Shoulder Seams on the Machine

I came across this youtube video for putting in a shoulder seam in two parts. Worth looking at but that's not how I do things.

Finished side straight off the machine: not yet washed, blocked, press or anything.

No. So this is what I did:

Knit my back and took it off with a long circ needle.

knit the front and put the shoulder onto decker combs, (a garter bar would be OK too)

Back goes onto the needles, wrong side faces the machine, public side faces me, BEHIND the latches.

Front goes on to the open latches

Flip the decker to vertical while holding the work so the stitch all roll onto the needle

Add a little weight on both pieces. Pull ALL the needles back so the back stitches are now on the front

just like this

I did bind off around the gate pegs

As with everything, how different people do the same thing always interests me. Depending on how firm the shoulder seam has to be, how stretchy the fabric, will determine as to how to finish off the live stitches, back stitch, make the last row MT+1 or 2 and latching off, lots of scope for what the design dictates. And it was easy with the decker comb and if the back was taken off with a garter bar and flipped, then it would be really quick.

The photo of it finished was very blurry, so I'll take another one and come back and put it in tomorrow. Which I've just done. Here they are straight off the machine, not yet washed, pressed or anything but I think it is a nice tidy and quick seam.

Finished underside

My Cable-athon Continues

I've decided to do some of the cable projects I've had ready to go for this year's stash knit down. I'm working on my 2012 stash bag and am trying to knit 50 x 200g of Bendi. I will go over the 40, which is an excellent improvement on the 4.5 x 200g that I managed in 2011.

My next cable cardi, is one from Vague - I know they call themselves "Vogue" but errors abound in so many of their vague patterns, this is normal. This one is from Fall 2008, the Old Penny Cardi or as they have renamed it - #11 Forestry.  And I'm writing about how I'm doing this on the machine. I'm putting a 30st panel into the centre back, as quite a few people have.

The cable pattern is an old one, done over 5 stitches, 1 and 5 are swapped, one goes behind, one in front, and the three in the middle remain in the same place. We've just had Susan Guigliumi visiting, and I'm bringing her bridging ideas into the mix.

I'm using the hold and part levers to put in some extra slack so I can do the four cables. On the row before I'm due to cross the cables,  I pinch the RS levers into the centre - hold and part. and hold on

bring all the pattern needles to hold and knit +1 or +2 MT

the left, then the 30 needles covering the centre panel are pulled out to hold.

Knit up to the held needles, disengage the row counter, then back up, and put the left side lever into part, take off the hold, and +1MT on the stitch dial, in this case, up to T5 then knit the 30 centre needles, back up, bring all the remaining needles all the way out to hold, reduce the stitch dial to MT (T4) and knit them. Re-engage the row counter.

Bring needles to be crossed out all other to UWP so none can unravel during cabling

bring the middle 3 to UWP, one stitch goes behind, one goes in front

Here the stitch going in front is being collected with the latch tool

Here, the stitch at the back is hanging on its correct needle and the front stitch is being teased into position by the latch tool

the infront stitch is on the needle and the back stitch is going onto it's new needle

Here they are done

and this is really how I collect the front stitch, but it's not much of a photos. Park the stitch going back onto it's prong, remove the front stitch and put it onto the latch tool and hold it, then move the back stitch into the new position, then pop the front on on it's new needle.

There is a bit of pulling

but putting them all back into UWP helps the machine knit them off

And there they are knitted. All to do now is latch back the two purl stitches

Machined Shawl Collared Cardigan

The original Shawl Collared Cardigan appears in Jo Sharp's Knit Issue 1, which has no machine instructions. I have deviated from the written instructions, stitch count, bands and collar shaping. If anything isn't clear, please obtain your own copy of the book and go from there.

Knit on SK860 midgauge + ribber.
5 x 200G Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply Highlands in Cinder.
T5 swatch = 22st/28r = 10cm

All bands start with 3 sts on each end, then 11.11 each bed, HP, weight the end stitches to start with, I used a bulldog clip onto the end of a double ended latch tool that came with the machine.

