A Little of This & That

Here is a GC sweater that I knitted up while working on my orders. It is a drop shoulder with a 'cut & sew' neck, & grafted neckband. The sleeves are half length. It is made from Trenzado & turned out very nice. I like my sweaters long so this is hip length to fit down over my waist. I like the half sleeves because they don't get in the way when I'm knitting on the machine. Perfect fit to wear with a pair of jeans with the cooler weather that we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

Terminology 

While reading another blog I was surprised to learn that MK terminology should be used exclusively for MK. I read this blog religiously & am impressed by the expertise of the blogger when it comes to MK. After thinking about it for a few minutes I realized that I use some HK & MK terminology interchangeably. The issue she had was that 'bind off' is for HK & 'cast off'  is for MK. I have seen 'bind off' used in MK pattern books as well as Manuals. I think that some terms can be used for either craft, like cast on etc. Do you use the terms for either craft??

Word Verification

I have turned off 'word verification' on my blog several weeks ago. So far it hasn't been a problem except for the first few weeks when I was getting all kinds of spam. I think for someone that gets lots more hits than I do it might be a problem tho. 

Finished Fairisle Sweater

Here is my finished Fair isle Sweater. I was worried that the striped sleeves might be too much, but I was running out of the peach & the pink so had to combine them. This sweater is a size 6 made from Heirloom Comfort worsted weight yarn. It is machine wash & dry. It is a cut & sew neck & loop through loop bind off at the sleeve ribbing. This is a nice warm sweater & I hope that some little girl will love it. 

I am heading up to the shelter on Monday to deliver the box of sweaters. I have some larger sizes made as the director of the shelter asked for them. I still didn't get more than a couple rompers made. 

I have a sick Goldfish. I have had him for over 10 years. We bought him when my g'son was a toddler. Now he seems to be losing his fins & his eyes are protruding. I went to the pet store & spent around $30 for a fish that cost $1.50 at Walmart. LOL My g'son loves the fish, & I have to admit I am attached to him too, so I will do my best to save him. I changed his water, I do that weekly, & medicated him, but I am not optimistic. He is swimming around the tank, he is in a small 5 gallon tank, & he looks like he is gasping for breath. I put some sea salt in the water too. That is supposed to 'calm' him. We will see what happens now. Wish me luck!!

Electronic Knitting Machines

This is the EC-1 controller for the Silver Reed SK 860. It's about 20 years old. I had it rebuilt around 10 years ago, before the PC 10 came out. The PC-10 is the equivalent of the electronic motherboard in the Brother machines. I can't afford to buy the PC-10 right now, so when I decided to do some patterning on my 860, I dug up my EC-1 & hooked it up to the machine. I haven't used it for some time & am having to kinda relearn it. The 860 will also work with DAK, which I have, but I didn't want to move my machines all over to set it up for DAK. I have my Brother 965i hooked up to my DAK program. 

The EC-1 reads mylar sheets that you can draw your own patterns on. I have blank mylars & spare pencils for it. (I always over buy with my knitting supplies because I worry that they will be discontinued.) I want to make some shelter sweaters with single motifs.

 I did this one by embroidering the front by hand. I don't think I did a very good job, & am not going to do another one this way. I have drawn my pattern on a mylar sheet & if all goes well, I will have a sweater to show you on the next post. 

I bought this at Walmart a few years ago. It is plastic & It hangs on the wall. It holds all my various buttons, snaps, bobbins & knitting machine needles. I really needed something to put all of them in, where I could sort them out, but had a hard time finding something that I could use. I just love this. I don't have to search for the right needle any more, & can tell at a glance when I need to replenish my buttons or snaps. It was around $25. 

I am going to be highlighting things in my knitting room just for fun!!

Turning This into That!!!!!

Before 

After


Monday my DD & I are taking the box of scrappies to the Women's Shelter. I still have plenty more yarn to work  on through. It is a very satisfied moment for me!  I hope I get to see at least one child wearing one. That's the only thing I don't like about charity knitting. You don't get to see your garment being worn. Seeing someone wearing & enjoying a garment that I made for them really lifts my spirits. 


As you know, I do volunteer work for the Catholic Community Services. I was helping a mother of 4 last week. She had some medical problems, & life is very difficult for her & her children, esp since her DH left. She had some knitting that she was working on & I commented on how beautiful the yarn was. I told her that I hand knit & machine knit. She said 'that's something I would really like to learn, machine knitting.' That was music to my ears. I have an Artisan 70D that has been in garage for several years. I have heard that machine called 'the worst knitting machine ever' by more than one person, but I used it in my business for 5 years. It was my first mid-gauge machine. I bought it when they first came out so it doesn't have the newer carriage that turned out to be such a disaster.  I told her if she was interested, she could have it. I also told her all the negatives that I've heard. She jumped at the chance. We are going to take it over to her as soon as we can get to it. My garage is packed & we have to move a lot of things to reach it. Score one for Machine Knitters!!

Hoodie with Knitware

This is a hoodie that I knit for my g'son. I have since stopped putting ties in the hood & ribbed them instead because ties are not recommended for children between the ages of 2-12. It is knitted on my SR Sk 860 with Red Heart SuperSaver. It is a size 8, raglan sleeves & hip length. He was not happy about being photographed to be put on the Internet. He does not like to model the sweaters I make him, so I have to work out a trade. I will bake a chocolate cake if he will stand still long enough for a photo.

I am working on orders right now, but I have a couple of bins full of Red Heart partial skeins. I am going to continue to knit scrappies until I use it up. I have lots of SuperSaver & other yarns like Baby Soft & Baby Terri. I know that some machine knitters don't like the Red Heart yarns. I knit them on my mid-gauge & they make nice warm sweaters in spite of being inexpensive. I also hand knitted bunches of Red Heart sweaters before I started to machine knit, when I wasn't aware that there was cone yarn. I bought my first knitting machine from an infomercial on TV demonstrating the Bond plastic bed machine. It knitted the Red Heart yarns very well. Later, I learned about metal bed machines, beautiful coned yarns & fell in love with Machine Knitting. Now I have 5 machines & a garage full of bins of cone yarn that I have time to buy, but little time to actually knit. When I buy yarn I buy in larger quantities. I always know that I will find a project for the yarns that I buy, regardless of the color.  

My newest 'to knit for' project!! LOL