Hunting Magic

My friend Hillary brought 2 cones of a really beautiful purple boucle yarn to Knit Club last month that she was destashing. I normally can resist yarn since I have a 2 lifetime supply, but not when it is the perfect shade of purple. I grabbed those two cones and brought them home.

The yarn has a heavy boucle, but the carrier thread is thin. I thought at first it was 100 percent cotton. Boucle yarns often present problems with knitting machines, and if the yarn had not been such a beautiful color, I would have left it for someone else to have fun with.

I swatched the boucle on my standard gauge knitting machine at tension 9, and the machine knit it, but complained the entire time. I went ahead and designed my sweater thinking I would knit it on the standard, but when I cast it on and knit a few rows, I immediately started having lots of problems with stitches not knitting properly. The more I knit, the worse things got. The standard machine was not going to work out.

So, I decided to move the project to my mid-gauge machine, which is an LK-150. It is a nice 6.5mm plastic machine designed for DK weight yarns. It will also knit some heavier yarns as long as they are not too bulky. Because it is plastic, I feel it is sort of fragile. You really can not push it with any sort of abuse without running the risk of breaking the carriage. One of these days, I will get a Studio/Silver 860 but for now, this machine is my only mid-gauge.

I swatched at tension 3 on the LK-150. The carriage did not glide, but it did knit without too much complaining. When I blocked my swatch, I determined that the carrier yarn is not cotton, but is a synthetic either acrylic or nylon and the drape after blocking was just wonderful. I became more determined to get at least a sweater out of the purple yarn.

When I started the actual sweater, the LK-150 was still not real happy with the yarn. I knit slowly but every row was a struggle. The machine would knit the yarn, but it was complaining every row, and I was afraid I would break the carriage or the machine if I continued. I almost gave up and would have except that the color was beautiful and the drape on the blocked swatch was just what I like.

Then I remembered a a tip that my friend Carol gave me to lubricate Bond machines. Yes, I have a Bond machine and I CAN knit on it, but it is not one of my favorites. Carol, on the other hand, LOVES her Bond and has knit many gorgeous sweaters on it including lots of intarsia ones. If you browse the photo archive at the DFW Machine Knitters Guild website, you will see lots of samples of her work,

Carol advises using a Silicone Cleaning Rag from the Hunting Department to lubricate both the bed of the machine and the carriage. This really makes the Bond machines knit much easier. Bond owners really should discard the wax that the machine manufacturer recommends for lubrication and only use this rag - it makes so much difference. I think that a lot more Bond knitters would be successful with just this one tip.

I got out the Silicone Gun and Reel Cleaning Rag that I bought at Wal-Mart and rubbed the bed of the machine as well as the underside of the carriage with it. I took extra care to get down into the needle channels on the carriage as well as the bearing surface for the rail. I like a rag rather than a spray because you use so much less. There is no overspray and the product goes exactly where it is needed.

The difference after the Silicone Rag was absolutely amazing! The LK-150 carriage now glides over this difficult yarn without so much as one complaint.

So, I thought someone else might benefit from this little bit of inexpensive magic. Look for this in the Hunting section at Wal-Mart. I know my rag was less than $5 and it will last a long time. Be SURE that the package says "Safe for Plastic" as some lubricants can dissolve plastic machines.

If you have a plastic bed knitting machine of any brand, try this out. I think you will be amazed.

Christmas Sweater for Izzy the Iggy

I planned no knitted gifts for Christmas 2008. However, the best laid plans don't always work out.

The Monday before Christmas, my daughter called me and during the conversation told me that her Italian Greyhound, Izzy, was cold and in desperate need of a Christmas sweater, because ALL of her Doggy Friends had Christmas Sweaters, and Izzy needed to keep up with the in crowd.

When she got Izzy last spring, I knitted her a blue sweater, but the need was for a RED one for the Holidays.

Well, what is a Mom to do when confronted with a need like this? Of course, off to Michael's I went in search of Christmas Red yarn. I bought a skein of Red Lion Brand Wool Ease for the body, and used some off white Wool Ease in my stash for the collar. I used size 6 needles. I started it on Tuesday, and did not finish it until Christmas Day, but if Izzy was disappointed, she never let on.

I used the same sweater pattern as last spring the Italian Greyhound Sweater Pattern that was posted by an Iggy owner some time ago. The original website is gone, however the pattern has been made available in an archive. I just hope it does not go away. It is truly a nice pattern, even though it is brief and has no illustrations.


This little pattern is simple 1x1 rib and fits an IG well - which is not true of most dog sweaters and this breed. The ribbing stretches easily to allow the sweater to be taken on and off without stressing the dog, and it also does not bag.

I would love to develop a machine knitted pattern, but this pattern is one that does not directly translate to the machine. You begin it at the collar and knit it to the tail in one piece. I took the time to draw a schematic this time that I can use to develop a machine knit - but it will have to be in pieces and then sewn together.

