Re Worked Tote

I did not really like how my first tote came out. The pattern I created was very simple and I really did not like it to much. I re-wrote the pattern and I really like my second version.

Rounded corners really make a huge difference in how the tote looks. I also added a snap on the inside of the ribbing. I thought that would be an added feature. There are several other little changes I made and think that it really improved how the tote looks.

Santa Baby

Well the weather outside is frightful, but I will be keeping warm with my new Santa Scarf.

I found this delightful pattern for a scarf that is just made for the holiday season so I had to make it.

You can not see it very will but the brim of the hat is furry. The ball and the brim were both made out of the same Cha-Cha yarn. I think the ball turned out really fluffy. I think I kinda like it that big and full. I really thought because of how fine it was that I would have problems knitting it on the Bond. I used KP 2.5 and it knitted like a dream. Not one dropped stitch.

It took me weeks to find a sort of flesh colored yarn. The whole time I was looking in stores and online it was at the bottom of my yarn basket. Believe it or not it is Leewards brand yarn. Wow how long have they been out of business?

I used TLC Amore for the body of scarf. I have never used it before but I think I am in love. It was so easy to knit on the Bond and is as soft as a puppy's fur.

The beard I used Rainbow Bounce with Shimmer. I really like the look of the beard. The pattern really does not say how to attach the beard so though trial and error found a really easy way to attach it.

If anyone would like to see the pattern it is at http://www.lindostyle.com/ . It is in one of the newsletters.

Xanax and Short Rows Update

Ohh yes the Brother KX 350 is what I needed. I was able to complete a whole slipper in about 20 minutes.

In looking at the slipper I think there is to much fabric on the top of the slipper and can not adjust it to look right. I have tried a lot of things. I even reknitted the slipper decreasing a few stitiches.

I folded a crease on each side but it is such a deep crease it just does not look good.

I will have to ask someone if I did this slipper wrong or a way to fix it.

Xanax and Short Rows

I have been working all day on the 14 Minute Slipper. I have just decided I need to take Xanax before I pull all my hair from my head.

My Bond and short rowing do not mix. I pull down on my knitting, go slow and have applied different tensions to the yarn and still I am dropping rows like it is going out of style. I have never been able to be very successful at short rowing on my Bond.

I might just have to break out my Brother KX-350 for anymore projects that call for short rows. Several projects have been made on my Bond that have short rows, but this project has been the worst. In fact, this project is just driving me insane with the dropped stitches. I will finish this slipper off and see how I feel about it when I am done.

I can only suggest if you are going to do short rows on the Bond calming music, cups of tea (with added alcohol), no kids around (including husband) and a tape playing in the background saying how great you are doing. This is my Tip of the day.

Tote 1st Draft

Well, I am done with my 1st draft of the tote. There are several things I am going to change when I do my second one to make it look better.

Making the ribbing a 1x2 will improve how it looks at the top along with making the that section longer. I also think making the body into two sections with rounded corners at the bottom will make it look so much better. The thread I used for the lining will have to be changed to a more matching color. I forget to change the thread on my machine. I just was not thinking there. I was thinking about adding a snap or a button at the top to close the tote but I have not decided on that yet. I did not like how my seams came out and think I will try a more seamless stitch. All trial and error when you make things up to create.


It will be some time before I make my second one due to Holiday projects screaming to get done. So, I need to move onto the next project and put this off to the side for a moment.

Tote

I saw this cute little tote purse being sold at the shoe store. I was thinking it would make wonderful gifts my daughters could give out for Christmas and Birthdays. So, I sat down and thought about how to make this little treasure. I think I have it all worked out on how to make it look just as good as the one I saw at the shoe store.

My daughter has a Birthday party to go to this month and I think we can complete the tote rather quickly. I sat down last night and knitted the body of the tote and I am working on some ribbing.

My daughter has chose bright pink and bright green. I really think they are perfect colors together. I would have never picked those colors but find myself really in love with the color choice.

I decided to line the tote, so I will need to get my sewing machine out. It really needs a lining I chose a really loose tension making the knit bigger. I hoping it turns out.

NFL SWEATER PART 4 ALL DONE

It took me longer than I have ever expected. With life and bad health in my way the NFL Sweater is finally done. I don't think I will get to all the projects that I had planed for the holiday season but my biggest project is done. The dark green does not show up to well in the picture but it is a wonderful green. I hope my nephew likes it. I will be giving it to him for Christmas.

NFL Sweater Part 3

My sweater is coming along, not as fast as I would like. I have been so sick that I do a couple rows here a couple rows there. Will I get it done in time for Christmas to give to my nephew. I am sure I will. I am feeling so much better. As long as, I do not have other things to do like take care of my family I can just zip along.

I got the back done and feel really happy about it. I think it turned out really well.

I am almost done with the front and then I can move on to the collar. I am not looking forward to weaving in all the stray yarn. The thought send chills up and down my spine. I guess a good night of TV watching will help me get though it.

Now, If I can keep my dear doggie Jeepers out of the knitting I would be all good. Jeepers is my 4th baby. She is with me all the time (yes, even in the bathroom). She loves to find something I have taken off my needles and snuggle in. My silly ole girl.


