Polarspun by Lion Brand

It's been a couple of days so first the report on my situation here. The weather is so weird here. We don't normally have snow to the valley level but we are getting it this week. In my yard here yesterday, we woke up to close to four inches of that nasty white stuff. Yes, I am not a fan of snow. They, those weather people, said more snow yesterday, up to another four inches would drop, didn't happen. Then it was last night, more snow, didn't happen. We are bouncing from snow advisories, to snow warnings, to heavy warnings back to advisories. Fun, huh.

In a bit I will be headed to work. Payday is tomorrow and things need doing today to prepare for that.

Yesterday my hands were hurting from all the needle knitting, so I left it all alone to let my hands recoup and feel better. The young man who did the service for my grandson, Noah, and his wife just had a baby. I thought it would be nice to make them a baby gahn.

Now to that title of the polarspun yarn. Oh what a soft feeling yarn. It is yummy to the touch. This is the yarn I wanted (note that wanted), to use to make the baby ghan. I decided to do some larger crocheted yoyo's for the ghan, but when I started out I realized right away that this stuff is not going to work too well unless I wanted to go to a larger hook. You cannot see the stitches. They just disappear in the fluff. Not that it cannot be crocheted, just that it would be harder. I am not into harder right now.

So I went to a loom. I choose a 36" straight panel loom, 1/2" gauge, from CinDWood. I made a mistake in the cast on for my base and actually got four rows done before I realized that I had 26 pegs on one side and 27 on the other working. Not going to work.

So I frogged it. When taking it off the loom I noticed something I didn't like. I had used the figure eight for the base and when the piece came off the loom it started to stretch. It stretched to about 3 times the size it should have been. Oh no, should have swatched. So I swatched a piece in the stockinette stitch and took it off the loom. It stretched. Oh boy did it stretch. Did it bounce back, NO. It has no bounce, this yarn has no memory. Oh some of that nasty stuff that I will have to play around with to find out which craft will work best for it and in which type of project. Gee, I hate yarn like this. What's the good of feeling soft and wonderful if when worked it is not going to hold it's shape. Yuck.

I then examined this polarspun closer, as I should have to begin with. It is not exactly (well in my defination of yarn), yarn. It is thread with fuff attached to it. Thread has no memory. So to my thinking knitting this stuff is the last thing I would want to do, needle or loom. It will be back to crochet for it.

Now I have the loom out and need another yarn. At the same time I bought this polarspun from smiley's, I also bought some other lion brand yarn, some of that homespun. It's a little dark but does have some mixture of colors, including a darker pink that will work well for a little girl. I wound a couple of skeins (three to be exact), and started the baby ghan in this. I am not fond of the homespun for the fact that it bunches along the strand when holding it, but if you use a yarn guide it works quite well.

I have started the piece with a built in edging and am trying one of the ponto stitches. Yea, I know should have swatched but I think this will work ok, and be something different then what I have done before. It is stitch number 4 that I choose. The base is figure eight, the sides will be plain figure eight and the body will be the ponto 4. Should make enough of a difference in the look to see it. At least I hope so.

By the time I finished messing around with that polorspun it was getting late and I only got the base edging and a couple of rows of the ponto 4 done, so not enough yet to see it. Tonight I am going to try to split the knitting time between the needle and the loom. Maybe that way I won't impact those hands a badly as I did a couple of nights ago. Shame on me, I know better. I don't have the trouble that I use to, but then I am usually more careful then this. Shame, shame, shame on me.

Stitch conversion-edited

A person on groups asked how to do this needle stitch pattern on a knititng loom.
Pattern Multiple of 16+1
"Row 1 (RS) K 1, *yo, k 6, (slip 2 tog as if to knit, k 1, p2sso), k 6,
yo, k 1; rep from * across."
Row 2 and all even rows purl
Row 2 and all odd rows repeat row 1

It is a bit of work but it can be done as follows:

You need to do all your moves on this one first. So as follows:
Row 1:
Skip the first 7 pegs for now (we first need to make an opening for our yarn over)
Peg 8 move to peg 9, these are your slipped stitches
Peg 10 move to peg 9, this is the knit stitch
(you will leave pegs 8 and 10 empty to do your moves for the yarn overs)
Now move wraps as follows
Peg 7 to peg 8
Peg 6 to peg 7
Peg 5 to peg 6
Peg 4 to peg 3
Peg 3 to peg 4
Peg 2 to peg 3
Peg 2 leave empty
Peg 1 leave as is
Peg 11 to peg 10
Peg 12 to peg 11
Peg 13 to peg 12
Peg 14 to peg 13
Peg 15 to peg 14
Peg 16 to peg 15
Leave peg 15 empty
Peg 17 leave wrap alone
Repeat this process for as many times as needed for pattern repeat.
Wrap and knit off. You will knit off the pegs that have more then one wrap on them leaving only one wrap per each peg. The pegs that have one wrap only just leave alone.
Row 2: Knit across
Row 3: Repeat row 1
Row 4: Repeat row 2

If you see a mistake please let me know. I re-read several times but things do get missed. Knew I would forget something, so I edited the portion where you purl on the even rows, if you are doing in the round then purl if knitting on the loom in flat method then knit this row. I always forget that portion. Bummer, sorry.

