Machine Knitting in the wild

Written last week and posted today:
I am currently at my cabin for a week or so. No internet, no email, no radio, no TV, no distractions at all. It's very, very quiet. Just the sound of the waves and the rustle of chipmunks in the bushes.

To my knitting/designing friends, I have often bemoaned the fact that sometimes my bright ideas for changing the Top Down construction don't work. Imagine my surprise! My machine knitting friend Monika tells me that I could be trying sweater construction ideas out on a machine to see if they work before I dedicate 40 or 60 hours to knitting a sweater by hand and then finding out my idea didn’t really work like I wanted it to. I've finally stopped to listen to this advice.

In the summer I like to experiment and try new things. This year is the summer of the Knitting Machine. I’ve had one for a long time and not mastered it. I am told you do have to get it out of the box and use it more often than one week every 4 years or so. 

So here I am Mknitting in the wild.

I have made every mistake all my handknitting beginner knitters make. I’ve not read to the end of instructions and wondered why it didn’t work. I thought I knew what to do the second day when I cast on because I’m a pro after one day, Not. I knew this would happen and so am laughing at myself for being so cocky. I thought I started my short rows incorrectly, took it all out and then re-read the instructions to find that I had done it right the whole time. OK, wasn’t laughing so much over that one. Then worked my short rows and forgot all the wraps. Laughing again. You may have caught the theme here. It's actually good to be a beginner again. I’m slowly getting the hang of it.

I have a wearable garment! I’m so excited. This is in Saucon Fingering, a cotton/acrylic usually knit at 28 sts = 4". I knit this sweater at 22 sts = 4". It's a fairly open weave. Should be really cool to wear.

I made a drop shoulder garment since I thought it would be the easiest construction to get started. Although I did do some inexplicable things. I can’t figure out where my head was at. I decided to work it with a seam up the front and back, and the sides too?! What was I thinking? I also decided somewhere along the line that I needed 10” of ease around my hips. I don’t know what happened there. So then it was too short for all that extra hip width. The next day I added an extra 3-4” inches to the bottom and now I’m very proud of my first Mknit garment of the summer.

I worked short rows into the sleeves. Even on a drop shoulder garment, the short rows make the sleeves hang much better.

I added A-line shaping (with lots and lots and lots of increases for the hip, for some strange reason). And yes, I did mattress stitch all those seams.

Next week the experimentation begins. I can't wait to get back to the cabin to get started. I have lots of ideas. I hope I haven't forgotten everything I learned last week.

-Deb

Shawl Collar

The Knitter's Fair was busy and since attendance has been down the last couple of years, I worked the Cabin Fever booth by myself. Busy or what! Unfortunately no time for taking photos since I hardly got a chance to walk around at all. These shows are fun to do and a lot more knitters have our books in their hands. Good all around.

It's been a weird couple of weeks. Our internet service is not working. Everything we try doesn't work for more than a few hours. One evening my husband was on his Ipad doing sudoku (which doesn't need the internet) during a thunder storm. Lightening struck, "we're connected!". It lasted only a couple of hours again.

I do have a phone where I can receive emails but I can't attach documents and several other things I take for granted. Now I am sitting in the library, lately my second home, writing this blog.

What am I knitting? Shawl collars. One of our designs for the 4-14 Pullover book is a V-neck. Now it has a shawl collar. First prototype:

We decided it would be fun to put a button at the collar crossing of the V. So I've reknit it, made a couple of adjustments. I'm several rounds away from the Great Divide for a 6 year old size.

All of this involves short rows of course.

But the easy kind, a short row wrap & turn where, because it's garter stitch, the wrapped stitch gets knit as a normal stitch. Yay, no working the wrap with the stitch. Easy peesy. Here's a before and after shot.

This is again, top down, starting with the collar. It's been fun to knit.
-Deb

German Short Rows

I now have another new favourite way of working short rows: German Short Rows.

