Knitting-Looming-Machine Knitting and other stuff

Ear Flap hats machine knitted

2012-01-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

I have been asked several times how I did the ear flap hats that are doubled or where the pattern for them is. There no pattern I made them up during a practice session for hats, this hat below is the middle TD8, the TD5 and TD10 hats are in a post below this one.

So here is a little something that I put together. This does not teach you how to short row, and is only a short bit about how to work this hat. You do need to know how to short row before beginning this.

I am only discussing how to make the hat in general but at least one person has made a hat from this little discussion. Hopefully this will help others to develop a hat of their own. There probably is a pattern for a double layered ear flap hat somewhere, I just don't know where that is and why you would need it. If you short row, know how to make a hat this below should get you well on your way to making those hats.

Oh for you loom knitters guess what, you can do this also. You too just need to know how to short row the ear flaps and you can make a double layered ear flap hat the same way. You will just need to figure out the amount of pegs for your flaps and go for it and you don't have to seam if done in the round.

These are just ones I have been playing with on a bulky machine. There is no pattern as I make it up as I go. I can give you a basic idea of how they are done.

First I must say that each of the three hats were done with the same amount of needles, same brand of yarn, but different tension dial settings. This makes a great difference in the sizes of the hats. The solid blue one is the smallest hat being at TD5, the variegated dark blues one at TD8, the variegated Pink Camo one at TD10.

The middle one I think is the best, the TD8. The TD5 is extremely tight weaved and the TD10 one is huge. I like the huge one as it fits over my hair up with a clip holding it (my normal way of holding my hair, I like long hair but like it up most times off my neck).

So I used Red Heard Super Saver yarn. This is a worsted weight yarn 4/4. A brother bulky machine, mine is the KH230.

COR, RC000 (tension dial where you choose for sizes and weave tightness) Starting at the L41 pull every other needle out to needle R42. This is EON between 83 needles. Ewrap these needles. Knit across, COL, pull all the rest of the rest of the 83 needles into working position, knit across. Continuing knitting till reads RC46, COR

Your set up for the ear flaps are 7-27-15-27-7, so starting on the left pull that first 7-27-15 (49 needles) to hold, set carriage for holding, knit across, COL, pull the 7 needles at the beginning to hold, you now have 27 needles in work.

At this point you are going to short row down to 3 needles in work before doing the reverse short rowing. How you do this makes the look of the ear flap. You can do auto wrap pulling one needle into work each pass of the carriage, or you can pull two needles (one on each side) to hold, knit two rows but do not auto wrap on the return pass. This makes for the little holes along the edge of the ear flap, the look nice (at least I like them).

Reverse the short rows doing the same method as you started with, you will be ending with COL, remove hold (my carriage has a hold lever on both sides), knit one row to the right, remove the other hold, knit across to the left, COL, put hold levers back to holding

Now you are going to put the needles to hold on the other side to do the second ear flap, so put the center 15-27-7 to hold on the right side of the bed

Repeat for the second ear flap what you did for the first side. Ending with a COR after all the ear flap is finished.

Set RC000, knit till RC is at 46. Now transfer stitches off of EON over to the next one putting empty needle out of work. Now you are going to pick up the bottom EO wrap and place on the same needles. There will be three loops per each EON, this is best to pull out all needles before knitting to prevent dropped stitches,

Knit two rows, gather remove and seam. Take care to make sure your rows match up as you are seaming an outer edge to an outer edge, then turning the hat inside to continue this seam.

I have made several hats and you can vary what you want, more opening for the front, more for the back, smaller ear flaps by just changing the amounts of needle used for what. Example:
7-27-15-27-7 = 83
8-28-11-28-8 = 83
7-25-19-25-7 = 83

(note: in the case of winding up with even numbers of needles, as in the second one, you will be short rowing down to two needles instead of three or you could add an additional needle ) You can do this on any of the hat patterns you might have that you like. You can also put in a design on the longer sections as you go, change colors per each side. All sorts of things.

Ok I hope I got that all right. I take notes but they are over several sheets and jumbled. So I just picked up off those notes what I wrote here. You can play with this.

These hats are quite warm being doubled throughout the entire hat not just the ear flap.

Christmas hat for Case

2012-01-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

Ear Flap hats machine knitted

2012-01-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

More hats for the grands

2011-12-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

Monster hats for three of my little monsters

2011-12-08T11:00:00.001-08:00

Crocodile Stitch Set and more

2011-11-20T09:15:00.001-08:00

I got into this crocodile stitch and find it so interesting. So I have worked hats in different colors and different ways of doing the stitch. Here are some of those hats. I have also tried a couple of internet patterns that are interesting and posted those pictures also.

Crocodile Stitch

2011-09-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

Crochet Market Bags

2011-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Teddighan

2011-09-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

The paper is just to show how little this is. It is a carseat baby ghan. Love this. You could actually turn it into what ever you wanted to, for instance, a cat, dog, pig, bird, rabbit, or, well you get the idea.

The teddighan is available as a free pattern. Just do a simple search for it.

New

2011-09-08T23:44:00.001-07:00

Isn't he just too cute. This is the newest member of the family. These were taken the day he was born. He is now just a week old.

MCAL

2011-09-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

I did a mystery crochet along and just finished it. Not that I was altogether happy with the end results but I will still post a picture. Turned out to be a checker board. Funny my grandsons saw it and asked me why I didn't just buy one like their mom did. ROFLOL, out of the mouths of babes. They are 6 and 3.

These are not the best pictures. I just finished a short time ago and was in quite the hurry to be done with this. I have to say one of the most boring times of crochet I have done in ages.

Oh and the little bag to hold the checkers was an addition on my part. There is a backing to this and an opening in the back to place the checkers. I am thinking PJ bag.

Now on to complete some other projects and/or get pictures of ones completed. I have bags to take pictures of, a crocodile stitch hat for a baby completed, two dino hats to sew the spines on, and a couple of bags to finish, well one only needs the strap.

I think it is cute

2011-08-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Even if it didn't come out looking exactly like a candy corn:

Curly brim hat with flower

2011-08-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hat with curled brim:

Red hear yarn, I used a light pink

G hook for body

I hook for brim and edging

With G hook and doing body of the hat:

Row 1: Chain 3, (counts as first dc), 11 dc in first chain, join to first chain 3 (12 dc)

Row 2: Chain 1 (does not count as a stitch throughout pattern), pull up first chain slightly, 2dc in same stitch as join and chain 1, 2 dc in each stitch around, join to first dc (this will be a stitch that has a slight slant) (24 dc)

Row 3: Chain 1, 2 dc in same stitch as join, *1 dc in next dc, 2 dc in next*, repeat between ** to the last dc, 1 dc in last stitch, join to first dc (36 dc)

Row 4: Chain 1, 2 dc in same stitch as join, *1dc in next 2 dc, 2 dc in next*, repeat between ** to the last dc, 1 dc in last stitch, join to first dc (48 dc)

Row 5: Chain 1, 2dc in same stitch as join, *1dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next*, repeat between ** to the last dc, 1 dc in last stitch, join to the first dc (60 dc)

Row 6: Chain 1, Hdc in same stitch as join, Hdc in each stitch around (60 hdc)

Row 7-17 repeat row 6, finish off.

Brim with I hook:

Row 1: Skip 15 stitches from the last join and with right side facing join yarn. Single crochet in join and the next 29 stitches across the front of the hat in the front loop only.

Row 2: Chain one, single crochet in the next 4 stitches, *1 sc in next 2 stitches, 3 sc in the next stitch* repeat across to the last four stitches, 1 sc in each of the last 4 stitches.

Row 3: Chain 1, single crochet in the next 4 stitches, half double crochet across to the last four stitches, Sc in the last four stitches.

Row 4: Repeat row 3

Row 5: Chain 1, skip the first stitch and single crochet in the next four stitches, hdc across to the last five stitches, sc in the next four, slip stitch in the last stitch. Do not turn.

Chain 1 (2 sc decrease)x3 down the edge of the brim [there should be two along the edge and one that does a decrease in the last edge stitch and the first stitch along the body of the hat)

Single crochet along the back of the hat (28 sc), then repeat the 2 dc decrease along the edge the brim.

Single crochet along the brim edge, join to first sc decrease, finish off.

Add your own flower, crocheted, store bought, knitted

On this flower I used light pink and a darker pink

Starting with the darker pink

Row 1: Sc in ring, chain six, repeat till there are ten chains join with a slip stitch to the first sc do not chain up (leave a long tail for sewing when starting this)

Row 2: Put six single crochets in each of the ten chain sections, join to the base of the first chain section and finish off

Row 3: With main color or color of your choice, fold the previously worked chains over so you can see the back of the work, do not turn to the back just fold.

Attach the light pink color in the back of a single crochet from the first row with a slip stitch. Single crochet in the same place as joining, chain 10, sc in the back of the next single crochet from round one, repeat around till you have 10 chains, slip stitch in the base of the beginning. Do not chain up

Row 4: Sc around the chain putting 10 sc in each of the chains, join at the base of the first chain. Finish off and hide all ends except the long tail from start

Center of flower:

With light pink:

Chain 3, do 9 dc in the first chain, slip stitch to top of the first chain, finish off.

With dark pink:

Chain 2, do 5 sc in first chain, join and finish off

Place the second piece inside the first and sew it down under the top two loops, hide ends

Place this piece inside the body of the flower and sew it to the body.

Sew flower to hat and finish off all ends.

(This pattern has not been tested) If you find a problem please let me know so I can correct it.

2011-08-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Tough Gals: Do They Still Exist?

It so amazes me that this woman could so put herself down this way. She is bitching about woman being "macho", that badass thing, when being woman is much more then that.

She seems to think that we are suppose to have choice with out having choice. It looks like the only choice that I as a woman should have is the choice that someone professing to be a woman would choose for me. Now that is just stupid talking.

I choose to do what I want to do. Not what some bimbo thinks I should do or be. Wow, the nerve of some people. This just makes me think poor person. She is missing the whole point of being a woman and that is just sad.

Stuff

2011-07-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Canning/garden:

Honestly I have more stuff to post but I have been so busy and about to get busier. It is close to canning time. I have lots of tomatoes to can up as soon as they ripen. The weather just hasn't been cooperating very well in the heat department.

Regardless of what you hear on the news here, we have not been in the record breaking of anything on high temps. People do tend to allow the media to fool them. The human brain tends to take what is told them and "make it so" even when it is not so.

So with cooler weather the tomatoes have been slow to grow and slower to ripen. That's ok with a baby about to arrive, extra babysitting, and other stuff, just am not wanting those tomatoes to ripen really fast. It just means squeezing in some more work.