I do plan that this weekend I am going to finish this sweater and move onto the next project. This has taken me to long and I have a lot of project to get done before the Holidays.

NFL Sweater Part 2

It took me weeks but I have reworked the NFL Sweater pattern to work on my Bond. In fact I re-created the whole sweater so that it would work on my Bond. Now, I just have to knit it and hopefully I put the pattern together correctly so that I won't have some funky sweater in the end. The pattern I worked looks pretty good on paper, but knitting it will be the true test.

I think the hardest part was finding the correct font for the Green Bay Packers. I found a website that you can download different fonts for free. So, I downloaded the font and typed it in my Patten Maker program and then flipped it. It worked out really well. I am very happy how the pattern came out. OK, off to knit.

NFL Sweater

Well, here I go making things more difficult for myself again. I got a pattern to make a NFL sweater on a Studio 700. So I know how to convert the gauge from 4.5mm to my Bond 8mm but I am trying to work out how to convert the NFL logo on the pattern. I am just racking my brain on this. Converting the sweater from one gauge to another easy. Placing the logo not so easy. I want the sweater to look the same or just about the same as the pattern. I do believe the if I placed the logo as it is graphed it will be to large for the sweater because of the gauge difference. Also I do not want it to come out misshapen. I think I will make a sample of logo just to see just how big it will be and then decided just what I want to do from there.

Puffy Paint

I have made my Mary Jane slippers but am very concerned about slip and falls. I read many people have been using Puffy paint to combat slippery yarn slippers. So what the heck I gave it a try.

There are many products on the market that can be placed on the bottom of slippers so that they will not slip, but of course they are more expensive than Puffy paint. The Tulip brand Puffy paint is on average only $1.47 a 1.25 oz tube.

I started by trying to read the directions on the bottle. WOW, I have never seen smaller print. Thinking I am smarter than the average bear, went online to the Tulip site for the directions. They only offered a very general directions on 3-d paint. I had to resort to magnifying the back of the bottle. If I did not do that I would have missed some very important information like you have to steam the paint for it to puff.

After dotting up the bottom of the slippers and waiting 4 hours for it to dry, I steamed the paint and it changed from glossy black to flat black and may have looked a little puffy but I could not really tell a difference. I really did not like the look of the dots on the bottom of my cute as a button slippers. I think it would look better if I had did some sort of pattern or image.

Well, I waited 72 hours to make sure they were dry and tried them on for the big test. I am pleased to inform you that the puffy did create a less slip surface to the bottom of my knitted slipper. Of course, this does not replace a good ole fashioned rubber sole but does work rather well. I would suggest if you are giving knitted slippers to seniors, small children or anyone that has balance issues to use some sort of rubber sole or even Grippies to help prevent falling from slick soles.

I have decided to use the Puffy paint on the slippers that I will be giving out this Christmas. Of course, I will not be giving any to anyone who has any balance issues this year. Also, I will be creating a better design on the bottom of the slipper dots just will not do.

My Baby Jane

I have been working on this slipper for months. I don't know what was wrong with me I just could not make it right. With a little help from my friends at the Incredible Sweater Machine Club on Yahoo, I was able to complete my first slipper. They have been such a help. Now, I am on to make slippers for all the ladies in my life.

Home Made Bond Super Cast on Comb

This is my home made cast on comb for my Bond USM. I went to the local hardware store and got every thing I needed.
1. Flat metal bar
2. Metal Glue
3. Paper Clips
4. wire cutters
5. Handy Mans dream DUCT TAPE

All I did to make my 130 pin cast on comb was:
cut the paper clip at the bend and with a section of my Bond spaced the paper clips out. Then you just glue them on and when dry cover with duct tape. Easy super huge cast on comb.

The Afghan I Have Put Aside

Well, it took me months to get one half of my Pirate afghan done. I have decided to place it aside for now and work on some smaller projects that I won't pull my hair out as much on. It is going to look like a pirate flag. I am making it for my dear cold Husband. He is a big pirate fan so I thought I would help him keep warm this winter with his own pirate blanky. I hope to get back to it in a month or so before it gets cold. I would not want to have a cold pirate wannabe on my hands.

Hand Knit to Machine Knit Conversion Intarsia

Everywhere on the internet you can find how you can convert the gauge of a hand knit pattern to a machine knit pattern. I hear more on how does one convert the intarsia part. So, I found a dishcloth pattern I liked and worked it out. It took me forever but here is an example on how that works.
A hand knit pattern starts with right side of fabric facing you and then it is turned at the end of the row so the wrong side of fabric will be facing you. So, in hand knit instructions you are flip flopping back and forth on which side of the fabric you are working with.
In machine knit, only the pearl side or the wrong side of the fabric is facing at all times. Therefore, hand knit patterns have to be converted for machine knit.

For our example we will be working a dishcloth so tension or gauge will not be needed.

The pattern we will be using is called Beagle and is from the wonderful people at Knitwits Heaven. They have wonderful, creative patterns at their site. You will be able to find them at http://www.knitwits-heaven.com/ . The pattern is a free pattern on their site but they also have patterns that they sell that are just fantastic.

