Day 14 of Completion Challenge

Getting behind on my posting of what I'm doing.  On this particular day I bought fabric for the lining of one of my machine knitted bags.  I needed to bring the bag with me to Hobby Lobby and find a fabric that would match.  During the summer I had purchased a fat quarter that I thought for sure would match and it looked terrible next to the bag.  One doesn't want to spend a lot of time making a beautiful bag only to have the lining make you not want to use it.

Day 13 of Completion Challenge

I wanted to finish the stocking challenge from my guild meeting.  I had made a pitiful stocking at the meeting, but I knew I could do better in the quiet of my home.  I don't do things well when people are talking to me.  I tend to lose my train of thought or place in a pattern in that case.  So, in the quiet of my craftroom I attempted the stocking again.  This is when I encountered trouble with doing 1X1 ribbing.  The carriage just wouldn't do it properly.  While trouble shooting I hand knitted from the left and machine knitted from the right.  I needed 12 rows, but after 6 I really wanted to move on and see if the carriage would knit stockinette in my effort to trouble shoot the problem.  Of course it knitted stockinette just fine.  Decided to finish stocking and further trouble shoot when I got it off my needles.

Here's my beautiful stocking knitted on my bulky.  Came out just the size I wanted!

Again in the quiet of my craftroom I kitchenered the toe from the purl side as I like to do and it turned out perfect.

Day 12 of Completion Challenge

I began my day finishing my donkey, pictures to come, and I'll be ending my day trouble shooting my Toyota KS 650 Bulky machine.  Thought I'd get a quick stocking done today only to find out my machine isn't working properly.  I needed 12 rows of 1X1 ribbing.  I would do the zigzag row, hang cast on comb and weights, do the slip row, and then back to stockinette and coming from the left it would stop knitting in the first 10 needles with a "conk."  Nothing would move.  I followed my manual to a T.

First thing I check am I pushing all the right buttons and levers to do 1X1 ribbing according to my manual.  Yes.  How do my needles look?  Any bent?  How are the latches?  Are they doing what they're supposed to do?  I took off both the ribber carriage and knitting carriage wiped them down and oiled them.  Everything is moving as far as I can see.  I ran the ribber carriage back and forth and things were moving fine.  Moved carriage back and started forth "CONK!"  My carriage won't move to the left.

I'm very fortunate to have a 2nd Toyota KS 650 carriage.  My next test will be to run it across and see what happens.  So, today's completion challenge is to complete my trouble shooting and get my bulky up and running.  I need at least one more hat before Christmas.

Day 11 of Completion Challenge

Find my donkey pieces!  While at my Machine Knitters Guild of the San Francisco Bay Area meeting I recalled I had the above mentioned project that I've really wanted to finish for a long time.  I've located my donkey and have been stitching up seams.  Redid a seam that I can't for the life of me figure out why I stitched it so badly years ago.  Then I had to figure out how to make my strip of machine knitting look like a donkey ear.  The instructions were great on telling one how to knit every thing.  As for putting it together it was basically... "Now put it together."  Not much help.  Most pieces are pretty self explanatory, but the ears I just couldn't envision them.  I finally think I hit on how they should be stitched.  I took the 2 toned strip of knitting.  Gather each end, folded them in half width wise and mattress stitched the side seams.  At least they are looking like ears.

These donkeys look nothing like mine, but this was the article that made me want to knit a donkey.  It pointed to a machine knitting pattern in "Machine Knitting Monthly" (pattern on page 48 of the August 2008 magazine (Issue 127)).  I had contacted them in 2010 about getting a back copy, but it took them a long time to get back to me.  By the time they had I had found out that my machine knitting buddy had this issue.  She graciously loaned me her copy.

Why would I want to knit a donkey in the first place you ask?  I have been driving by the cutest miniature fuzzy donkeys 5 days a week for almost 7 years.  They are SO CUTE!  I just want to pinch their little cheeks and chuck them under the chin.  I have a feeling the donkeys AND their owner wouldn't appreciate it that's when I thought I'd make my own.

