Multi-strand knitting at the extreme

One of Rachel John's beautiful rugs

Odd and beautiful at the same time, this is one video I must share Rachel John, Extreme Knitting, 1000 Strand Knit. Rachel John also has a website where she sells commissioned art rugs, advertises her classes in extreme knitting and advertises her book, BIG Stitch Knitting.

Another Piece by Rachel John

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.

Another New Toy

Nostepinne

Another new "toy", er um, "tool" that I purchased is a nostepinne. A nostepinne is a short dowel-like stick on which you wind a center-pull ball of yarn. As you can see from my first attempt, I didn't get the ball very ball-like! 

So, of course, I immediately headed to YouTube and  looked for a video about using a Nostepinne, and found more than one. I like the Nostepinne that I bought, but by the looks of this video, I might have saved a bit of money!  or even better -- recycled! or used only what God gave me.

ENJOY!

Just a peek.

The cuff is so cool looking. I love the colors that I ended up choosing. It was well worth the effort of taking my time to examine all the options. I am surprised at how fine the yarn is. I may end up lining the mitten as I cannot imagine it being warm enough for Chicago winters.

Newest Toy

I already told you I wasn't good at sticking to a budget when it comes to yarn or fabric. I also have a weakness for toys, er um, I mean, tools!

One of my latest finds is this cute little French Knitter also called a Knitting Nancy or a Knitting Knobby. Note the little face painted on the side! I tried it out and the resulting rope is a square. I figure that this will come in handy to make ties on hats like a "chullo" or on mittens for children -- you remember the cute little string that goes through the arms to keep track of the mittens. Love those. If anyone knows the name of the string, let me know. I guess I would call it a mitten leash.

Actually, I remember in grade school that someone taught me how to "knit" with my fingers. It was basically using your fingers like the nail heads on the top of the French Knitter. All the girls in my class made long loose ropes with their fingers. It was fun and used up some of recess.

So I spent a little time on the internet and found a wonderful website on Knitting Nancies. At the bottom of his website there are some websites that sell French Knitters -- some of them are no longer valid sites, but several of them still sell them.

Happy Knitting!

New Yarn arrives.

Yes, I know I am supposed to be on a budget; but sometimes a knitter just can't help herself. I ordered the yarn for my next project as seen on the cover of the book mostly mittens. I got the order in on Monday from Paradise Fibers, but I wasn't too happy with the color selection that I picked -- that is one of the problems with selecting colors based on internet pictures -- "what you see" is not always "what you get".

(Hypocrisy Alert!) I am about to go against what I just said about colors on the internet. My pictures are not the best to show the colors on the internet anyway, but I think you will see enough to follow my logic.

Original yarn color choices

The pattern calls for seven skeins of yarn in 2 colors -- 3 shades of one color, and 4 shades of the other. The three shades will be the background color and the 4 shades will be the design color. I chose pink and green to be the colors that I wanted with green as the back ground and pink as the design.

The darkest pink turned out to be more of a brick red color. The two darker greens are almost identical except that one is a brighter version of the other. Since I had a coupon for free coupon from Paradise Fibers which I received when I signed up for their newsletter, I went on line to find another green to replace one of the dark  greens. I ended up buying two more greens as I was scared one wouldn't turn out as a viable option.

New color set with one of the new green shades

I did like the new green much better, but then I kept looking at the pinks. The brick red seemed to fight with the bright pink and I was not happy with that either. Now I was wishing that I had ordered another pink. Then it occurred to me that I could flip the arrangement and have the pink as the background and green as the design. This gave me several more options  from which to choose.

Option 1

Option 1 removed one of the dark greens and the brightest pink. I love the two medium greens that I got, especially the darker one -- Limestone.

Option 2

The only color different here is the darkest green -- I have swapped out to the duller of the two.

Option 3

Here I have taken out the brick red and put back the bright medium pink -- I like this much better. Both the bright green and the bright pink really pop. This also has the brighter dark green in it.

Option 4

The final set has the pinks without the brick red and the greens with the duller of the two dark greens. I think that this is the option that I like the best. I can't wait to get knitting!

That's not a real car, you can't pull the wool over my eyes!

For Sale: One Red Ferrari. Made of Wool.: "After traveling the world for the past five years, British artist Lauren Porter is seeking a permanent home for her knitted red Ferrari sports car."

After the post earlier in the week on the quilted car, I have to follow up with this gem. I think I like this better than the quilted car, as this one has the look of a real car. I am sure it has gotten quite a few double takes.

Hat Finished -- Lessons Learned; and More Yarn coming!

At first glance, this hat looks pretty good. But I know where every error and problem is and I know why some of them happened. So this was a great project if only for the lessons learned.

1. Be careful when substituting yarn. Part of me was just wanting to practice a little knitting and use up some old yarn at the same time. This pattern called for a 100% wool sport weight yarn. I used an acrylic that feels a lot like a cotton. But the other half of me isn't satisfied with the end result because I am not sure I like the feel of the hat, the too crisp look of the hat, and because I ran out of the cream color, I had to go with a solid blue top and did not do the fleas/specks/dots at the top of the hat.

