Catch Up Time:---

Now that Christmas and year end things are behind me I've been puttering with a few little projects.

Little Boy's Sweater

Firstly my attempt at a square neck sweater for my great grandson.  I find often the neck openings are not big enough to accommodate a child's head so I've been trying to improve on that with this little sweater.  He did try it on and it worked!  He always has a shirt with a crew neck or a sort of turtle neck piece under his sweaters so the square neck still keeps him warm but is much easier to get on.

 

Here is the sweater which is a set-in sleeve style

 

The square neck ribbing was done by hand as the moving on the machine proved to be a little too much for me on this project.

 

The yarn for this project was Paton's Décor and the pattern is a basic from Knitware for a size 8 child.  I used my trusty LK 150 at tension 4 + dot for this one.

 



SOCKS 

Now on to some socks I knit for myself!  I love these in the winter time to keep my feet warm and I also use them as bed socks.  This is the same pattern as the crazy socks I did before and if you want to give them a try just go to that section of my blog and you can download the pattern from there.  Look in July 2013....

 

 

 

BABY BLANKET

Now I have this little baby blanket finished which is measuring about 39 inches square.

 

I made this also on my LK 150 hand manipulating the cables and columns on the panels.  The outer panels were done by re-latching every other bar and the centre panel was doing the cable columns - creating a cable twist every six rows. 

 

Here is the pattern if you want to give it a go:  Baby Blanket

 

I did the centre panel first and as I knit the outer panels I did the sew as you go method to eliminate sewing later.   

 

I just made it with the pink yarn so had to settle for doing the trim in white but it looks okay and I'm sure the new mom/baby will not notice and it will be one of a kind!

 

The blanket is a pale pink and a nice crib size

 

Color is a little off (dark) but it does show the cables and relatched sections

 

 

Just went with a simple crochet edging in white







Christmas Stockings ~ 2013

This year I decided to go with red and white.  Did find some fuzzy yarn for the cuff of the one on the left but had to weave it in as it kept breaking if used through the machine itself.  Turned out okay though.  I like the candy cane stripe one myself and will definitely do that one again.

Altogether our club did 22 Christmas Stockings to donate to our local Woman's Shelter along with sweaters, slippers, mittens, scarves, socks and hats.  Hopefully that will keep these ladies and their children warm and cozy during these winter months.

We had our Christmas luncheon on December 9th and had a great time.  Ordered Swiss Chalet Festive dinners which we consumed without any problem whatsoever.  That is sure the way to go.  We pre-order the dinners and have them delivered to our usual meeting location and have a great visit, play some games and dine without a care in the world.  No preparing anything ahead of time and very little clean up.   Here are a couple of photos with hopefully some more from our photographer for the day who was using her brand new iPad type of tablet and hasn't forwarded the photos she took that day. 

 

Here is our little group as we got together for our Christmas Luncheon

 

Not the best photo but here are some of the sweaters (two completed and two almost done) and all the Christmas Stockings in the background that we made for the Woman's Shelter.

 

Merry Christmas everyone and a very Happy New Year

filled with wonderful knitting adventures.

 

 

Measurements + Schematics = Pattern Project

Recently our Machine Knitting Club have been doing some special workshops.

MEASUREMENTS:-

February 2013 we made our first attempt with the current group of members to learn how to measure for a sweater.  The whole concept was our members wanted to make something for themselves and it would fit!  

This went very well and I think everyone came away with a much better knowledge of what to measure and why. 

SCHEMATICS:- 

October 2013 we progressed to working with schematics that we see in all our knitting magazines and books.  Everyone was saying they can never match the gauge or have that particular yarn but would love to make a sweater like that.

Solution:  Make a swatch!!! 

Choose your machine and yarn and make a swatch to determine how many stitches and rows in one inch.

Using the schematics measurements apply your information of stitches/rows per inch and you can duplicate the pattern.

SWEATER PROJECT:-

As a group, we all worked on the same schematics for a child's sweater size 8 and we all used the same stitches/rows per inch information. 

We then walked our way through the back, front, necklines and sleeve applying identical stitches/rows per inch information to the schematics.  Made good use of our calculators, pencils and erasers but we got it done.  Most were amazed at how simple it was and wished they had tried it long before now.  Working together on this exercise was the best way to keep everyone on a level playing field.  Lots of questions and discussion on sleeve decreases - shaping front and back neck and of course the shaping of the sleeve cap.  However it all went smoothly and by the end of the actual workshop the gals worked up their pattern with information from a swatch I asked them to do at home.  Amazingly after lunch the machines were set up and they were actually working on their little sweater projects - I was thrilled to see such eagerness to get this Sweater Project underway.

Our homework for our November 25th meeting was to bring in the finished sweaters.  If there were any problems we can go over them as a group.  Hopefully this will get everyone trying something different now that they have become more relaxed with this information.