The first time I tried them I wasn't convinced they were for me. It was a first date after all. But there are so many ruffles in this Ruffled Cowl

that I kept going back to these short rows just because they're different. Eventually I fell in love with them. Now I want to do another short row project just so I can use them.

On the knit row, knit to the turning point, turn to purl side and WITH YARN IN FRONT, slip 1 stitch, pull the working yarn tight to pull the stitch up so you see 2 bars like this, called a double stitch. Take the yarn over the Right needle to the back, bring under the Right needle to the front again and purl stitches back.

On the purl side, purl to turning point, turn to the knit side and WITH YARN IN FRONT, slip 1 stitch, pull working yarn up tight to produce a double stitch (it's twisted and should look like that). Take the yarn over Right needle to the back and knit stitches back as directed.

When you need to work past the last time you turned, work the 2 bars of the double stitch together by working a K2tog or a P2tog. It really works great.

You can substitute them for the standard Wrap & Turn but you need to make a small adjustment. If your W&T directions say to K8, Wrap & Turn, then for German Short Rows, K9 (one extra stitch), Turn and with yarn in front slip the first stitch and pull tight to make a double stitch. The double stitch stands in place of the Wrapped stitch and is done after the Turn. This video explains it quite well  German Short Rows for the Wrap & Turn.

Fun with Short Rows,
Deb

Day 10: Boredom is Good

How can being bored be a good thing? It can make you a better knitter, that how.

• Learn a New Method:  I have been working on a Short Row cowl which is taking rather a long time to knit. Because I was bored I started looking on the internet for at all the ways there are to knit short rows. I can now work 6 types of short rows and did just that in my project. Not bored anymore.

• Decorate the Sides:  If you have miles and miles of stockinette stitch to work in the Body of your sweater, consider working a stitch pattern in a panel at each of the sides. Not bored any more. Side Pattern Vest

• Better Borders:  If you're working down your Top Down sweater and need something to keep you going, look through your stitch dictionary and find a really fantastic stitch pattern for the Bottom Border and the Cuffs. Worked a Slip Stitch pattern for a ShirtTail bottom border (from the Need A Circular Yoke book). Not bored any more.

• Knit Theme Socks:  Knit socks a lot? Looking for a cool stitch pattern to put in your next pair? Look through your Stitch Dictionary with someone or something in mind. What stitch pattern reminds me of my grandson? Or which stitch pattern represents Marriage, Life, Winter Fun, the Beach to me. These remind me of Fall, Pine Cone Socks.

Get bored and see what happens,
Deb

The new Crescent Spokes scarf is up on Patternfish. I knit it in Saucon Fingering, my current favourite yarn. It's a cotton/acrylic fingering (sock) weight yarn and makes a really great scarf. I think I'm a convert to scarf wearing now. I had a great time figuring out how many ways this scarf could be worn.

 

Deb

Ta, da. A new crescent scarf, third time lucky. It's in Saucon Fingering, a cotton/acrylic blend which I really like. The pattern is written and I'm getting it testknit in Fountain Hill, a mohair/acrylic blend for two different looks. Hopefully that will be done next week. Maybe I will become a scarf person after all.
Deb

It's blocking day. This scarf didn't take long to knit at all, except for the cast on and cast off, ha, ha. And they do take a bit of time but taking a couple of breaks helps. It's much narrower than my first one. Blocks out to 7" deep at the top of the circle.

I worked it in Saucon Fingering which is a cotton/acrylic blend.

Knits up really nicely on a 4.5mm/U.S.7 needle. It's drying right now and will be ready to come off the pins later today.

A shocking lack of blogging going on here. But I have been knitting, just not doing much in the way of photography. I'm working on a crescent shawl. I did the red one in Saucon Fingering cotton/acrylic and found it too short, more like a collar. But I have to say it steam blocked beautifully.


