What Will Happen to the UFO's??

I have a BIG box of UFO's. I have decided that I am going to finish all of them before I start on any thing else. I have sweaters started that are now way to small for the intended person. I have a cardigan that I started 4!! years ago for my DS. I could go on & on but you get the idea. 

I believe that MK should try to knit every day. However, I also believe that projects that have been started should be finished in the minimum amount of time. It isn't that I have a short attention span. It's just that beautiful cones of yarn call to me while I am trying to concentrate on the currant project. & when I go to bed at night it continues to call to me so that it is hard to stick to what's still on the machine. Most everything is knitted up & just needs neckbands & assembling. 

Here's a little swatch I knitted up from the Silver Reed patterns a while back. Eventually I am going to make my g'son a sweater from this. He picked it out himself & helped with the knitting. He is such a sweetheart & loves to wear the things that I make him. 

I am on a number of MK lists although I don't devote a lot of my time to reading them. I just don't have the time to keep up with them. I did go have a look at the list the other day & one of the list members was complaining because her son, I think she said, told her that he 'did not want any of that homemade crap' this year. I thought that was a rather horribly cruel thing to say. We don't make the things we make to compete with all the manufactured goods out there. Sometimes when we make things they don't turn out to be all that we hoped they would. But we are in effect saying 'I care about you' & that should be acknowledged, not denigrated because it is a homemade gift.  Just my 2 cents.

   

My Little Penguin

Here is my little penguin all knitted up. I haven't tightened up the stitches yet or woven in the ends. I was debating whether or not I should show you the back but decided it would be too discouraging. LOL  It came out really cute. This is a size 4 sweater for my store.  Now I have to do the back & the sleeves. 

This was a very simple pattern, however I did make a couple of mistakes. Not 'glaring' mistakes but a knitter would see them. Probably not anyone else.  Doing intarsia on the mid gauge is sooo much easier than doing it on the standard gauge. 

Hope all had a beautiful Mother's Day!!

There is a new group on facebook. It's called 'Machine Knitting Friends'. Join in!!

Doing Intarsia

This is the pattern I am going to use for my first intarsia  sweater. I downloaded this from the web. I thought it was really cute & it is smaller, 43 rows, so it will fit on a child's sweater. It only has 5 colors so that makes it easier & it is a simple pattern.

 I did some intarsia on the SK 860 just to test the carriage with my machine & it works great. It knits the stitches easily & glides across the machine bed with no problems. I can't thank the person that emailed me the info on the carriage enough.

Here are my bobbins wound with the appropriate colors to start the design . I am going to knit the bottom of the sweater first with the main carriage. I had to match the gauge of the main carriage with the intarsia carriage. 

The directions said to set the intarsia carriage to the same tensions as the main bed carriage but since this is for the bulky I decided to set it one number smaller. It matched almost exactly. I don't think you will be able to tell which carriage knitted what. 

FYI:while looking for intarsia bobbins on the web I found them by searching for 'yarn bobbins' rather than 'intarsia bobbins.' The ones I found on Amazon, my 'go to' place, were much more expensive than the ones I found on the Knitting Warehouse.

I am still a basket case after running over my poor cat. I am having a hard time eating & keeping up with life in general. I am hoping that the pain will lesson with time. I have accepted that it was an accident, but it isn't making it any easier. She was much loved & is much missed. 

My Beloved Cat

I accidentally  ran over my cat today, & am just devastated about it. She was 17 years old & in good health. When I come home in the afternoon she is always waiting for me on the porch. She evidently walked off the porch & sat down in front of the car & I didn't know it. I felt the car go over her & immediately jumped out to get her but she ran from me. I hurried into the house to call the vet & see if he was still at the office. He was & he said to get her in as fast as I can, but when I grabbed a towel to wrap her in & went back out she was dead. I am just wracked with guilt & heartbroken at the same time. She was my best friend. I miss her completely. 

Intarsia Carriage

I have been wanting to do intarsia on my Silver Reed SK860. While looking on the web I found an article about the AG 40 intarsia carriage for the SK860. I thought 'Good!! There is one,' however I was unable to actually find one for sale. Or even a picture of one. 