Izzy no longer has to hang her head in shame. She is as festive as her friends! The crisis has been averted!

Putting on the Heat

As our knitting machines age, a very common problem for the Brother/Knitking machine carriages is to have the MC button that controls the fairisle selection stuck to the thread lace button below it. These sticky buttons are caused by grease oil and gunk that hardens inside the carriage.

Today, I got out my Knitking Bulky 270 to do a little fairisle on a Christmas Gift and the buttons were stuck hard together like they had been welded. I got out the machine lube and sprayed the underside of the carriage. I turned the carriage upside down and waited a while. When I came back, the buttons were just as stuck as before.

I pondered on this a while, very frustrated. I was ready to knit my project and did not want further delays. Suddenly, I thought about the hair dryer.

I decided to try warming up the gunk to see if the button would release. I held the running hair dryer to the underside of the carriage for maybe a minute to warm all the gunk up. The next time I pressed the button it had been freed!

I am a very happy camper.

Swatch Abuse Takes a Turn with Cotton

Here in Texas, cotton is King. I love to wear it. It is cool and very practical. I live in my jeans and T-shirts for much of the year.

I think one of the nice things about jeans, is that when you put them on out of the wash, they may not be too comfortable at first, but wear them a while and they fit like a glove as the cotton stretches when it is worn.

Knit sweaters from cotton can be a big disappointment. Just like the jeans, you put them on, and they begin stretching mostly sideways until you are wearing a sack, or can not even keep the shoulders where they belong. It does not matter if the sweater is hand knit or made by machine the stretch happens unless you have done something to prevent it.

For years, when machine knitting with cotton, I have combated this tendency by plaiting a thin strand of a more stable yarn - like a 2/30 acrylic - on the wrong side of my cotton sweaters. This stable yarn helps keep the cotton from stretching. However, the plaiting yarn does change the hand of the fabric and also makes the garment less comfy sometimes.

A while back I was reading an old Spin-Off magazine. I have no idea which one, but I think it was from the middle 90's. There was a photo of a handspun cotton sweater and for some reason I stopped and read what the author had written about it. Often I just skip over reading this type of information, but for some reason I did not this time.

The author wrote that her cotton sweaters never stretch out to where she can not wear them. The secret she said is in how the original swatch is treated before the gauge is taken.

She advised knitting the swatch, then stretching it width wise several times firmly. She then washed it in hot water and dried it in a hot dryer to encourage it to shrink all it was going to.

When the swatch has been washed and dried, do not take your gauge yet. Instead, grab the swatch and pull it hard horizontally several times, stretching it as much as you can. Set the swatch aside for a day. Now measure the swatch and calculate your gauge.

I wanted to make the Take A Turn Sweater from Mary Anne Oger's Knitwords magazine. I absolutely adore this magazine, and I think all Machine Knitters should be subscribers to it. Mary Ann is currently offering this pattern for free on the website so you can get a sample of the types of patterns in the magazine.

I went into my stash, and grabbed the first cone that was a color I loved. This turned out to be a 2/16 cotton yarn in a beautiful blue. I decided to try out the knitting with cotton hint from the old Spin Off magazine to see how it worked rather than plait the cotton as I usually do.

I used the yarn triple stranded on my Knitking Compuknit IV standard gauge machine. I cast on 60 stitches at tension 8 and sampled the hem technique used in the pattern. Next I put in some waste knitting and made a standard tension swatch. I put in some more waste knitting and sampled the cable technique used in the pattern. Then I stretched, washed, dried and stretched the swatch as advised in the article. Finally, I measured the swatch and calculated my gauge.

I almost always use Designaknit to chart my sweaters in my gauge, since I never use the yarn called for in the pattern. I decided since there were lots of cables to keep track of, I would create a stitch pattern that exactly fit my sweater marking all the cable crossings. I was really glad I took the time to do this for this particular sweater.

When I laid out the sweater on the stitch pattern, I discovered that the cables were falling off the shoulders of the sweater. I should have expected this, because I had stretched the cotton swatch sideways resulting in fewer stitches per inch than on the original garment.

The pattern called for seven stitches between each cable pattern. On my sweater, I rearranged this to five stitches between each cable pattern to make everything fit. I made three quarter length sleeves, and decided to add some additional cables on the bottom of each sleeve not called for in the pattern.

When I made the sweater, it seemed really long coming off the machine. The sweater pieces were stretched, washed, dried and stretched just as for the swatch. I then assembled the sweater using the yarn from the unravelled swatch. I also used this preshrunk yarn in the neckband trim. I think using unwashed, unshrunk yarn would cause puckers in the sweater once it was washed.

