Sunday Funday

 

I've been wanting to get back to my circular sock machines.  I lurk in a FB group and they post the most amazing things.  Since I haven't cranked anything out in awhile my skills are a bit lacking.  Of course I went straight away to ribbed socks because what I really want to do is a set of leg warmers.  It's been good practice as you can see.

Getting the right tension, picking up dropped stitches and making the appropriate ribbing adjustments are just a few of the things I had to re-learn.  

But it's all coming along, if rather slowly.  I even got all the way through a heel without too much trouble.  I'm on the toe of this sock and then will have to do it all over again.

The machine I'm using is a NZAK Quiknit. It's my favorite of all my machines (I have 12).  It's the easiest to use -- that is, least fussiest.  Plus I have it all setup with a 64 needle cylinder. 

I plan to do the legwarmers on my NZAK Mark IV -- it's already setup with a 72 needle cylinder and the ribber works the same.  

This year I hope to make something on each of the different machines.

I've collected a number of books as well, but the most useful one is currently no longer in print.  I'm working with the author remedy that situation.  We'll see how it goes.

WiP Wednesday

I'm on the second sock of a pair that I'm knitting with my bent dpns.  I bent a set of Susan Bates sock needles because I broke one of my size 0 Neko curved dpns (see that post here).  In that post I introduced a set of videos on how to start a pair of socks using bent or curved dpns.  I now have a full set of videos uploaded with playlists for how to knit heels and toes on bent dpns and a special video on actually bending your own set of needles.  I hope you enjoy my videos and find them useful. Meanwhile I'll be finishing up  my socks, the pattern is Rose City Rollers, I used my own heel and the round toe instructions.  You can see details in my Ravelry project.



What are you working on?

Back in the Saddle

Before I started knitting I sewed.  Garments, quilts, toys, etc. Sitting in front of my sewing machine was fun.  Then I had kids and sewing for any length of time just wasn't happening.  It's been awhile since I last made anything out of fabric.  A friend showed me a tutorial to make dpn cozies and I thought -- hey I've got stuff for those.  I dug around the stash and found fabric, snaps, dusted off my cutting mat and sewing machine. It took a bit to find everything, like my rotary cutter and the right ruler.  Then I had to get reacquainted with it all.  How did my sewing machine work again?  Will it work?  It did.  And while I had a full range of snaps and a setting tool, I never used it.

While I was making the cozy I saw that it was too small.  It turned out I cut it 1" short.  I had cut enough for two cozies (both short). Remember the rule, measure twice, cut once?  I just cut twice.


The day was half gone and I had nothing to show for it so I flipped the other around and ended up making a cable cozy for my interchangeable needles instead. So all wasn't lost completely and I got to try out the snap setter.  I'll try the cozies again another time, with the right measurements.


Maybe I should stick to knitting.  That's my Fiber Arts Friday.  How was yours?

Another pair of socks on Curved DPNs

I started another pair of socks on curved dpns.  This time they are ones I bent myself.  I got past the heel of the pair I was working on with the Neko size 0s.  Here's how that looked:

And then well, this happened:



So a friend suggested I try bending my own using Susan Bates aluminium dpns and the result:

They work beautifully too!  I'm loving them, not as flexible as the original Neko's but not breakable either!  I've got several youtube videos uploaded on how I started these socks.  More to come.

  These socks are the Rose City Rolloers available on Ravelry. My knitting spindle tray is from Wool Tree Mill and very handy.  Gotta get my gadgets in one of their tool caddies or a palatte for my mug! And Fiber Arts Friday is back!  Thanks to Kathryn's Brain you can join here!

Fiber Friday: Old Dogs, New Tricks

As one of the yarn docs (fiber therapists? I help people with their projects) at the LYS where I work, I'm asked how to do many things, most of which I know.  The other day I was stumped and had to ask a co-worker to switch with me so she could do it.

I learned to knit socks with dpns (double pointed needles).  At the time it was the way to do knitting in the round, for sleeves, hats, mitts. Later someone discovered that you could use 2 circulars and do two at the same time.  I tried and liked using 2 circulars and I go back and forth between the two methods.  They have their issues, pulling out the wrong needle (dpns), using the wrong needle (two circs).

Then came Magic Loop. I've tried magic loop on hats (when I didn't have the right sized 16" needle) and it was ok, but pulling that cable just seemed to stop my rhythm.  So I never tried it for socks and since I generally am a 1 sock at a time knitter, I never tried 2 socks on either 2 circs or magic loop. For two circs it's pretty straight foward, cast-on half the stitches on needle 1, then the other half on needle 2, repeat with sock 2, Not so with magic loop. 

I used the instructions from Spinfoolish so I won't repeat them here.  What I do want to say here are my feelings on this new-to-me method of knitting.  Call me a curmudgeon (not the knitting curmudgeon, that's someone else), I'm all for progress and all, but I'm not so sure this is for me.  I can't help but feel like that guy that thought that cars were too fast, what's wrong with the stage coach? You get to see so much more of the scenery.  Bah.  Progress.

Seriously though, I'm glad I at least tried it and can now show someone else.  It's great that with this method more people can enjoy sock knitting, or any knitting in the round without hating dpns (they're not that bad really -- try the curved ones if you like, see last post).  For myself, I'll stick to dpns or 2 circs.

Happy Fiber Friday folks!