Newest Baby in the Neighborhood!

Decided a few years ago if a new baby comes to my stretch of the neighborhood I'm making them a baby blanket.  They've all been neighbors up till now.  The latest baby though is on my route to the gym.  I walk so I get a good look.  New couple moved in and I saw she was pregnant.  I waited till I got to see an actual glimpse of the baby.  Just in case.  Then I began knitting the blanket.  My daughter thought it was strange and that they'd think I was a stalker.  Well, I didn't care.  I wish all stalkers would show up with a handmade blanket and then leave them in peace.  

I do see myself as a kindly old grandmotherly type.  I may be over estimating my appearance even though my age definitely qualifies.  I told my daughter I promised not to snap anyone like a twig with my muscularly toned thighs.  I got the eyeball roll.

Diana Sullivan's Circular baby blanket.

I have to admit I did have a qualm the day I had it all ready to deliver.  My saving grace was I could hang it on their door and they'd find it later.  Wouldn't you know it the very day I'm dropping it off is the only day before or since that their door was open with the screen door.  2 yapping dogs announced my coming and I had to talk to the mom.  I said I just lived down the street.  She said she's seen me walking by every week. So, I wasn't a complete stranger.  I handed her the baby afghan in a gift bag and said I made a little something for the baby.  On a note in the bag I had put my address, so they wouldn't think a complete weirdo had left the gift.  When things started to get a little awkward I announced I had to get to the gym for my 10am class.  Whew!  All true.  All true.  I was suited up and on my way to the gym.

Love the way this blanket turns out.  I'll never get tired of it.

A week later Eileen and baby Lily came by to say thank you for the blanket and gave me a bag of veggies from their garden.  Couldn't have been a better thank you.  Hoping I've made a new friend on the street.

Used Sandee Cherry's roping technique for the edging.  I like the neater look rather than the pie crust edging.

Fingerless Gloves by Karalyn

Karalyn Rainey came to visit our guild (MKGSFBA) last month and had wonderful projects to teach.  I loved her enthusiasm for machine knitting.  When there were left over patterns I asked if she minded if I shared them with the Sacramento Guild (SMKG).  She said, "No, I love to share."  After I got back to Sacramento and started sharing everyone loved the patterns.  I started getting emails for me to share the patterns.  I felt I should check with Karalyn one more time.  Sharing here in Sacramento is one thing, but putting it on the internet just seemed like something I wanted permission for.  She emailed me back, "Hi, it's fine please share my patterns they are free to all, I just want people to knit and share our love of machine knitting with everyone."  I think I love you Karalyn!  That's exactly what I like to do.  I like empowering machine knitters of all levels with patterns they can be successful with.  Nothing makes one want to knit more than getting a project done that they are proud of.

Here is a picture of Karalyn's fingerless glove on my hand.  Back of glove.  Can you believe she does this on a bulky knitting machine?!

Here is my glove using the double gate peg bind off for more stretch for the fingers.  Bonnie found out that the bind off where the glove goes around your hand is a little tight for her liking.  She felt her fingers were confined.  I tried them on and could see why it would be bothersome.  I didn't mind, but I think my daughter wouldn't like it either.  Carolyn from our guild had an idea to bind off around 2 gate pegs.  I did this on my glove and it does give a stretchier edge.

Cabling requires some concentration for me.  There are a couple places where I've gone wrong.  I've added cheat sheet notes on my pattern to keep me straight.

Here is the pair she gave to our guild member Bonnie.  Bonnie experimented with doing a Bickford seam on the side.  The seams looked great.  Now to weave in the ends.  The Bickford seams create the flattest seams frequently used for socks done on a flat bed machine.  Several tutorials on how to do this online.  One here done by Marg Coe.  Another one here at Knittsings.

Here is Bonnie's glove just getting past the thumbs.  Cable looking beautiful.

Here's my glove off the machine.  See why Karalyn calls it the Cactus glove?

Without further adieu here is Karalyn's pattern.

Cactus Fingerless Glove

Instructor, Karalyn Rainey

2010

Bulky Machine

Tension 6

Lion Brand Wool-Ease 2ozs.

Left Hand

Chain cast on 27 sts (LI3-RI4)

If you are putting a cable, knit 2 rows and twist the first cable

Cable needles are right needles 5,6,7,8, after the first twist you are going

to twist the cable every 4 rows

Knit to row 26 twisting the cable every 4 rows

On row 26 start increasing on both sides every other row (EOR) by

moving one st out and filling up the empty needle with the heal of the

inside st

Continue increasing to row 38 you now have increased 6 sts on each side

COR set the machine to hold, put all st except the 6 st on the right to

hold, knit 7 rows on those 6 st, RC46, bind off, move carriage to the left

COL put the 6 st on the left to work knit 7 rows, bind off

You should only have 27 st left, knit 13 rows don't forget to twist your

cable while you are knitting the 13 rows, bind off

Right Hand

You are going to make another one just like the one you did except cast

on 27 st (L14-R13) and the cable needles are going to be on the

Left side, left needles 5,6,7,8.

Sew up the side seam and the thumb seam.

