Can Life Get Any Better?!

Welcome to the "Spinning and Weavers" guild meeting for May. This is not a group I belong too. Not that I don't want too, but I came as a friend of a member. Way out of my realm of knowledge. I just haven't gone there...yet. I don't think I've ever met a more creative group of women. Not only do they spin their own yarn, but some of them raise their own sheep for the wool. I am very impressed.

The gal 3rd in on the left in the blue shirt with the long dark hair is named Barbara. She invited us all to entered the "Sheep to Shawl" contest at the Sacramento County Fair in May. She said she needs some competition. Then she got flustered saying not that she's tooting her horn, but that no one enters and sometimes wins out of default.

The gal on the far right of the picture in a blue sweater has a Knitting Machine set up at work. She machine knits as part of her work. I'm SO jealous. We got to talking about machine maintenance and she wanted my info on how to refurbish a sponge bar since I have done 2 successfully. Felt so good to be able to contribute to a group of such creative experience ladies.

Isn't this a gorgeous place to meet. It is Horton's Iris Farm. We were surrounded with Iris everywhere! I'm not exaggerating. We sat and did whatever fiber art we brought. Lots of spinners, some knitters and I brought some crocheting. Then we had lunch. We all packed a lunch and the gal hosting provided tea and Cinco de Mayo cupcakes. I never wanted to rejoin the real world. I just wanted to sit amongst the flowers, spinning wheels and crochet forever.

The Iris farm isn't far from my home and I didn't even know it was there. I'll be back to probably buy some Iris. Or maybe they'll see me sitting in the middle of the Iris crocheting some time. They'll have to run me off with a stick.

My favorite Iris were these 2 Iris right by each other. The colors were glorious. It had rained the night before and everything was SO fresh and beautiful.

Knitting and Driving

A policeman spots a woman driving and knitting at the same time.


Driving up beside her, he shouts out the window...... "Pullover"!!


"No," she shouts back, "a pair of socks!"

My Knitting Machine

Here is my Toyota KS 650 Bulky knitting machine. When I first saw people knitting with knitting machines I knew I wanted to get into it. I really didn't want to spend the money to buy a machine and my crafty friend Julia came to the rescue with a donated machine. She taught me how to clean and oil the machine and how to refurbish the sponge bar.
I've been VERY fortunately in that this used machine was in relatively good condition. The carriage (piece with the handle) did have some yarn tangled in it that I couldn't get undone. I sent the carriage to Needle-Tek and they fairly quickly and at a reasonable price sent it back ready to go. Another fortunate thing is the machine came with it's original instruction book. That has helped me tremendously. I'm really surprised at how I've taken to the machine. I've done a few simple projects. Basically anything I can make with a rectangle I'm good. I gearing up to brave making socks.

Machine Knit Mystery Solved

Mystery solved by machine knitting guru Berda. She gave me the link to these 2 videos. The piece comes with the SRP-60N Ribber that I just purchased. I don't have a book for it, so I ordered one from ebay. In the below videos Susy Ranner demonstrates how to use what I think she's called the P-carriage used for pile knitting. If you want to get straight to the end product view the 2nd video. What I love about watching Susy is she is so genuine. She let's you see all the foibles and aggravation of being a machine knitter. AND you get to see the triumph of getting the end product you desire.

Pile Knitting On The Knitting Machine (Part One)

Pile Knitting On The Knitting Machine (Part Two)

I've taken the 2 videos off the blog, because they both automatically play instead of giving one the option of clicking them for yourself. Please follow the links to the videos as they are very good and make you feel right at home with your knitting machine.