Still Here

Though I may not be machine knitting anything I feel is worth sharing I'm still here and keeping busy.  Today I saw this video by "The Answer Lady" and thought what a handy technique for hand winding a center pull ball.  There have been a few times I've been without a ball winder and needed a center pull ball pronto.  I'm going to be practicing this technique.

Estate Sale

One of our beloved machine knitters passed away about a month ago.  She was a very experienced and knowledgeable machine knitter and seamstress.  Her husband was SO wonderful and drove her to the machine knitting meetings even after she had a small stroke and didn't want to come.  He knew once she was there she'd enjoy visiting with the gang.  She seemed to enjoy herself and I know we all really enjoyed her.

It's time now to clear out all the craft items.  Her husband along with the assistance of a few members of the Sacramento Machine Knitter's Guild is putting on an Estate Sale.  Info is below.  If you live in the Sacramento, California area you'll want to stop by and see what he's got.

Estate Sale

April 28^th, 8 A.M.-3 P.M.

4420 Coffee Lane, Sacramento

(Close to Madison Ave., Date Ave. and Hwy. 80)

Items for sale

Knitting Machines (Studio, Brother, Standard, Bulky)

Ribbers (Studio, Brother, Standard, Bulky)

Knitting Machine Accessories (ie. Garter Carriage, Intarsia Carriage, Linker, Color Changer)

Machine Knitting Books

Machine Knitting Magazines

Yarn Winders

Punch Cards

Yarn

Sewing Machines

Sergers

Sewing Machine Parts

Dress Forms

Thread (Spools for Sewing Machines and Sergers)

Furniture

Miscellaneous Household Items and much much more.

Pacific NW Machine Knitting Seminar

Pacific NW Machine Knitting Seminar: Registration OPEN

SIGN-UPS are HERE! Rev up those machines, knitters, the Pacific Northwest Machine Knitting Seminar has opened up registration. Join Angelika as she presents a two full days worth of classes and shopping relevant to machine knitting and DesignaKnit 8. Located in beautiful Vancouver, Washington you'll be sitting on the scenic Columbia near Esther Short Park and just a 20 minute drive from downtown Portland and the home of the Yarn Store. Follow that link for more information and to sign up before the limited time, low-rate ticket sale ends.

SIGN-UPS are HERE! for Lily Chin's Hand Knitting Workshop. Attend this small and cozy gathering with Lily and perfect your skills, and laugh out loud with reversible cables!! Limited space! Find out the details now!

More Machine Knit Bunnies

We all love this machine knit bunny.

This year though I think I'm going to try machine knitting this bunny.

I'll give mine a pom pom tale like the purple bunny.  Can't wait to give this idea a try.  If you'd like to see many examples of this project check them out on Ravelry.  To date there are 362 of them.  They sure do multiply fast.

Something To Do With Your Scraps

Yarn bombing potholes?

Machine Knitting Gone Crazy

Yarn bombing goes main stream.

Still Knitting, But Mostly Crocheting

Sorry for the long time between posts.  After my ribber gave me heck I needed to take a break from it.  I had an afghan I had been working on during football seasons the last couple years.  Since the 49ers were doing so well this year I had it nearly finished when they didn't go to the Super Bowl.  OH well, the 49ers played a great season and I couldn't be disappointed they didn't go to the Super Bowl.  With that great attitude and not caring who won the Super Bowl I decided to go ahead and watch it.  I wanted to see if I couldn't get that last 10 inch done on my afghan.  I didn't finish it during the Super Bowl, but I was close.  I kept crocheting until it was done.

Now if I can get my poodle to share I'll get to enjoy it. :)

What I did machine knit was a bust, BUT it opened my eyes to new possibilities.  I've been wanting to make a Dead Fish hat for several years and the pattern just looked too complicated for me.  What I found out was it was difficult to understand, but not complicated.  Using my trusty Toyota Bulky, sans ribber, I went to work on the machine knit pattern for the Dead Fish Hat.

Why was it a bust?  Well, the decreasing and increasing to get the fish shape happen on both sides of the knitted piece.  EXCEPT when you fold it in half to sew up your fish hat all the increases and decreases end on one side.  One ends up with a wonky fish hat.  One ends up with one straight side and one curved side.  A knitter on Ravelry solved this problem by moving the face and fins to center on the straight side making it the top of the fish.  The curved side was now it's belly.  Though it looked like it worked out fine for her.  I really didn't like the idea of the fish lips (can't believe I just said fish lips) being on the sides of the mouth.

What I did like was the yarn.  I decided that trying to make this work wasn't something I wanted to do.  I decided to frog it.  I'm going to make it in 2 pieces.  That way the BOTH sides will have increases and decreases and my fish lips will be in their proper places!