I have dried zucchini. The hubby will use it in dishes in the future. I don't much like zucchini myself but he does. I do like bread made from it, or raw with a dip, but not cooked but I am not doing it for me. Hubby likes it and that is good enough.

The broccoli is not growing as fast this year but that is ok. It has itself established now and come fall the heads should be bigger. Then I can freeze up some for the winter months. It is something again that the hubby likes, not me. Can't stand the stuff but the other family members love it. I know picky, picky, picky.

Our lettuce did really great this year. That surprised me. I need to get some more seeds for the fall for the cool weather crop on this. The heat was so low that the lettuce went crazy. We got much more then was expected so gave some away before it could go bad. We still have some growing that is doing ok but it is a kind that doesn't mind hotter weather. The others have died out.

Corn is about ready to be picked. We didn't plant much of that. Just enough for a little taste of fresh corn. Maybe next year we will do more, but then again that depends on how we feel.

Crafting:

I have had my standard knitting machine out, the electronic one, learning it better. All the experience I have gotten from the bulky one is now paying off with this smaller gauged machine. Right now I am playing with tuck stitch patterns, and loving what I am doing. Sure lots of mistakes but we do learn from those, or at least we should. Just don't fight what it is trying to tell you and move on to better days.

I also have been learning to Knook. That is interesting. A crochet hook to knit with. Neat idea, seen it before but it just didn't take hold till the last week. Now I have a nice set that I got at Walmart, and a home made large knook hook. Hubby drilled the hole for the cording and it works great. I also did some practice with a double ended hook and that works fine also. Gives me much more to look to for learning this craft.

I have done a few market bags in crochet lately. I have three done that I have to get pictures of. I have been using some peaches n cream yarns to do these. They turn out great. I have tried different ways to do the bottoms and am finding what I like best. I have a forth on the hook right now, but just started it last night. That one has a way to go.

I also have some hats to get done for some of the grands. Since it is summer these haven't been high on the list of things to get completed. I will get to them soon enough.

I am thinking of getting that tool for the 7mm machine, that magic selector one. I have one that does the bulky, shorter but still works, but it would be nice to have one for the 7mm machine. I do love that plastic bed machine. I must I have three of them.

Personal pissy time:

I have to work today. Don't want to. Am close to quitting. MAD as Heck. Favoritism doesn't work well in my book when it affects my personal life from the work time. My life has been effected and I am disgusted with it all. Throw your fits with threats of quitting to get your way every time and make more work for others, affect their personal lives and you can find yourself up that creek with out even a boat let alone that paddle. Some one is up that creek and the boat has now sunk.

Now I, who does the best she can at all times with the job, don't want to do it at all. I have to right now as it is still my job, but it could easily be a non thing. One wrong word could have me as one of the unemployed. Heck I could make more money from home then I do at my job and less stress to boot. Life can be tricky and the trick could be on someone else. They just don't know it yet, but they could very quickly.

A video about money and the rich

2011-07-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

Oh my take all the money from the rich to save the country and what do you get?
Shocking but quite eye opening.

Still more for Baby Case

2011-06-25T18:40:00.001-07:00

More for Baby Case

2011-06-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

For Baby Case

2011-06-25T18:35:00.001-07:00

For Baby Case

2011-06-25T18:32:00.001-07:00

Loomed

Lapghans

2011-05-31T18:27:00.001-07:00

With scrap yarns:

Done with crohooking and tunisian. One with an O hook and one with a T hook.

Makes for very lacy look. These pictures don't really do justice to how pretty these are.

The stuff

2011-01-23T12:21:00.001-08:00

The crafts used in the pictures - loom knitting, machine knitting, crocheted, tunisian crochet, and crohooking.

Just so you know. I am not going to go an post what was done in what, just know they are more then one type of crafting.

Currently I just finished another potato chip scarf but edged this time and have on the bulky machine a play thing trying things with short rowing and color changes. Got lots of mistakes on this piece but that's ok as it is practice.

Did I ever post these, can't remember

2011-01-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

Busy

2011-01-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

I have been busy, honest I have. So I just posted pictures of things I have done (some of them), since I was last here to do an entry.

2011-01-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

2011-01-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

2011-01-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

2011-01-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

2011-01-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

Crafting

2010-10-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Yes I have been crafting. Yes I have things to show but later. At least now I think I have figured how to get back into this darn blog. For awhile every time I tried to sign in I get sent on a wild goose chase. I get frustrated and head off to do something else.

2010-10-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Taxes, massive spending, more taxes. Feel like your wallet has become an ATM machine. Want to know what to do about it. Watch this and let Ray tell you how to stop the ATM machine from working:

Awesome

2010-10-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hats and hangers

2010-07-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

Nothing Fancy Clothes Pin Bag

2010-06-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

Like I said nothing fancy just plain little clothes pin bags done on a knitting machine. My old ones are almost gone. They held up for the longest time but then gave up, well one still is holding but not for much longer. For the store bought one I still have, I just put the larger clothes pins in and there aren't many of them.

This first one I did with just knitting a rectangle. Then I cast off the center stitches for the opening, pick up stitches on one edge, knitted a row, and cast off. Then picked up stitches for the other side, and repeated the knit one row, cast off.

For the side seams I just whipped stitch them.

This second one was done almost exactly as the first till the casting off. I picked up the edges of the beginning row but knitted three rows after that pickup. Then I folded those extra rows over and seamed them to the bag body. Was experimenting to see what will hold up better with the clothes hangers I am using.

For this one I also place both edges of the sides back on the machine and knitted a couple of rows for additional strength.

This third one I did a bit differently. Just needed to do some practice on the machine so why not. This is nothing fancy like I said, so why not play around with it.

I cast on only one side and did several rows. Then I put those needles to hold and cast on the other edge and knitted it the same amount. For the center I decided that practice manual manipulation for knitting the stitches was a good thing to do. So I did that for the side I was on, latch hook cast on the center needles, and hand knit the stitches for the other side. For some reason I have this thing about knitting sides differently so this satisfied my need to have them exactly the same.

After this is was just a matter of knitting the body. After the body was knitted took off on waste, turned it around and rehung those stitches and the beginning side stitches to finish by having the join on inside rather then outside like the other bags. This one has all the stitches cast off in one pass. Looks a bit neater this way. I thought about doing a crocheted edging around the opening but then decided not to do that. For joining the sides I did this one from the wrong side. I didn't do that with the other two. I wanted to see different looks to the bags. Just play time.

For hanging the bags I took old metal clothes hangers and bent them to fit the bags and bent the top to make it set the way I want. I really need to make one more as I have more clothes pins.

Each of these bags are wide and short in body rather then like the kind you get from the store, long and narrow. I am short, my lines are high up, this makes it easier to reach inside the bag for the clothes pins.

My husband says they look like little short sweaters with no arm holes. Well, they sort of are.

I used peaches 'n cream cotton yarn, two different bulky machines. The first bag was on the Brother KH230 machine, the last two were on the Studio Mod150 machine. The 230 is set up in my bedroom, the 150 I set up outside so I can knit out there. Love to be outside when the weather allows for it.

Toys and knitting

2010-06-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a new knitting table for outside. My one we built, hubby and me, last year is now in a permanent place in my room where I have a machine and ribber set up. So I won't have it for outside. Another is needed.

So the hubby had a piece of wood, 1" thick, that he cut down to make me another table. He attached a set of folding legs, and I sanded it yesterday. Then he put some sealer on it. I went to test the dryness last night and got, yep, a splinter. I barely touched the darn thing. So it needs more sanding.

So to the newest toy. I got a new belt sander today. A much bigger, much stronger sander then the little tiny thing I was using. The trouble is I won't be able to use it till Wednesday. The sealer that is on the table needs more drying, and I have to work the next two days.

I do like new toys and this one will be so handy. I also have a picnic table and benches to sand and repaint. So I will get to use this toy more very soon.

I have done another weaved knitted hat. No picture yet. I was gathering it off the machine last night and put a needle hook in my right middle finger. Hurts like the dickens today. So I haven't touched any more knitting. Heck we took that long drive to Medford and I couldn't even work on anything.

2010-06-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some work learning to use the garter bar. This is the first thing I did. I have done one of these before but it was using waste yarn to turn, and then a knitting needle (dp). That works fine but using the garter bar is much faster. These are not finished off yet, but I wanted to show the work thus far.

This one has rows knitted in color, then turned for one row of black to be turned again. Then is decreased across the top till there was only three stitches left.

This next hat is a weaving with the garter bar. I used four different colors in ribbon yarn to do this one. This yarn is from Lion Brand and is called Incredible. I have had this sitting around wondering what to do with it. Again the hat is not completed but I plan to do this one up soon.

Notice the bottom section with the cuffed brim. This is where I made a mistake. I didn't consider that the weaving would be on the back side of the work, that is where it shows best. You can see some of the weave on the knit side when it is stretched. That also looks neat.

Back to the mistake. I didn't turn that cuff after it was made and was way into the weaved part before I even had a thought about what I had done. So I thought that maybe I could just fix that by weaving a ribbon or ribbons along the edge.

Then the hat was finished and I took a good look. Oh no I don't want to touch this one. That is such a cute brim that I like it just as it is. It adds a little something to the brim that is better then the plain old brim that would normally be there. Yep, this one is staying just like it is.

So this has been my of late playing with the knitting machine. I have already got the brim section for another hat made but haven't gotten into the weaving part yet. I am adding an additional four yarns to the first four. This next four is alektra yarn and is some string with bits on the yarn, like little color squares. This should be interesting.

Today, yesterday, the day before, and tomorrow

2010-06-03T13:23:00.001-07:00

Rain, Rain go away, you are totally messing with my crafting. What I have to do I need to be outside for.

Gee I hate days like this.

That old Gobal warming

2010-05-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

John Coleman founder of weather.com

This is an awesome video about the global warming scare from someone who really knows weather on this old earth. I sure enjoyed listening, maybe you will also.

2010-05-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

I finished this one several days ago, but am just now getting the chance to upload the picture I took yesterday. I have already started the next chair, which is a lounge chair adult sized, and have the bottom finished. I haven't yet decided what the back will be. I am leaning toward using this pattern in it's full size. I had to break this one down for the child chair.

The bottom is a different pattern book then the top, the top is from a single sheet I that I was given years ago.

Braided chair patterns

2010-05-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

I went looking for some new braided chair patterns and it seems there are not really very many new ones to add to my stash. Bummer, by this time I would have thought (there I go thinking), that someone would have made up something. Guess I am going to have to do my own for a couple of things I want to make.

I did find a site that is selling some older copies of patterns for chairs. I was shocked to see "vintage" on some of the books they are selling. ROFLOL Vintage, my inside dates on the books say 1999, is that vintage. They do mention that some of these are out of print (and that doesn't mean not being sold as I found two of these on a macrame site being sold).