If you haven't seen the flat seam that we do on the flat sock you need to

have me show you that seam it looks great on the fingerless glove!

Karalyn's Machine Knit Felted Clog Slippers

This past weekend at the MKGSFBA guild meeting we had Karalyn Rainey from San Diego come and teach us some of her favorite patterns.  The first one we all just loved was the Clog Slipper.  She made it sound so simple.  Really it's not difficult, but it's just knowing how to do it.  That's the value of these guild meetings.  The pattern can be found at the MKGSD website in their free patterns section.

 

OK first off so sorry for the blurry photo.  Sometimes the photos look so good on the little screen then I get them home on the big computer screen and BLUR!  You get the idea though.  This is what the slipper looks like right off the knitting machine.  I thought it was valuable to know this.  Yes, this is Karalyn Rainey holding the project up fresh off the needles.  She is from the San Diego area and does a lot of machine knitting teaching down there.  Their Guild (MKGSD) can be found here.  We were very lucky to have her for the day at our guild (MKGSFBA) this past weekend. 

 

I took photos of her machine knit slipper in it's prefelted stage and felted.  It makes a size that will fit a woman's size 8 foot.  I'm about that and it was a tiny bit shorter than I'd want.  Karalyn says when felting keep and eye on it.  Different washers and yarns felt differently.  After it's felted like you want shape it to your foot and let it dry.

 I took photos of the slippers thinking I'd never see them again until I made my own.

 To my great surprise Karalyn raffled off many of her machine knit examples.  Guess who won the pair of machine knit slippers?  ME!  Below is a picture of Karalyn's slipper on the left.  My first attempt at following the pattern and my notes is on the right.  I was so surprised at how well I did.  My slipper is pretty rough and had a few mistakes here and there.  I made it at my Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild meeting.  My fellow knitters said not to worry about it that once felted no one would be able to see anything wrong with it.

STITCHES 2011

I had a great time at Stitches West this year for a completely different reason than previous years.  This year I volunteered in the Machine Knitting Guild of the San Francisco Bay Area Booth.  We had nothing to sell.  We were hoping to get more people to join the guild.  It was a day to encourage people to pull their knitting machines out from under their beds.  It was a day to let people know there is support for machine knitters.  It was a day to let people know there was such a thing as machine knitting.  We got many people interested in machine knitting and the guild.  Hope we see them all at the March meeting.

(Julia, Lynne and Chrys)

I had a great time with my fellow booth mates Julia and Chrys.  Each of us took a turn at the knitting machine during our 2 hour time slot.  Julia demonstrated 2 color knitting and cables.  Chrys demonstrated making a purl stitch and moving stitches to other needles to create lacy designs.  I demonstrated my favorite pattern of the year Idiot's Delight.  It made a beautiful swatch using the purple yarn.

During my 2 hours there the most asked about project was.... my mohair scarf that I had worn to Stitches.  There were many different garments there that I was in awe of and my simple mohair scarf stole the show.

Side Note:  At the March mtg of the guild 9 new people came to enjoy the meeting.

Fortune Cookies

On Friday DH, daughter and I went out to eat Chinese at our favorite restaurant Silver Dragon.  At the end of the meal I opened my fortune cookie and it read "You will receive a gift given freely and gladly."  I thought what a great time for this fortune to come as the next day I was going to a sort of Machine Knitting yard sale at my guild.

I had sort of forgotten about my fortune as the sale went on.  I really didn't see much I wanted to buy as I'm saving my pennies for Christmas gifts.  I bought a $1 cone of some beautiful acrylic yarn.  I bought a linker for $5 for a friend in the Sacramento Machine Knitting Guild.  He had mentioned he wanted a linker at the last meeting.  I bought a couple MK magazines and a cone of beautiful forest green wool from Scotland.  All total I spent about $20.

Where I was sitting and there was a knitting machine that many people were looking at.  It was kind of pitiful.  No tools, no row counter, missing it's cast on comb.  Many of the experienced machine knitters were brought over to consult on whether it would be a good starter machine.  It was getting high praise from everyone.  Still it just sat there.  The sale was pretty much over when the owner of the machine and other things on the table asked if anyone wanted the box on the table.  No one spoke up and she looked at me.  I thought she meant the knitting machine, but she was referring to the knit leader.  She said I don't know if it works, but you're welcome to have it.  I said OK.  Then she pointed to the knit leader.  I thought well it will be interesting to see what this thing is and if it works.

When I went to retrieve the knit leader she then asked what I would do with it.  I told her that I am working with a teenage group at my daughter's school called Caring for Cancer Patients.  That I was teaching these teenagers how to machine knit to make hats for donation to their charities.  Then she said, "Here take the knitting machine too.  Are you really going to use it for charity?"  I told her that I already have pictures on my blog of the teenagers making hats using my machines.  That I thought it would be nice to get a machine for the group to clean and refurbish.  So, they can learn how to take care of a knitting machine and have a machine of their own.

She was happy to donate the machine and not to have to cart it back home.  I was very excited for the group.  Then it occurred to me that my fortune cookie prediction had come true.

