Embellish the Neckline a Little

Today I am going to talk about embellishing the neckline a little bit. This is really an easy addition to your pullover, & VERY simple + adds a little pizazz to the look.

 

 

This is a very easy pullover with grafted neckline & sleeves. I don't have it sewn up yet but will finish it up today. It is for the Clothing Bank here in town. One of the ladies that volunteers there said there is a great need for children's jackets & sweaters & hats so I decided to make them some. I also thought that this would be a good time to say a little about necklines.

 

 There are lots of things that you can do to spice up the neckline. Mary Anne Oger(I hope I spelled that right) has a great book out called the "Necks Best Thing". She has lots of great necklines for the MKer.

 

 

This picture is of the neckline. It isn't as easy to see as I had hoped it would be. There is a ridge around the neck that makes it stand out some as opposed to the plain neckline. To make this neckline you need to:

 

1.Rehang the neckline stitches with the right side of the knit  facing you on the KM.

 

2. Knit one row straight across with the main bed carriage.

 

3.After that, transfer your stitches for the rib that you are using.

 

4. Knit the rib(this is the grafted neckband).

 

5. After the rib is knitted you want to take the neckline off with the garter bar or waste yarn.

 

6. Turn the neckline around & rehang it with the wrong side facing you.

 

7. You are going to bind off the neckline by rehanging the first row of the neckline stitches. You will have 2 stitches on each needle.

 

8. Bind off the neck over 2 gate pegs loosely.

 

If you want you can knit more than just the one row for the ridge. Sometimes I do 2 rows for a more pronounced ridge. Just a little something to add interest!!

 

PQ 1500s 

As you know, I bought a Brother PQ 1500s earlier this year & I just love it. It is a straight stitching machine that is advertised as a quilting machine. I was looking for a bias binder foot to fit on my machines to attaché bias tape. I bought 2 binder foots(feet??) from Brother that are made for the PRW 420 but they didn't work very well.

 

 

For the PRW 420 & 1/4" tape.

Also for the PRW 420 For 1/2" tape.

 

Neither of these worked very well. In the demonstrations they show the feet work perfectly but in actual practice not so well.

 

I saw this foot that is for an industrial machine from SailRite. 

I bought this foot & attached it to my PQ machine, which is a semi-industrial machine & it worked even better than I had hoped. It was exactly what I was looking for.

 

Here it is on my machine. You can't see it but I have taped a piece address label on the bed of the machine. The foot is what is called a 'swing away' foot & it chipped the bed of the machine where it slides  around to working or non working status. I thought with a little bit of tape that would cushion the bed & it wouldn't chip any more than it is. So far it is working.

 

 

 

My DD says that I am neurotic to get so upset over a couple of little dings. I like to keep my things looking nice & it really upsets me when something like this happens. I am crazy?? Maybe!!. My first impulse was to throw myself on the floor & scream & kick, but managed to avoid doing that. But I am not happy about it. :(

 



Shaped Necklines when Knitting with G-Carraige, Fairisle or other Stitch Patterns

When knitting pattern stitches with the G-Carriage it is possible to have a shaped neckline. It is an alternative to the cut & sew neckline. It makes a beautiful neckline & isn't all that hard to do, but a bit time consuming. (Some mker's try knitting back the out of work needles with ravel cord but that never worked for me)

 

1. When you get to the neckline while knitting the front of your garment you want to scrape off the complete front with your main bed carriage. You will be doing the neckline one side at a time.  

 

2. Then rehang the left side back on the machine keeping in mind that you have to return the stitches to the original needles in order to keep your pattern knitting correctly. If you scraped off stitches for the shoulder you do want to rehang those stitches. Do not rehang the stitches from the neckline on the right side, or the center stitches. I hang the right side on the gate pegs so that the weight is not pulling on the other side.

 

3. My pattern says to bind off 1 stitch each row at the edge of the neckline. Since we are doing the left side first that would be needles on the left side only. Instead of doing that I am going to drop a stitch at the neckline for each bound off stitch each row, & use a double eye needle to knit them off & run contrasting yarn through that stitch.  Knit in pattern with GC or whatever.

Those stitches will not unravel because they are on waste yarn & have the extra yarn drawn through them.

 

4. My pattern then says to knit 12 rows on the remaining stitches. Let the G-Carriage knit those rows in pattern. Scrape off stitches after knitting your 12 rows. 

 

5. Now rehang the stitches for the right side of the neck omitting the center neckline stitches. Knit as for left side reversing the shaping.  

 

6. The pattern will tell you to knit the 12 rows even. These rows will be the side of the neckline that go straight up without any shaping. Scrap off.

