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