It really was the price that floored me the most. Almost twenty dollars for a book I paid less then six dollars for when I bought it brand new. Wow such an increase in price. Looked through all the books I could find and nothing much new, except for a tool I found for joining cording together. Now that one I want. I have the beading tool that can do the same thing but I stopped using those years ago for that. The wires on the beading tool can be pulled out of the wood handle and then they are worthless to me. So I will see about getting the tool made just for this purpose. The price is not to high but I took a look see at the construction and might be able to make my own. So I will see if I can first.

Again had trouble signing in but I am learning different tricks to this. So at least I got into this blog faster, that is till google finds another way to trick me out again.

Got the second chair frame cleaned. Over the years the back bar had rusted a little bit and that rust on a chair is so ugly, plus not being good for a child. This time instead of hand sanding it off I use a small sander.

I actually took the sander out to do some wood arms on an adult chair so I can rebraid it. The polycord on that one finally failed after about fifteen years. So we removed it Sat, well my sister did that part. She loves to tear up things, I hate it. The wood arms had lost their finish and splinters were possible when rubbing along the sides. So sanding and refinishing was needed.

So since I had the sander out I decided to see if the last bits on the sand paper would do the job on the little chair. Wow, two to three minutes and it was nice and shinny. Love this. Will have to remember it for future projects (and I do have a few other back bars that need this cleaning). A sander sure would make the time to get a chair ready be shorter. That I would like. Plus there is the added bonus of not messing your skin on hands up with that sand paper. Yes I use gloves, but it still happens. Then I can handle yarn.

So the second little chair has the vertical wraps already done and I have started the horizontal ones also but am barely into that. I got tired after cleaning the chairs. Oh for the adult chair I had to do some cleaning of the aluminum frame. Not a lot, it will never be perfect again due to age and dings, but at least so it was cleaner then it had been. Sitting around all winter they get really dirty. Should be able to get that little chair done by tomorrow. I have to work today.

Chairs and stuff

2010-05-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have been having such a difficult time trying to sign in to this blog. So I have just left it sitting. Today I tried and tried and finally manage to get it to let me reset my password for the millionth time. I think I should look for another place that won't put me through all this trouble.

So I just came top post a couple of pictures:

Did this one yesterday evening. Still have to hide the ends but am working on the frame to do a second one.

An Intolerable Act, then and now

2010-03-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Heritage Foundation an intolerable act.

The pink baby afghan

2010-03-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

The blue baby afghan

2010-03-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

The Ant and the Grasshopper, Revisited

2010-02-06T17:54:00.001-08:00

The Ant and the Grasshopper, Revisited

Posted using ShareThis

Knitting pal scarf

2010-01-28T19:03:00.001-08:00

I finally have the first scarf off the knitting pal. It has to be edged. It has curled, but this will give me a chance to practice the pie crust or worm trim on the pal. This should be interesting. I will wait till I have the second scarf done that I have started tonight.

You know I love the service from paypal. Those agents are so quick to help a person with a problem. Nice people working for them.

Knitting Pal and crocheted square

2010-01-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

I am still working slowly on the second Wool Eater square. It is almost done but I am switching between this square and a scarf on a knitting pal.

The knitting pal is an interesting tool. It works very much like a knitting machine but with additional functions. You can knit many rows at once by using more needles and complete pieces quite fast. You can knit forward and backwards on several needles at once. Using multiple colors on the needles you can do some very interesting knitted pieces.

One bad thing I have found about the pal is keeping the stitches on the pegs. So many times I have had projects that I walked away from and came back to find that stitches had popped off and run. Bummer, it means starting over. It is extremely hard to pick up those dropped run stitches.

Now when I walk away I place a cast on comb (from a knitting machine) on the fabric along with a couple of weights. This helps hold those stitches on those pegs so that they can't just relax and do their own thing.

Want to see what the knitting pal can do? Search a bit on youtube and there are a couple of videos there. These are great as learning the pal can be a bit of a frustrating mess. The instructions are not all that great that come with the pal.

This scarf is being done with only one segment of the pal, two tools but holding the same color. One row, left to right is a plain row, the row right to left is a reversing of the stitch (saw in one of the youtube videos), where you pick up the stitches and flip the new ones before placing them back on the pegs.

I have one more scarf to do for a couple of grandsons and plan to use the pal again, but might use as many as three or four tools, same colors to make it a bit faster. I only have a little time to work on these in the evening so they are slow going.

I have to decide what stitch pattern to use on the second one. I am leaning toward a stitching back and forth over four pegs two to five times then moving on to the next four. I will have to do a peg count before deciding how many moves to make.

I have been allowing this knitting tool to sit too much when I find it such a unique tool to use.

2010-01-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

My sample so far of the Wool eater pattern. Only five colors and it already fits on the top of a TV Tray.

Had to post this question.

2010-01-16T06:52:00.001-08:00

If a man yells "you lie" in a room full of politicians, How do they know Who He is talking to?

Hat and scarves

2010-01-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

This is the loom knitted hat I made for Athea. The body of the hat was created on a green knifty knitter loom. the ear flaps and edging are crocheted. Front view. Athea tried this on and darn she looked cute in it, but then she looks cute in everything.

The first ear flap is in the darker color.

Second ear flap in the other color.

Scarf is done in crohooking. This is a reversible scarf. See following pictures.

Side with lighter color.

Side with darker color.

Scarf made for Tanner. Knitting machine Brother KH 230 with ribber. I am just learning the ribber. Racking pattern II but I decreased the amount of needles used. Edging is half double crochets then a round of single crochets.

Bit of a closer look, some pictures didn't turn out too good. This is actually a dark brown like the picture above.

Scarf for Mason. Work on the same machine with ribber. Pattern stitch is Racking of English rib. Edging is crocheted crab stitch or also called reverse single crochet.

Sorry I took a bunch of close up but none turned out. This is the best of the lot.

Now Athea wants dark blue scarves to go with the boys dark blue snow suits.

Blocked

2009-12-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

Since Christmas I sit at the machine and can't think of even how to cast on. So I turn away and leave it sit there.

So I started a cro-hooked scarf with yarn my daughter bought to make her one. That one at least requires little to know thinking beyond the fact that I need/want two more moez cro-hooks in larger sizes. Have to check that out today since Val told me where to go to find their new site.

I am looking for a decent knitted snowboarding hat to make on the machine. So far I have found a couple with the types of earflaps I want but darn they are crocheted not knitted. Got to keep looking.

Working on things

2009-12-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

In the week before Christmas day my grandson wanted to spend the night. Since the room he would normally sleep in was filled with unwrapped Christmas presents I had to take down the machine in my room to make up a pallet bed for him.

After that night I decided not to put the machine back up till Christmas presents were wrapped and out of the way. So I simply put back up the table to use for wrapping. On Christmas Eve night I put the machine back up.

Still I have not knitted on it. To late after machine was set up on the eve, busy Christmas day with family and yesterday every time I looked at that machine my mind went blank. Suffering a total burn out.

So instead of using the machine I have been doing a crohooked scarf for my youngest daughter. She had bought some homespun yarn for this scarf and asked me to make her one. I tried on the machine, it hated the yarn, started a loomed one didn't like it, then a crocheted one and again not getting what I wanted. So here I am crohooking it and I am loving the way it is looking.

Now the only thing I have worked on in the last couple of days is that scarf. Crohooking to me is a bit slower then some of the other yarn crafts I do but very often worth the little extra time. I am using a yellow moez crohook and they are just simple elegant to use, so smooth and nice feeling in the hands.

I have only a couple of the moez crohooks and have been meaning to order more. I need a couple larger then the ones I currently have. Someday soon I am going to have to get around to ordering them. This scarf is coming out so nice that I would like to see something done in the larger then the yellow hook. The trouble is I can no longer find their website. Guess I should check out their yahoo group and see what happened to the site.

NOTE: The yellow moez hook is a 12.7mm. It is quite large compared to the ones you normally find in stores.

One completed, almost

2009-12-20T08:27:00.000-08:00

I switched that yarn for the slipper and now the first one is off the machine. Instead of trying to kitchener it off the waste yarn I put the stitches on needles. I am not all that good at the kitchener yet and being on needles will make it easier to do. So both sides were put on needles waiting for later today to be seamed.

This one is more work then the 14 minute slipper but I wanted to see just what the cuff is like after the entire thing is completed. The 14 minute slipper takes me less time to do but I am not fond of the cuff. Still I can work with that one.

I plan to do a set of each of these to compare them. Then I will decide if I like one better then the other or neither.

That slipper

2009-12-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

I tried one more time to do that slipper with the yarn I was using, simply soft, then gave up on it. Oh not the slipper but the yarn. I switched to using pound of love yarn and now I am at the cuff part but found my eyes getting so tired they were closing as I ran the carriage. Not good at all with this machine. So I left it for later today.

I am thinking that the pound of love might be coming out a little loose for what I would want. No not for me but for someone else, so this might just be a test. I just might have to go to something like red heart. Ugh, I don't want to do that. I loved that yarn till recent changes to it have made it stiff and scratchy. I do still have some older skeins of it so maybe I need to pull those out. The old red heart was very nice yarn. Too bad they destroyed the quality of it. Now it isn't good for most of the things I use to use it for. As it stands right now I don't purchase much of it. I have gone to other brands of yarn.

I did recently use some yarn that is put out by Caron that is similar to the old red heart. I can't remember the name right off hand but I kept one of the labels to see if they are still making this yarn. It would be a good replacement for the red heart. It worked up so wonderfully.

So I have at least got a good start on this first slipper to see the size it is going to come out with using this pound of love yarn (which by the way makes the softest pieces, but not sure how durable it is for slippers). If it doesn't work out that well, there is always the next one but at least practice on making this pattern will be worth the work I put in on it.

(darn have had to edit this post several times due to spelling and grammar errors, what's up with me this morning, distracted thinking of the slipper and the shopping I have to do today, don't want to go, but have to)

Me and yesterday

2009-12-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

I had a perfectly lazy day yesterday. By lazy I mean I just couldn't seem to get any thing accomplished.

I started a slipper from a video I watched posted to Berta's group by Berta herself, and I really like the cuff section. So I figured I would give it a try.

To begin I had to clean up my mess around my machine. Since I have been doing crocheted, loomed and innovations hats, I had a lot of those things (crochet hooks, looms, and the innovations machine), hanging out on the back of my bulky knitting machine table. So clean up first.

That part done I started the slipper. Blew it and had to drop, frog, and start again. Blew it again, same deal, drop, frog, and start again.

