Lap Blanket Turned Experimental Swatch

I want to make a couple lap blankets for charity. The preemie tuck blanket turned out so nice I thought I'd do something similar. I had another idea rolling around in my head. It was using a ribber punch card. I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around how a punch would work with the ribber and yet I have 5 for that very reason. There is no card reader on the ribber. 

I found the section in my ribber manual that talked about using the ribber punch card to make Punch Pin Tuck.  So, I set up my machine and ribber according to the chart.  I did the circular cast one fine.  Once I started knitting the Punch Pin Tuck the tension was way too tight according to the chart.  Tension of 1.  I moved it up to 3 then 5 then 7 then went straight to ten.  After 12 rows of knitting and having to hold my machine in place by spreading my knees out to put pressure on the knitting stand legs I knew there would be no blanket.  After 12 rows I felt like I had taken a 30 minute aerobics class.  

After all that work I didn't want it to go to waste.  I decided to fight through at least 12 more rows to make a swatch big enough to what kind of pattern I had going.  I wanted to know if it would be worth my while to try this again with a smaller yarn.

Needless to say it would be worth my while to try again.  The swatch is just gorgeous!  It's even a good size to make a headband.

Christmas Project for the Guild

Meeting before last someone in our guild asked about any Christmas ideas to knit.  I got to thinking what a great idea to get started learning something now rather than waiting for December.  I started looking through my binder of free patterns and I came across a Christmas Wreath for the Passap Duo80 or E6000 first.  It looked like something from the 70's, but I loved it.  I don't speak Passap, but it seemed like what they were doing was knitting tubes and braiding them.  Great idea, but not feasible for our meeting.  We'll bring our knitting machines, but we don't bring ribbers.  We only have 2 hours.

Then I found Heidi's Braided Christmas Wreath pattern.  This talks about making strips of knitting and letting them roll in on themselves.  Something we can totally do in our machine knitting meeting.  Comparing the two patterns I decided to do a little something of both.  I really liked the simplicity of the Braided Christmas Wreath, but loved the color combination of the Passap Christmas Wreath.

So, I picked out three punch cards that seemed from the naked eye to be completely different (I really need to do swatches.)  After I got the strips done I thought that 2 weren't as different as I would have liked.  I wasn't sure they'd even look good together, but decided to just go with it.

As I was sitting on my bed manipulating the strips to decide what order I wanted them in.  Quite frankly I was trying to remember how to braid when my son walked into the room.  He talked with me a bit about his day and then as he turned to leave and he said, "I'll leave you to play with your Christmas snakes."  OK I thought it was pretty funny.

As I started braiding I was relived to see that the patterns did actually work together. I had knit 3 strips 30 inches long. I did 335 rows at T3 on my Studio Mod.700 standard gauge. According to the pattern it would make a 13" diameter wreath. Mine was stretched to 12" and I think it is too thin.

I wanted a bow and did a 30 inch strip of tuck with punch card #3 the red yarn. 485 rows T3. I wanted to give the bow a hint of texture. I folded the strip as if tieing a regular bow.  Then I hot glued everything onto a 12 inch wreath frame from JoAnns.

Since the wreath was not looking like something I'd want to hang up or give away I decided it would be my prototype.  Things I would do differently would be not to braid it so tightly.  I would not stretch it to fit a wreath form.  I'm going to use wooden embroidery hoops since they come in many more sizes than the wreath forms.  I'm going to do swatches of my punch cards giving me a better idea of what their finished pattern will look like.

Knitting For A Premie

I know first hand how wonderful it is to walk into the nursery to check on your premie baby and see them laying in an incubator with a hand knitted cap.  Not some prefab hospital cap.  So, when a girl scout came to our machine knitting group to ask for our help in knitting premie blankets I was excited to help.  She wanted by the beginning of school in August to have made and collected 50 premie blankets.  The goal of my machine knitting group was to have any donations done by our next meeting.  One month no problem right?

Well, as usual life gets in the way.  My teens came home from 3 weeks in Scotland.  Before I could really enjoy having them home 5 days later my daughter has pneumonia.  Off to the doctor for x-rays and an expert opinion, but it was as I thought pneumonia.

As I'm nursing her back to health I'm schedule during that time to have my gallbladder out.  Fortunately, by the time I'm home from the surgery, she's well enough I don't have to worry about her.

On the third day of my recovery my son says I really feel terrible.  I put my hand on his forehead and he's really hot.  "Surgery" mom goes to the background and "my son is really sick" mom comes to the forefront.  I take his temp and it's 103.6F.  Fortunately, my DH had taken an extra day off to take care of me.  Since I couldn't drive I put him on a new case... get our son to the doctor pronto.  I promised to not do anything wild while they were gone and to keep the cell phone close.  2 hours later I get the call that he indeed has pneumonia.

DH comes home and tucks us both into bed with our meds.  Now it's Saturday and it occurs to me that if I'm going to make a premie blanket I need to get it done by Monday night.  Fortunately, Saturday I start feeling considerably better, but don't want to over do it.  Sunday I continued to rest, because come Monday I want to try machine knitting.

