Stash………….oh yes…….we all have some

Yarn, jewellery, sewing fabric Stash is wonderful.

It represents ENTERTAINMENT that I have enjoyed.

I chose to visit a Yarn store or department over viewing a movie or spending the bucks on a bottle wine. Look, what I now have to enjoy; STASH. The movie is a flighting memory. The movie will eventually find its’ way to my TV, while I knit with my fine yarn. The wine will consumed, but the yarn may still be here in my stash. It’s hard to knit with any accuracy while drinking wine, then I will need to frog……….Better to leave the yarn in the stash for when I can really enjoy knitting with it.

Then, there is the actual MEDITATION factor and soothing feeling of the yarn flowing through my hands. Knit one, purl one, yarn over, repeat over and over. No need to sign up for meditation classes and groups………and a plus factor for more entertainment funds available for yarn.

Many enjoy READING. Oh, how those “knitting publications” RELAX me. The eye candy of the colors of yarn and the patterns of what I can make with the yarn. The yarn company adverts are so alluring. I might even be able to use some of my stash. Heavens no, I’m saving it for a really special project. Those adverts, they seduce me into visiting the yarn store. I must feel that yarn, I must fondle it, I must review the color choices. Maybe, there will be a trunk show with finished garments!

The knitting/textile SOCIAL EVENTS. More opportunity…….. The local fibre “open houses” on farms, the hand spinners with their enticing yarns for sale. The mohair is so divine, I must have some. I must knit a shawl someday soon. Their goats are so cute.

I haven’t addressed the MENTAL HEALTH issue. Let’s just say it’s good for us.

The Knitting Bucket list…………..do you have one?

Dear Readers, Do you have a Knitting Bucket list?

Recently, I realized that, in over 1/2 a century of knitting, there are still many techniques and projects that I haven’t made. Mostly, I liked to knit garments and fashion accessories.

Perhaps, the time has come to do something about it. The flower pot cover was one of them.

I think, I will make a concerted effort to make other things…….although a coffee cozy doesn’t appeal to me, there must be other items……………I have knit placemats and pillow covers………….but there must be other interesting stuff.

2 wool hats, similar but different

These are adult sized hats, made from 100 gm. of wool yarn each.

Squared x 5

The local machine knitters club recently had a “square “challenge.

Never in a million years would I have knit a flower pot cover, if it hadn’t been for this challenge.
It was time consuming. After all the time allocated to swatching, I should have made a blanket or a tent.

All in all, the idea of flower pot covers is not too bad. Decorating wise, it has lots of potential.
This one was made from 5 squares that are 5″ x 5″. A rayon/nylon yarn. I plan to use it outdoors.

A Bit of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on this day in time.

A glorious day at the ball park.

The other event. Protesters………….look at the horses legs………what kind of people would hit the horses legs that they need to wear leg guards?

You can see the red flag of the protesters; there were approx 25 -40 of them. Later the TV reported 3 arrests.

This is not our Toronto………….what is becoming of our city.

Testing yarn…………if only……..they were all the same.

Kind of sad looking, aren’t they. In the end, they turned out fine.

I was testing some cotton yarn on a cone for small hand towels. The yarn fed through the knitting machine nicely nicely. I was hoping to develop a hem and a gauge that I liked. I may as well make something useful from my test pieces.

After knitting some preliminary lengths and then 3 different configurations and stitch sizes on a handtowel I thought I was finished. But, no! My HANDS felt funny. I looked at them, they were RED. Oh, oh……

I decided that it might be the chemicals that were used for spinning. I washed the hand towels x 3 in laundry detergent and the water was still not running clear. At the moment, they are drying. Have they soften or become brittle?

I wonder how a recipient of these towels would react, if I hadn’t discovered the amount of chemicals that were needed to spin that cotton, so that it would knit nicely. The towel looked very nice before washing and certainly nice for a gift.

The yarn was not a branded one, and I don’t remember how it arrived in my stash………More need for record keeping.

PLATTING on the Silver Reed machines Alternate method.

I have tried an ALTERNATE Platting method as suggested by another knitter and find it to be very satisfactory.
It is for stockinette only, but is more convenient for color changes.

The appearance is identical.

Method:
Color A, feeder 1
Color B, feeder 2
Stitch dial, L or punch/thread lace
Side levers, set to the “circle”, non patterning.

Bottom 2 sections of the test sample. They look appear to be the same as the top 2, which were using the PLATTING feeder.

Platting on the Silver Reed Mod 860 mid gauge & Chunky Mod 155

There has been some discussion on the Machine knitters list on Yahoo, that “platting” cannot be done on the Studio/Silver Reed mid gauge Mod 860 knitting machine.

Indeed it can. Please View the following 3 pictures.

The instructions are on Page 40 of the Operation manual of the ELECTRONIC MOD 840.The info is NOT in the Mod 860 manual NOR the Chunky MOD 155 manual.

The following were knit on the STUDIO/SILVER REED Chunky MOD 155

The next couple of samples were knit by placing 1 yarn in the PLATTING position (behind feeder 1 ).
TUCK patterning, Card 1. One sample using the S position for rotating the card, and the next using the rotation on L (long) I like this one BEST. Predominantly pink, the pink yarn was thinner than the
Navy and shows up nicely.

FInal 2 samples, using the PLATTING feeder, stitch dial stockinet.

The reverse side is non descript. The tuck stitch near the middle of the sample strip, appears somewhat like a fisherman rib.

Overall, I found NO visual difference in the stockinet versions, other than convenience of changing yarns using the ” punch/thread lace” settings.

Relaxed top

Drape front sweater. Similar to the one in Vogue Winter 11/12
Item number 12, Roberta Rosenfeld. Her twisted pullover.

I used an acrylic mix yarn. It needed to be steamed to make it drape nicely.
This was also knitted using a Studio/Silver Reed mid-gauge machine.
A more interesting stitch pattern would be lovely in a yarn with more sheen. Mine was more rustic.

Is your knitting falling off the needles?

Is your knitting falling off the needles?

When I am interrupted, I make sure that I stop the carriage at the Right hand side and then I release the carriage lid. ( on Studio 360, 700′ and electronic carriages).

When I return, this reminds me to check my work before beginning again. Especially,if I have torn back a few rows. Checking to see that the yarn is secure in the feeder, the latch is in the closed position, and the antenna tension is ready to proceed with the knitting.

As you can see in the picture, the Yarn is not in the feeder, but the lid is in the release position.

If, I had closed the carriage cover and pushed the carriage across, my knitting would have been on the floor.

If, the yarn was NOT SECURE behind the feeding gate on the carriage it may and often jumps out of the knitting arm and again the knitting is on the floor.

If, I did not check the antenna position, I would have a big LOOP at the end of the row.