I have worn the sweater now, and I am happy to report that the wide neckline in the sweater does not fall off my shoulders. It certainly would have if I had not abused the swatch prior to taking my gauge. The sweater does not grow and grow and is as comfy as an old sweatshirt. I will be using this technique for knitting with cotton from now on.

Baby Blankets Completed!

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This was a really fun project, perfect for my level of weaving expertise - which is not much. I think this is the fifth warp that has been on my loom since I have owned it.

Since the yarn was not expensive ($15 for everything) and there was no sizing pressure, I could just relax and enjoy the entire process. I am so glad that Leigh inspired me do do this. We all need to have this sort of project that is not intended to be impressive, but just to enjoy. In fact, I am so tempted to go out and beam up another couple of blankets while the weather is temperate. Pretty soon, I won't be able to weave because it will be too cold in the weaving studio garage.

Project Data:

Width in reed: 36"

Warp length: 3.5 yds

Finished width before washing: 32"

Finished length before washing: 90"

Yarn: Bernat Baby Coordinates, Self Striping in Pink and Purple, 404 yds per skein = 5.25 oz, Sport Weight, Yarn weight symbol 3

Number of skeins used: 5 for weaving, 1 for edgings.

Sett: 8 epi

Warp ends: 292 last 2 dents doubled on each side for selvage.

PPI: half at 8 and half at about 12

Weave Structure: Plain Weave

Breakthroughs: It is possible to get a warp on the loom without missed dents and crossed threads. This is a first for me and I hope a trend.

Lessons Learned:

• Watch PPI when beating. Aim for balance.
  
• When using a patterned yarn, pay close attention to the way the shuttle bobbins are begun and stopped to avoid uneven patterns or striping in the final woven project.

When I finished weaving the length for the first blanket, I noticed I was really eating up the weft yarn. I finally realized that my PPI was about 12 instead of being an even 8 to match the sett. So, on the second blanket, I made an effort to beat more lightly and get to about 8 PPI.

I was then worried that the first blanket was going to feel like a board when it came off the loom. After washing and drying, I can not tell that much difference between the two. Both are nice. When I examine the second one I can tell the PPI is looser, and the hand is more drapey, but the first one is fine as well. The babies who get them should be very snugly.

The crochet edgings are done and I have blocked both blankets. It has been a while since I crocheted, and I had forgotten the rules for spacing the initial row of single crochets.

On the first blanket, I got the single crochets too close together. When the rest of the edging was added, it rippled a little bit. So, on the second blanket I stretched the sc's out a bit and when I got finished the edge was pulling in a little.

This was all fixed with steam. Both of them look wonderful after blocking. The edgings took almost an entire skein of yarn. Crochet really eats it up.

Edging Patterns:

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Blanket 1: Base row 1 - Begin in the middle of one side,SC around blanket edge, 3 SC in corners, sl ends together c2, turn. R2 - HDC around 3 HDC in corners, sl end together. Ch 3 turn. R3 - *Skip 2 st, 3 DC in next st. Repeat from * around. At corners add a ch 1 between the DC clusters and make them come out close to the corner. Join with a sl st. Ch 1 Do not turn. R4 - Crab stitch around putting 1 st in the top of each DC from the row below and 1 in corners. To crab stitch, work sc from left to right - opposite the normal direction



Blanket 2: Base row 1 - Begin in the middle of one side,SC around blanket edge, 3 SC in corners, sl ends together c1, turn. R2 - Sc around with 3 SC in corners sl ends together. R3 - HDC around, 3 HDC in corners, sl ends together, ch1 turn. R4 - SC around, 3 SC in corners, Sl end together, c3 turn. R5 - 2 DC in same stitch as Ch, (sk 2, Ch3, 2DC in next S). Repeat between () around. Fasten off.

Let the Weaving Commence

Inspired by Leigh over at Leigh's Fiber Journal, I decided to weave some baby blankets out of good old acrylic yarn in plain weave.

I am not a very experienced weaver, and I figured it does not get much simpler than this. I think this is the fourth warp I have put on my loom so every one is a learning experience.

The yarn I picked is Bernat Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes in a pink and purple self striping colorway. The stripes are fairly long, so I figured the blanket will at least not be too boring. I bought 4 skeins of yarn, and may need another one. It is plentiful if I do so I am not too worried about it. I plan to finish the edges in crochet like Leigh did with hers.

I made the warp three and a half yards long and plan to get two blankets out of it. The warp used about two and a half skeins. of yarn. I am using a sett of 8 epi. I have spent the last week in spurts in my weaving studio (aka the garage) putting the warp all across my 36 inch 4 harness loom. I have to time my weaving to days when the temperature is pleasant. Fortunately, the weather here in Texas is beautiful right now.

I am a very slow warper, but that does not mean I don't have mistakes. The last time I warped the loom it took me about 10 hours to straighten out all the crossed threads and threading errors. I must be getting a little better at it, because this warp had no crossed threads at all. (of course this time I threaded the loom 1-2-3-4 all across) I was able to tie on and start my weaving.

