Sacramento Area Machine Knitters - Meeting Time Update

Time has been moved to 11-1pm, which actually works really well for our group.  Improves the parking situation.  Now we can park right by the door, which makes carrying a heavy knitting machine better.

Sacramento Area Machine Knitters

Welcome Sacramento Area Machine Knitters Just a reminder...

This blog entry is here to assist the Sacramento Area Machine Knitter's Guild in advertising their meetings on the Internet. I hope you will stop by one of our meetings and share your latest project with us!

Meet with local Machine Knitters. Chat and discuss the art of machine knitting. All machines brands users are welcome, from the Studio, Brother, Bond to the Electronic Passap.

We welcome everyone to bring a knitting machine.  Learn how to use, work on a project or learn how to maintenance a knitting machine and get it up and running.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild, meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays 11am-1pm (we meet throughout the summer at our normal days and times if there is enough interest).  We also meet the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 2pm.

We meet at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 6201 Spruce Avenue, Sacramento, CA (off I-80 at Greenback exit, turn right at first street, up about 2 blocks, bear right at the curve and the church is straight ahead).

Contact info has changed as Marilynn (pronounced Mary Lynn) has moved to Colorado.  We wish her all the best.  For more information about the Guild and call Hugh Hall at 916-332-5190.

Hugh's Sacramento Machine Knitter Guild website... http://smkg.nzfreeservers.com/

Sacramento Area Machine Knitters

Welcome Sacramento Area Machine Knitters Just a reminder...

This blog entry is here to assist the Sacramento Area Machine Knitter's Guild in advertising their meetings on the Internet. I hope you will stop by one of our meetings and share your latest project with us!

Meet with local Machine Knitters. Chat and discuss the art of machine knitting. All machines brands users are welcome, from the Studio, Brother, Bond to the Electronic Passap.

We welcome everyone to bring a knitting machine.  Learn how to use, work on a project or learn how to maintenance a knitting machine and get it up and running.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild, meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays 10am-noon (we meet throughout the summer at our normal days and times if there is enough interest).  We also meet the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 2pm.

We meet at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 6201 Spruce Avenue, Sacramento, CA (off I-80 at Greenback exit, turn right at first street, up about 2 blocks, bear right at the curve and the church is straight ahead).

Contact info has changed as Marilynn (pronounced Mary Lynn) has moved to Colorado.  We wish her all the best.  For more information about the Guild and upcoming training topics call Hugh Hall at 916-332-5190.

Hugh's Sacramento Machine Knitter Guild website... http://smkg.nzfreeservers.com/

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.

Quick Hat

Sacramento Machine Knitting Guild member Hugh brought in his circular knitting machines at today's meeting.  He was there to teach anyone interested how to use one.  I have never used one and thought "Hey if he's going to haul all this equipment in I'm going to learn how to use it."  Such a nice thing he did.  I really enjoyed learning how to cast on, weave the end in as one goes and cast off.  He also brought in his pom pom maker if one was interested in topping off their hat.  Of course I wanted a pom pom!  Made this adorable hat with Hugh's help in less than 30 minutes.  He says he can knit 4 hats in an hour using the circular knitting machine seen behind me in above picture. 

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!

Sacramento Area Machine Knitters Guild is alive and well

Just a reminder...

This blog entry is here to assist the Sacramento Area Machine Knitters Guild in advertising their meetings on the Internet. I hope you will stop by one of our meetings and share your latest project with us!

Meet with local Machine Knitters. Chat and discuss the art of machine knitting. All machines brands users are welcome, from the Brother, Bond to the Electronic Passap.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild, meets on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays 10am-noon (we meet throughout the summer at our normal days and times if there is enough interest).

We meet at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 6201 Spruce Avenue, Sacramento, CA (off I-80 at Greenback exit, turn right at first street, up about 2 blocks, bear right at the curve and the church is straight ahead).

Contact Marilynn (pronounced Mary Lynn) Wright at 916-331-2309 for more information about the Guild and upcoming training topics.

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.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild Meeting 12/11

Great meeting today.  Very busy meeting today.  We had 4 new knitter's come to the meeting.  3 of them brought knitting machines.  There was Sabrina and her mom Nellie.  Each had a machine that Becky helped answer questions for, because she's more acquainted with Brother machines.  There was Michelle who brought in a Studio machine she inherited from her Grandma.  Julia answered her questions since she's more familiar with Studio machines.  Then there was another gal and her name escapes me.  She and her itty bitty very patient daughter watched the goings on.  She just bought a machine and is waiting for it to come.  I hope to see everyone again in the new year.

Our knitting theme was big surprise Christmas knitting.  Marilynn brought in a pattern for mini ornaments.  She knitted a mini stocking.  I was so busy knitting a stocking of my own I never took pictures of this full room.  Every table was covered with knitting machines.  7 knitting machines in all.