 

7. Now we have both sides of the neckline stitches almost finished. Rehang the stitches from the neckline on the appropriate needles & then hang the inside edge of the neckline stitches on the needles keeping in mind how big you want your neckband. Knit one row across these stitches in plain knitting. Scrap off.

 

8. Attach front & back at one shoulder & rehang the neckline on the machine, the back of the sweater neckline too, including the rows that were knitted even & the stitches that were scrapped off on waste yarn. Start the rib knitting for the double neckband. You might have to knit through by hand the first row. After that the GC can take over or knit the rib with  main carriage & ribber carriage.

 

9. Once you have knitted the appropriate number of rows you can rehang the first neckband stitches so that you have 2 stitches on each needle, & bind off over 2 gate pegs.

 

  You now have a beautifully  shaped neckline & can proceed with attaching the sleeves & sewing up. Remove the waste yarn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Back to Kniting Diaper Covers

Back to knitting diaper covers again. Don't have any pictures right now.

 

I managed to get the negative feedback removed. Doubt I'll ever see my carriage. I did post a 'Beware' of this person on Facebook & the MK list. Ileen Levy said she may have tried to pull the same scam on her a couple of years ago. For those of you that don't know Ileen, she has a brick & mortar store as well as selling online.

 

It seems like lately everyone is asking for discounts on the covers. I know times are hard for families with small children. I am older & financially secure now but I haven't forgotten what it is like to have little kids at home & not enough money for clothes, food etc. I remember pinching pennies & making do. I still have stay on a budget. I try to give the younger parents a break whenever I can but with the cost of the yarn & the escalating costs of shipping, it isn't easy. I haven't raise my prices since before the recession. Although I am able to buy my supplies wholesale I have to buy a bag at a time of each color I want. I can't buy just enough for one cover. & even wholesale, they are not cheap by any means.

 

I decided to change the template for my blog. Thought I would go pink for awhile. :)

 

 

 

 



My Diaper Covers

I make my diaper covers in 5 sizes; Newborn, 6 month, 12 month, 2T, & 4T. Recently I was asked by a mom to make a preemie/small baby size in the pullon style. I always recommend the pullons for smaller babies because of the way it fits. & I think they look cuter on smaller babies than the shorties do, although I make a lot of shorties for smaller babies too.

 

Pullon

 

 

as opposed to the shortie on a very tiny baby,

 

 

 

When I first designed my pullons I didn't think they would sell very well because I just didn't think that moms would be interested in them, but I loved them so tried to promote them on my Hyena Cart Store & Ebay.  I had seen some similar covers online & they didn't seem to sell well either. I wanted to make mine with good coverage around the legs as the shortie legs were so loose & seem to flap around. My pullons have proven to be a big seller & I am adding new colors all the time.

 

 

It turns out that my pullons sell almost as well as my shorties, which are by far my biggest selling item. Several moms have asked for a pullon with long legs for winter. I think that I will make the legs ribbed so that they will hug the baby.

 

Ebay forced me to give the crazy Ebayer her money back even though she lied about everything. I don't have the ribbed transfer carriage back yet. I imagine it will be in pieces when it shows up, if it even does. I didn't wait until I received it back before I refunded her. I know I should have but I wanted to get rid of her once & for all. She actually wanted me to pay her for sending it back to me. I decided to do some investigating about this woman. It turns out she is Lucille Rowels, aka Kazekaknits, & lives in Chicago Il. She is a 55 year old attorney, but not a very good one judging from her feedback. I wonder if she is on any of the MK lists. One other thing, she does not know how to use a rib transfer carriage. LOL

 

The other day I was talking to my neighbor about some of my glass bake ware that has burned on food & grease. I have scrubbed it with cleanser, SOS pads, magic eraser & whatever else I could think of to get it clean, all to no avail. My neighbor, Kathy told me to put toothpaste on the SOS pads & water & it will remove it. I tried it & it does work. In fact, it worked so well that I got my old cookies sheets out & scrubbed them too. It worked for them to0!!

 

Remember our Warriors

 

 

  

Scrappie Finished

 

I have finished my shelter scrappie. This pattern was generated with the Knitware program, of course. I use the program to save myself from having to chart the patterns & to tell me if I have enough yarn to make the garment of my choice. It is easy to use & does a great job once you are used to the fit of the garment that you are making. I have learned a lot of machine knitting techniques over the years & generally finish the garment my own way, rather then the way that the pattern states. Sometime ago I did a post about short rowing the neck (http://machineknittingismylife.blogspot.com/2011/03/short-rowed-neck-with-grafted-neckband.html)(& neckband & grafting it onto the garment rather that binding off stitches & attaching it later. It makes a much nicer band that looks far superior & Also more stretchy than the bound off band.  

