Friday, September 28, 2007

The "Press"

Ok, so a few people are still interested in the "midget scarf (from group)". So I thought I would do a little checking into the press that is listed in their site.

Ok, Daily Candy:
Daily Candy
has a page:
Media Kit
That you can download that tells you a lot of information about the company. It also seems to be the guide on how to set up AD's at Daily Candy. They claim in their PDF file that they can "make or break" a product. This one kind of tells me that the "press" is all their own and they probably paid for that "press".

Now Style Hive:
Style Hive
is a you join it and build your own your own part of the hive.
About
They say "Professionals can promote themselves and get noticed by the world for their style" So this is another setup your own press.

This Next:
This Next
Is a sign yourself up and recommend things to people:
FAQ
"ThisNext is a shopcasting network where you can discover, recommendand share things you love. Everything on This Next is recommended by real people like you." So I wonder just who recommended them?

She claims to be the one to find all the "green" things and posts them for people but she has a send me your feedback. So anyone, yep anyone could send feedback and have a press done on it because it seems to be green (seems to be green, see my before blog about China and goats as related to cashmere and judge for yourself if cashmere is really green, partly green, or not green at all, LOL)
Still Made In USA

Wists is a blogging site. We all know blogs. This is blogging with a little difference in mind, that being to sell a product. So I wonder who signed up to make the "pidge" pages. I am sure there are lots of people out there wanting this to be a big seller and decided to do it for them. Yea, like that. Wists

I have read across the internet in different forums about the sudden "press" that the pidge is getting so that it must be something special.

So now I a ROFLMBO because all of the press is a do it yourself setup and a no big deal thing. Each of these "press"sites are not exactly press, unless you want to call what you say to people about your own product "press". I guess that is press of one kind, but not the kind that the pages seem to make it sound like.

NOTE ADDED: For those of you really interested in selling things, you might want to check some of these out. They do sound like good tools to use for sales. Now I cannot tell you if there are charges but you could check it out.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Cashmere Good for the Environment a Green Product

So I was reading and see people making the statements that maybe cashmere is not really the "green" product as described in some places. So I decided to do a bit of research into this claim.

I came up with several things, these below being two of them, but there are more.

China and Cashmere

Cashmere

So read for yourself. On the one hand maybe it is green, on the other maybe it is trouble.

This is a no win one I think, but to claim good for the environment when something is even partially harmful doesn't quite fit in my world. Good is good, not good here but bad there. ROFLOL

So is it "Green" or is it "Not Green".

THEIR GONE

Yes their gone. What's gone? Well those pictures of the people sitting using the knitting boards to make the "Pidge Scarf". Well at least for now.

Kim, from Knittingboard.com, mentioned on group today that they had removed the pictures.

Now I wonder why?

Is it because they never thought that people would realize these are not needle knitted?

Is it because they think their secret might get out?

Or is it just a getting ready to update with better pictures?

Those certainly weren't the best for me as I couldn't get a real good look at "who's" board they were using.

What ever. It is really too late for either of those first two, but the second would nice. If it is because of the first two, this is kind of like putting the cart before the horse and expecting that cart to do all the pulling.

Whatever the decision to remove them, maybe they will come back soon.

ROFLOL

Sorry, I had Really decided not to post about this anymore but I just couldn't help myself.

This whole thing has given me so much laughter over the last few days and I really needed this comic relief.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Pidge Scarf

I am reading people talking about this scarf everywhere. Many needle knitters have been trying to figure out what stitch was used to make this scarf. I have read all kinds of interesting ways they think this scarf is made.

It is hard to believe that none of them checked out the rest of the site. It was one of the first things I did. I wanted to know about the site, the people, and any extra info on these scarfs. I thought it would help me understand that out of this world price they are charging for these simple, little, short, I don't contain much scarves. That lead me to the "About" and the pictures of the "knitting boards" being used. Naturally since I do board knitting it wasn't hard for me to figure out.

So here it is folks, it is a knitting board being used, not a knitting needle. You can accomplish that stitch on a needle though by using the twisted knit stitch, but you are not going to get that same thickness unless you double knit the scarf. That is not impossible, but I wonder if you could get that wonderful slanted look doing needle double knitting.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Baby Hats

It has been hard doing any type of craft since last Friday. A friend had a stoke and on Sunday she passed away.