Back
Bands: T2.2/2.2 MB+R; L65..R65 in 2.2 IR rib.
I use long tail cast on and transferred the stitches onto the needles. you need +200 if you do this way, I left the extra dangling until I hung the combs.
work 20R
Body: Transfer all the RB sts to the MB, the 2 group onto the empty needle. (13o sts) reset RC000.
put waist shaping in if you want, but otherwise ->120R reset RC.
Armhole: -6 ev row twice - I thread onto a little piece of scrap. Then -1 (3rd needle onto second, move both in one st) both ends ev alt row 15 times (88st), work to 62R.
Shoulder: set carriages for short row shaping. Reset Russell levers to | both sides.
bring 3 needles on left to D, knit one row, bring 4th needle to D, (4 needles now out of work),
bring 3 needles on right to D, milk the yarn to ensure tight wrap. knit one row, bring 4th needle to D, continue these two actions 4 more times till you have 44 sts COR.
next row is tricky, bring out your 4th needle, STOP, this is the tricky bit don't knit yet, milk the yarn, as you move SLOWLY to take up the wrap BUT YOU MUST NOT LET THE LEFT EDGE OF YOUR CARRIAGE go past your left side wraps, you have to STOP TO DO RESET:
before the edge of the carriage reaches your wrapped stitches, you do reset your Russell lever LEFT SIDE ONLY to ||, this will take up all your stitches on the left, knit to the end of the row, reset right Russell lever to || knit off your final row.
take off all sts however you prefer, mine go onto the circs I keep for this.

Fronts - make two, reversing the shaping on the other one.
L23/R23 work Same as back, with shaping on one side only.
Note: there is no neck shaping.

Sleeves - make two
L23/R23 work bands same as body. RC000
T5 +1 by moving last sts onto next empty needle, pick up the stitch bar under 2nd needle and place on empty needle, both ends every 4th row to 96 sts (RC100)
work to 120RC. reset RC.
Sleeve cap: -6 next (onto scrap), then as before, 3rd onto 2nd and move both in one needle, -1 each end 18 times (RC38), then ev row 15 times to 12 sts and take them off to cast off or cast off around the posts, whichever you prefer.

Bands
T2.2/2.2 MB/RB L16/R16 2.2 IR rib, work to 140 RC, then + 1 ev 6 rows ALL SHAPING IS ON THIS SIDE, then at RC212 or 72 if you did a reset, place a marker, a paper clip, small piece of scrap yarn whatever you choose, this is your shoulder seam and it makes it easier to sew it up - just saying. I put short rows in here, it sits so much better with them.
**Reset RC000 and BOTH carriages to | (all four russell levers) knit one row. COL.
on RIGHT side, pull the (MB) 1x2, 3x2 and (RB) 3x2 needles to D, knit one row
pull out one needle from MB, milk yarn and knit one row.
pull out 3x2 + 3x2 (but one will already be out on the MB- the wrapped stitch), milk, knit.
repeat last 2 rows,** reset ALL Russell levers to || knit to RC36
repeat ** to **
reverse the short rows, wrapping as you go bring needles to B, set side levers to collect them.
knit to RC78 repeat from ** to ** Reset RC000.
-1st ev 6th row to original stitch count = 72RC. reset RC and knit another 140 rows.

Finishing
do 3 needle cast/bind off on shoulders, align your collar with the shoulder seam and join whichever way you like. set in sleeves with linker, machine or darning needle, finish side seams and weave in ends. As you can see, I had help with this.

End of August already

Well. I've been sort of busy. I've finished my lovely cabled jacket and wore it out the other day. Here is my youngest daughter modelling it for me so I could take the photo. I had put a buttonhole in the top, but having worn it for a couple of times, I decided to undo the first couple of stitches, dropped down and reknitted them closed.