This first part we will be converting the first 10 rows.




This is the Hand Knit version. Picture from Knitwits Heaven.

The pattern reads as follows:
Materials: 1 ball of Worsted Weight Cotton Yarn
Size 4.5 knitting needles

Cast on 47 sts
Rows 1-4: (k1, p1) across to last stitch, k1.
Row 5: k1, p1, k43, p1, k1.
Row 6: k1, p1, k1, p41, k1, p1, k1.
Row 7: k1, p1, k11, p17, k15, p1, k1.
Row 8: k1, p1, k1, p13, k1, p12, k1, p2, k1, p1, k3, p7, k1, p1, k1.
Row 9: k1, p1, k7, (p1, k2) 3x, p1, k11, p1, k14, p1, k1.
Row 10: k1, p1, k1, (p14, k2) 2x, p2, k1, p6, k1, p1, k1.

Pasted from <http://www.knitwits-heaven.com/beagle_washcloth.htm>

Conversion to Machine knit
This pattern is worked from the bottom up so the conversion will be from the bottom up and is only two different stitches knit and purl. When converting the first row will remain the same working the needle bed from left to right. The second row gets a little tricky. Where is says a knit you convert it to a purl and where it says a purl you convert it to a knit and you work the bed from right to left while still reading the row from left to right.
Here is an example:
Hand knit
Row 1: k1, p3, k1
Machine knit conversion
Row 1: k1, p3, k1 work needle bed from left to right
Hand knit
Row 2: k3, p4, k6
Machine knit conversion
Row 2: p3, k4, p6 and working needle bed from right to left.
Graphed Row 1 being the bottom row will look like this:
k=o p=x
Xxxxxxooooxxx
oxxxo

Materials: 1 skein 2.5 oz Peaches & Crème color light blue
Bond Tension: Keyplate 2.5

E-wrap cast on 47 sts
Row 1: k1, p1 working needle bed from left to right across row, COL
Row 2: p1, k1 working needle bed from right to left across row, COR
Row 3: k1, p1 working needle bed from left to right across row, COL
Row 4: p1, k1 working needle bed from right to left across row, COR

Graphed it should look like this:
X = sts to purl, blank = sts in knit
Remember Row 1 is the bottom row and Row 4 is the top row.




Row 5: k1, p1, k43 , p1, k1 working needle bed from left to right across row, COL
Row 6: p1, k1, p1, k41, p1, k1, p1 working needle bed from right to left across row, COR
Row 7: k1, p1, k11, p17, k15, p1, k1 working needle bed from left to right across row, COL
Row 8: p1, k1, p1, k13, p1, k12, p1, k2, p1, k1, p3, k7, p1, k1, p1
working needle bed from right to left across row, COR

Graphed Rows 5 to 8. Row 5 being the bottom row.

Row 9: k1, p1, k7, (p1, k2) 3x, p1, k11, p1, k14, p1, k1 working needle bed from left to right across row, COL
Row 10: p1, k1, p1, (k14, p2) 2x, k2, p1, k6, p1, k1, p1 working needle bed from right to left across row, COR

Graphed all 10 rows. Row 1 at the bottom row 10 at the top.



Converting Hand Knit to Machine Knit maybe tedious but well worth it. Wonderful new patterns will open up for you. I encourage everyone to visit Knitwits Heaven. They have wonderful patterns that many people will enjoy.

Here is the whole pattern graphed. http://www.knitwits-heaven.com/


This is the one I made on my Bond USM

Tip: Decrease A Stitch

When decreasing a stitch or casting off it can be difficult to use the transfer tool. What I do is grab the stitch between my thumb and finger and move it over. This for me takes less time than than using the transfer tool.

A Blanket for Me

I am always cold so I decided to make a blanket. I really love the colors.

Claw Weights

Being cheap cheap cheap has motivated me to create my own tools for the Bond USM. Some of these items may be used for other knitting machines as well.

I decided to make my own claw weights. I went to Walmart and found everything I needed.

Cost $3.71 + tax
Time Two hours (only because I had to let the paint dry or it would have been 15 minutes)

The list is as follows:

6 for a dollar forks Cost: $1.00
different size bank sinkers (in the aisle with the fishing gear) Cost $1.75
spray paint $.96
needle nose pliers Everyone has a pair I hope. Cost Free
saftey pin or heavy duty thread or scrap yarn extras lying around the house Cost Free

Step one
Use the needle nose pliers to bend the tines of the fork down so that it will hook into the knitting without falling out.

Step two
Bend the handle of the fork back in the opposite direction of the bend of the tines. This is to hold extra weight. I am not that strong so I put the end of the fork under my foot and pulled up to start the bend.









Step three
Spray paint sinkers. The sinkers have lead in them and just to be safe spray paint.

Step four
Place sinkers on heavy duty thread or a big saftey pin.




You may add more weight as needed right on the end of the fork.



Wow!! You now have your own Claw Weights for a lot less. Total Cost for 6 weights $3.71 + tax.