So I wanted to do some sort of mindless work and decided that loom knitting hats would be the deal. So I took a blue knifty knitter and worked on it. Then I got this idea of adding a fancy start to the brim section, an as you go sort of thing.

Now I have a couple of hats that are cute. One is a baby hat, one is a baby bonnet, but they have a similar brim start. I shall get pictures as I can.

I am working an adult one now to see how well that looks.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

E Hagihara Type Knitting on a Dreamboard or Pocket knitter

First I have to say these pictures are not very good but they are the best I have for now. I will attempt to get better as time allows, time doesn't allow for much lately.


Here are the two boards attached right next to each other. I left no gap at all. What you see is a tiny bit of the work coming off the back pegs, and one stitch on the front peg. The front pegs are the knitted pegs, while the back pegs are just holding pegs.

Here are the front pegs with a second wrap ready to knit off. Notice that one peg is not wrapped. That non-wrapped peg is a slipped stitch peg, but you do not have to slip stitch, this is a personal choice. I found that slipping the first peg left a nasty longish loop on the sides. I really didn't bother to try to tighten that side stitches as I was just trying this out so I am not sure that you will always get that if you slip the first peg.

From here you can see the work at the back of the loom. That back side is where the work flows, not the front. Again as you can see there is no gap between the two peg rows. If you want a larger gauged project then add additional space with some type of spacer between the boards. The work should still flow off the back and never through the gap as this is not double knitting.

Here you can see the work coming off the backside a bit and you can see a couple of strands of yarn sitting on the pegs. Those strands are not ones that are knitted. This is a simple wrap around (do not e-wrap) the peg and that peg holds those strands till the work grows. See how at the base of the pegs the work looks to be a bit bunched. That bunching is caused by the build up of the strands the pegs are holding and should be pulled down to stop that bunching.

Here you can see how the work looks as the fabric is pulled down to stop that bunching. I only used one strand to play with so the fabric is very loose in its weave. Also since I only used the e-wrap (e-wrap is for front peg only) in this sample the stitches you are seeing are all purl ones. All the twisted knits are to the other side of the board.

This picture shows you how the back pegs look with all the stitches building up. These back pegs as I mentioned are just to hold the yarn and never to be knitted. As a result of these back pegs just holding the yarn you will have multiple wraps around them, but as the work grows these flow down and off the pegs. Just be sure to give that little helping hand to pull the work down and not let the stitches build a lot.

You also do not have to use the twisted knit (e-wrapped) stitch. It is very possible to use the knit stitch and/or the purl stitches in the same method that you use them on other single rake looms.

This type of work would be best done on a larger gauged loom, this one is a 1/2" center to center, with a double strand of worsted or a single strand of bulky. If you have a loom with a smaller gauge your fabric as in all small gauged projects will be much tighter.

Also the pegs on this board are wood with grooves. I think using nails or some very small cotter pins would make the fabric much better then the larger pegs like this loom.

Sorry the pictures are so dark. The lighting in the room I was in isn't so great.

To see the work done on a Pocket Knitter see previous message with link to Isela's Pocket Knitter Video.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Single Rake knitting On a double rake

On a group there was talk of a new/old type of knitting on a loom. This type of loom I have seen pictures of in the old patent file E Hagihara Knitting tool, Patent March 29, 1929, flied March 17, 1925,
#1,705,860, although it is not exactly the same you can get the idea from that file if you want to search it out.

The idea is that you have a loom with two sides. Any two sided board will do as long as the sides are not permanently attached to each other. You need to be able to move the back board to adjust the gauge of the knitted piece, and of course the smaller the gauge of the loom in the first place the better the knitting will look. Still you can use a double strand of yarn and get good results.

This is the same concept as the Pocket Knitter that came out not long ago. The only difference in this way of knitting is that the two boards that are adjustable can change in gauge of your work, while the pocket knitter is one size only. Sorry those back fins/pins/pegs (or what ever you choose to call them) are stationary at one point. So the gauge is the same no matter what the project.

So how do you do this? I played around with this on my dreamboard first using one strand of worsted, and then using two strands of worsted. I did an ewapped stitch first. This one was with a slipped first peg. It works out ok but the work was loose, as can be expected from a loom with a 1/2" guage in the pegs spacing. Also the first stitch that is slipped is elongated a lot but could have been tightened a bit if I had bothered to worry about, but as usual it is not what I like to do on that first peg. I prefer not to do a slipped stitch.