Then there was the mammoth job of doing the short row skirt for my eldest. Oh lordy, what a nasty job that was.

Here it is, just before I took it off the machine. Done in 3 colours, 2 rows of black between short rows of Silver Twist and Dark Plum Bendi Classic 5ply. She wants to do the finishing herself. It turned out to be an entire circle, I'll put it's fuzzy photo on the end of the post.

The continental is going well enough to keep it for Saturday's SnB knit. It's not quicker, but have done up to the arms of the body, started the sleeves in round. I don't mind leaving it on the slow burner, it's good to have an easy knit.

Next on my agenda is to do the last bit on my Bannister jumper and work on the machine vest in a bigger stitch size. The last one was wonderful, but stiff as a board!

The Continental - tra la la la

After more than 30 years of contemplation and procrastination, I've finally decided it's about time to bite the bullet and learn to do the German or continental knitting technique. I've fiddled around with it over the years and have quickly given it the flick. Well yesterday I fished out that bag of 10 x 100g Patons Shadow Tweed that I got cheap at Wang last month (5.5 and 6.5 needles) and off to the practice patch for a bit. I'm doing Emerald from knitty.com, a simple enough, stocking stitch mostly, project to practice on.

OK, I know, I WAS supposed to be sewing up Bluey, the cables and rib cardi - but who really likes sewing up? Me either! I've done some of it, really I have - ends woven in and all, on the collar, shoulders and sleeves are done and tidy- only both sides to go - see?

So this week in Lorna Land I'm going to

• finish sewing up bluey, (only two long long loooonngg sleeves/sides ... sob sob!);
• get good at continental, oddly enough I'm finding the purl easier - but I did practice it a lot yesterday - whilst all the time ignoring the pain of both these activities.
• and finally, I want to get cracking on the Passap, get my vest done on the looser tension (OH NO, more sewing up... more sobs all week it looks like!); then get Loz's skirt swatched, write up the notes and get it done for her. She was coming over to help do it, but has now landed herself a 5 day job, much better then the 3 days she was doing, so it needs to be done and outta here. Hopefully get these two things off the machine, I don't even mind if the sewing up spills over to next week (is lying on the blog bad??).

So that's it for this week's plans. Now time to watch Aussie idol for a couple of hours and choose which painful activity to do - sew up or knit 142 sts 2:2 rib using continental. My head will probably just fall off by the end of the week and save me.

What to do with a Spotties bargain?

Last Saturday, Shelley wanted to visit Spotlight in Wollongong before we went to SnB at the Novotel. Did we get the fine cotton she was looking for? No. Did we buy something else on a whim? Yes .. and .. yes. THEN we while we where leaving, that's right leaving the shop.. heading out the door, nothing left to tempt... I saw some Patons Washed Haze cotton/acrylic 10ply. How much? says me. 20cents a ball says the sales girl. 20 CENTS A BALL??? this stuff is $5/50g, too exxxxy for me, way over my budget. No longer. I dumpster dived and got 18 balls of the lovely blue = $3.60. Shelley decided that the purple would do just nicely for herself - 19 balls later, $3.80.

Being a distant relation to a giraffe, 18 balls will leave me with either 3/4 sleeves or cropped length, which I'd have lived with -- however -- On Sunday I decided to see if Rockdale had any.. They did, after asking the lovely, helpful, fellow knitter from the wool counter, who went and found the last 5 @ $4.99/50g ball. OK, I decided I could pay the $25, I was happy. I told her about the fab buy yesterday at the 'Gong, she said she couldn't match it, of course I said, didn't expect her too, but she did say she could do it for half price!!! then said - where's mine, why didn't you buy ME any? well - only the orange was left - not my colour and I thought it nice to leave it for some other bargain hunter. Fair enough, orange isn't her colour either.