Day 10 of Completion Challenge

Today's challenge finishing the Christmas stocking I started at the guild meeting.  I needed to kitchener the toe and sew up the side seam.  I made this on my standard gauge so lots of light and a magnifying glass was needed for me to kitchener the toe.  Then after all is said and done I did it backwards.  Oh well.  It is a scruffy little stocking and meant it to be a practice one anyways.  It may find it's way to Christmas day one way or another.  More importantly it is finished and not languishing at the bottom of my knitting bag!

Day 9 of Completion Challenge

I've been wanting to make a beanie on my knitting machine for a long time.  That's what my daughter wants.  "Nothing fancy just a beanie."  I wanted to make a beanie with a fitted crown.  Not the typical gathered tops I have done.  They just don't look like beanies.  This is based on a hand knit pattern in the round.  I knew I couldn't do it in the round on the machine just yet, but I knew I could do it flat.  That's OK one of my strengths is the mattress stitch.  One can hardly tell there is a seam from the outside when I do it.

I found this beanie pattern on Ravelry it's called "Regular Guy Beanie."  The first example of it I found the gal had knitted it on her knitting machine.  No written conversion, but I decided it was time to quit thinking about it and just give it a go.

I looked up how to do 2X2 ribbing in my manual.  I read the written pattern for the hand knit version to figure out when to do decreases.  What I really liked about this hat was the spiral chains on the crown created by the decreases.

With my plan written on the back of a recycled envelop I dove in.  I am very pleased with how it turned out even though there were problems.  I also forgot to so some plain knitting rows, but it still fits quite nice.

Only thing I kind of don't like, but will keep to myself when my daughter wears it is the row of holes where the ribbing attaches to the stockinet.  I've been told to next time pick up the purl bump on the stitch next to it to avoid the hole.  There were 2 set ups for doing 2X2 ribbing in my manual I'll have to try the 2nd one and see if it makes a better transition.

**Written pattern for the machine (knitted circularly) can be found here.  If you want it on the mainbed only click the link above to the hand knitted pattern.**

Day 8 of Completion Challenge

Wow I can't believe what a big baby I can be.  I fought the urge to put off finishing several parts of this project yesterday.  My attention span I've found can be quite short the minute I want to do something else.

First it was the visor to the cap, but fought through and finished it before I started the scarf.  Next I wanted to take the scarf off on waste yarn and do something else.  I found knitting the scarf until it was 60 inches long to be kind of boring.  Again I fought the urge to move on to something else.  I did this by just knitting a few rows and then taking a break to say do laundry, cook dinner, watch a TV program, play my poodle.  Before I knew it was 60 inches long.  I wanted to add some fringe and once off the knitting machine I wanted to move on again.  I answered this urge by picking up a ruler, scissors and the scarf.  Within a half hour I was completely done with this project.

What a great feeling to have a project done well ahead of Christmas and not up on Christmas Eve hunting for scissors and weaving ends in.

Day 7 of Completion Challenge

I jumped quite a hurdle regarding the making of the hat for my mom.  I had it all done except for the stabilizer for the brim and sewing the ends closed.  I thought "ahh I'll do it after I finish the scarf."  There I was putting off something, so I could do more knitting.  I then told myself no more knitting until the cap was completely finished.

So, I not only finished the hat this morning, but drew a pattern for my smaller brim.  I have been redrawing it each time.  Not a biggie, but saves time having the pattern ready.

With cap done I began the scarf tonight.  It's easy doing the wave pattern, but doing it until my scarf measures about 5 feet is going to take some time.  I got about a foot done tonight.  Will continue tomorrow.  If anyone is interested the scarf pattern is included with the Hollywood Swag Cap pattern.  Not my pattern, but when someone makes a great pattern I want to make sure everyone knows where to get one.

Day 6 of Completion Challenge

Working on completing my Christmas gift for my mother.  I'm making her a Hollywood Swag Cap.  You've seen me do several of these already starting with this one.  The link to the pattern can be found here.