I think my distractions of the day didn't help. Plus the TV program distracted me and not feeling so hot about not getting stuff done during the day didn't help.

So now I have a forth try on the machine that needs to be dropped. Left it for tonight, grabbed some yarn and started a crocheted hat. At least I know I can do that. Well, I can do the other but was just letting myself be too lax. Got to stop that.

So nothing much got done. Three rows of the hat I started, and nothing else. Went to be very dissatisfied with myself. Figures, topped off a rather bad day badly. Ever have those days? Oh of course you have so you understand totally. Ah today is another day. I start over but later for the slipper, got work to do this morning. You know that job thing that pays the money to keep the craft supplies coming.

I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping. I am in a rut on what to get a couple of people. Things just aren't as easy as just go and get something. Sometimes that something just doesn't show up to say here I am. So this weekend will be more of that shopping I have to do. I hate shopping, but oh well. I am glad that I got a lot of it done months ago.

Nothing much else to say. Oh I should give you the link to the slippers:
http://diananatters.blogspot.com/ This is her blog and there is a link to her video for it right on this page. She has lots of videos for helping to learn to machine knit. If you have a machine and need help this is one source for you to check out. Another really good source is Berta's videos. Those are great as you do not need the computer right there: http://www.hobbyknitter.com/ I have learned a lot from these. They can be played on the computer or on my TV. I like that.

2009-12-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

Some of these look to be too big but my doll is small and these are sizes for adults. They actually fit nicer then the doll shows them to fit.

This one has a bit of a different edging. Was trying something but not sure I like it all that much. Hat loomed with a chunky yarn.

This purple one isn't too clear but it is all I have. Innovations machine, with pound of love yarn.

This pink one is even worse as to clearness. Just couldn't get it right for these two. Innovations machine, with pound of love.

Loomed with a chunky yarn, hat edge is single yarn then doubled.

This one is crocheted with the same chunky yarns as some but in stripes. Pattern I developed when my children were little and been using since. Love this pattern.

Innovations machine, pound of love.

Loomed, chunky yarn.

This one is crocheted. I was trying for something a bit different as to looks. This is vertical crocheted, switching yarns to crochet the two colors. I think I am in love with a new to me technique that is similar to a knitting method. This one I have not done in this fashion before but will again.

Of all the hats I have done in the last few months I do have to say that my favorites are the two crocheted ones on this post. I just love this pattern.

My daughter had me tell her how to do this one and she says she loves it. It is something she has been looking for and everytime she finds what she wants it turns out to be knitted. So this one she says is excellent. That so pleases me.

2009-12-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

Merry
Christmas
To
One
And
All
From
Me
To
You

Cuffed brim

2009-12-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

I am doing some hats, just five or maybe a couple more, for my daughter to give to her church. They will be put into packages for homeless and my daughter came up with the idea of putting hats in them. She then asked me to help with a few. So I said ok.

The first hat I made was on a knitting loom. I did a short cuffed brim and as usual that brim is much thicker then I would normally like. I used the normal two strands of yarn and brought up the brim.

It's not that it doesn't work, the hat looks very nice. Still I would prefer that the cuff not be so thick that it feels tight.

So I finished this first loomed hat and started another, but I also started a couple of crocheted one. I have this yarn that is chunky and oh so nice. With the larger gauged loom I am using, the green kk, I still have to use two strands for it to be nice and warm but with crochet I only have to use one strand.

I now have two of those crocheted ones done, gee I forgot how nice those hats can be. These are just wonderful and if I didn't need them for my daughter I would be tempted to keep both for myself. I made them long so there could be a wide folded cuff for keeping the ears warmer. One is is vertical strips of green and blue, the other has a green for the top crown section and blue for the body. Had to work out that last as I had never done this on my hats before, not in my crochet pattern. Came out really nice.

As I am working these crocheted hats, I kept thinking about that too full cuffed brim. Duh, this is really an easy one to solve. You can make that cuffed brim be the thickness it needs with out being so thick that it feels stiff.

So I started one last night just to test what I was thinking. Normally I do a short cuffed brim because of that tight feeling from too thick a brim, but for this example I decided to do a very wide brim. This way the brim portion of the hat will have a little extra protection around the face and for the ears.

I haven't finished the hat yet but it looks to be coming out more of what I want. I will try this again on a shorter cuff but for now this is going to be an excellent example for me to go by.

So here is what I did.

Instead of starting with a double strand of yarn cast on with a single strand, e-wrap cast on.
Knit for 12 rows, do not count cast on as a row
Attach second strand of yarn, Knit 12 rows with the two strands held together.
Bring up the cast on row to place on pegs
Wrap and knit off the stitch and the row you brought up.

Yep it is as simple as that. You are creating a thin layer with the one strand, but doubling up for the second half of the cuff. This way you are bringing up only one single layer to sit behind that double strand layer.

This still gives you a nice thick cuff but not too thick. It has more stretch then the normal cuffed brim and feels nice.

I am also thinking this would be good for one of those wide hair bands. You know the kind that ladies wear to cover the ears but not all the hair. Work this just about the same but since there is going to be a cast off section that might show work it this way.

Say you want the band 30 row wide. Since we are going to be folding the first and second half to be behind the center rows, we actually need 31 rows.

Cast on with one strand of yarn work 8 rows, again do not count the cast on. Work 15 rows with the double strand. Work the last section with one strand for 8 rows.

Now bring up the cast on row and place on the pegs. Cast off. Use a cast off that is going to be stretchy as you need that for the bands. There are several available.

Now fold the band so the cast off is to the inside of the band and wear. I have been meaning to make a band for me and now I guess I will have to try this as soon as some other projects are completed.

Anyway, just thought for you all to think on today.

2009-12-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

This is another of these hats. This one done with three strands held as one, green knifty knitter, EOP crochet cast on, knit EOP.

I think it is cute. My poor doll is my model. Please be kind she is 49 and kind of old for a doll. Once upon a time she was a beauty and I still love her even though she isn't any more.

Experiment from picture

2009-12-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Done on the small blue knifty knitter loom, crochet cast on EOP, Knit EOP till desired length, gather cast off.

Now this comes out a bit small for a new born. That EOP just decreases the size too much. So done on maybe the red loom EOP would be better.

I really had to stretch to get this on this newborn headed doll, but it is too long for the preemie sized doll so the amount of rows would need to be decreased.

I didn't have the super bulky yarn that I think the original picture I saw was worked up with, so I used two strands of a chunky but the super bulky or three strands of the chunky would make a better looking hat.

Also I only did the e-wrap and it would look more like the original if the knit stitch was used.

2009-12-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

Tried to crowd them altogether to get them all in the picture. So you can't see them all well but there are 43 of them. Dropped off at the school yesterday.

I have to post this one

2009-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

From The Inane to the Insane

There is just something wrong in a country that crashers to the White House get a pass and Navy Seals face being tried for punching a "terrorist who brutally killed, maimed, defiled and hanged four American citizens in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004".

What have we become when a terrorist (and yes I did say terrorist, not human made disaster or some other dumb thing, it is what it is, no politically correct nonsense here. An apple is an apple, it can never be an orange so don't tell me I have to try to make it one) can get better treatment then the men sent to pursue and capture him are treated.

This gov is disgusting in all it does. Speak it plain, give out military men and women their rightful dues, and those terrorist be-damned.

NOTE: for added thoughts:

Is this the way this gov body plans to help destroy our peace and freedom. Get rid of those best trained to defend us and you open us up wide for those who would take us down. Think about that one folks. At every turning you hear about more soldiers being condemned for doing the job they are trained to do. That job they do protects your rights to complain about what they do. The people of this country should be ashamed that they allow this kind of thing to happen.

No problem the way things are going soon you won't be allowed to complain at all or about anything. It won't be politically correct, or might be just outlawed. Once upon a time there was a little country where the people did not speak up, then soon it was all to late for them to speak up as that right had been ripped away. Just wait, keep silent and your turn could arrive sooner then you think.

2009-11-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

John Adams
US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)

2009-11-26T19:27:00.000-08:00

I made these hats on the innovations machine over the last couple of days. I really didn't take any pictures except what you see here but I did want to talk a little about these. As you look at the hats you will see the designs all look a little different. Then if you turn the hats inside out, there is an even different patterning to the hat.

This was some yarn that came in an auction I won. I actually wanted the mainstay dark blue yarns in the auction but was quite surprised at how nice this variegated yarn is. There were five skeins of it. So I wound it and then used it for the boys. I have two more for the other two grands.

I showed the boys how the patterning can be different and they chose the sides they liked best, at least the middle two boys did.

My grandson Carter.
Grandsons, Carter and Payton
Grandson, Trenton
Trenton again
Carter and Payton again
Grandson, Andrew
Andrew again.

The room

2009-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

This is one side of my bulky 230 machine, picture on the wall, and the other machine is a standard 930. Knit leader standing in the middle.

This is my passap machine. See I even use the window seal to hold things. Got to use every inch that I can. There is a stand behind the passap and the bottom shelf has cones of yarn.
The shelf in the corner needs some help. It is an old shelf that has a bit of bowing in the middle section of the shelf. So I need to find a way to bring it back together or get longer pegs for the shelf. In front is my macrame stand
Close up of the passap and the stand under and behind it.
Shelf with accessories in corner, it also holds my records, and some other crafting things. In the front are the 930 and the knit king compuknit III. These machines to have the garter carriages on them.
A peg board with some of my looms. My little tiny TV. Corner book self has machine books.
Messy, messy, messy. I keep moving things on and off of this shelf. Can't quite figure out how to do this one so it is best used.
My eagles are on this shelf. I have other display shelves to put up for my eagles but till those go up those eagles don't move. I just cannot take a chance of them breaking.
This is a shelf (upper right), that the hubby installed. It has my little knitters on this end, plus some yarns. Below is the top of the cubicles the hubby brought me. Cone yarns fill these, and the very top back is our emergency lamps in case of power loss.

Oh such a lot of mess to still figure out. I just do way too many crafts. Maybe I should drop some, NOT. I wouldn't know what to give up.

The group

2009-11-25T18:23:00.000-08:00

Seems the owner doesn't know what happened to her group. We emailed several times this morning and then she opted to start another for us. I have learned so much from this owner of groups and the members there about using my machines, that I certainly hate to lose this one.

So YEA, it is not the same group but at least it is the same owner and members are finding us.

2009-11-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

These hats were all done on the innovations knitting machine. I worked them double layered, gathered both ends and attached them together, then crocheted around the brim.

The flowers are crocheted.

The yarn is Caron Simply Soft.

Baby bonnets

2009-11-25T08:31:00.001-08:00

These were all done on a Brother KX 350 machine. I have been working out different ways to do baby bonnets and these are a couple that I have completed and gotten pictures of. More pictures to come later of others.