I posted a 'wanted' ad on the machine knitting for sale lists. I received one reply that there was not an AG40, but that the AG30 would work with the SK860. It is for a bulky machine but the needles are the same size except for a very tiny difference in the hook size. I'm thinking that, if that is correct it will work on my machine. 

After searching on the web I was able to find a very over priced AG30.  But I went ahead & bought it & am now waiting for it to come. It was at Peter Smith's shop in CA so will probably have to pay custom fees when it gets here. Whew!! But if it works it will be worth the expense. 

Afghans For Afghans

The A4A program is starting a new campaign.  They want 100% wool hats, mittens, & socks. Be sure & go to their web site to read all the details. The link is on the left of my blog. No sweaters or vests this time around. I really did like making the sweaters the best. 

Erik & Erika

He will be 2 in June & she will be 1 in August. 

Another Fair Isle Sweater

This is the next fair isle sweater pattern that I am making. This is a size 4 sweater for the shelter. I did the patterning with my Silver Reed SK860 & the EC-1 controller. I think the reason that I have that line going down the center of the pattern is that I forgot to put the 'needle one cam' on the bed. When I realized it, I was half finished with the front so didn't want to change the pattern & went ahead & finished it without the cam. Next time!! I think it still looks cute & don't think that they will realize it's a boo boo. The floats on this pattern are so short no latching up is necessary. This is going to be a 'cut & sew' neck because it is easier than trying to match the pattern on either side with a bound off neckline. The back & the sleeves are going to be the dark purple. Tomorrow I am volunteering so probably won't get back to this until the weekend. 

This is my little sewing table. My craft room is very small. I searched high & low for a table that was small enough to fit. I bought this table from Amazon.com. It fits just perfect in the space & has a drop leaf that I can raise if I close the door, that gives me double the space for cutting out patterns etc. I have had it for awhile & it is starting to show some wear & tear, esp. because of my bad habit of bringing my coffee into my craft room & setting it on the table. I use it for sewing, embroidery, linking & my serger. 

There is a new group on facebook. It's called 'Machine Knitting Friends'. Join in!!

My Goldfish is better, I think. At least he is not swimming around the tank gasping for breath. Now he is hanging at the top of the tank & not moving much. His eyes are not protruding anymore tho. & his fins are not rotting off, I don't think. I am going to change half the water in the tank Saturday & medicate him again. I took all the toys out of his tank & cleaned them with bleach, & washed them very well before putting them back in. My friend says that 10 years is a long time for goldfish to live so maybe old age is complicating his recovery. 

Dealing with Floats

There are several ways to deal with floats on the back of your knitting. One way is to latch them up. Here is a picture of a fairisle pattern that I am going to be knitting next. I use this pattern alot as I really like it. Here  is the knit side with the floats latched up on the purl side..

Here is the same pattern without the floats latched up.

They look pretty much the same. 

Now here is a picture of the floats on the purl side.

They are messy & have a tendency to get caught in your fingers when putting the garment on. They sag & get pulled out & just don't work well. It is discouraging when choosing a knitting pattern that you love, but the floats are too long to be practical. 

This picture shows the floats that have been latched up when knitting the swatch. 

Latching up the floats pulls them into the garment & you are not as likely to catch your fingers on them. The do make the knitting pull in some so the gauge is different for latching & not latching. 

To do this you must plan ahead. Determine how long the floats are going to be. I don't latch up any thing less than 5 stitches. 

With this pattern the longest float is 10 stitches. Also, I don't latch up any more than 10 rows. You can do it differently, that is just what I do. 

After you figure out what the floats are going to be, decide how many rows you will latch up. With this pattern I decided that I would latch up all the floats, 10 rows at a time. 

1. Knit 10 rows in pattern. Go underneath the first float with your latch tool & pull that 2nd loop out & over the top.

2. Latch up the remaining 8 floats. Don't pull them while you latch them because it will distort you're pattern.  

3. Hang the last loop on the needle above the last float. 

4. Knit 10 more rows & repeat. 

Continue in this fashion for the complete garment. 

There are more ways to finish off floats & I will cover them later. I did not have time to do them right now.