I've done a couple things different things with this hat.  Rather than e-wrap to begin I did a few rows of waste yarn and then hung my hem for the hat band.  Was it easier?  No.  Did it look any better?  No.  In fact for some reason I had the most difficult time getting my weaving cast-on to work correctly tonight for the blasted waste yarn.  E-wrapping would have been easier.

First hat I made larger brim and no slouch

I added an extra row of the wave pattern before starting the decreases.  I wanted the hat to have a little slouch to it.  I really do like the extra room it gave.

Hat with extra row to add a bit of slouch

Again I shorten the brim on this one like I did my last one.  I like the shorter brim.  You can see pictures of my last hat and the shorter brim here.

I also decided that I wanted to do another cast-off other than the latch tool bind off.  I didn't like the look of the bulky edge under the brim.  Although once the hat is on I've found it's not a factor.  It's only bugs me when it's in my hand and I can see it.  I decided to use Diana's Lesson 12 Loop Through Loop Bind Off.  I really liked the simplicity of this bind off, but it didn't necessarily give me a smaller edge between brim and hat.  The thing it did do that is going to be inconvenient is both tails of yarn are on one side.  I need these tails to sew up the ends of the brim.  Not a biggie, but something to think about.

Finally, I need a lesson in short rowing and when to wrap a needle.  I'm ending up with some bulky loops and I'm afraid it's because I just don't know when a hole will be formed and when not.  I think I'll need to experiment.  That will be a good lesson for my completion challenge.

Day 5 of Completion Challenge

I am still kitchener stitching a little each day.  What I've found is I'm really good at it.  When I complete the seam the stitches look like the knitted ones.  I'm finding it is not as difficult as I made it out to be.  Diana Sullivan says to practice it, but I'm not one to make swatches and just stitch.  Having these UFOs is proving to be great practice for me.

Day 4 of Completion Challenge

I don't have any photos yet of what I'm doing.  I've been kitchener stitching.  Also referred to as grafting or weaving, joins two sets of live stitches.  A hand knitter would sometimes have live stitches on needles.  As a machine knitter my live stitches are mostly held together with waste yarn. 

I did a purse handle, a hat and a slipper.  Originally, I was going to get started on some purse linings, but that's when I saw I hadn't kitchenered the purse handle and thought I may as well do all the kitchenering I could find.  I'm sure there is more, but that's all I've found so far.

Digging into my boxes and bags of knitted items I'm finding some real treasures.  I'm not going to kick myself for putting things off.  For the next 25 days I get a free pass.  I'm looking forward to either using them or giving them as gifts.  The recipient doesn't need to know how long I've held on to it. :D

Here is a list of links to "how to kitchener stitch" I've been looking at.  I thought I really would have to reteach myself.  I found though that I remembered more than I thought.  In Diana's video she has a chant as she stitches.  I find that I do myself and it really helps.  "New stitch, old stitch, new stitch, old stitch."  It keeps me on track.

Techniques with Theresa
The Knit Witch
Diana's Lesson 22 Kitchener Stitch Seams

Day 3 of Completion Challenge

The scarf challenge my guild had back in October gave me a headache.  Not literally, but figuratively.  It seemed a simple enough technique, but choosing the correct yarn and plenty of it played a huge roll in being successful.  Both of which I didn't do the first time around.  Using my standard gauge Studio MOD.700 I chose a yarn that was too thick (DK) and I didn't have nearly enough of it.  This pattern you may knit about 20 rows, but you pick it up one maybe two stitches at a time and rehang it.  So it's 20 steps forward and 18 back.  It takes a long time to get a scarf long enough worth wearing.  My first attempt with the thicker yarn was very stiff and after using 4 small skeins made a scarf long enough to go from one ear around the back of my neck to the other ear.  So, disappointing.

Since it was a challenge with my guild I didn't want to give up.  This time I chose a yarn on a cone and very thin.  It was a cone given to me for free.  I had no problem using it all up if I had too.  Off I went a knitting again.  It took me about 2 hours to finish a length that would be great to wear.

Here's where the non finishing began... now I have to steam it.  The edges on both sides were curled up into a big fat mess as far as I was concerned.