I got my Studio 700 Standard machine set up with my yarn and the punch card I wanted to use. After reading through my manual regarding doing tuck I proceed. I decided to do a few rows stop and see how I feel. I felt fine. I went on to knit about 100 rows. At this time I started to feel kind of hot. So, I stopped for a few hours. I was fine. I then knitted about 50 rows at a time until I had 300 done. The tuck stitch looked wonderful. I used punch card 12A as the picture in my manual had used that one and I like the look of it.

I used lots of weight all the way across to keep the tuck stitch working properly.  I did have to keep an eye on the end stitches.  The manual even warned about it saying to pull the 2 end needles out each row.  2 times the end stitches dropped off and I was able to fix them.  Then I started pulling the end needles out each row.  That stopped the dropped end stitches.

I made this using needles 65-0-65.  I did it at T7.  I knitted 300 rows.  Measured 20"wX22"l.  After washing it came out to 19"wX19 1/2"l.

Really looks nice.  Was proud to donate it.  I wish the pictures captured the beautiful yellow color.  It's like fresh butter. 

This is the back of the knitting with tuck though this is considered the front.

This is really the front of the knitting, but being tuck it's considered the back.

Machine Knit Tuck Scarf

I have been in a machine knitting slump lately and decided to do an easy project on my standard gauge machine.  I tend to try and do most things on my bulky.  My bulky and I are great friends.  My standard wants to be my friend, but I've been a bit resistant and I've decided to stop that.

I picked out Patricia Tan's "Tuck and Enjoy" pattern for a scarf.  It took a few minutes to understand how the needle placement should go.  The below picture shows what I finally decided.  It helped me a lot to look back on my own pattern for a tuck scarf to figure it out.  Since they were very similar.

What I found is you need to use lots of weight.  One also needs to be vigilante about moving it up.  This pattern goes quickly and before I knew it the weights were behind the ribber and that's too low.

I also experimented with russel levers on russel lever off.  On a Studio 700 the russel levers allow for needle to be all the way out and in nonworking position (NWP).  This creates the tuck.  In the past I manually pushed needles back into WP.  This time I turned off the russel levers each time.  I did find it saved a bit of time even if it was for 2 rows of the pattern.  I only forgot to pull them back on once and that was when I was knitting late at night.  I know better.  Usually after I make a series of mistakes (my russel levers being the last straw that night) I'll stop knitting.

In the end I made this beautiful scarf.  I used one skein of Tosca Light.  The scarf came to 47 inches.  I decided to try the Twisted Fringe idea for the ends.  (Another Twisted Fringe) I had run out of the Tosca Light and bought some Lion Brand Amazing in a matching color for the fringe.  I just love love love the twisted fringe.

My Favorite Pattern of 2010

I made many variations of this pattern last December.  I made several of the original pattern.  I then cut the pattern in half and made a beautiful scarf for myself.  But for my mother I wanted to make more of a wrap.  So, I increased the needle pattern.  I wanted one to go around the shoulders, or over the head and around neck and shoulders.  It turned out just gorgeous.  First thing my mom did was wrap it around her head like a babushka.  It was adorable!

The pattern was given to me at my Tuesday machine knitting get together.  A gal at that meeting took notes during a class years ago on how to make this pattern.  I'm told it is a tuck like pattern.  This is done manually.  I wonder if someone can figure out a punch card for it.  One isn't really needed.  It is so simple to do.

I love the way this pattern makes this rolling hump texture through out the wrap.  The yarn I used for my mother's scarf was Amazing by Lion brand. It was the wildflower color. I used 3 skeins.

Click on picture below to get the pattern.  I had to clean up the copy I had which had notes written on it.  I then added the needle setting for the smaller scarf I made.  I made one mistake in that I didn't put the X marks showing which needles are pushed in and out of work.  Looking at the pattern above I think one can figure it out.  If not feel free to email me and I'd love to answer any questions.  For the larger pattern I did above I increased the pattern so that 7 needles were pushed in and pulled out for the pattern.

I typed out the upper pattern for translation programs.  It's the one I use and like. 

Mid-Gauge or Bulky Machine
Rectangle Scarf Using Fine Mohair Yarn
Needle Set-up
(see picture on blog for needle set-up)

If using a bulky machine, cast on and bind off with a rug latch tool. If using a Mid-Gauge machine cast on and bind off with a bulky latch tool.

Be sure to use lots of weight.

Cast on the above number of stitches, making a chain for each out of work needle.

Tension 8 or 10, Knit 2 rows. Set machine for hold. Pull needles marked with X forward to hold position.

Knit 6 rows. Take off hold, and push needles marked X back to work position (C).

Knit 2 rows over all working needles.

Continue in this manner for length required (approximately 354 rows), ending with Knit 2 rows over all working needles.

Bind off loosely making a chain for each out of work needle.


Smaller width scarf needle set-up

(see picture on blog for needle set-up)