So I did another one larger in all directions, in Fountain Hill, a mohair/acrylic. It's feels gorgeous, light as a feather.


But I'm finding that everyone I show it to wants to throw part of it over their shoulder.

This one is still a bit too short to stay in place comfortably and rather deep, don't you think? So I'm working on number 3. I'm making it more of a crescent scarf than a shawl, half the depth of lace and longer short rows for less depth. So far I'm liking it but it doesn't look like much yet. Hoping to do some more work on it tomorrow. Stay tuned, I will need some feedback.
Deb

A couple more neck cozies, one adult and one childs. They're really easy and fast to do and trying out different lace patterns has been fun.

Certainly gives me a chance to try them out and see how I like how they look and knit up. My Retreat Notes are ready to go. Just a few more days 'til we get together to have fun with this project.
deb

For the Cabin Fever Retreat I'm working on a top down project that you could get done over the weekend. Here are my ideas for a top down neck cozy. It still has scoop neck shaping and raglan increases. But I think you could make it like this, jazz it up with some lace and wear it under your coat. A small adult top down project in Aran weight wool. Quick, fun and interesting!

You could button up the collar and have a turtleneck for extra warmth. I do love the Corona lace pattern on the bottom. The collar is in feather and fan lace.

This one has the beginning of a shawl collar but I ran out of wool. I think the body could be longer still (if I have a second ball) for a caplet. I know I have 2 balls of something around here I could use to try that out!  What do you think?
-Deb

Buttons are on!!! I hope I can hear the applause. Ha, ha. I sewed these on so that I could avoid another job. Oh sorry but I HAVE to sew these buttons on, right now! Now it's a pleasure.

This is in a Heavy Worsted/Aran yarn,  Belfast by Kraemer Yarns in the U.S. and distributed by Cabin Fever in Canada. This vest has a ribbed panel down each side.

This one is in worsted weight yarn, W4 by Shelridge Farm, kettle-dyed superwash in the Wedgewood colour. Lovely to knit.

The lace pattern down the side was fun to do.

Now I'm checking the patttern and I need a better photo too. Next week it should be up.

-Deb

Laurie (from the comments) brought up the topic of short rows to shape the bust. The reason to work short rows is to put more length on the Front of your garment so that it doesn't pull up at the waist. If your bust has taken up enough of the vertical length you will be left a couple inches short at the bottom.

It works by making a wedge of fabric just under your bust and really works wonders for the fit of your sweater. This wedge can be added into most patterns you're working on. This is the best tutorial I found on the subject Bust Short Rows by Knotions. She works it from the bottom up starting with long short rows which get smaller and smaller. I would differ on how to do them from the Top Down.

From the Top Down it could work like this:  Work your sweater down to the underarm. Work straight to past the largest part of your bust. Working from the side seam, knit across the first breast to the second breast point + 1", Wrap & Turn. You can imagine this by looking down at your chest and reading this at the same time to get the idea. With the wrong side facing, purl back across to 1" past the other breast point, W&T. Now continue to work the short rows, working the wrap and stitch together when you come to it and knitting 1 or 2 sts past, W&T at the end of each row. You are working closer and closer to the side seam and the short rows are getting longer and longer. When you have enough rows of fabric you would resume working the sweater as before.

I'm no artist but I hope that gives you some idea of how it works. How much fabric do you need? In the tutorial Knitting Notions measures from the shoulder down to the waist Beside your bust. And then takes the same measurement Over the bust. The difference is how much extra fabric you need. I thought that was a very good way to work it out. How much fabric you need, worked out to the number of rows needed, will tell you where you have to start and stop. If you need 3" of material worked in short rows then working from the bottom up you need to start them at least 4" below your bust points. Working from the top you would start 1" below where you measure the largest.

I know Laurie has tried this and although she didn't get them in exactly the right spot they did make a terrific difference to the fit of her sweater. So even if they're not perfect they do work. Interesting, eh?

-Deb