When I warped the loom, the warp colors got randomized, because I still can not hold the warp and thread the reed in order - a la Debbie Chandler's instructions. (did I mention I am a self taught weaver?) I have a random number of pink then purple threads all across the warp. If I had been going in order, I suspect it would have been about 3 threads each color in a straight pattern but we will never know.

Today, I finished tying the warp on and started weaving with the self striping yarn. What I had not thought of was winding the shuttle bobbins with a plan. The self striping yarn makes even stripes, and before I realized the consequences, I got one stripe that is not the same size as the others. I don't think the baby will care though so I am leaving it in.

Now when I wind the bobbins, I have a definite starting and stopping point on the yarn pattern and I think the rest of the stripes will be about the same size based on how hard I beat. I have not quite mastered keeping that even yet. I think it is another case of more time needed in the chair.

The baby shower is 2 weeks away. There is nothing like a deadline for motivation.

My Head Hurts

I've spent the last two days at a Spinning Seminar with none other than Spinning Diva, Patsy Zawistoski, and my mind is about to burst with all the new knowledge I have gained. The photo shows only a few of the samples from the weekend.

On Saturday, we spent the day learning how to spin several types of Novelty Yarns. If this had been the only thing offered, I might not have signed up because I really don't like lumpy bumpy spinning. Instead of being boring and uninteresting, like I half expected, it was a wonderful day. Spinning those lumpy bumpy yarns was way more fun than I ever imagined.

We learned what kinds of yarn we normally spin - soft, medium or hard. My normal spinning is soft it turns out. That was a surprise to me. I would have thought it was medium at least. We learned how to make a sample for our records (now maybe I need to actually keep some) and we learned how to Miss America ply for short, quick samples. This is similar to Andean plying and saves having to locate a ball winder when you only have a little yarn to be plied.

What kind of yarn you spin is important to some of the techniques for the novelty yarns. Different yarns require components that are spun at certain hardness's.

Next we learned how to make a cabled yarn. I had read the procedure for this before, but had never tried doing it. Cabled yarns are a four ply made from two two ply yarns. Some of the plying is done "S" and some is done "Z". It is really important to have the right amount of twist in so your yarn does not fall apart.

As the day progressed, we learned to make bumps in our yarn on purpose. We made core wrapped yarns where the core was a sewing thread and the same thread was used as a binder. The other fiber was mohair locks. Now I know what to do with some of the mohair I have accumulated. We also found out what happens when you ply a single with woolly nylon serger thread.

All in all the day of the seminar I was NOT looking forward to was wonderful. Would the seminar day I wanted most be disappointing in comparison?

Today, the seminar was on "Silk, the Queen of Fibers". Patsy started out talking about the different types of silk we might find to spin and told us about how they were prepared. She then passed out part of a silk cap for us to spin samples from. We spun some Cinnamon Tussah Silk, and plied that with the silk cap single for another beautiful yarn.

Patsy had us spin from ten different types of silk preparations. We learned how to evaluate each type as far as ease of spinning and what type of speed worked the best on each one. We talked about possible uses for each type of silk. We prepared some silk cocoons for spinning. We had lots of fun blending various silk waste products with wool. Patsy had some cut silk waste, some short waste and some sari silk waste and showed us how to blend them into plain wool for a unique and special yarn.

Patsy had a wonderful record card for us to keep our samples on. The card ends up with samples of each of the original fibers plus the end resulting yarn. It is really a great reminder of what we did and what we learned. I wish I was disciplined enough to keep this record for all my spinning. The cards for the novelty yarns end up with the yarn recipe on them. Often, I never look at workshop materials once the workshop is done. I know that is not true for this workshop though. We ended up with very useful stuff.

Some of todays knowledge was not silk specific, but will be a help to all my spinning. Patsy taught us the proper way to evaluate the wraps per inch of a yarn or single. She gave everyone a stick for this and told us how to mark it. We learned how to count the actual number of revolutions a particular whorl will give when spinning so that can be part of the records for the yarn. We learned how to make a sample card so we can keep a yarn consistent no matter how long it takes to spin. We learned how to ply a yarn that has spent too many days on the bobbin and seems to have lost it's twist. We talked about the different types of wheels and tensioning systems. We learned about the differences in Scotch Tensions and why some brake bands are fine if they are fishing line and others require a soft string.

So, I definitely was not disappointed today either. Patsy is a wonderful, organized instructor. I guess her experiences teaching preschoolers are a big help for teaching spinners. She carefully explains the "why" in her instructions. She is not a "my way or the highway" type instructor at all. If you have a chance to take any spinning seminars from Patsy, clear your calendar so you can go and run don't walk. This was a totally awesome weekend, worth the headache from all the knowledge that was pounded in.