 

So far I am doing okay with my New Year Resolutions. I have had a couple of close calls. LOL I have stuck to it though & only 11 months to go. :)

 

 

 



Things for Friends

Right now I am making a jacket & pants for my friends new g'child. He is a big boy & very cute. I made him a set already & here is a picture of him.

It's a little cardigan hoodie. I made him some pants to go with them but he is not wearing them. When I saw that he is outgrowing the outfit(he's a big boy) I decided to make him another one. This one is made from Red Hearts Kids yarn knitted on my mid-gauge. The new one is from Millor Piropo, also on my mid-gauge. It is gray & navy with striped pants & navy hoodie with gray trim. Right now we don't have any new babies to knit for in the family & I do like making baby clothes so I do a lot of knitting for friends etc. + the women's shelter.

 

I'm sure that we have all made New Year's resolutions. Mine is not to charge anything on any of my credit cards for a whole year. It has to cash or go without. I would like to pay down my CC's at least by half. It is just too easy to go to the mall & charge up a storm. I have a bad habit of getting bored & then going shopping & buying all kinds of things that I don't need & in some cases don't even want.

 

I feel like I am neglecting my blog as I haven't been keeping up with it very well. I am going to do better this year.

 

 

I Do Love the Holidays

I do love the holidays but it seems like I get so overwhelmed with all the things that have to be done. It's always nice to get together with family, but it seems like my family invariably gets into little spats & catty comments, & I dread it. I don't know how to combat this so I just ignore it. Certain people seem to save up complaints just so they can bring them up when the whole family is together & then wait to see who picks which side. I have thought about not inviting the main culprits but when I tried that they showed up anyway. Just have to wait & see what happens this year. 

 

I have been selling a lot of little girl longies this year. I  like to put ruffles on the bottoms. The baby girls look so cute in them. Until I started the ruffles I was selling more to boys than to girls. Lots of blues & greens. Now I am getting tons of girl orders with lots of cute ruffles. Pinks & yellows etc. 

 

   

I have found that when I do the ruffles it works out better to do a tighter leg at the ankle as it makes the ruffle stand out more. I make the leg tighter like a legging. These are looser & I didn't think that the ruffle stood out enough. They have turned out to be really popular & are selling very well. I just wish more moms would take the time to send me pictures. I don't get half as many pictures as I would like. :)