Group closed

2009-11-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

I am totally bummed this morning. I got up, opened up mail and went to check one of my favorite knitting machine groups, and yahoo says it doesn't exist. It was there yesterday, the owner didn't say anything about closing it, but nevertheless it is gone. Bummer, I got most of my helps from there, and I will miss it and the members that were there.

An answer to a question

2009-11-04T16:01:00.000-08:00

To the person who asked about the plant hangers in the pictures of the greenhouse, the answer is yes, I made them all. The macrame thing I didn't make was the basket you see hanging with plants in it. That I picked up at a second hand store intending to recycle the metal rings in it, but I got the idea that it would look nice as just a little plant pot holder. So I gave it to the hubby and it really looks nice the way he set it up.

Two more grands

2009-11-01T10:44:00.001-08:00

The Boys (well four of them)

2009-11-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

Hats for the holiday

2009-10-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin hats for my grands. There are two extra in this batch but that gives more choice to size. I need to make two more.

Craft room

2009-10-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

My craft room is just about done. I finally got the outside storage area cleaned and took all the baby stuff out to take to the big storage area. I would get rid of it as Tanner and Andrew are now one and a half but Athea says might be one more down the line. I hate to keep buying baby stuff when what I have is perfectly fine. So for a bit it will hang around, but not in the only storage place here I have for yarn tubs.

So the cleaning up and out went well, and I took all the tubs from the craft room and arranged them as I want them to get to what I need quickly. Just open the door and I am there. I have tubs that have wheels so I can just wheel them out and have access to the back ones.

Now to put back all the stuff I moved so I could remove the tubs, but that is for tomorrow. After completing this project I went on to sweep and mop the carport, remove dried bell peppers from the dryer, do laundry, and pick up some wood we are going to burn putting it in the garden wagon. Enough for today.

Mason, just four

2009-10-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

OK I short circuited my grandson yesterday. All I did was ask him a question
and I totally turned his little brain to mush. It was the oddest funniest
thing to see. It was one of those moments you just wish you had that video
camera with you.

A background. Mason is the grandson who wakes, opens mouth, and talks, and
talks, and talks. That boy just has so much to say, ask, and a desire to learn,
learn, learn. He does this by driving you to distraction with all his rambling
and question asking.

So we were at the last stop yesterday in our shopping. We were at Target. Mom
took the boys with her to look for some jeans, they are growing so fast. I went
to check out Targets DVD section. Found a package deal of Harry Potter movies,
$37.98, that had all five movies in it. We do have 1-3, but to buy the 4 & 5
would cost me $40 separately and this was a better deal. So I grabbed it.

Then I went to find mom and the boys. She wanted to try something on and asked
me to watch the boys. So here they are sitting in the cart and Mason is talking
talking talking. I am listening listening listening and answering answering
answering. Oh boy what a faucet mouth.

Then I did it. I asked the Question. Mason, don't you ever stop talking? He
shut up. He had this perplexed look that told you his little brain was
searching for an answer to this question. He looked at me, pointed his little
finger (remember he is only four), and that look came over him again. His
little eyes rolled around in their sockets, and again that perplexed look was on
his face. Several times he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came
out, not even a little sound, nothing at all. He didn't even move. He was
standing in the basket perfectly still, except for that little finger pointing
from time to time, and that face changing from the brain searching look to the I
think I have it back to the searching look again.

Here I am about to burst with laughter and holding it back feeling like I am
going to burst open, while this little mans brain searches for that answer that
he just can't come up with. For a whole minute he stood there repeating the
looks, the almost saying something, the pointing the finger again, but nothing
happened. Suddenly it was like turning on the lights, he started to move and
with that movement came words pouring out faster then he had been talking (and
that is pretty fast). Did he answer the question? No. He just went right back
to his last thoughts before I asked the "question". It was like it had never
happened.

My daughter was listening from the dressing room, the clerk there was watching
him as he tried to find an answer, and there was me. Oh I though that clerk was
going to pass out from laughing when this little man reactivated. She just
about fell over as she laughed without letting it come out full. Like me she
contained it but didn't. It was all I could do not to laugh as to Mason this
was serious time. ROFLO

Oh what a memory for the data-banks in the recesses of my own mind. I wouldn't
have missed this for the world.

Greenhouse Pictures

2009-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

860 machine and ribber

2009-09-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

In still working to having the craft room finished I have set up machines, and been testing to see that they work right.

I got the Brother HK860 machine set up with the 850 ribber. When I checked the alignment of main bed to ribber it was really off. So I set out to figure out how to align them. Wow, the only written instructions I could find were not very clear. So that wasn't working so well for me.

Then I remembered that I had some videos that starts you out on setting up the ribbers and their use. These are by someone named Ann Kite. There are actually a series of these and I have the 7-A to 7-D. Most of it is quite boring to me (sorry to Ann if she is still around), as she goes through a series of different machines, not just the brother. At least I know that if I wound up with other machines I would have these to help with set up.

So I managed to set the alignment both vertical and horizontal as both were off. I continued on to watch a little of the cast on. I have worked a little ribber work on the Brother KH 230 with its ribber but the setup of the knit and ribber carriages are somewhat different, not a lot but knowing the difference is a must. I do have the 850 manual, and Kite does show things a bit differently, sort of backwards to my manual.

Then I ran into a problem. During the third row of a tubular cast on my carriage jammed. It jammed hard and I wasn't even moving the carriage fast. At first I thought a needle had gotten out of line and caused the jam but nope all needles were in line. So I gave it another try. Jammed again, only this time I had more expectations of it happening and was going even slower.

I couldn't even figure out what carriage was causing the jam. So I separated the carriages and and moved each by themselves to test, it was the main bed carriage. So now to try to figure out the cause of the jam. The needles looked good, the carriage seemed to be fine as far as I could tell, but that jam was happening so it was something, just what?

I decided to test to see if my 930 carriage would work on the machine. It did and knitted beautifully. OK, so something is going on with the 840 carriage. I got the 860 machine without a carriage and only managed to get the 840 carriage, which is the same carriage, for this machine. I have knitted before with this carriage on this machine as single bed knitting and haven't had a problem till now, and only during this cast on.

I also have an extra 910 carriage. So I pulled it out in hopes that it too work work on the 860 machine. Wouldn't even know till I tried. Before I tried though it needed a bit of cleaning and some oil. I turned the 910 carriage over and started fiddling with it to see just how gummed up it was. That's when I discovered something. There is a spring from one side of the carriage to the other at both ends, and that spring moves one of the levers. I picked up the 930 carriage and see the same thing, but on the 940 carriage one of those springs was gone. At least I though so.

You see I have a very mechanical hubby. He doesn't think he is but I have seen different. He might not be trained in things but he can look, see problems, and many times fix them. So I took the two carriages to him last night and showed him the problem. My intention was to discover just where I could get a new spring and have him fix the carriage if he could. Low and behold he says the spring is not gone. It is still attached to one end but came loose from the lever. He fixed it. WOW! It works. I went back and started over and not only did the tubular cast on but knitted about 30 rows of ribbing. Neat, he is so awesome.

The only difference this time is that I was using Berta's DVD on using your ribber. Berta is a lot easier to listen to. She doesn't do that stiff, monotone teaching and is easy listening. I do so like Berta's DVD's. I just bought her latest one, using the Knit Leader, that should be winging its way in a week or two. It would be on its way but Berta is waiting for a package of seed stitchers to get to her so she can send them with the DVD. That's ok, these are much needed for one of my machines. I have large ones, but not the smaller ones. So this will be great. (no Berta is not selling them, they are a gift to some of us from another machine knitter, she managed to snag a huge lot of them and is passing her great luck around to members of the group we are in).

So now the machine can knit with the ribber, now on to learning how to use the punch card unit. Seems I might have to punch a few cards also. I don't really have many sets of punch cards that came as packets for the machine. Most of what I have are pre-punched from patterns others have done or ones that people have punched themselves. I do have the punch card file to print off what I want, need, or will want to use, and I have plenty of blank cards to do the punching.

Well, that is all for now.

Oh I have talked about the hubby's greenhouse and did take a few pictures yesterday after he put many of his plants in there for the start of their fall/winter season. So as soon as I can get them loaded to the computer I will place a few on here for people to see. It is not a large greenhouse and was mostly built for his tropical plants and his cactus, but he does have a couple of tomato plants in there. The hope is that even though he doesn't keep it really warm these plants will produce for a bit longer to give us a little longer picking season.

One last thing. I now have to set out to figure out why the end needles on the little I did last night, don't want to knit off. They hold that new stitch and I had to manually knit almost every time. I know I read about this somewhere, so later it will be a search for this. My brain keeps saying not enough weight so maybe, we shall see.

I got tired of playing machine time, so left the whole thing for my crochet project. I don't have many done but I am working on daisy squares to make a small afghan from them. I am using two colors, a pink and a yellow, edging them in black. They are so pretty. You can see the link to the pattern on the left side bar of this blog. Just scroll down a bit. Such a lovely pattern. It seems complex at first but really is easy to do. Krystal, the designer, also has a group at yahoo now for those who need extra help. She has some awesome files in there showing how to do these squares. To get the pattern all she asks for it a square or two from you sent to her for her charity work and you can take your time sending it. She trusts that people will and that is a fine thing she does. Then she puts those squares together to donate. Take a look see at her site and glance at the map. You can see she has squares coming from all over.

Projects

2009-09-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

Samples of passap machine knitting using pushers.

This is also a passap sample:

Another passap sample:

A sample of racking on the Brother KH 230 with ribber. See the second picture to see my boo-boo. I dropped a stitch on the ribber bed and didn't catch it soon enough.

This is a sample the passp book has you do to see what different settings can make.

This hat is another of my experiments on the innovations machine. I used two strands of 2/24 cone yarn, and kept switching the placement of the yarn. One strand will go into the yarn guide and then the next is on top. If you leave them that way one color goes to one side the other color to the other side. By removing the strands from the guide, switching the cones placement and reinstalling the strands colors switched you can make the colors change places.

This hat was also done on the innovations machine. It is for my grand daugher. I my skills, my machine her (natural) grandmothers yarn. It turned out perfect for her. I just need to make a scarf to go with it.

This is a simple shawl I made on the Brother KH230 machine. I sent this to my MIL for that just a little chill in the house moment.

This scarf is the last thing I made. It was done on a Knit King compuknit III machine. It is over six feet long, and wide enough that it can be worn over the head and still have plenty of length to wrap it. This I made for my MIL.

These hats were a lesson in what not to do. I made these for my daughter. She was going to take pictures of twins and called to ask if I could make her two hats, a pink and purple and do pompoms on them the opposite color. She wanted them like some other hats I have done her. So loom knitted these are.

