. brightmeadowknits: June 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Life lessons contemplated while knitting swatches in the basement

1.  Light is good.  More light is better.  Even though it was mid-afternoon, it is a little dark in the basement workroom.  Moving a light closer to the knitting machine made it much easier to pick up dropped stitches, count, and just generally knit easier.

2.  Read the directions all the way through before starting. They don't always give you the steps in the correct order, and sometimes they leave things out.  If you notice these issues before you begin, you can note the additional information on the pattern to remind you as they come up.  For some of the swatches, I found it a good idea to calculate what the expected row counter would be when I arrived at that point.  Finding a difference in actual versus expected row counter led me to quickly detect a mistake.

3.  If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Leaving a loop at the edge of the work would cost me more time later in weaving both ends in.  Far better to just unknit the row, move the row counter back, and re-knit correctly.  When the yarn mast tension is loose for whatever reason (previous unknitting?) I find it is helpful to support the yarn being fed into the machine until the carriage reaches the edge of the knitting and the first stitch is knit to avoid these loops.

4. Check your work before committing. Before you knit that row, check that all the needles have loops on them, and that the loop is in the hook, or else the needle is in hold position and and will be knitted back.  Make sure the yarn feeder is closed if you have opened it.  Make sure you have passed the turn mark when setting up the first pattern row. Make sure the selector lamp says "Ready".  Did you reset the row counter after unknitting that row?  Do you need to go back and change the pattern stitch row number, or reset the needles from A to B?

5. If you make a mistake, it can be fixed. You are going to make mistakes.  No problem.  Forgive yourself and move on.  Just undo the bad stuff and redo it better.

6. The sooner you find and fix a mistake, the easier it is to fix.  Picking up a dropped stitch 1 row down is much easier than finding and fixing a dropped stitch 26 rows down.  Be aware of how the knitting is expected to look, and how it actually looks.  If you are getting hung up on gateposts, you may not see it for several rows.  Stop for a second after each row and see if your knitting is hung up on gateposts.

7.  If you make too many mistakes, stop and start again tomorrow.  There are days when it just does not make sense to go home from work, eat dinner, and try to knit.  Sometimes a brain-dead evening of watching TV is called for.

8.  A little tension is good.  Too much tension is bad. Just like in real life, a little bit of stress keeps you on-deadline and on-target, but too much stress inhibits your performance, if the tension mast is too tight (or the yarn skein being fed gets caught on itself or on clutter around the knitting machine, like the teeth of the extra cast-on comb) you will not be able to knit.  It will be difficult to move the carriage and the stitches at the edge of the knitting will be too tight.  Symptoms of too-loose mast tension are that the yarn loops at the edge of the knitting, or when weaving, the weaving yarn gets caught in the gatepost. Check that the space between the antenna and the post is about the span of your fully extended hand from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger (6-10 inches.)

9.  Make sure you have enough materials before you begin the project. At the end of my last swatch, I had 5 feet of yarn left.  Lucky me! For the last 20 rows I had been worrying about how to splice in another color of the Vanna's Choice yarn that I had only 1 skein of, the skein that was being used up. I had been contemplating a trip to JoAnn's to get another skein to finish 3 or 4 rows, but I  was lucky.   Before you make the swatch it is pretty hard to guesstimate how much yarn you will need, but after you have a good swatch it is pretty easy to calculate the yarn used in the swatch, and the projected square inches of the finished project.  Do the math!


10.  If you have to force it, something is wrong.  Stop and find out what is wrong before pushing on.  Just like real life, things can get out of adjustment in your knitting machine.  If you can't push the carriage across the bed, disengage it and remove it. Step by step, determine what piece of the machine is causing the problem.  Is it the carriage? Is it the yarn feeder? Is it the sinker plate assembly? Ask a lot of questions, and test the results.

11.  Maintain your tools in good condition.  Don't live with a broken or damaged tool. I have a transfer tool that has a split in the metal at the tip. Every time I pick it and try to use it, I get a "split" stitch. I need to throw this tool away. It's not marked so it looks like the rest of the tools.   Before you start a project, especially if it has been some time, check the condition of the sponge bar.  Don't wait until you are fighting with your knitting before you check. 

12.  Put the tools away in the same place each time, then you will be able to find them next time you want to use them.  If they are always in the same place, when you want them, they will be there.

13.  Practice makes things easier, if not perfect. Consistency is key.  If I always cast on resulting on carriage on right, then row counting is easier - if the carriage is on right, the row counter needs to be an even number every two rows.  If sometimes I cast on leaving carriage on left, then from that point on, every two rows results on COL.  That could be OK in some exceptional circumstances, but I think if you engineer your patterns to always have COR at the end of each instruction you are much better off. 