2. Don't get lazy and not read and re-read the pattern. It also helps to print out the photo of the finished product to which to refer while knitting. It would have eliminated some mistakes I made -- like putting the motif designs in the wrong order. Having a picture would have helped me figure out the way the top was constructed, as it was, I didn't count the stitches in the pattern and just assumed that the repetition was 1 for 

each needle as opposed to 1 and 1/2 for each needle. This made the top of the had too elongated and I used way more yarn than I should have used.

3. Put in life lines before starting each new motif. This would have saved me some time in correcting some errors and given me the option of correcting others. For instance, I could have quickly ripped out a couple of rows instead of painstakingly  "un-knitting" each stitch, one at a time. By the time I had realized that I should have put in the boarder motif immediately above the horse, I had finished all but one row of the hearts motif.

4. Be more relaxed when knitting the 2 strand color work. I was hurrying through part of it and got the floats on the back a little tight. This gives some of the hat a bunched up look.

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Since I finished the hat, I ordered some more yarn for that mitten pattern from the front cover of Mostly Mittens. Because of lesson learned number 1 from above, I specifically ordered the exact same yarn used by the author albeit in slightly different colors. I ordered Brown Sheep Naturespun Fingering Yarn in graded shades of green and pink. I am hoping that they look as good as the combination on the picture of the mitten on the cover.

Quilt Car

First knitted royals -- now a quilted car? Am I such a traditionalist that this surprises me?

Not this car quilt but a quilted car.

It's a work of art quilt car - Niagara Falls Review - Ontario, CA: "This quilt car doesn't get many miles to the gallon, but the ladies who put it all together, couldn't care less.

It's getting them plenty of attention and questions from viewers and that's what counts. It gives them the perfect opportunity to talk about their organization and upcoming quilt show."

Go ahead, just don't make me mad while I'm knitting.

Woman stabbed by knitting needles walks into hospital: "A woman who had been stabbed with one, and possibly two, knitting needles wandered into UPMC Presbyterian Wednesday night before collapsing, Pittsburgh police said."

I remember when 9/11 happened, I was knitting a lot and I had a cross country flight scheduled for a couple months later. My biggest fear was that the TSA would take my knitting needles away from me along with the attached half-completed socks. I went out and bought my first set of bamboo needles just so they would not show up on the x-ray machine. Knitters are often thought of as mild-mannered little, old ladies. I guess this article proves that not all knitters are mild-mannered!

The US Postal Service Was Good to Me This Week

Better late than never! I still received it within the official mailing window, but if two used books are ordered the same day, I would think that they would arrive within a day of each other.  To me, this means that someone is slow at getting to the post office.

Anywho. The book is cute and has several colorful patterns in it. knit mittens!, published in 2002 by Storey Publishing is by Robin Hansen.  The patterns are a nice mix of yarn weights and styles and features both front thumb and side thumb mittens. It even has a pattern that is for a felted pair of mittens.

Since I bought the book used and on line, I did not know what I was getting, but since the mitten on the cover was so colorful, I thought it might contain some children's pattens and I was so right as 11 of the 15 pattens have child sizes. I think that I will try the pair called "Labrador Diamonds" as they have two sizes, Newborn to 6 months and Child's 3 years.

All in all, I am pleased with the purchase and the fact that I saved money buying it used is a bonus!

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I also received the parts for my little knitting machine. I spent some time playing with it yesterday. It is somewhat difficult to use, but I think that once I get used to all the weird quirks, I will be very happy with it.  My plan is to play with this one and see if I can actually do well enough to consider buying one of the really nice ones. This is the "Easy-bake Oven" of knitting machines.

Here is something new for you to knit!

The British have always been a bit obsessive over their royals. I remember being in England the summer that Diana and Charles were married and their picture was plastered over everything: dinnerware, stationary, pillows but here is something new. Knit your own Will and Kate.

Shop workers celebrate royal wedding with knitting patterns - Candis:

"Staff at a John Lewis store in Norwich have used knitting patterns to mark Prince Williams forthcoming nuptials to Kate Middleton.

The Norwich Evening News reported that workers from the shop's haberdashery department have spent two weeks knitting the entire royal wedding party, using the book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding, by Fiona Goble.

Customers now have the chance to win the woolly replicas, by entering their name into a competition being run at the John Lewis store"

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And if you don't believe me, I found the book on Amazon: Knit Your Own Royal Wedding.

Update on the Running Horse Hat

This is about half way done.

The project that I started last Sunday is coming along nicely. I have not had too much time to work on it outside of my train commute into the city. I wish I was a faster knitter. I am not really getting the hang of the hold-a-yarn-in-each-hand thing. I seem to get a death grip on the yarn and my knitting turns out way too tight.

I do like the colors I picked -- a pale cream and a periwinkle blue. The yarn is just what I had left over on hand from a baby sweater I crocheted some years ago.  It is Lion Brand Micro-spun sport yarn -- an acrylic; it won't be as warm a hat as if I had done it in wool.  I may do another version in a wool or wool blend; however since I have a lot of old left-over yarn and no budget to buy new yarn; this will have to do for now!

Above the row of horses is a row of crowned hearts and then it begins to decrease to the top of the hat. The pattern, as designed, has a yarn pompom on the top, but I am not sure that I will put it on the hat or not.  I was never too fond of froufrou things. Besides the fact that I am somewhat lazy about some things.

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!