The thing is I had no idea of the size of the twins. I did know they were young. So I called her and asked about head size. She didn't know. So I decided to make three sizes using the knifty knitter blue loom. She wanted that larger weaved look and this loom is perfect.

She called on a Fri night, pictures were to be done Sun morning. So get to work. Oh yea, not hard. I did two hats, a small and a medium, Fri night. Started early on Sat to get the rest made. Looming the hats wasn't so bad but I decided to take a break from the hats and make the pompoms. Oh wow, that took most of the day. All that winding and trimming.

By the time I finished all the pompoms, and the other hats, it was 7pm. I had sat all day long making these with very short breaks. I am hear to say never again. My hips, legs, back, arms, fingers, shoulders, neck, head, hands, wrists, and you name it complained for days afterward. They hated me and I hated myself. Marathons are just not in the numbers for this old lady, but they did turn out really cute.

BTW: it was the smallest of the hats that fit the twins, and they could have been a bit smaller. The twins are both under five pounds.

I'm back, this is very long

2009-09-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

At least for this moment. It has been quite a while since I posted, except for that cute picture of that little girl with her big people sign.

So what have I been up to, lots I can tell you that. First the job has taken a different turn but it still mostly the same. I am having to rake my brain for those "OK how do I do this in this program and make it come out right". That is usually an over night thinking bout. I do have bookkeeping and accounting training (college as well as they do for you), but still from time to time something comes up that just stumps you for a bit. Keeps the old brain cells active. LOL So the boss brings me these things and says how do we do this, or enter this and I have no clue in the beginning of that how. So set the cells in motion and leave them to do their thing while I do other stuff. So that's that. The boss has taken over the A/P's and banking, and I am mostly back to A/R's, except for those "how do we do" type of things. Yes more time for me.

So what have I been doing with that more time. Well, it has been summer. So there is the garden. I have cooked up so much tomato sauce that seeing another tomato should be a horror story, but I do like tomatoes. Yum, tomato and lettuce sandwiches with a little mayo and a pinch of salt (lately the mayo seems to be rather salty as I cut lots of salt and sugar from my diet, so most times that pinch gets left out).

Along with doing the sauce there has been drying bell peppers. The hubby planted a bunch of them, yellow, red, and green. Drying them has them available for all kinds of good tasting dishes the hubby thinks up, but it is a lot of work. I have green ones ready to come off the vines right now and a few yellow and red again. I have quite a lot of jars now and need to seal the extra for freshness. I just am waiting for a new seal for my vacuum sealer to arrive. I have done in the old one. I think my dryer might need to be replaced next year. At the very least I am thinking second dryer so I can do more at one time. Twelve trays is turning out not to be enough.

I have also done frozen green beans, broccoli, and a little bit of giant snow peas. The snow peas just didn't do all that great. Ah well, we can't have it all. Extras of those would have been great for the hubby's stir fry's.

Then this year I did some herbs. Two didn't turn out but that was a test in what they like. We tested wrong. I did get some nice batches of sage, oregano, and a bunch of two kinds of parsley. I think I will be able to get another batch before the really bad weather hits and takes them out.

Then there was a bit of babysitting. I did some for the daughters two boys, but not much for the son's boys. The son is not talking with me. He made me angry and I told him not to call. He took that to heart and hasn't for a couple of months now. I don't need some pipsqueak child telling me what I am or am not when he knows nothing about it. ROFLOL, I am an adult and I feel that I can choose what to think. My children do not have to do it for me and I will not do "the old lady falling into line act" because one of my children thinks I should. Nope this old lady has more spine then that.

The extra girl moved away with her two children. We talk on the phone quite a bit but they are a now 175 miles away instead of the less then a half of a mile that they were. So I only saw the kids once this summer. Jobs just weren't available here and the prospect for her hubby didn't look good. So they moved to where they thought it would be better. They were wrong but that's ok they like where they are right now. The kids even have nice back yard and other nice children to play with. So all's well as they say. Heather called yesterday to tell me she got them a dog. They are loving it.

My other daughter moved back to town. She is now only a few miles from me instead of 30 miles away. I thought I would be able to see those two grands more but she is always so busy that I actually see them less then I did. Part of life, she is building her business and I have been busy with stuff also.

My room for crafting. I have said that I needed to redo it. Well, it is almost done, but there will never be enough room for all I want as it is just a small room. I still wouldn't be there without the hubby's help. He did more shelving high on the wall, one long single one, and one that has cubicles and an upper shelf for me to put things on. Then at a house he was rekeying (he is a locksmith), he ran across some cubicles that the broker told him to take. Many times people leave things and they just haul that stuff to the dump. So now my cone yarns are in those cubicles. A very neat set up it is.

My daughters new house has a garage that been turned into a studio apartment. She has now turned it into a photo studio. It is still a work in progress but it is coming along nicely and she has even been using it. Her husband took out some smaller cabinets and built her a big one that she can store her props in. So they gave me the other two that they took out. One was perfect to fit in the old refrigerator spot, the new refrigerator was just to big for that area. It didn't have shelves but did have drawers on one side. So the hubby built shelves for the other side and installed them.

The other cabinet he installed in my craft room, and also cut and installed shelves in it. The top of this cabinet is perfect for my little TV in there, plus I have a VHS player, and a DVD player. I can use these to view the VHS and DVD tapes for machine knitting that I have picked up and be right in the same room with the machines. The inside I am using small containers I am getting from the Salvation Army to store tools, crochet hooks, machine tools, needles and other like stuff. I haven't totally finished this. For now all like tools are together but soon I want a container labeled for each machine with its tools.

Now down to the machines. I have set up the Knit King Compuknit III on it's metal stand, a Brother KH230 and ribber, and now a Brother 860 with an 850 ribber. Been working on that the last couple of days. The ribber was really misaligned so yesterday was a work in progress figuring out the proper vertical and horizontal adjustments. It is working now but I found a bad needle so that needs to be replaced today. Oh bother one more thing. I am also thinking that there might be something wrong with one of the pieces that goes on the ribber to attach it to the machine. I have a back up set and when I go to replace the machine needle I will match two up to see if there is a difference, maybe I will just replace it altogether.

Last weekend the hubby and son went with the daughter and SIL with the two grands down to see grandma, and grand-papa (my husbands mom and dad). They had not yet seen Tanner except in pictures and Athea wanted them to meet their other great-grandson. Mason already loves them and they say that Tanner took to them very well. I bet they were very tired once these boys left. They are really good boys but very very active. The hubby was going to do some work on their home, replacing doorknobs, fixing a few things and then to just see them.

So I had all day Saturday and the morning and early afternoon Sunday to myself (they did just an over night trip). I cannot believe how much I got done in the room with no one to bother me. I was amazed. I still needed to move the passap in the room before I could set up those other machines, well the compuknit was up and I had used it, but the other two were setting in a corner out of the way (not many corners left in this room so it was more like toward a corner leaning on a book case, I have three of those now).

That passap is a very heavy machine. Moving it has been impossible except to drag it a few inches. I just couldn't pick it up. The last few months working around here has changed me a bit. I have muscle. Not much but that little that you have in arms from lugging children around and lose when you get old is kind of back. It all that lugging those huge heavy pots of water for canning and the huge have pots of sauce. I have an outdoor set up for cooking but have a further distance to rid myself of the old water and clean the pots but it keeps the cooking heat located outside instead of inside.

Then in the room I have bunches of tubs of yarn. This room is so small that in order to work in there it is that move things to do something, move them again, and again, and again, you get the point. So I reached for a cup of coffee and shocked myself when I saw those muscles. I hadn't seen them in years.

I thought to myself that I should be able to figure out a way to get that passap machine into the room. I have this rolling file holder, just an open thing but with wheels and a little more muscle now so I got the idea of placing the machine onto the hubby's garden wagon, wheeling to the back door, placing machine on the rolling file holder and wheeling it to the room. No big deal and not much heavy work. I think I could do that much.

So I go out to machine set a table close by to set the machine on once I have removed its clamps, and can take it off its stand. Here is the hard part, getting that heavy machine from stand to table then from table to wagon. I lifted it and stood there shocked. It wasn't heavy. Well, it was but not like it was three months ago when it was given to me. I carried it all the way into the house and to the craft room all by myself. I shocked myself. ROFLOL

So now the passap is in the room, the other three machines are up, and I have one or two more that I want up, but that requires more work. Remember those tubs of yarn I mentioned. They have to come out of that room. In order for that to happen, I have an outdoors storage area that I must clean out, then I can put my yarn tubs in there. Yes more work, but I am well on my way to being where I want to be with this room. Also once I have moved the tubs then the hubby can remove the current shelves in the closet and replace them with larger ones for more storage area. The ones he put in there last year are just too small.

Shaun has also been working on his greenhouse. He got some metal siding from a torn down store, they built a new one, and at a yard sale he got some external paint. The man who sold the paint is a painter house painter and this was excess from jobs. It was good enough for the greenhouse even if the color isn't all that great. He got a better color for the inside from the same man.

Now he has shelves up and it is looking better then last year. I have another outdoors storage area that I had plastic shelves in. Yesterday he built me a larger shelving unit and I gave him those plastic shelf units for his greenhouse. They look much better in there, and will give him a bit of extra room for smaller plants. Shaun has a lot of plants and many are tropical or close to tropical, and some desert, he likes cactus, don't ask me why. Nasty sticky things. One of his cactus turned into to four other pots of cactus over the summer. What's he going to do after next summer with that one. He will soon be over run. Anyways, those plants need to be where the winter freeze won't kill them. His greenhouse was mostly empty all summer but it will be quite full for the winter. My goodness last year it was like a jungle in there.

So now I have other shelving in my storage area and that means moving stuff all over again, but in this process I now have a better place to store my summer canning supplies. It's all to the good but sure is lots and lots of work.

So that is what I have been up to.

Note: Next post I will place some pictures of a couple of projects I did, and some sample swatches. Not much but a few things. I haven't done that much crafting over the last few months.

Cute picture, true story

2009-09-27T09:20:00.001-07:00

Red tool

2009-07-01T18:34:00.001-07:00

2009-05-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

If you caught the news Berta now is selling this new DVD. This thing is awesome. In it she teaches several things.

I already knew the butterfly one as I worked a hat and scarf in this one, but watching someone else do it affirms that I got it right. She did use a different amount of stitches for the butterfly then I did but that is the beauty of it, you can. For those of you who haven't been able to "get" this yet (boy I know how that goes), this will be great for you.

The fan and feather is something I have not tried yet but after watching Berta make it seem so easy I am going to have to try it. It sure is a pretty way to make something special for someone or even for yourself.