I completed my stocking on the machine and just had hand work to do.  Pictures will follow in my Completion Challenge post.  Big thank you to Becky for helping me to understand what (8-11-9) meant in regards to knitting a heel.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild March 10th Meeting

SOCKS!  That was the theme of the meeting.  What shocked me was the interest.  The mere mention of machine knit socks usually scares people, but obviously not us here in the Sacramento Area.  There were 13 people at the meeting and 7 machines set up.



I had brought one of my standard machines and of course it was the one that has no tools.  Made a note to do something about that.  When so many machines started coming in I thought just as well put it away and let another machine get set up.

Marilynn called people and told them to make some ribbing on needles and bring it in.  I knew that most people wouldn't want to or know how to do this.  Only Marilynn and Kathleen... OK me and Julia too came with ribbing.  Mine and Julia's was made with our knitting machines and ribbers.  Julia had brought machine knitting supplies and sock yarn to sell.  I decided that since I had made 3 whole socks that I would help.  :)

Thinking that a few would not have ribbing I brought my laptop in so we could view Diana's Single Bed Sew-As-You-Go Sock.  With it's mock rib option it came in handy.  Erica with Becky's help made Diana's sock.

Kathleen with her ribbing made the sock pattern Marilynn brought in.  I just roved around teaching, learning and just watching.  I really enjoyed myself.  I thought it was a great meeting.

Not everyone worked on socks.  3 knitters were there to learn the basics like how to get their machine working.  Been there done that!  One knitter had her machine working and was learning the e-wrap cast-on and how to cast-off.

What I learned was I needed to figure out my tool situation with my machine.  Should I buy tools?  I have standard tools with another machine.  Should I use that set with both machines?  I really had a big problem sort of robbing one machine to use with another.  So, I quizzed the machine knitter's over at Ravelry.  The consensus was "pool the tools."  Many have a tool box with standard and bulky tools separate, but in the same box.  Though I still have some guilt about doing this it really makes a lot of sense to me.  Why buy more tools when I have a lot of great tools.  What I've decided to do is label with a Sharpie which tool came from which machine in case I ever want to put the tools all back with their machines.

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.

Machine Knit Mittens

I found a model at my last Machine Knitting Meeting.  One of the gals brought her granddaughter's.  One was about 6 and the mitten fit her perfectly.  This was knit with some purple yarn I bought at Fig Tree Alley.  It is a gorgeous purple acrylic sold for $5 a cone.  I bought it mainly to use for my prototypes.  My experiments on my knitting machines.  Each time I make something though I think I should save it for something real.  It's such a gorgeous color.

I made this mitten on my Studio 700 standard gauge knitting machine.  The cuff is a mock rib.  At the time of this project I was at my knitting machine meeting and did not have a ribber.  I also did not know how to use the ribber I had at home.  The mock rib looks nice, but doesn't have the stretch of a real rib.

I was really quite amazed as I made this mitten in about 25 minutes.  It took me about 1 hour to sew up the seams.

I made the size for a toddler, but the mitten nearly fits me.  It fit my 6 year old model perfectly.

3 days after I made this mitten I learned how to use my ribber.  I'm no expert, but I do know how to make 1X1 ribbing.  I made an adult size mitten with 1X1 ribbing.  Pictures to follow.

Knitting Lace

Last week's lesson was on knitting lace. Only problem I don't own a Brother knitting machine. My machines don't have lace carriages. BUT I really enjoyed watching the demonstration. This machine I was told is a Brother 910. It had a handy dandy electronic device that helped set up the lace patterns. It would then tell you how many times the lace carriage needed to pass before using the regular carriage.

We chose different patterns and worked with Becky's machine.  She use to own a machine knitting shop up until 1998.  And to think I moved here in 1990.  I could have been machine knitting for 8 years!  I had just never heard of machine knitting at the time. 

Becky wanted to demonstrate a quick and easy project for gifts.  After trying her machine I could see how easy it would be to crank out a table runner and 4 place mats on a Brother 910.

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.

Machine Knitting Disaster

(Amy gave a lesson with her garter carriage)

Last Thursday was our regular June meeting of the Sacramento Area Machine Knitter's Guild.  Last months meeting our leader Marilynn said she wasn't going to bring her machine any more.  That it's too heavy for her and she's having issues with her leg.  Well, one of the reasons I'm a reliable member is because I felt like if a 70 plus year old woman took the trouble of bringing her heavy knitting machine to the meeting each time I should show up.  I have a bad neck and don't want to lift it and I'm at least 20 years younger. 

(counter clockwise Hugh, Marilynn, Celeste and Amy)

Upon arriving to the meeting I find we are in a different room.  Marilynn only said she wasn't bringing a machine I really had no idea what we would do at the meetings now.  No plan is set.  So, I decided that  bring a machine.  I hadn't thought it through though.  I decided to bring my machine I had just bought.  I could give it a good look over and decide what needed to be done to get it up and running.  Since we were in a different room there were no tables set up.  I'm minorly annoyed.  Our other room is all tables and perfect for us.  Anyhow thank goodness for our only male member Hugh.  He set up some folded tables that were in the corner.