14.  There is no one right way to do things.  It is good to research different techniques, but there is nothing wrong with "unventing" (like Elizabeth Zimmerman) new techniques.   Now that we have Google, it is easy to  find there are multiple ways to perform the desired result.  I will use the one that is most familiar and "easy" to me, sometimes; and sometimes I will try a new method. I'll try it out on a limited basis (a swatch?) and see if it works as expected. Marcia Hauser reminds us that we are the master of the machine, it is up to us to make the machine work to do what we want it to do.  The machine doesn't make the rules.

15.  Give yourself some slack.  Quite literally this means that if the yarn is not feeding smoothly from the cone, ball or skein, you cannot knit. Applied to life issues, chances are good that nobody else in the whole world cares as passionately about the issue as you do.   You made a mistake 50 rows ago? Is there a way to fix it without unknitting and re-knitting 50 rows?

Friday, June 20, 2014

Do-over

I knitted, blocked, tagged, and wove in the ends on five swatches last week.  As I was measuring the gauge to compare them to a reference swatch of stockinette, I realized that on two of them, I had inadvertently forgotten to reset the row counter when changing to main yarn after knitting the first ten rows.  So I was ten rows short on both of them.

I considered unknitting the last 10 rows and re-hanging the swatches on the needles to finish, but then I thought about the complexities of figuring out exactly where in the stitch pattern I had left off and what the next row should be set for.  So I just decided to do them over.

I was able to  knit them fairly quickly!  This was not the first do-over, see my post on the fairisle swatch.  So I am getting a lot of practice making gauge swatches.

On another note, I received some marketing materials for a class called "Dressing Your Truth" by Carol Tuttle.  The marketing was very slick, she sends an email a day for at least 8 days.  It promises to teach you ways of establishing your personal "style" based on your energy type. You get to determine your own energy type after she explains all the personality characteristics that belong to each group.   This also seems to put you into a color grouping that appears to be seasonal. 

Based on my energy type of Earth, I am now questioning the "season" I thought I belonged to all my life (Autumn).  I have a lot of autumn colors in my stash.  Am I going to dump it all and go buy new yarn?  Sounds like it might be fun!  I am going to "get my colors done" soon, just for confirmation. .

Monday, June 16, 2014

Sharp tool!

My KH-864 carriage must have been damaged in transit (or maybe while packing it) last time I took it out for a demonstration.  When I was running the needles across the bed, they made a "clacking" sound when needles were in upper working position.  If I put the needles in hold, the carriage would not pass in one direction only.   Or maybe I got some yarn caught and pulled something out of place.

Fearing a large repair bill and a long wait time, I decided to see if it was something I could figure out myself.  The KH-864 is a punchcard machine, so there are no electronics to damage, everything is mechanical.

I took the sinker plate assembly off, and the carriage worked beautifully without it.  No interference with any of the needles. 

Just to be sure, I took the needles out of hold (I can learn, even at my advanced age!) and pulled out the sponge bar.  I would say that I need a new sponge bar but I do not think that is the source of my problem.

Since I had just done a plating swatch on the KH-930 upstairs, I had recent experience with removing the yarn feeder assembly.  So after an aimless wandering around the basement looking for a screwdriver, I finally found the ribber spanner from the KH-230 in a tool box.  I removed the yarn feeder assembly and reinstalled the sinker plate assembly.  The problem was not with the yarn feeder assembly, it stayed with the re-assembled carriage.  Removing the sinker plate again, and spying up inside the mechanism, I saw that a piece of spring steel seemed to hang down a little more on one side than the other.  Using the handle of my Jolie Unicorn, I was successfully able to bend it back up into the normal place. 

Voila! the carriage now runs smoothly in both directions.

The TGKA project took a large chunk out of my weekend.  I got swatches 5-10 done and started #11 with the KH-864.  

I decided to use some of the yarn from my newly acquired, inherited stash.  There were a couple of cones of shiny mercerized pastel cotton.  I tried a few times to make it work, but the stitches kept jumping off the needles.  My guess is these two cones will have to be knitted on the bulky or at least the mid-gauge. 

Next I found an unlabeled cone that might be a hard wool, probably purchased for a warp yarn, from my weaving friend, the lady in Columbus who sold me the loom bench. 