I have had a few calls just to verify some points or measurements but all in all it seems to be going smoothly.

I will post the photos of our little sweater project after the November meeting. 

If these sweaters aren't already being used as a Christmas/birthday gift to family or friends, we will donate them to our Women's Resource Centre for some little ones there that might need a cozy little sweater to keep warm as winter sets in.

Ear Flap Hat Pattern

I have had a lot of knitters want to give this pattern a try so I have put the link here for them.

If Yahoo is going to continue to be miserable with our files I am seriously considering putting them all here in my blog until things settle down. 

In the meantime just click on this  Earflap Hat

Peach Sweater Project - Challenging myself!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

I decided to make a sweater and try some techniques I have been thinking about lately.   I really wanted to start using my ribber more and this was a little project that would get me into that groove so to speak.

After playing with the cable ribbing for practice and doing some swatches , I worked up a basic pattern using Knitware. 

I wanted a pullover, with 3/4 length sleeves a ballet neckline and something different than the normal ribbing for the cuffs and bottom of the sweater.  This particular sweater is a ladies size 36 and I used Bramwell Duo Magic on my Singer 360 (standard 4.5 gauge) machine.  This cone has miles and miles of yarn on it!!!  I did the cuffs and ribbing sections at a tension 3 and the stockinette at a tension 4. 

I decided on a cable ribbing and I really like the final look of this section of the sweater.  I did remember to add an extra stitch on each edge so when I knit up the seams there would be no break in the cable patterning on the seams and that did work out beautifully. 

Once I got the cables done I decided to break the pattern by a cast on row behind the stitches which gave a lovely line before starting the basic stockinette stitches for the rest of the sweater.

Here is a photo of the seam (located in the center of this photo between two cable columns) showing the cable pattern moving around without any distortion.   Also the extra cast on row between the cable ribbing and the main section of the sweater.   Love it!



Seam

 



Cable Ribbing

Here is the sweater completed - I do like this ballet neckline very much and have now put it down as my "new favorite neckline".

Ballet Neckline

 

Finished Sweater

 

My Granddaughter modelling the Sweater

OOOPS - not sure what happened!

I am not sure what happened but a lot of my photos just disappeared. 

So I decided that it was probably time to do some housecleaning on my blog so I have deleted several entries as my space quota was filling up rapidly. 

I kept the most recent and any that I had included pattern instructions on for now but will create links on most of them so that will take up less room.

That is all done so now I'll just have to work away with some new entries to fill it up again.

I'm Back.... Socks, Socks and more Socks!

Pattern available at end of article:

Life has been very busy around here lately so my knitting and blogging has taken a back seat for the past six weeks or so.  However, things seem to be mellowing somewhat so I have been playing with my LK 150 (mid-gauge 6.5 mm km).   I had a couple of lovely afternoons out on my deck and when the humidity hit back inside I went and played on the dining room table so I could still see the outdoors and the deck but not deal with the sticky heat....  

 Here I am all set up for a lovely day of knitting along with my faithful companion Jesse

Jesse makes sure any stray yarn is officially supervised.





Looking through my stash it became apparent I have tons of sock yarn.  So I thought I would make my favorite "Sew As You Go Socks" with a turned heel with a gusset that I really like.  Using the self patterning yarn does create challenges though as it is almost impossible to match the stripping on the seams.  What to do???   The answer is nothing! 

In all my wisdom I decided to make the socks without worrying about matching seams and simply call them "Crazy Socks".  You just know the younger crowd will love the fact they don't match.  I have grand kids and great grand kids that would just go nuts for these so why not give it a go!

Now I have two versions of this sock pattern.

First Version:

I knit the cuff and then put the stitches left of 0 on waste yarn.  I then follow the pattern on the remaining stitches in work and end up putting the last row on waste yarn.  I graft those two edges and sew the ribbing seam.  Crazy Sock done.  Nothing matches and I really don't care!

Second Version:

 I knit the cuff and all the way down to the beginning of the heel.  I put the stitches left of 0 on waste yarn. I continue on with my pattern until I reach the last row which butts up to the waste yarn.  Take those stitches off on waste yarn and graft.  This version requires that you sew the side seam and the ribbing so that is a little more sewing but really not that much.  However the beauty of this version is the area that shows above the heel matches!!!  So if you want to be more particular about that section of the sock that is seen above the shoe area then this might be the way to go.  The heel and foot section will be busy with pattern but not so visible when you wear shoes....

I have posted the pattern link below so give it a go  ....  Happy summer knitting everyone!

An excellent information sheet is available on Measuring for Custom Made Socks can be found at http://appleleeffarm.com/PDFs/cstmsck1.pdf

Click here to download ---->  

Crazy Sock - https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r6yfv451dhe3wl/CRAZY%20%20Socks%20-%20Shaped%20Heel.pdf?dl=0