My fellow guild mate had done one and said just give it a light steam.  Ugh! is all I thought.  So, perfect project for this challenge.  I began steaming and it became clear lightly steaming was not going to do the trick.  I wanted to quit after a few minutes of fighting with it.  I needed to steam and iron the edges.

I began to see some progress and it was actually looking good.  It wasn't easy, but I got into a groove and had a system... a sort of pattern of steaming and ironing the edge and working it down my ironing board.  I kept fighting the urge to put it away for another day.  I knew that "another day" would never come.  It was now or never.

After about an hour of ironing and fussing with it I was quite pleased with how really beautiful it was.

I finally had good thoughts about this scarf.  Thoughts of "I might actually wear this."  Here's a quick photo of it hanging around my neck.  When it's daylight I'll snap a photo of it around my daughter's neck to get the true beauty of this scarf.

Day 2 of Completion Challenge

Hats!  I had done some more hats.  None had the ends woven in and one needed it's brim finished.  So, that's what I did last night.  The brown hat I made using Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" Stripes in the High Sierra Stripe color.  I love the color scheme.  Thought it might be a color I would like to wear.  What I don't like is the way this pattern works there are random splotches of color.  Well, I wouldn't mind that so much, but the green splotch in my head doesn't match and I don't like it.  It may grow on me or I may send it off to charity as it is a lovely hat.

Anyhow my problem in finishing the brown hat's brim was what to put in it.  When I made the blue hat I used plastic canvas and that was a bit of a problem.  It having jaggedy edges I needed to wrap it in paper to slide it in.  Then it worked great.  The pattern says to use stiff interfacing.  I just didn't see how this would be any good.  The interfacing just didn't seem stiff enough.  I decided to just go with the stiff interfacing as the pattern suggested and finish the hat.  The interfacing turned out GREAT!  The brim is plenty stiff enough and was easy to pull into the brim.  "Trust the pattern!"  Very seldom have a found a pattern that steers me wrong.  This is what I tell a friend of mine when we work together.  I need to take my own advice.

Another thing I did differently with the brown hat was I made the brim smaller.  Instead of knitting 10 rows before short rowing I knitted 6.  I REALLY like the smaller brim.  It's just enough smaller that it doesn't stick out so far from my forehead that I have that duck billed platypus feeling. :D

I've used several different yarns.  The blue Red Heart knitted a hat that fits perfectly.  The Hobby Lobby "I Love This Yarn" knitted a hat that is slightly smaller and a bit tight.  I used a Softee Pink yarn and it knitted a hat that is looser.  All using the same tension as the pattern asked for.

These 2 hats have no brim.  I did that on purpose to make a beanie with the beautiful wave pattern.

All hats are now finished and ready for a head.

Day 1 of Completion Challenge

I had knitted a Christmas wreath in October.  It has been hanging out on my dresser waiting to be finished.

First thing I did was sew the ends together.  Nothing fancy I just overlapped them and wove the needle up and down across the ends.  Knowing this part would mostly be covered with a bow I knew I didn't need to Kitchener it.

I had the wreath siting on my dresser braided for about a month.  What I noticed was the braiding had time to relax and not look so tightly pulled as my first one.  I liked the look of this better.

Also having hung around on my dresser the bow was misplaced.  So, I quickly knitted another.  I didn't know what length it should be so I knitted until I could tie a nice bow with a little hanging.  Then I cast off.  Steamed it flat and tied it up.  I really love the look of the tuck stitch for the bow.  I used punch card number 3 on my Studio MOD. 700 standard machine.

My next trial will be to find some way suitable to back this wreath.  I tried a wire wreath frame for the first one and it didn't work out too well.  This time I tried using a wooden embroidery hoop.  It was cheap and easy to find the right size.  What I don't like though is seeing the wooden hoop from the side.  I had it hanging in my entry way last night and I didn't like that the first thing I saw was the wooded hoop. 

So, I moved it to my kitchen where I don't see the hoop as much. 

 Just my darling little wreath.