Then to decide what to make... I wanted cables (ME? cables? who'd be surprised at that?) I've been on Rav since, scouring the cables tags.. rejecting everything. Almost giving up and thinking I'd make the blue cabled cotton jacket from the Knitter #3, that I thought the Bendi Harmony would work better, I can do the garter edged and pop it onto the machine to work the cables... grr.. No I don't want to make Central Park Hoodie with a collar. There is a spectacular jumper from Bergere de France that wont convert to a jacket/cardi.

Then I had a find.. not only that, I actually HAVE the mag.. I can't get a link of the pattern, #29 Slant Cable Jacket from Vogue Fall 2008. The red version photographed for the magazine doesn't do it justice at all. I'll put in some photos when I get it going.

I will print off the charts, and knit it on Saturdays for a bit, as my home handknit is my Zetor scarf, which I'm nearly 3/4 the way through. I'm on 9th repeat of the pattern, with one or two more before I finish it.. I hate to say it, but I'm seriously thinking of the clear beads on the edge. but that's another story for the other blog!! (Best link I can do is ElliJaAura's version for anyone on Ravelry,)

Here is the photo of the Washed Haze. The top one is the #29, however the cotton yarn is too unforgiving to support such thick cables. It has the outer cables going the wrong way, which annoys me, and the very thick twin cables and other cables are too much for it. I'll remake it, but in a thinner yarn, ditch those thick cables and side ribs are just too much for me. I really like the second choice. I got a VK Holiday 2004 mag from Debbie in Arkansas, and have chosen #20 Rib and Cables. I'm not going to do the pockets on the front, but put the Celtic knots and smaller twisty ones on the sides and up the centre of the sleeves.

Twis the week before Christmas

This week has been a finishing week.

On 16th I knitted the last stitch, wove in ends grafted edge for my Hot socks Nanna rug:

I started in March 08; it is 8 x 15 squares, half square border, 7 x 100g sock wool. 2 x 100g grey socks wool, done in garter stitch with 2.5 needles, and took over 170 hours to knit. And on my legs and feet as I type.

Then later on 16th, I knitted the last couple of rows of my Fetching Mitts: As there are 7695 finished pairs of these on Ravelry (as at 9.00AM Sydney Oz time, 21 Dec) I decided to take an "arty" photo:

Although there is a cool breeze coming through the window and making my feet cold, it aint cold enough for me to wear these.. they are in the drawer waiting for 09.

Having finished both these and doing RnR (rip and redo) of my knitting machine Minty Fresh and building up the strength to go another round with the KM - there was only one thing to do:

Pick up my CPH and knit. I went with the collar and looked on Rav to see how other collar doers did, so, collar first, and bands extending across the collar. That decided, I've done the collar and button band and am onto the buttonhole band. Shelley, my SnB friend gave me a quick lesson on mattress stitch, and I've even sewed up about 10cm of one of the sides.

I did make a positive start on my Crescent Moon scarf, I've redone the "cast on 13 sts" to the same as the Swallowtail shawl, do the K2 garter and pick up the purl bumps, very happy with this, much much better, and have taken it's prelim photo, may rip it back and redo a little section I went back and didn't fix very well, I will do a post just for it sometime next week, after I've had a bit more of a think about it.

It was a cool day yesterday so I asked daughter #1 to help me model my Drops sleeved shawl, here is my "arty" photo, the rest are on flickr or Rav.


So as I'd done some "arty" photos, I got friended on flickr by a photographer... Oh my stars! I shall never whinge about stupid arty photos again! It's my pet hate and proof that it's one anyone can take, but show me the knitted item as it really is: front, back, no hands in the way, no belt pulling in a too big, no arms over the head to cover the lousy sleeve cap contruction.. only showing the side view to hide the fact that it makes a skinny model look frumpy.. (ranty over now). So that will teach me, wont it?

Well, I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful stress free Merry Christmas. (And thank you for reading.) And give you one of my beaded cards: