Treadle Sewing Machine

While browsing the web I found this sewing machine. I didn't know that treadle machines were still being manufactured. This machine is for the Amish & promises to last for years. I remember that my G'mother had a treadle machine that she had converted to electric when I was a child. She let me sew on it & I promptly sewed the needle through my finger. My G'father pulled it out with a pair of pliers & I was none the worse for it, other than a sore finger.  I might have been 6-8 at the time. I remember seeing that machine stored in the basement years later when I was an adult. Having sewed my finger didn't discourage me though & I went on to sew clothes for myself & my family, although not on a treadle machine. Sewing doesn't seem to be one of the things that today's mom's want to do. Most of them work & it is hard to make time for crafting of any kind because of that. My daughter inherited my old machine when I bought a new one & has made some pillows & pajama's for the family. She enjoys sewing but is pressed to find time for it.  

I am continuing to work on orders. I am going to put the sweater for my daughter together in a few days & hope to have that finally finished.  

More of my Stash

More of my Stash that I am knitting up for my New Year's Resolution. This is all skein yarns. Some of it has been wound on cones for knitting. I have a 'Silver Needles Cone Winder' for that job & it is getting a workout!!

My cone winder allows me to wind the skein yarn on the cones for easier machine knitting. These are available from various site. You can google 'silver needles cone winder' to find them for sale. They are a bit on the spendy side but well worth the money. If you don't have one, I would recommend making it your next big purchase. You can also buy the plastic cones for them for $.35 cents each. If you use any of the Millor yarns you probably have a bunch of the cardboard ones already. 

 

I am continuing to work on my charity sweaters. I did manage to get a couple more of them knitted, but now, my house is complaining that I am neglecting her!! So will do house work instead of knitting for the next few days. 

Both of these sweater are drop shoulder, grafted sleeves with the loop thru loop bind off, hip length & short rowed neck/grafted neckband. The Red is a size 6 made from several partial skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver in red & one partial skein in the red/white/blue variegated yarn. The blue one is a size 2 & will fit a toddler. It takes me about an hour & 1/2 to knit one of these children's sweaters. There is no shaping except for the short rowed neck. Then maybe half an hour to sew them up. I use the mattress stitch for them. I do have a linker but have not made 'good' friends with it yet. I do use it to sew up fingering weight garments but I don't like the way it sews up worsted or sport weight yarns so do them by hand.

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

Grafted Sleeves with the Loop thru Loop Bind Off

Today I am going to talk about grafted sleeves & the Loop through Loop Bind Off. You can use the grafting method of attaching the sleeves if you're making a drop shoulder sweater.

1. Picture number one shows the front & back & neckband of my drop shoulder sweater. I have knitted the front & back & short rowed the neck then joined the shoulders, first one then attaching the neckband & join the other shoulder. I will talk more about short rowing the neck in a later post.

2.Picture number two shows the shoulder area of the side of the knit hanging on my machine for the appropriate number of stitches in your pattern, for your sleeve. To knit the first row, bring the needles to holding position, close all the latches & knit across the shoulder area carefully. Check to make sure that the row knitted correctly.

3.Do your decreases according to your pattern directions. After knitting the sleeve to the bottom, transfer your stitches from the main bed to the ribber bed for the rib you have chosen.

4. Rib the number of rows that the pattern calls for. Knit one very loose row from right to left. You can do this by turning the tension dial up to a tension 6-8 times looser than main tension.

5. Transfer your ribber stitches back to the main bed. Picture number three shows the ribbing finished & the row being bound off with the 'loop thru loop' method, pulling one stitch thru the next stitch for a very loose bind off & working from right to left. 

I debated making a video for this but Diana Sullivan, a machine knitting teacher, has given me permission to link to her videos so that you can watch the technique being done & maybe making it a bit easier to understand. I just didn't see any reason to duplicate her videos as they are very, very good & I doubt I could do any better. Here is the link for the technique.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaC-yt9Iq0

Finished Scrappie pullover, size 6 made with Red Heart SuperSaver with Knitware. Drop shoulder, hip length with grafted long sleeves & short rowed neckline with grafted neckband.

Smaller Size Sweaters for the Shelter

Here are several sweaters in the smaller sizes for the Women's Shelter. Right now I am working on some larger sizes. Even tho summer is just around the corner, we don't always have warm weather here. Sometimes it rains all summer long!! So sweaters are still useful esp. in the evenings & nights. If the yarn I am using is thin enough I like to embroider designs on them because the kids love that so much. & the brighter the colors the more they like them. I get lots of cute embroidery designs from Artistic Thread Works & it's just $19.95 for 90 days subscription. You can download as many designs as you choose. Take a look!!

I have Wendy Phillips book of designs for children & am going to make some fairisle sweaters using her books. They are out of print now but you can still find them at the auction sites etc.

Summer is Coming!!

Summer is coming & mom's are stocking up on shorties. Shorties are short pants made from wool & used over cloth diapers. Woolie shorties are part of the' green movement' to reduce the number of disposable diapers going into land fills. I believe it has made a significant difference & the movement is growing every day, I enjoy doing something that benefits everyone.  My store is doing well this season I am happy to say. 

I am working on my 'scrappies' too. I have finished several children's sweaters for the woman's shelter & am working on a couple more. I have several now in the smaller sizes & am looking for yarns to make some larger sizes. I usually make them up to a size 12 for kids. I also make larger sizes for the women there. Sometimes there are lots of babies, other times it's mostly older kids so I just make what I think will be helpful. I almost have a full box now so I will probably take it over there by the end of March or around there.

Another "Scrappie" (made from scraps) Sweater for Charity

This charity sweater is made from scraps, odds & ends of skeins that I used for different projects. I wanted to stripe the sleeve too but ran out of one of the blues so made them a solid green instead. This is made from Red Heart SuperSaver worsted weight yarn knit with my Silver Reed, SK 860. It is a size 4 & will fit a pre-schooler. The sweater is a raglan sleeve crew neck pullover, designed by KnitWare that is hip length to cover the whole torso. My Scrappies look as good as my family sweaters & I do make scrappies for my neices & nephews kids too. I am very pleased with the way this sweater turned out. 

I have had several orders come in so will be knitting them for the next few days. Then, back to my "Scrappies."