Now I have never been one into owls but the three owl videos are just great. Even if you do not want to do owls the lessons in cabling are just perfect. You don't have to make the owls but the practice in cabling would be a bonus to anyone interested in cables. I was totally enthralled by the one done with use of the ribber.

In the past we have talked on Berta's group about mitered knitting on the machine. Berta has showed in little online tutorials how to do this, but since those are no longer available (sad to say), this video would be great for those of you who missed it or need it as a reminder of just how to do this, or are not in the group. This is longer then the online one Berta had and perfect for learning this. I so have to try this one.

The last section of the DVD is going to floor all of you. It is Entrelac. Not just any little short blurb on it but a full 70 minutes (slightly more when you keep going back going "ah", and again "wow". Makes watching this section run into a couple of hours for me. LOL

Although I loved the rest of the DVD this section takes the prize for having this in your library of videos to watch. I can tell you that you will learn more then just how to do entrelac. I picked up several different things that I can use that have nothing at all to do with knitting entrelac at all, but I will leave that as a surprise to all.

Ok just my little review of this. Berta never ceases to amaze me. The work that goes into this shows just how much she cares about us learning to use our machines to the fullest.

Want to check out Berta's DVD's go here:
Berta's Web Pages

TearDrop

2009-05-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

TearDrop

Ok how many of you have heard about the Tear Drop Monument? I hadn't till a month ago. This thing is awesome, but I hadn't heard about it. This monument was built and then dedicated on September 11, 2006. It is in New Jersey and was a gift from the Russian people to the US to remember 9/11.

Now I do have to say that my husband and myself watch the news constantly. We watch many different channels as well as listen to the radio. I hardly ever listen to music. That still makes me too sad over some past experiences. We have that look the enemy straight on so they do not sneak up from behind kind of attitude. Be aware, be very aware of both sides. Dad always said "keep your eye on the bad as it has a tendency to attack when you least expect it."

So having the background of watching and listening "WHY" have I never heard mention of this in the news, by any, liberal, moderate, or conservative, news people. Was the blurb about it so tiny it came and went quickly? Why?

Gee if I was a Russian I would be very upset over what seems to me to be a total snub of the gift they gave the US. I would be very angry at this country. If they are I could not blame them one bit.

Something this awesome should have been on every TV and Radio channel letting people have the knowledge that this was built and completed. I still wouldn't know about this except for that odd email from a friend.

Oh and folks, I do check these things out. I do not want to be one to pass along that which is something born in the boredom of someones mind. Any simple search will get you dozens of different sites to show the truth of this:
Truth
Russia Honor
Did you Know About The Russians Tear Drop Memorial

Reading Time

2009-04-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

A co-worker sent me an email that has an article written by his uncle. It was awesome. He said that his uncle had more article and I did a quick search to see if I could find some.

I came up with this blog:
Richard Reeb

Wow, this man is an awesome writer. I do like well written articles.

2009-04-17T22:41:00.001-07:00

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Multi-medium Hats

2009-04-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have done a few machine knitted hats in multiple mediums. I am not really one for doing much in mixing different types of yarns, but these turned out pretty cute.

I mixed worsted, ribbon, eyelash, fun fur yarns with knit sections and purl sections. These were done on a Brother bulky machine with out a ribber so the seaming is just being done now.

I do want to try some of these on the looms so that I do not have to seam them. That sure is a great advantage of using a round loom over a flat bed machine. The machine is quicker, no doubt about that, but the seaming time overrides the faster time of knitting. It is not that I am slow in seaming but the mixed mediums I am handling more carefully as some are open on the sides and need special care to seam them properly.

I will be posting pictures in the next couple of days.

Red baby afghan

2009-04-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is a basketweave baby afghan I made on a standard machine. I really cannot take much credit for the afghan other then learning how to use the g-carriage. That was tricky as that thing has a mind of its own.

This one was made just for this purpose, to take photos.

Tanner in the hat

2009-03-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

Tanner in the blue/yellow hat. Isn't he adorable. I know a proud grandma statement but what the heck he is cute. ROFLOL

Red and Pink

2009-03-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

The pompoms are only tied to the inside of the hat. So they can be removed to put on the crocheted curl pieces instead. The crocheted curlies are doubled and look so cute on the hat.

Note Added:

This is a good example of combined knitting and crochet. They mix well.

Pink and Red (Machine and Loom knitters)

2009-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

(loom knitters see bottom of posting)

I made one with huge pompoms that was yellow and blue (scroll down to see it). I really didn't like it much till I saw a picture of my grandson, Tanner, with it on. Oh my how cute this is. As soon as Athea has edited it to her liking I will get a copy to post also. It is adorable.

So yesterday Athea tells me she is doing a prop exchange with a lady from one of her groups and asks me if I can make another of these hats.

I did a crocheted edge on that one not only to make it lay flat but to add the colors the way I did it. It only needed one round of crochet to take out a slight curl that was there.

On this pink and red hat the curl seemed to be worse. I used the same machine, same type of yarn, and same tension but one round of crochet wasn't working quite so well. So I decided to add a second round of single crochets and oh wow, I think it is so much prettier.

I am doing two sets of those large pompoms for it. One set will be less yarn to make it looser, and the other set is firmer. I do not attach my pompoms permanently. I like the person getting the hats to be able to remove them so they are not damaged in the wash. They can also choose to remove them to attach some other decoration to make the hat double itself as being slightly different.

MACHINE KNITTERS:

Anyway I wanted to tell you all how I did the hat. I used a bulky machine, the KH230 with red heart worsted weight yarn, TD8.5, COR

Ewrap cast on 15 needles with the first color and work for 80 rows, bind off with your favorite bind off (I use the gate peg bind off).

Leave a long tail for seaming at the beginning cast on, not at the end on both pieces.

Ewrap cast on 15 needles with the second color, same TD and type of yarn.

After casting on with the ewrap, take the first piece made and using the seam as you go, be sure to use the fallen sideways knot as it looks the best.

(See: http://heidisknitti ngroom.com/ Seam-as-you- go.htm for best instructions for the seam as you go that I could find on the net)

Pick up the first knot making sure the back side of the work is facing you, and place the first stitch on the end left needle.

Knit 2 rows ending with COR

Repeat till you reach your row 80

Now you are going to see a last little section on the first piece that doesn't connect to the rest, at least I have on both hats, if this is so on yours pick up that last stitch and place it on the last left needle, the do your cast off casting off two end stitches at once on that last needle.

Now fold the hat and seam up the side, I used the mattress stitch. Once the seaming is done single crochet around the edge using opposite color for each side. For one or two rows. If you want something like a shell crochet stitch, do decrease a couple of the knitted rows first or the hat winds up too large.

Make large pompoms and attach. You can make these permanent attachments or as I do I leave long tails and pull the tails through to bow tie on the insides so they are removable.

Hat completed and oh so cute, fast and easy, and something a bit different.

I will say those large pompoms do take a lot of yarn to make, so be aware of that.

To make the hats larger just increase the needle amounts, to make them smaller decrease. Take any hat pattern you do flat on the machine and figure the amounts of needles you need to use. For example for my one year old grandson I use 25 to the left, and 25 to the right on the bulky machine (he is a big boy).

Now understanding that this is a flat hat and must be seamed you know that 25 is going to be half of the hat for front and front sides, while the other 25 is for the other side.

So using the first 25 spilt it in half and you have 12.5. I move that to 13 and add two stitches for the side seaming. So 15 stitches.

For a hat of say 20 needles per side you would have 10+2 so cast on 12 stitches for one half. It is easy to figure out.

Be sure to decrease or increase rows knitted so as to adjust the size also.

You will knit the first half and it will look too small but remember you are going to add it to another half and it folds in half to make the hat.

Want to try something slightly different, then try placing the purl side on one section with the knit side on the other section. Oh how cute would that be. That is my next plan for this technique.

LOOM KNITTERS:

Now for you loom knitters, you can do the same thing as I did on the machine. Just make the first half of the hat casting on 1/4 of the normal amount of pegs. So if you are using the 36 peg green kk loom, use 9 pegs plus one or two extra for the seaming.

I know, you could cast on one half of the pegs twisting the colors as you go but you loose something of the middle seam look as you do that, still that is another option for you. You could cast on 18 pegs plus a couple for seaming, say ten pegs with one color and 10 pegs with the other color, be sure to twist the colors as you drop one and pick up the other to knit with it.

If you choose the first way you are going to knit this half for double what you would normally do your hat, then cast off, do not gather cast off but use a flat bind off.

Now you would start the second color and as in the machine knitted one you would pick up a stitch off the side seam of the first section to place on the needle opposite end of the working yarn. Knit two rows and repeat. With the larger gauged loom you might have to use two strands of yarn but with a bulky weight use only one.

If doing it the second way just keep twisting your pickup till the hat is as long as you need it, then cast off, fold in half and seam it up the sides.

Complete the edging and pompoms and you have an easy cute hat for that person you have in mind.

Oh a hint, did you know the seam as you go can also be used to attach one panel of an afghan to the next panel. Then you do not have to worry so much about getting those panels all the same size as you are making that happen as you knit.

You also do not have a huge ridge on those panels.

Crocheted hats

2009-03-21T11:14:00.001-07:00

Just Hats, some loomed some machined

2009-03-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

Grands

2009-03-17T22:33:00.001-07:00

Had the grands all afternoon. Boy oh boy can those babies take the wind out of an old lady. Tanner is just a year old right now, turned one last Sat. He is a handful. He hasn't been left without mama as much as Mason and he doesn't handle it well in the beginning.

Poor fellow just wants to be held and only by grandma. Grandma obliges he is a cuddler. Normally he takes his nap in his crib but I don't have one of those so I sat holding this big boy for over an hour when he finally relaxed enough to sleep. I can tell you my hips are hurting for it but gee he won't be a baby for long. He is reaching that toddler stage now.

Mason sure is getting the bunt of having a little baby brother to get between him and grandma. I told his mom that this is a bit stressful for him, so him and grandma need a special just us day. I hope to get that next week. He and grandma can go have lunch and some light shopping when mom is doing her weekly shopping with Tanner. That will be nice.

Well, going to go work on the crocheted hat I started tonight. I am making this up as I go, not hard as it is a simple stitching and it is tiny. Another hat for the daughter for a photo prop.

Hats

2009-03-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have gotten a few hats finished. Some have already left to their new homes, but some are still here. With winter almost at an end there is no place for them to go, yet.

In the next few days I will try to get pictures up. Some of these are loom knitted, some are machine knitted. Some I think are pretty, some I am not so sure about, but they are still hats.

Tatted lady

2009-03-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Do you tat? I learned some time ago. Roger was my big leap in learning how to do that. I wanted to tat for so long but couldn't get that "flip". Everything I found I picked up and held onto but nope didn't work.

Then I found a tatting needle but that didn't work either. I got the needle but no instructions.

One day in Michaels I found not only more tatting needles but a book to teach. The book is put out by Handy Hands I was so excited. Finally a step in the right direction.

I bought the book and the needles and home I came. I was saying something to my son about never before finding anything of real help and he said "what about the internet". Duh! I was new to the internet at that time but had done some crochet looking and found a new open world. Why did I never, ever think of searching for tatting. So I did.

The very first thing I found was an msn group called Needle Tatting. Rogers group. I joined it instantly and started to bug Roger with questions about needle tatting. Oh you should see the work he does, lovely. I found lots of other stuff also, including some yahoo groups, but Roger was my knight in shining armor, my healer of wounds, my doctor to bring my cure. I learned to needle tat.

The proess of learning to needle tat brought on the knowledge of what exactly was suppose to happen when you shuttle tat. Oh joy upon joy, I learned that too. So now I have the best of both worlds and all my thanks goes to Roger.

Gone now is the msn groups that Roger started with msn deciding that they no longer wanted to house groups, but thankfully Roger is still around to help people like me. Want to find him? Check out proboards and look for either the Needle tatting group or the Social shuttle group. The really grand news is that all his tutorials and patterns are still there.

Now I am working the lady that I think is one of Rogers greatest moments.

Received from Cindy of CinDWood Crafts

2009-03-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

**Notice** Do you love to loom knit? Have you made up your own patterns or ideas? Have you ever wanted a chance to have those ideas published in a book? Well if you have said yes to any of these questions then this notice is for you.

Cindy Clyde, owner of CinDWood Crafts, (www.cindwoodcrafts.com.) Is gathering patterns and project photos and patterns to add to her 2009 Project Manual. She used 25 project ideas and patterns from her clients in her previous Project Manual and wants to include more in her 2009 book.

Entries must:

1. The project must have been made on a loom (panel, round, oval ect.) If not made on a CinDWood Crafts loom, then the pattern must be adapted to work on one of her looms. (You can get the # of pegs and different available dimensions and gauges from her if you used a KK loom.)

2. Photo of a finished project must accompany pattern (great way to get a pet or grandchild or child into the book)

3. Submitted to cindwoodcrafts@msn.com by May 1, 2009.

If your project is chosen for the book you will receive a $25 gift certificate for purchase toward CinDWood Crafts looms, plus 2 copies of the project manuals first printing. You will be notified by June 1, 2009 if your pattern is picked.

These projects may be any size and from any loom similar to ones that she sells. If you haven't seen her previous book patterns you can
check some of them out on the project page of her website at www.cindwoodcrafts.com.

Any questions may be submitted by email to cindwoodcrafts @ msn.com or Cindy can be reached M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM MT
at 801-259-0379.

Knitting

2009-02-18T18:17:00.001-08:00

As many know I have a couple of knitting machines that are the Brother KX 350 machines. These are fairly simple plain machines with out much to add to them. Still there are a couple of things I have found.

Recently I bought a Brother 400 carriage that has other features to it and I am told it will work on the 350, but I have yet to test it. Maybe this weekend that will happen.

I also found something that as I read is for the 350 machine. I did read someone saying it is for the convertible brother machine but a seller says it is for the 350. I have ordered this part and will test it to see if it really works. Then if it does I will come back to post about it.

Currently I am working on finishing a scarf that I did on a bulky machine. This has a matching hat. It is the prettiest pink color. I did that butterfly stitch for the pattern on it. I think it turned out really well but am not sure how well it will be photograph. These are such tiny little butterflies.

I started a loomed afghan for my son quite some time ago and never got it finished. I just wasn't happy with it. I was using the stockinette stitch with a double strand of yarn on a S loom from CinDWood Crafts. This is the largest S loom that she has on site or on site as last I looked.

So since I was not happy with it and still need it done, I have frogged what was there and am starting over with one strand of yarn rather then two. It was just too thick with the two strands and when completed would have been way to heavy.

I have a growing pile of hats in a bag now. My daughter will be going through them for the few she might want to use for pictures and the rest will be put aside in my charity pile of hats.

I also have another project on a machine that I am doing fair isle but using the long floats in a pull up pattern. I had thought to do this one with only one color but then changed my mind on that. That happens a lot, that changing the mind. So I have a white yarn and a pink one I am using together. I haven't work on this one lately as I hurt my arm and have needed it more healed. This one takes great care on my part as this is a standard machine and everything is so tiny.

I have a few other projects in mind that I want to do. Berta helped us figure out a pattern and the problems it has. It is a diamond shawl from a free pattern online. Several people tried to work this and it just wasn't right. So Berta took on the task of seeing what was going wrong. She always does such an excellent job of getting people past that point of stuck.

Then there are some newer to me disks I bought from Berta and I need to play with the techniques on them I also need to set up a ribber on one machine and start my learning process on that. I did discover that one of my ribbers has a plastic sponge bar in it, but the other has a regular sponge bar. Bummer that regular sponge bar is as flat as it can be. So I need to order another sponge for that. Just haven't take the time to do that yet.

Let's see what else is up. Oh there is a piece on one of the 350's that I need to finish off so I can use that machine for other things. There is a hat pattern out of Berta's group that is for this machine that I want to try. It is a lined baby hat and should be cute. I would also like to do some more baby booties from Berta's pattern. Nope no more little babies, I just liked working the first I tried. It was so cute. Someone somewhere will have a baby and then they will come in handy for a gift.

Well can think of nothing else. Oh yes. I want no comments so I have set this blog to the no comment mode. I just am tired of dealing with others deciding what I should think or be. I am what I am, live with it. ROFLOL I do not have to be a copy of anyone else. I do not have to follow blindly in the paths that people dictate to me. I do not want any more input right now. I am burned out on input. I need some peace and quiet. I will open up comments again sooner or later. Well, after I remember I disabled them. So many things to remember lately.

Cocoon

2009-01-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

Mesh cocoon

CPSIA Law Will this be the Bankruptcy day for the American small business?

2009-01-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

Anyone heard of this new law about to take effect? It is going to
destroy most small business across the US, especially those like us
who hand-make items for children and babies This one is just a simple video of a woman who makes items for sale:
Video

This one:
Video Is a news lady talking
about the law

This one is also a news one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwNu7w2BSQ&feature=related

Here is another:
Video

This could be the end of our hand crafting industry as we know it.

I called my rep and senator to protest this. Might not do much good but the more people who protest the better the chance that something might change. You know the people have the power.

Ok my concern is that here I am buying yarns to make things for baby's on my machines, but now I am getting told that I will have to test each and every one of those yarns for harmful content. Is this going to effect the fact that I do these for charity? Now what do I do? I
cannot use them for baby stuff if they cannot be accepted by those I would give them to, and that is such a shame.

Where did this come from, well watch the videos and they will tell you. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. If this works as everyone says then the bank industry failure will look like the kids were just playing around compared to the failure of the American way of life, that down home do it yourself will become a thing of the past and Walmart and others like them will be about the only places you can buy stuff and they will be able to charge as they like.

So what about you? What do you do with your hand made items and how will this new law affect you?

Oh and also think about the people who can only afford to buy baby things from second hand stores. Those items will no longer be available.

What about the homeless families that require donated items to clothe their children? Guess the kids get to go around in adult clothing. Oh wait if that happens then they will have to test the adult stuff also. Wouldn't want some thing getting past them.

Gee give me a break. I have thought in the past that we have some idiots running this country. If I wasn't right then, I think I have a chance of being right now.

One Can Lead to Another

2008-12-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been in a place where you saw someone doing a craft, be it needle knitting, crochet, or some other thing? When you saw them you either said or thought to yourself I wish I could do that, but I just cannot? Well, you are wrong.

Crafting, no matter what the kind, is not a talent like everyone wants to claim. It is a learned skill. So many times I have had someone say I just don't have the talent to do something like that. It makes me want to scream, to jump up and down and run around in circles. I have no talent in the area of crafting, but I do have the ability to practice, practice, practice till it sinks into this thick set of brain cells I have. Then suddenly I have a new thing I have learned, yes learned.

I wasn't born knowing how to crochet, knit, macrame, or tat. I worked hard and had many, many frogging points (to frog is to rip-it, rip-it, you know like a frog sounds) throughout my learning days and I still do.

So you pick that thing you really want to learn and you sit and play with it. No you are not going to "get it" instantly. To some that might happen but to the rest of us it is old fashioned work. Oh I am sorry, I did say a bad word there, work. It takes time to have your hands say, yes I can do this. It takes time for your brain to say I know what you want. It take takes time for your eyes to see just exactly what the brain is telling your hands to do.

Ok I don't have the patience to sit and do that, but you will sit in front of a box half the night just looking at other people doing things that create new experiences for them. You are like a brick sitting there doing nothing but fixing those eyes on that box and letting the tails of others sink into you. So why not sit there and let that box just be a background while you play with needles or hook or loom or shuttle.

You will find that since you are not putting your entire concentration into the craft learning that you will relax a little and not be trying to totally control what the brain, hands, and eyes are seeking to do for you. So what if you make lots of mistakes, that is all a part of the learning. We all make mistakes in everything we attempt to learn. That is just the way it is and has been since the day we were born. We cannot all be the genius that picks up something and instantly knows how to do it.

I know it sounds like I am being pushy. Well, maybe I am. I know you can do it because I have done it. Oh I falter a lot along the way, but I have done it and will most likely do it again, and again as I cannot stop myself from learning that new to me thing.

Sure my aunt taught me to knit on needles. She taught me how to do a purl and a knit stitch, but nothing else. I moved away too soon for her to be there to continue my education. So I mostly gave up, but the crafting was in me from the first moment I made that first pair of slippers that I wore till they fell to pieces.

So I taught myself to crochet. Then one day I wanted to learn to macrame and I took a book and I played with it. Then one day I wanted to learn some cross stitch and I took a book and I learned some. Then one day I took on plastic canvas and I learned some. Someone gave me chair braiding books and I learned that. I hear about looms and I learned those. I wanted to tat from the ripe old age of 18 and I finally managed to take that on and I learned some. Now I am taking on knitting machines and I am learning some.

No I will never be an "expert" in any of these. I have no desire to be that expert. Where others run to the expert classes and work themselves into that I have to be the best of the best, I simply want to be able to do what I want when I want and be happy that I know, even at my advancing age, that I have had and still do the ability to take myself on the journey of learning. So can you.

Take on one and soon you will find that one can lead to another and soon maybe you are not an expert but you will no longer be saying "I wish I could" but instead "I know I can".