 

 

I weighed my swatch & used the program to calculate how much yarn I needed to make the sweater. The program told me that I had enough but I decided that I wanted to make a hat to go with this sweater so looked through my stash for more of this yarn. I know it's out there somewhere but I could not find any. This is the amount of yarn that I had left after I finished the sweater.

 

 I understand the basic principle of how the program is able to do that, by calculating the number of rows & stitches in the swatch & the number of rows & stitches in the garment & dividing those numbers, one into the other. I don't think I could do it myself with any rate of success. LOL. I am grateful to the Janet's of this world that are able to do just that. 

 

& Here is the finished sweater!!

 

I am still dieting but have hit a rough spot. I have lost 42 LBS but it is going much slower than before & is getting much harder to resist the all the goodies out there, but I am still trying.

 

 

 

While selling some of my older knitting things on eBay for a relatively low price compared to the price of other like items I unfortunately attracted the attention of Kazekaknits that left this feedback for me;

Buyer Beware:Item broken when arrived & doesn't work. Seller doesn't do refunds

I do not sell defective merchandise. There is nothing wrong with the carriage as I tested it before I sold it, & in fact sold 2 of them. She sent me 8 emails during the transaction demanding all sorts of ridicules things & I emailed her that I was going to cancel the bid. I knew I should cancel it but gave her the benefit of the doubt. She doesn't know how to use it & this is the result. Beware of the crazies.



Still No Orders

Still no orders so am working on shelter sweaters again. I am enjoying myself relaxing. I have knitted up the front & back of another child's sweater. This is a scrappie (BTW:I know that I am misspelling the word scrappie. When you knit diaper covers they are all shorties, longies, footies, skirties etc.) so thought I would do the front & back in the variegated yarn & the sleeves in another solid color yarn, but I am thinking instead that I will try to get the sleeves out of the same yarn as I didn't like the look of the yellow that I had picked out. I did weight the swatch & it says I have enough. I know that somewhere in my bins I have more of this yarn & am going to search the garage for it tomorrow.

 

 

I am also going to post the pattern for this sweater if someone else is interested in making one. This is a pattern generated by the Knitware Program. If you can match my gauge you can make this. It is a size 2 with a comfortable fit. I added 6 stitches to the neckband. It is hip length & a pullover. It has a doubled neckband, & drop shoulder grafted sleeves that are knit from the shoulder down. The ribbing on the sleeves are transferred from the main bed & knitted directly onto the sleeve. I know that the patterns may say to take the sleeve off the machine & knit the ribbing independently of the sleeve & then sew them on. This is definitely not the best way to do that. Just transfer them to the ribber & knit them, then bind off the stitches with the loop through loop bind off.(you can find a demonstration of the 'loop trough loop bind off' on U Tube by searching for it. Diana Sullivan has made lots of how to videos that really are excellent)  This sweater is being knitted on my SR 860 mid gauge machine. 

 

 

 

  If you right double click on the pattern it will show a larger size. Save it & then print it out & see if it is legible.

I am not sure how to enlarge the pattern to make it easier read. If anyone had a suggestion please email me. I have been trying to enlarge it for the past hour. LOL Will try again tomorrow. Or if you want the pattern emailed contact me.

 

 

 

Where Does the Time Go??

I have been knitting & knitting without much time for anything else. Finally I have a break. I have NO orders right now so am working on my knitting room again. I don't know how it gets cluttered up so fast. I try to keep some order but it always gets away from me.

 

I still have the sewing bug. I am going to try again with the toddler quilts. Maybe I will have better luck this time. Wal-Mart here in town has expanded their store to include a craft section & groceries. I am not crazy about their fabric but I feel I can get some good supplies there. Now that all is quiet around here I am going to see what they have that might make some new toddler quilts. I bought the charm packs for the first ones from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. They were very cute & just right for little kids. If I can't find anything at WM I will reorder from them.

 

Since I found out that I have Macular Degeneration I am cleaning out the things that I don't use or haven't used in a long time. I have a floppy disc drive that I haven't used in years & am going to sell it along with some other things. Sticking it in a box & leaving it there forever is an example of how I hoard things like that. I had it rebuilt maybe 6-7 years ago so it is like new. I am not selling anything I need & as long as I can see to sew & knit I will keep everything that I can still use. I went back to the doctor & he said that I actually did a little better than I did 6 months ago. I am taking eye vitamins & also some drops & I can tell that I can see colors more vividly, but I can also see the tiniest little spot in the center of my vision in my left eye that is blank. It is not interfering with my crafts yet. My right eye is not as affected as my left & I believe that I can continue with my crafts for a long time to come.

 

I knitted a couple of outfits for some new babies as gifts. Here is a picture of Drew in his new hat & cardigan.

 

 

I also made him a blanket but no picture of that yet.

 

Have a Happy Easter!!