Geeks Gone Wild

Now this is cool! I stumbled upon this evidence of Geeks Gone Wild on the internet. A group of very smart people (engineers, software developers and the like) got together for a "camp" of sort to play around with art and machines. They created an automatic sock machine that is driven by breath power!

Mediamatic.net - Untitled Sock Project 2010

And the winner is . . . ?

I have finally found a pattern and yarn which will become make my next sweater.  I found the pattern for a simple sleeveless shell featuring a single cable. The pattern was by Crystal Palace Yarns and used their Bamboozle. The cotton/bamboo/nylon blend promises " a great feel and a luster" a "soft core", and best of all that "the elastic nylon maintains the shape of a garment and prevents vertical stretching while wearing".

I love, love, love the color! It is bright, but the color range isn't extreme and I can envision wearing it with a navy suit in my office. I think cool and classy. I promise to follow up and let you know what I think when the yarn arrives. The pattern for my size requires 7 skeins, but I ordered 8 so that I can play with it a little first. I have worked with cotton on my Bond USM and it is a little difficult to knit. I think that the small amount of nylon will enable it to "give" and make it easier to knit.

The Machine! 2

Machine Knit Ear Flap Hat (Chullo)

Is this cool or what. Not just because I made it, but I just think it is so cool that you CAN make it on a machine. In reading the pattern that I found on Marzipanknits, I had no idea how it was to be put together, I could not see how the ear flaps were formed, but I followed the directions and a hat appeared! The pattern was written with another machine in mind and I used a slightly heavier yarn, so although the pattern called for a gauge of 5 stitches and 7 rows to the inch, I ended up with 3 1/2 stitches and 5 rows per inch. Luckily, the pattern was for a small child and I ended up with an adult sized hat. If it had been an adult sized hat, the resulting hat may have been big enough for a gorilla!

The green yarn is waste yarn and does not become part
 of the ending design.

Sometimes, necessity truly is the mother of invention.  The patten calls for placing claw weights near the knitting as you knit. I have not yet bought claw weights, so I improvised. Two paper clasps holding up a kitchen grater, hanging from S hooks. I guess I should order a couple of claw weights. If ever I want to knit and the grater has just been used for coleslaw, I may have trouble!

My next move is to use my Knitting Nancy to make the tassels on the ear flap.

The Machine!

It has been so busy at my real job, that I have had little time for my knitting machine. But I have gotten to spend a few hours with my new little friend. The knitting machine comes with some basic patterns that get progressively harder and step you through different knitting techniques. Using the pattern book would have been a logical way of learning how to use the machine,  -- but I have never been too logical.

So I hit the internet and found tons of videos about knitting machines on YouTube. One of the the YouTubers that I have found the most helpful so far is clogden21. She uses the same machine that I use, so I don't have to try and "translate" from one machine "language" to mine. I watched her series on dishcloths and remembered that I had some cotton yarn. Voilà! My first finished project.

I did use the booklet that I got with the machine to get directions to do eyelets. Which I practiced fairly successfully -- except for the set that is slightly askew because I did not line them up properly.

Customer Service

Sometimes a company's customer service is better than average and sometime it is not.

In the case of Bond America -- the company that made the Ultimate Sweater Machine -- it wasn't too bad. I told you in my last post that I sent them an e-mail with a picture of the broken piece. Well, 24 hours later, they had not responded to my e-mail, so I forwarded the same e-mail asking again for a response and I got an e-mail the next morning telling me that they were sending me a "replacement needle kit" which includes extra needles and the piece that was broken. Just what I need to get the show on the road. I certainly did not want to return the machine to the seller and then have to find another one.

I think that it helped to send a photo of the broken piece. Sometimes you don't know what to call a part and a picture is better than a description any day. I will have to use that again in the future!

The UPS just delivered my new . . . disappointment.

I ordered an Ultimate Sweater Machine -- Deluxe! It is something that I have wanted to play with for years and I never bought one because I was scared of spending the money. (Which is kind of silly because it was a lot cheaper than the sewing machine I bought without a blink of my eye.) I waited with my heart all a-flutter and UPS finally dropped it off this afternoon.

Since I spent most of last Saturday afternoon watching all the on-line videos that I could find -- including the ones by Bond-America, the manufacturer, on how to set up and use the machine.  I opened the box and started to dig out all the pieces -- and of course, the center needle bed is broken. Just a small nick out of it, but it is broken on the ridge where the knitting carriage rides.

I shot an e-mail off to the manufacturer with a photo of the piece that was broken in hopes that they will send me a replacement part without a fuss.

So in consolation, I am pan frying up a couple a pork chops for the DH and me. I just dusted them with some salt and my homemade dry rub spice mix. It's a secret, so don't tell anyone what I put in it:

2 parts Ground Cumin
2 parts Black Pepper
1 part Ground Ginger
1 part Ground Turmeric
1 part Ground Mustard
1 part Ground Garlic
2 parts Cayenne

I use extra virgin olive oil for the beautiful flavor.