Red Afghan again

I think I have it at a point of taking it off the loom. I will know for sure tomorrow. I have sat in bed and worked on it all evening. Now I am too tired to get out the tape measure to find the length and width before I remove it. I sure will be glad if this is ready, I am getting a little red blind.

Just a little update.

48" board loom

So I went and did it. Cindy over at CinDWood made some boards by accident, well the person who cuts her boards did. They are were suppose to be some 36" 1/2" gauge boards, but she wound up with 48" 5/8" gauged boards. She said there are ten of them, well not now as I am getting one of them. They are $20 each.

I have a couple of 36" straight boards, and a 48" S looms, but a 48" straight loom, wow that is long, but I am going to give it a try. She is also testing a couple of other looms if people are interested. She has a few, a very few, 15" round looms with 90 pegs at 1/2" gauge that she is selling for $20 while they last (at last I heard there were 9 left as I purchased one of these also).

Then she is trying out a 48" S loom at the 1/2" gauge also. These first she has cut she is selling at $35 each.

Don't forget there is also shipping costs. I don't know how many she might have left now but you can contact her by email at
CinDWood Crafts

I have only done this type of link once, if it doesn't work please let me know in a comment. I think it checks out ok.

Anyway, contact her and ask if she still has any of the looms available that you might be interested. This is a very limited offer, so you have to be quick.

Red Afghan, S loom

I always have so many projects going it is chore to decide which one to work on. Last night it was the red scraps afghan that I picked. It is on a 48" S board from CinDWood Crafts (see link on left sidebar).

I am very close to being finished with this afghan and it has taken me long enough. I have done so many other things during the working time of this one, but as I said it is almost finished. This one will be about a twin sized afghan. I say about because I have not finished a project on the 48" loom before and am not quite sure of the exact measure this one will come out, but it looks to be about a twin.

Right now it is close to being as tall as me, not really that long as I am only a short 5'2", but plenty long enough for the three year old it will be for. I started it out with some scraps of red yarn that were just hanging around, but have long since used up most of the red and had to purchase more. I am using two strands of different colors held together, and just a simple single stitch (wrap every peg, no beginning slip stitches on this one).

I find I am still evolving on my knitting on an S loom. In the beginning it was quite difficult for me to get the hang of knitting on this loom. I had been use to using a straight 36" double rake loom and the curve of this one was throwing me in a spin that I just couldn't pick up speed from. On my straight board I am use to not having to move the board much. I wrap from one side, and I knit off from one side (most of the time, depends on the stitch). I learned to wrap going from left to right and right to left and for the knit off, just lay the board to the side, pegs facing my body to knit off the opposite side. This has been great in a limited amount of space.

The S loom didn't allow me to do as my hands had been trained to do, and what my brain said was the right way. So I fumbled a lot. I missed wrapping pegs, I dropped stitches, and made a general mess of things and that was only on the little 36" S loom. Oh my working the 48" would become a chore if I couldn't even do the little loom.

Finally I just about gave up, but I am a stubborn old lady. I will often think I have given up only to come back determined to "get it". So more tries and finally while watching TV (a program I really wanted to see and not just hear), I "got it". I have experienced this one before. You try, and you try, you fail and you fail, then suddenly you are not paying attention as you should because something else has captured the active part of your waking mind and what is left is only that part at the back that knows it is doing something but you are not watching it closely. Ah, I look down and my hands and brain have decided to try something different then the awake "I know what I am doing so leave me alone" part of the cycle I am use to. OK so that's what I need to do. A lesson in if it doesn't work try something else. Sometimes we are determined to make it work but it just won't.

So I found a new way to work a different but the same loom. The difference being shape, the same being just another double rake loom. On these types of looms, I find that I must always wrap from one place to be consistent in the way they are wrapped, so the board must be turned. Well if it works do it. I do it.

The knitting off is the part that is still a work of art in motion. The more I use the loom the more that part evolves. For the longest time now I learned I had to knit off by revolving that loom in a circle. Knit one side and then knit the next. Now I am getting more comfortable with the loom and am picking up faster ways to knit off the stitches and have less movement. Now it is not a matter of choice, the afghan has gotten quite large and all the movement of the loom twists the body making it a stop and go process to untwist that body, thus learning new ways to knit off.

For those who might possibly be reading this, it is just a little bit to try to show you that there is never just one way to do something. If you have been taught by someone, or learned from a video, or a book or are just self taught, don't think that the way you have been doing it is the only way. If it doesn't seem to be working, do try something else. Even if it is working you might still try that "new" to come along. It just might be a little better then what you have been doing, or at the least something to add to make it different or add something to what you are doing. Don't let yourself get stuck in the "I have to do it this way because ??? did it this way", because that is wrong.

Then when you have tried (and I have tried much), and find that it just isn't what you want, or just isn't what you like, move on. You don't have to keep it, you don't have to leave it. The choice is really all yours. Take what you want, throw away what you don't, store what you think might come in handy along the way. Most of all never let someone tell you that you are wrong. If I put my jeans on starting with the right leg, and you put your jeans on starting with the left leg, who's to say who is right and who is wrong after they are on. Can you even tell which was which unless we tell you? I couldn't.

So the red afghan on the S loom is now going faster as I am more comfortable with the loom workings, and become more so with each use of it. I might even complete this project someday. At least I certainly hope so.

My loom knitting

My looms have been sitting lonely for a few days while I recover from the sharing I posted about earlier. I am better today but the boss expects me to work at some point. Well, I have been doing that at home here, but there is stuff that can only be done at the shop, like money deposits. So if the weather holds nice today I will be gone most of the afternoon doing that. Mr/Mrs Weatherman is not giving us nice weather news though. The storm that was suppose to move through last night and this morning got bogged down off the coast and is just now starting to move in. Our beautiful afternoon forecast is not beautiful any more.

A talk of reversible knitting on the boards has started again. I sat last night for a bit and played with it again. I just cannot figure out why I cannot get those edges to look nice. I do try but they, to my eyes, are ugly. I don't like ugly in my fabric work. Ugly gets frogged, as well it should be.

I started out to work on the lace hat I have on the loom but gave up right away. I was tired and tired means mistakes. So leave that for later. I don't want to frog one of those when it is looking so good. So that will be a for this weekend project. Other then this little bit last night, I have slept, taken care of group, and done not much of anything.

Knitting pal update

I now have to start all over, "again". I left the piece I am working on with stitch number three sitting in the craft room all by itself. Something happened. Everyone, and only one or two people entered that room, says not me, not me, but half the project was pulled off the pegs.

To make it worse when I found the dirty deed had been done, I all by myself, tried to fix it. Bummer, several dropped stitches. I figured I will leave it till I am not feeling so bad and all those nasty dizzy spells are gone then try to fix it. If not then back to square zero, a start again.

I am going to have so much practice on this one stitch that soon I should be an expert, NOT, at it. Maybe I should pick a stitch that doesn't require so many moves over just two pegs. Maybe one with duplicate moves over a bunch of pegs.

You know, I really told myself to use my rubber band trick to secure the work before I left the room after I last worked on it, but my answer to myself was that dumb, oh nothing is going to happen to it all alone in this back room. Yea right, nothing at all. Now that should teach me a lesson.

For those who use the pals that have ever had the piece ripped off the pegs use the rubber band trick to secure the work before walking away. Take rubber bands, how many depends on how many sections you are using. I try to used smaller rubber bands, and not the really thin kind, about two or three per section. Make sure your stitches are pushed down to the bottom of the peg, then stretch those rubber bands across several pegs above the stitches. Now starting with the last peg you stretched across, place another (this is overlapping on that one last peg). Continue to overlap across the board till all the pegs have a rubber band at the top.

You do not want to make these so tight that they have a chance to snap and break, but do want them tight enough so that they cannot easily be pulled off. This is a simple cheap way to make sure those stitches stay on those pegs. For those of you who have dollar stores around they often have packages of rubber bands, but even at Walmart they are not expensive. It sure is cheaper then continually having to start a project over, especially with multiple needles. What a pain it is to separate the yarn strands on even three needles, just think what twelve would be like.

GrandChildren

My goal in life was always working towards having children and thus grandchildren. All in the effort so I could be the grandmother that other kids had but I never did. My grandmothers were OK, but one was very strict being of the old school that thought children should be seen, but rarely and never heard. The other grandmother being one who picked her favorites and the rest were just a byproduct that she sometimes had to deal with and roughly at that.

So now I have my children and I even picked up extras along the way. I was pretty good about picking up strays, but they are good strays. Rather I should say they picked up me and I choose to keep them. The more the better as they too picked up partners that got added to the mix. Don't take me wrong about that word "stray". It is really a good word. They strayed into my heart and there they stay. See a good stray.

Now I am at a point where all my children be they directly from me or one of my "strays" have given me grands. Not many mind you, there definitely could be more and someday will be, but enough that I get to be that grandma. I spoil but don't. I am strict but not. I overdo at times then don't. Ah but that's a part of being a grandma. You must mind but lets have that fun along the way.

I have worked along with parents to help these little ones learn the art of sharing. Isn't that a wonderful thing. Well it should be, but is not always. My grands have learned to share way more then I ever expected. Recently one shared with me his very bad cold, and now another has shared his flu. Isn't being a grandma wonderful. I love it but maybe I helped to teach sharing way too well.

Anyway, just thoughts for the moment.

Lace Hats

I have now completed several lace hats but still have to write up what I did. I used the pink oval and blue knifty knitter looms to start my working up of the designs, and I used a two strands of different baby yarns.

Now I am working those same patterns on the green knifty knitter loom in one strand of worsted weight yarn, to check over what I wrote down to make sure I am getting it right. Oh these first two larger hats are so lacy looking. They will be great hats for someone who just wants a little head cover but not something that is going to be too warm in the spring summer time. I like them.

I still have several other patterns that I made up to duplicate on a larger loom. I have the brim section of one started but I was getting too tired last night to start on the actual lace portion of the pattern.

I have discovered some simple ways to complete yarn overs, and knit together stitches so that is is much easier to do. Even a decrease of three stitches into one is now not hard at all for me. I will put how I did this in the files when I am ready to actually take them from the binder to the computer. It does pay to play as you can learn so much by doing so. I am very pleased with myself.

For a couple I might need to have someone help by taking extra pictures of the technique to show how it is done. I am hoping to get my son to help with this. Sometimes he is amendable, sometimes he is just way too busy. I shall have to catch him at the right moment.


Now my grandson is here visiting. He got here Thursday night and the week we had planned to have him at his dads, has now been shortened to leaving on Monday. Bummer but the schools where he lived had so many snow days that they had to shorten holiday weeks to almost nothing and then they will still have add on days at the end of the school year. Ah is all a part of getting their education time in but it sure is a bummer for us. Tonight we are having a family outing to a local pizza place so we can all be together. That will be nice.

Slow day

I really am not trying to do much today. Getting going on anything has me with little time to actually put into any project. My grandson, Carter, is coming over for me to watch. His dad is helping friends move and that's no place for a child. So I am thinking about pulling out some of the cording I bought recently and just working on a plant hanger. That should be simple enough, at least I hope so.

Oh I did get a bit more done on my knitting pal piece, and I picked up three new colors to add three more needles to the mix. I know, I could be heading for the big frog again, but oh well, it is fun to play.

Knitting pal 2

That darn project did it to me again. Well, actually I did it to myself. I thought I saw an error and stopped to check it out. Darn I pulled several stitches right off their pegs and managed to get all but one placed back as it should be. That one wouldn't behave at all. At least there was a little more practice.

Now I have frogged it and I am back almost to the point of where I blew it in the first place. They say practice makes perfect, but it also makes for a very frustrated Mary. ROFLOL

Wow, frogging a project on a pal with using more then one or two needles is a test in patience all by itself. At first I thought I would just cut and start over, but that is the cheating way. I did the boo-boo, I needed to take the punishment for it. So I frogged it and let that be a lesson to me. Yea, right, it will happen again, I can feel it.

So I cast on again, did my base row, and now am on the second row of the stitch number three. It is looking pretty good but I think I blew it at the beginning. One side just doesn't look like the other. I am not frogging it. I want it bigger so I can look better at what I have and can maybe see where I went wrong or if it is wrong. Hard to tell what is what right now.

Knitting Pal

I started to rearrange that room to get a knitting machine set up. I always tend to forget what a huge job that is and when I am done I am way to tired to want to do some things. So the room is set but the machines are still sitting in the corner.

I ran across my knitting pal while I was moving some things. So I decided that I hadn't worked on it in quite a while so I sat one of the sets up (I have several), and did a base of two rows in a dark green worsted in stockinette. Then I added a blue and a lighter color of green as second and third colors. I worked a simple knit the first and second pegs left to right and then back to peg two for a right to left, then repeated that starting at peg three.

After that I switched to stitch number 3. Boy that is one I had been trying to get down and just couldn't keep track of the peg count. I think I have it now, but that travel over two pegs for a count of 10 sure is a hard one to keep track of. No distractions needed for sure on this one.

I figured this time around I really needed to learn how to fix that mistake that can happen, you know the ones those of you who use pals. That mistake that happens when you though the needle went through the stitch but you simply wind up wrapping with one of those needles and no new stitch was made. So now I can fix that one. Then there is the one where you didn't catch the stitch before right and you have split the yarn, well that's ones a go now also. There is also the dropped stitch, this is the simple drop, not a complex one, I am not ready for complex yet.

So now I know how to fix several simple mistakes and the piece is coming along OK. I do have a tiny section at the beginning of one section where there is something I did wrong as there is a small gap where there should be none, but since this is practice I will leave it be for now. When it is further along and that section is long enough to lift and see the right side of it. I will see what I did there, or not. LOL

I still am liking how you can travel so far in so little amount of time with duplicate needles, but I think for now the three is what I should stick to. Later I will add more just to see a project grow faster then this one is, not that it isn't fast.

Labels

I have been playing some more with this new blog set up. Now I have discovered labels. Labels are a pretty neat thing. You label the post you did and at the bottom it lists what that label is. So I went through and tried to find all those that were loom knitting to check out the reason for these labels (way to lazy to go looking through the help sections for the answer).

So I labeled what I could find and then when I got back to a view of the blog I clicked on the label for loom knitting. Wow, a the posts I have done for loom knitting are opened in one page. Now no more searching and searching to find that one I did. They are all right there. Pretty neat, huh.

Just Yell Fire

I wasn't feeling so good today and didn't want to knit or do much of anything. So I did the not so normal for me, I turned on the TV. The first thing I saw was soaps. LOL, nothing against those who watch those, but I am just not a soaps type of person. So channel changing starts and I hit the Montel Show. Well, this is much better, but I start to head on any way but he caught my attention. So I stopped and watched. This portion of his show was with a couple of young ladies who put together the video, "Just Yell Fire".

Just yell fire is a tool for young women to help them against predators. I hear them say that this video tool is available for download on the Internet so I decided to get back on the computer to check it out. I watched the behind the scenes video and decided this was something I wouldn't mind posting about on my blog.

Do you have a daughter, a niece, a friends daughter, or even just a neighbors, yes, then send them to check out "Just Yell Fire". You may just save a child's life by doing so. These young people have put together a tool to help stop the predation of our young and they offer it up to anyone who cares to view it. The tools they offer for easy learning are what could help a young lady (or even an old lady), protect themselves.

Go check it out: Just Yell Fire or send your friends to it, you could just be helping the one who needs you.

Hats, Hats, and more Hats

Sometimes you get bored with making hats. I know I did. So though they are easy to make, and I still do some when someone wants some thing or I want to try something new, it is usually a short lived thing. Not so right now. I am playing with making some hats that are very different from others and I am loving seeing how they are coming out. Oh so cute.

The really fun thing is as I am making one, my brain is storming the next one. I am having to write down the ideas before I forget them. This is something different for me. Oh I get ideas, and I sometimes go forward with them, but more often they are something that will appear and then disappear again soon after. Not so with these and I have some very cute hats now. Granted since I am playing these are all little newborn types of hats, but I am getting ready to expand to some larger looms.

Nope no pictures right now. Maybe later on but I am not much in a hurry for that.

Blog switching

So I am set up with the "new" blog that is google sign in and I gave their new customize blog a try. Yuck. It said it would deleted some things and yes it did but it didn't tell me I would have to fight like the dickens to try to get it back. I can say I was not "impressed" with the new "custom" setting with the drag and drop. In fact I disliked it so back I switched right back to the old way. I will edit my own on my own and leave it at that. Everything is very much ok the way it is anyways. So who needs the rest. ROFLOL


Now I do think there were some neat things, but you don't always want to worry about keeping the neat things as the bad can override those neat. So here I am almost back to the beginning.

Knitting Board Stitches

Several times lately I have had emails from people who state that they have been doing stitches wrong on the knitting boards, the double rakes. I want to answer some of that here so that those who read will know that those things they consider mistakes really are not.

The most common thing people state is that they started their base row with a figure eight cast on, then made the mistake of continuing to wrap in that figure eight. Now no one has stated why they think this is a mistake and I haven't asked, so I am not sure where that idea is coming from, but I am writing to dispell that idea of it being a mistake.

The figure eight is not just a base wrap. It is a stitch that can be used for the entire project. It forms a look in stitches like the e-wrapped stitche on the round looms, that twisted stitch which gives that neat slanted look to the stitches. You can use this stitch throughout your entire project or mix it with others. I did one little afghan (a baby one), where I wanted a firm weave but not as stiff as you get from the stockinette stitch, using one row of stockinette and one row of figure eight. They worked quite nicely together.

As a base wrap it is ok but you are still going to get some of that loopy bottom from it. Now I have not tried this but someone might experiment with the double stitch cast on that some are using for the round looms. The double stitch cast on is simply to wrap a peg twice and knit off the bottom, then move to the next peg and do the same thing. If anyone does experiment with this I would love to know how well it works. Right now I just don't have the time to play with it and my long tail cast on works quite fine for me, but I have just used this double stitch cast on for a round loom project. The bottom is not as loopy and the hat I am making still has a little curl at the bottom of the piece, which I did want.

So there you have it. Play and you shall see that you can do many combinations of things on the looms just as people combine different stitches on needles, so can you on the looms. Just because it isn't exactly what someone else is doing doesn't make it wrong. Just different. If it works how can it be wrong. Play have fun and don't worry so much about what others might have done. Make this fun for you.

Update on Yahoo mail

I can sometimes get into yahoo mail but then when I try to open up a message I go straight back to the page cannot be displayed. So I am shut out for now. I will let you know latter what is up.

Butterfly Looms

Oh my this is so funny. Remember I said I purchased a couple of butterfly looms. Well, I sat this morning and with the little DVD I made the very first square on one. Oh how hilarious. This is nothing but a For Love and Money loom in a flat square. It isn't even as easy as a for love and money loom when it comes to the tie offs.

For example, the love and money looms are like the knitting looms. They have pegs around the sides and the whole center section is open. So when you do your tie offs for the intersections of yarn, you have nothing in the way. So you make your knotting up and down with, as I said, nothing in the way.

With the butterfly loom you have a flat board. When you start to knot the intersections that board is in the way. You have to actually make sure your needle goes under all the strands as if you don't catch one you could loose the whole piece.

So now I have flat love and money looms. All is not lost though. I did learn another way to join the finished pieces then what I had known before now. Then the two looms that I purchased might just make a slightly different size of square, but I would have to try my other looms to see how close they come. Oh yes, I have had love and money looms for years and years and years. I have the entire set, plus the small square one.

So if you want to do this technique of crafting with yarn, try to find those love and money looms first. You can often get the entire set for less then what you pay for just one of these butterfly looms, but you are going to get the same type of square, if you got the square loom as the butter fly one. Then there is the other love and money that make the funny shapes (gee just cannot remember the name for the sides of those, maybe because I am still laughing about it).

Comparing looms

I want to talk a little about the knifty knitter looms, the rounds verses the ovals. Now I want you all to understand this is my point of view. If it doesn't match yours, well that is just a point of life and the way we view things. I am not posting this to agree or disagree with anyone, this is my way of looking at these looms. So please no comments about how I am wrong, or trying to offend someone. I get enough of those in private emails and don't care to have them on my blog also. So thank you for respecting my point of view and if you have one different, well post it to your blog. That way others can get several views on these looms and the bad and the good of them.

So on to the looms. I have used the round looms for a while and I do have to say they are my most used, at least the round ones are. I am now using the smaller oval ones to make hats and that is what I want to discuss.

The gauge between the ovals and the rounds, that distance between pegs is very close to the same as it is for the round green and red looms. So you have the same spacing as those round ones, all except for the end pegs which do have a wider gap between the pegs. The difference is with the peg size. The oval looms have pegs that are much smaller then the ones on the round looms. It is this difference in peg size that makes a difference in the final gauge of your project.

I had at one time asked about the difference in using a nail verses a peg like the one on the knifty knitter. I wondered how that size difference in the two would effect the gauge of the final piece of fabric. I am now seeing some of that effect on the knifty knitter looms. Even though the gap between the pegs (measured center peg to center peg), is about the same, the smaller peg itself does affect the gauge of the stitches. There is not a great deal of difference but enough so that you can see the difference.

The section of pegs at the corners has been said to affect the spacing of the stitches being that they are further a part then the rest of the pegs on the looms, but I have not at this point found a project where this has made a direct impact on the spacing of those stitches in that section of the loom. Now that is not to say that it won't. Currently I am using the e-wrapped stitch and the purl stitch for the projects I am working on. As far as those go the weave looks exactly the same as the rest of the stitches. So I am not displeased with that.

I am using the 26 peg pink oval loom. I refuse to call them the "long" looms any more as that is not a good description of them. Long looms makes them seem to all be bigger then the round looms, which just isn't so with a couple of the looms. That pink loom has more pegs then the blue 24 pegged round loom, but less pegs then the red, green, and yellow rounds. Just as the oval yellow has 38 pegs and has less then the yellow round loom. They are oval, some larger then the round knifty knitter's some not depending on what loom you are comparing it to. So oval is a much better description then "long" loom. So that is what I will call them

When making hats many people want that cuffed portion of the hat for the brim. Many projects actually require a cuffed brim. One hat that I have just about completed is one with a cuffed brim. On a round loom we bring up the bottom row and place it on the pegs to make that cuffed brim. It is not difficult, in fact it is an easy part of the project. On the oval loom this bringing up for cuff becomes a work of frustration. The gap between pegs is so small and with the knitted fabric already laying between the two sides of the oval, there is very little space left over to bring up that bottom row to make your cuff.

It seemed to take longer to bring up that row to do a simple place the stitches on the pegs, then it did to knit more then half the hat, and I am using purl stitches. So cuff while though harder is not impossible. You just have to take a little more care, especially if you wrap loosely. I am not a real loose wrapper, but I still had stitches pulled off their pegs in this daunting process. So while not impossible do take a little time while doing this so you don't ruin your project with dropped stitches.

Working the oval verses working the round loom is what I want to talk about next. The round looms have been with me for a while. I have made many hats and none take very long to do, discounting the reverse hats that are double in length. The oval looms take much longer for me to work as compare to the round looms. They are quite awkward to wrap, and even more awkward to knit off. I have turned and turned to find my "best" way of holding to wrap and knit and that is now coming around. I still do not feel like these looms will ever be quite as fast to knit on as the round looms are, but they are something you can adjust to using. You just have to be willing to make some small (maybe large) changes to the way you do things. Change really isn't all bad, it can be a good thing. Be that as it may I would prefer to do a cuffed brim on a round loom and leave the ovals for the straight brims. It would just be easier and not cause so much frustration.

I cannot at this time compare the hats made on this pink oval loom to those I have made on the round blue loom. The reason being is that these are not like any I have made on the blue round. When I finish this current hat I will duplicate the pattern on a blue round to compare the finished items. At this time the hats look to be very close to the same in size, or even having the pink loomed hat be a bit smaller. I will let you know that later. I still wonder what the difference is going to be compared to the larger pegs on the rounds.

Overall my experience has made me take note of how much easier the rounds are to use, and how much faster a project can be completed. Granted I have had a longer time to get use to the rounds, but experience on looming would in part make up the difference in changing to a new shape of loom.

Added to shopping trip

I forgot one thing that I did pick up that was a just for myself thing. We went to Barnes and Noble and I got a Andre Norton book that I didn't have (it is one of those actually written with another author, but be that as it may it is still in her witch world series). That will be a relax time mode book. I haven't cracked the book open yet as I know me, I won't be able to put it down. I also got another sign langauge book that they had on clearance. My son and I have been talking about taking a sign class together, but he has some other classes to finish up first.

Then I got a knitting book. It shows somethings in it like giving an example on how to do metered squares, and some other neat projects. Maybe some I will be able to do on the loom but for now it will go to the shelf as I am still working on designing some more baby hats. I am liking how some are turning out. So cute.

I once did a pattern from off the net that was a purled ridged hat and thought that was pretty neat so I am working some variations of that and some other stitches.

My car is running pretty good. We do think the idle is a bit high so we might have to take it back to get that adjusted but other then that it now has power again, no more dying when I come to a stop. My gas usage for the trip to Medford was cut in half, and that's always a good thing.

Shopping Trip

Well, I still didn't get that little flower loom, but no big deal. I only want it because it would be helpful to help others. We got all of our shopping done, and it feels good to have the shelves at home, plus frezzer and fridge full without having spent a fortune.

I went to Michaels and found nothing that I wanted. So I went to JoAnn's again nothing I wanted. Craftware house again was a big nothing. One last stop for my crafting needs took me to Hancocks Fabric. At last something I wanted.

Guess what, I got a medium and a large butterfly loom. Neat, another toy to play with. I also picked up some more stitch markers. I keep loosing some and needed more to mark my loom pegs.

Well, that's about it. Tired need to grab loom project and rest a bit.

Knitting Machines and other stuff

I purchased an additional knitting machine and just received it last week. It is a Brother chunky machine and it looks really nice.

So I figure it is about time that I started learning how to use this machines that I have. I have several DVD's that I got from a seller in the UK and I have reviewed them slightly. Only I need my machine in front of me to follow what they are doing. Well not follow, I do understand from playing around with the machines, but to do at the same time as they are doing.

So I started on re-arranging that "room" again. I really need to get the hubby busy on putting in the shelving that he got me for my yarns. Then get things arranged so he can put up my pegboard. I will use the peg board for hanging my knitting looms and make the shelves they are on now available for other yarns. It will be so much easier to just go to the board and take off a loom then to have to search though the shelves looking for the right one.

So I took hours and hours yesterday trying to figure out how to "rearrange" that room. There is just so much stuff that it was almost impossible. I then decided that many of the tubs of yarn were going to have to leave. They went to stay outdoors for now. Now I have room to move some things so the hubby can get the shelving put in. Then I can bring the tubs back in one at a time to place their contents on the shelves.

I have decided that I will no longer be doing any cross stitch. I haven't done any in years and years. So I will be putting all those books and magazine I purchased up for sale soon. I am setting up a seller account on eBay and will give someone else the chance to use them. It is a waste just to have all of them just sitting there as there are some really beautiful things in those books, booklets, and magazine. I think a lot of my plastic canvas ones will go also. Just too much stuff and with the addition of loom knitting and now pulling out the knitting machines something has to go. I have many of those books for cross stitch and plastic canvas. We had a store go out of business and I bought a lot of the books so I wouldn't have to go looking for another source. Now they just sit there waiting for someone to love them.

Today is now a shopping day. Wow, with the car back I can actually go shopping. I am not excited about it. It will be a long day and I will be way tired at the end of it, but I do plan to get to a few "play" stores while I am at it. That makes the tired a little better. I am still looking to get that little knifty knitter flower loom. Why? Just because I don't have it. Terrible huh.

I am working on some tiny baby hats. So I will take that loom with me to work on. I am using that 26 peg knifty knitter oval loom and those hats are coming out so cute.

PS: Should have added that no I am not using a pattern for those baby hats but making them up as I go. I don't want to mess with copyrights on someone elses designs. So if I design my own then I can do whatever I want with them. The first one I did is so cute.

Camcorders

I got a camcorders to take videos of the holidays, the grands, and whatever else I want to have for later viewing, this was back just before Christmas. The problem was that I only had one battery for it and it only lasts for about an hour to an hour and a half. Not a long time.

Oh it does have a plug so I can hook it to the electricity but you cannot get around very well like that and children don't stand in one spot.

So I went looking for extra batteries only to find that no one carries them here. I got told to call the company. Sure that would be a nice thing if they didn't want a small fortune for each one, well $30 + shipping costs per each one ordered.

I had my son do some searches while I was at work a couple of weeks ago and he found several nice places. One of them had the batteries I needed (actually an upgrade from the one I have) for only $9.99 each with shipping. So I ordered three batteries for the price of one.

It did take two weeks for them to get here, but then they came from Hong Kong, and two weeks is not all that bad for the distance, and the shipping cost wasn't all that much either. It was a US order, but shipped from their warehouse.

At least now I don't have to save the battery I have. I can tape for several hours and if at home or near the car the extras can be charging while I am using another. I like it. Grandkids here I come. Oh do they like to show off.

My car

Alright, my car is running. After finally getting the carburetor from this stupid company I ordered from after a three month battle with them, my car is running. Well, it still had a problem. The day I took it to have the "first" carburetor installed, the one that they say was the wrong one, but the mechanic says was the right bottom wrong top, I started having trouble with the alternator light coming on.

On January 5 I sent the carburetor back to the company, plus my old carburetor for them to check out. They said send priority mail, we will reimburse, yea still waiting for that to happen, so I did. According to them it took two weeks for them to receive the package, sure it did. On Jan 18 I called only to get an I have to call you back in a few minutes. That was in the late morning on Thursday. Friday morning I had to call back because no one called me.

My carburetor, this one they were going to rush fix and fast ship, was still sitting in the box somewhere and they couldn't find it. Oh great, they wanted to "call" me back. I had some choice snorts over that one. Loudly and with tons of sarcasm for the man on the phone. A call back wouldn't happen, I had been that route.

So they did get it done finally, and I only had to wait another 11 days for that fast shipped expedited package to get to me. They must think I am stupid and that I will never tell anyone about my experience. I heard all kinds of excuses and I know an excuse when I hear one. This cost me plenty by being so stupid as to think I could save money with a company that others said was good to deal with. Oh that cost added up to much more then what a brand new carburetor would have cost. The price of the carburetor, the price to ship it back, the lost wages from no way to get to the job, and the cost of shopping here in this tiny town. Prices are almost double for what I can pay if I go to the next town over. I did a quick estimate and figure around $800 to $900 extra in shopping here. Wow, the new carburetor was only $750, the rebuilt I could have gotten here was $351, so figure it out. If I would have purchased here, I would have saved a bundle. Silly old me for thinking I could do better.

So the car came back to me on the 31, but the alternator light is still coming on. I checked about purchasing an alternator as the hubby can install that. They tell me to first check to make sure it isn't the battery. Nope not that, so back to get the carburetor yesterday, which the hubby installed last night. No more alternator light. That dumb company put the voltage regulator inside of the carburetor. Voltage regulators go out more often and quicker then a alternator, but when built in you have to replace the whole darn thing. This makes number six or seven in just about as many years. The first couple were simple get another no charge, as they were lifetime guarantee but then the company purged files on the computer and that no longer existed. The receipts you get don't last long in readable fashion, so take pictures, or scan them or something. This one is over $70 but I do have a core charge coming back.

At least the car is running and sounds great, for now, it is an old car. It's a 1976 Buick. I like old cars. I don't like the new plastic ones. I have seen first hand what happens when they get "bumped" and what happens when someone runs into my steel car. ROFLOL

This weekend we go shopping. Yes, shopping. I never thought I would be happy to say I was going to go shopping. I am just not a shopper. I hate it, but this weekend I go to JoAnn's, Michaels, CraftwareHouse, and who knows where else. I am suffering from I want to browse the yarn isles, at least something besides Walmart.

Round loom stitches

Stitch #1
Cast on your 18 stitches and knit one row for a base
Moving row by pegs:
Peg 1 leave alone
Peg 2 move to to peg 3
Peg 4 move to peg 5
Peg 6 move to peg 7
Peg 8 move to peg 9
Peg 10 move to peg 11
Peg 12 move to peg 13
Peg 14 move to peg 15
Peg 16 move to peg 17
Peg 18 leave alone
Now wrap your 18 pegs, leave pegs with one stitch alone, knit off both stitches on the pegs with one or two wraps on them. Repeat above for all rows, do not reverse the stitch used.

Stitch #2:
Row 1 and all odd rows: *K1, YO, k2tog; repeat from * to end.

Peg 1 leave alone
Peg 2 move to peg 3
Peg 4 leave alone
Peg 5 move to peg 6
Peg 7 leave alone
Peg 8 move to peg 9
Peg 10 leave alone
Peg 11 move to peg 12
Peg 13 leave alone
Peg 14 move to peg 15
Peg 16 leave alone
Peg 17 move to peg 18
Wrap and knit off

Return use the reverse stitch of what you used on the first row as follows:
Row 2 and all even rows: *P1, YO, p2tog; repeat from * to end.

Peg 18 leave alone
Peg 17 move to peg 16
Peg 15 leave alone
Peg 14 move to peg 13
Peg 12 leave alone
Peg 11 move to peg 10
Peg 9 leave alone
Peg 8 move to peg 7
Peg 6 leave alone
Peg 5 move to peg 4
Peg 3 leave alone
Peg 2 move to peg 1
Wrap and knit off.

No I do not have swatches for you to view. I post the directions, you need to do your own swatches to check these out.