1st annual Oakland Fiber and Textile Festival

I sure hope they do it again next year.  I really had a good time.  Julia and I joined the Machine Knitter's Guild of the San Francisco Bay Area in March I believe.  MKGSFBA for short.  There was a call out for volunteers to man their booth at the 1st annual Oakland Fiber and Textile Festival.  Julia and I thought it would be a fun trip and we volunteered.  We got the 11am to noon shift.  Great hours for us since we were traveling to Oakland from Orangevale.  It's about a 1 1/2 hour trip if there is no traffic.  I thought on a Sunday morning we'd be pretty safe.  We were.  The trip started off with my directions completely disappearing from my house to Julia's.  So, we had to print out new ones.  Not such a bad start to the trip.

We stopped at Starbuck's and treated ourselves to a cup of coffee and a toasted bagel.  We were off.  It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day.  Only blue skies ahead of us.  My map was great.  We found the free parking at the elementary school just fine.  Next thing we knew we were walking into the Fiber Fest at 10 am.  It turned out a lot bigger than I thought.  We signed in and got out volunteer badges.  Next we looked around to find our booth, so we'd know where to be at 11am.  Lots and lots of yarn to oogle.  Lots and lots of wool to fondle.  There was even a quilting booth with lovely quilts hanging and a big sign that said, "Touch Quilts."  I couldn't believe my eyes that they'd actually let us touch.  I thought what a humorous sign when normally we are not allowed to touch anything.  I walked up to the first quilt by the sign.  My better judgement made me take the brochure I had in my hand and push away the quilt hanging next to the sign.  Just as I thought "Don't Touch Quilts."  The "Don't" was perfectly covered up by the hanging quilt.  I chuckled and thought I let the gals in the booth figure that one out by themselves.

Right at 11am Richard and LaMata were ready for a break and we were ready to take over.  Richard picked up his items off the front table leaving it a little bare, so I set my machine knit bag and machine knit entrelac on for viewing.  I got a lot of "I can't believe you did that on a knitting machine!"  Hopefully, we were able to convince some people to join the guild in the fall.  That was our mission to pass on our love of Machine Knitting.

At noon we were relieved by the next crew and Julia and I decided to get some lunch.  I really needed to find a restroom.  I was told port a pots were in the parking lot under the freeway.  It wasn't too far away, but I really wanted to avoid them.  Little did I know at the time that finding a restroom was going to be a challenge.  We walked for a couple blocks and found no restrooms.  Kentucky Fried Chicken had no restroom.  The gal at the counter had no idea where we'd find one either.  That port-a-pot was looking really good to me by that time.  Fortunately, being a smaller event and the port-a-pots being in the shade it wasn't a bad experience.  Feeling greatly relieved I could continue walking in search of a place to have lunch.  We were starting to get discourage when we turned a corner and there was a Subway Sandwich shop.  A sandwich sounded very good about then.

We returned to the Fiber Fest and Julia went shopping.  I went for a knitting lesson.  That was one of the great things about this fair.  You could get knitting lessons, crochet lessons, fiber felting lessons, quilting lessons all for a small donation.  Since I've been having a hard time knitting and purling I took the knitting lesson.  My knitting gets so tight I almost need a sledge hammer to drive my needle into the next stitch.  Not good!  Deborah tight me a new cast on and then I began to show her what I was doing.  She gave me advice from the first stitch.  Since I've learned to knit from pictures in a book I was doing a few things wrong.  I wasn't putting my needles into the stitches correctly and I wasn't wrapping my purl stitch correctly.  The way I was doing it was giving each stitch half as much yarn as needed.  Once I wrapped correctly everything went smoothly.  It was a gorgeous day sitting with fellow knitters ages ranging from 7 to 67.  They gave us all a pair of knitting needles and a ball of yarn for a $1 donation.

My hope is the Fiber Fest was as successful as Bente of Piedmont Yarn and Apparel hoped it would be.  That way there will be another next year.

June MKGSFBA Meeting and Sale

June's Machine Knitter's Guild of the San Francisco Bay Area meeting was mostly a sale.  Anyone in the guild was free to bring in anything they wanted to get rid of.  Most brought in from their own stash.  Some brought in estate machine knitting supplies.  One gal owns a store and brought in items for sale.  She demonstrated a new and really handy garter bar on the market.

I didn't buy much as I had purchased a bulky machine and ribber a few weeks before I knew about this sale.  I needed to watch my budget.  I did buy some blank pattern cards and a punch.  I also picked up a few Machine Knitting magazines. 

As you can see from the pictures there was a lot of stuff to choose from.  Anything from yarn to machines to manuals and stands.  You could have easily spent a lot of money that day.

This being the last meeting of the fiscal year it was decided to have a catered lunch after the sale.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the food.  The gal that catered it did such a nice job.  She's done it before and knows the kitchen and the limitations.  So, she prepared mostly a cold lunch.  She made beautiful sandwiches, laid out a gorgeous salad and even made a vegetable stir fry.  For dessert she had a delicious cake that was decorated with kiwi slices and strawberries on whipped cream frosting.  A delicious end to a fun day.

The new year of meetings begin in September.  I'm having a great time with these talented ladies and look forward to more meetings.