How to do this with a slipped stitch first peg on a board loom with the e-wrapped stitch.
1: Take the two sides of the board and put them right next to each other and fasten them down with whatever equipment your board uses.
2: Attach your working yarn with a slip stitch to the first peg that is on the side closest to you. This will be your knitting side, while the other side of the board is simply the holding peg for the fabric.
3: With your yarn slip knot on that first peg go to the second peg on the back board and around it just like you would do for the board stockinette stitch, come down to the second peg on the bottom row and e-wrap the peg. Now go back to the top row and around the next peg, and continue wrapping in this method.
4: At the start of your return row your working yarn should be at the first peg on the bottom row. Start the return row by wrapping the yarn around a top peg continuing down to the second peg on the bottom and e-wrapping it. Up to the next peg and around it on the top row, down to the third peg on the bottom row and doing another e-wrap.
5: Knit off all the front pegs with two wraps on them. Do Not touch the loops on the back row. The back row is never knitted off. When knitting off the front row pegs be sure you simply drop the stitch you are knitting off to the back of the peg it is on. Do Not place that knitted stitch over the peg on the back of the board.
6: Wrap again, remembering to skip that first peg by moving your yarn around the top peg and doing an e-wrap around the bottom peg.
7: Continue to wrap and knit off in this fashion. After a couple of rows grab the fabric at the bottom of the pegs in the back and pull it gently downwards. You will at first notice these stitches building up on the back pegs but not to worry for as soon as you have a few stitches on there you can pull the work away from the pegs with that gentle tug. It kind of looks like magic.

Then I tried adding a second strand of yarn to work with. This firms up the work a lot on this larger gauged loom. Granted it is not a large gauge being smaller then the knifty knitter looms but it is still large compared to some of the fine and extra fine gauged ones.

First I did the slipped stitch for the first peg. Again the stitches on the sides are a bit big for my liking but they probably could be made tighter if I worked at it. I didn't. I also used the e-wrapped method for the first section. You can tell by looking at the work that this is the slanted stitch that is the e-wrap. All the stitches have that slanted look to them.

Next I tried a knit stitch. To do the knit stitch wrap that bottom peg straight around instead of having it cross itself. I slipped stitched the first peg in trying this for a few rows and you can see the difference in the look. I didn't do too many rows as I was on to play with a non-slipped first peg.

I tried both the e-wrap, the knit stitch, and threw in a few purled stitches just to play around with this and they all work just fine. Rather then wrap the entire section for doing the purl I worked one peg at a time as you would do with a round loom to make the purl stitch. I found this to be easier for me as it is what I am use to doing. I don't need to reinvent the cart to pull the horse so I just used what I know.

Now here is what I see from playing with this. A smaller gauged looms to begin with would work the best. Having pins/nails that are tiny would also be the best to use. The closer the pins the better the fabric would look. If you have made your own boards with nails then you have a beginning plus to start with. My dreamboard is an adjustable loom that can be used as a round single rake. It has end pieces that can be set across the board where you want them, and as such it has predrilled holes where I can place the ends. For this other use to change the gauge of this loom all I would have to do (I think this would work, haven't tried it yet), is offset the pegs, but then little tiny washers put between the two sides before fastening them together would work also.

So those who have made their own with pins will, in my opinion have the best if they choose to have pins close together, but wider will work. Pins/nails have been difficult to use and are not quite as fast when using your loom as a single rake as having grooves but with this method you will find it to be quite easy. The process of wrapping around that back peg creates a slight gap at the back of the pin that your hook will easily slide into. This allows for easier pickup of that bottom stitch to knit it off.

Isela made a video for the pocket knitter that will show you the slipped first peg method with a knit stitch. In that video she also shows how to do a purl stitch. This is exactly the same method of using your adjustable loom as a single rake. So take a look at that video. Take your adjustable loom and place the sides close to each other and test what you see in the video as you go. You will be on your way to using that double rake as a single rake in no time at all. (thanks Isela for such wonderful videos for people to learn from)
Pocket Knitter Video

There is nothing perfect to this following picture. It is that quick I have to play with this because I want to. So don't be too hard on the fact that this is really an ugly example.