As I'm setting up my machine I hear Kathleen talking from the other side to the table.  She's always so fun and up beat.  What I'm hearing though is a story that is not happy, but she's still sounding as up beat as ever.  I tune into her conversation and hear that she had dropped her electronic machine and broke it.

What I didn't quite get til much later was she dropped it in the parking lot right before the meeting!  She did finally have a bit of disappointment in her voice when she said she had just got the thing and had never used it.  She said she probably paid too much for it to begin with and now she had to get it fixed if it could be fixed.  Then the upbeat Kathleen was back.  She had the attitude that what was done was done now let's move on.  Great way to think.  Hugh from our group is quite the handy man and saying that is not giving him his due.  He said he'd tinker with it and see what he could do to fix it.

It got Kathleen and I talking about how heavy these machines are.  I said, "What we should do is when we get here is come into the room and ask someone to help us lift the machine out of the car."  She thought that was a great idea.  That is my main problem.  Getting it in and out of the car.  Once out and on my golf cart I'm good to go.  Even lifting it to a table doesn't seem as much trouble as the car.  I have my son or husband or even my daughter for that matter put it in my car.  I just need help getting it out.

UPDATE 06/24/10:  Hugh was able to glue this machine back together and get it up and running again in 2 short weeks.  We were all shocked at how quickly he fixed this machine.  Kathleen was flabbergasted when she saw machine fixed and at today's meeting.

Machine Knit Guild Meeting February 11th

Marilynn was demonstrating the cable stitch on a doll sleeveless top.  After it was done we all agreed we'd like a top in our size with this design.

The cable was so cute and I was amazed at really how easy it is to do a cable stitch.  The ribbed edging Marilynn did by hand and hung it on the machine.

This is the back of the top fully rolled out.

This is a close up of the back of the cable.

This is a demonstration of a decrease.

Welcome Sacramento Machine Knitters

This blog entry is here to assist the Sacramento Machine Knitter's Guild in advertising their meetings on the Internet. I hope you will stop by one of our meetings and share your latest project with us!

Meet with local Machine Knitters. Chat and discuss the art of machine knitting. All machines brands users are welcome, from the Brother, Bond to the Electronic Passap.

Sacramento Machine Knitters Guild, meets on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays 10am-noon (we meet throughout the summer at our normal days and times if there is enough interest).

We meet at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 6201 Spruce Avenue, Sacramento, CA (off I-80 at Greenback exit, turn right at first street, up about 2 blocks, bear right at the curve and the church is straight ahead).

Contact Marilynn (pronounced Mary Lynn) Wright at 916-331-2309 for more information about the Guild and upcoming training topics.

08/13/11  Sacramento Machine Knitter's Guild is still going strong.  Come join us.

Using my punch cards

I really had no idea how to use the punch card mechanism of my knitting machine. Usually using the manual I can make anything work, but had trouble with the very simple manuals that come with these pretty complicated knitting machines. I knew my friend Julia could get me up and running if I brought it to the knitting meeting. What I didn't know was our new member that had only been to one previous meeting had my exact machine and loved it. She knew exactly how to make it work. I was knitting this swatch within minutes. AND there was an instruction that wasn't in the book. Carolyn the fellow Studio 700 owner said you had to run the carriage over the needles and back again before knittting to get the machine to read the card. She called it the "free pass." She asked herself several times "Why do I know that?" It wasn't written in the book. Once it was done everything worked great. I spent nearly 2 hours just using different cards and making a really long swatch. I had SO much fun. I felt SO creative.

Here is a picture of what I was doing. At the top if you notice the stitches are singles. Down below they are doubled. Same card just a flip of a switch that elongates the pattern you are already doing.

Marilynn showed us how to switch colors while using a punch card to make a picture in your knitting. She got this pattern from an old English Machine Knitting magazine. SO CUTE. She gave me the swatch to take home.

I am really looking foward to doing more experimenting with punch cards with my machine knitting!

The Garter Carriage

I really don't have much to say about this as I don't know really anything about it. I just know it was really cool. Amy a very experience machine knitter brought her garter carriage to our regular meeting. She wanted to show how it worked. She was in the middle of making a tank top for herself. She demonstrated how to make a ribbed edging for the neck line. She also demonstrated how to get a V-shaped neckline. I really enjoyed watching the whole process even though it was a bit over my head right now.

Here she hung the neckline on the knitting machine.

Here is a picture of the ribbed neck line after a few passes with the garter carriage. Amy said she doesn't like using a ribber and does everything with her garter carriage. In order to get the ribbed look she did need to do some hand manipulation, but it was much. Then the garter carriage did the rest.

Machine Knit Edging

This was actually fairly easy to do and it looked SO nice once done. First she made a hem by knitting a few rows and then rehanging the edge. She knit a row or two after that and then began the pattern. The pattern was achieved by moving a stitch over to another needle. Depending on the pattern you want. She wanted this V like pattern.

You can see the thicker edge of the knitted hem.

I'm going to have to give this a try. I like the fancy look of something so simple to do.