It was kind of hard to use also.  Again the Jolie Unicorn came in handy,
because even though the fibers of the wool wanted to felt together for this hand-manipulated swatch, the pointed tip of the tool was very helpful to get into the middle of the stich and pry it back open again.  If you see any of these tools offered for sale, be sure to get one for yourself.  I have one in the "bulky" size and one in standard gauge.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Swatch fails - learning experience

It has been some time since trying to knit on a KH930 (like more than 5 years) and although I was proficient at one time I quickly learned last night that I have forgotten quite a few tricks of the trade.  For example, I noticed my fairisle swatch was not going well. I noticed that when ready to knit the setup row, my carriage was on the right instead of on the left as per the instruction book, before knitting the set-up row.   I after knitting the swatch, I noticed the long floats and knew something was wrong but I was not quite sure what exactly the problem was.   My first guess was that the pattern was inappropriate for a 2-color fairisle.
 
After binding off, and looking at the front (right) side of the swatch, I can see the problem immediately.  I did not notice that the KRC button was selected.  This means that the machine was knitting as if I had the ribber attached and was trying to knit a double-bed jacquard.  I can tell by the characteristic birds-eye patterns showing up in unexpected place, and because my sweet little fish (this is Stitch World 50)  at the top of the pattern were only half-knitted. The overall pattern was elongated.

 
So, first things first.  This time I changed the stitch pattern and decided to cast on with carriage on left in order to wind up with the carriage on the right side to change to fairisle when expected.  This was interesting as I found that crochet cast-on was almost as easy right-to-left as it was left-to-right.   By the time I was halfway through the swatch, I finally realized I had dropped some stitches on the first row.  I went ahead and finished, but by the time I marked the stitch size I was tired and frustrated and forgot to put my stitches back in work.  Rather than bind off, I just took it off on waste yarn.  I decided to block it anyway and keep it as a learning experience. 

 
Then I flipped the swatch over and I was in for a big surprise! I had pushed in both MC buttons instead of just the top one.  It has really been a long time since I knitted any fairisle, I guess.  NO patterning on the right side. 
 
Oh well, they say Thomas Edison failed a thousand times before he invented the light bulb.  It is only a failure if you do not learn from it, right?  So, speaking of light bulbs, one came on in my head at this point. I suddenly realized that if I stopped knitting the contrast color one row before knitting the set-up row for fairisle, my carriage would be on the correct (left) side to set up the needles!  Gee what a thought.  Proceeded ahead, and changing to fairisle, I still had problems, even though the carriage was on the correct side.  I guessed that it was because I had not taken the carriage all the way outside the turn mark when beginning.  I un-knit several rows, reset the row counter, and tried again.  Continued to have the problem.  I changed the pattern.  Still had the problem.  Finally I realized I had not hit the "step" button until ready light was lit, to begin knitting in pattern! In the meantime I had broken the yarn, leaving me two extra ends to weave in (lower left corner). 
 

By the time I finally got it going right, I realized that I had knit two rows of main color before the pattern started and I had not the heart to un-knit and start over.  One more learning experience. 

 
Now, at this point, if I was just trying to measure gauge for a finished sweater, I might have stopped.  After all I can measure stitches and rows per inch in pattern fairly easily here.  But since I am submitting this I guess I will try one more time to do this right. 

Monday, June 9, 2014

Swatches 3 and 4 completed

I finished swatch 3 last night, steamed it tonight after work.  Then poked around the house for a while, organizing more class material from classes I have taken over the years, putting the handouts in a page protector and inserting them into a three-ring binder.

Finally when I could delay no longer, I picked a cone of yarn from my recently acquired stash.  It was MaryLue's Solo.  I think this is acrylic but I am having trouble finding it online through google search, believe it or not.  The "committee" recommends using wool but I don't know if they would welcome my 100 cones of mill-spun (Zeilinger's), Craiglist-sourced "free" no-name wool under the label of "Bright Meadow Farms" or not. So I am going with Tamm, Mary Lue, Plymouth, and well-recognized brand names for yarn sources for these submissions.  Something the judges are familiar with.

Once I selected the yarn, I printed the instructions for swatch 4.  Put them in a page protector and researched garter bar decreasing online.  Found Diana Sullivan's excellent YouTube videos on the subject and watched them. 

Finally, went upstairs and started the swatch.  I got half-way through it and decided to throw it away as the number of spit stitches was piling up.  Started over.

I have not used my garter bar much.  (Like, never)

So this was a "newbie" exercise for me.  I was able to finally accomplish it.  I had to latch up a few times due to dropped stitches, but think this is probably acceptable to the "committee" as this is a skill that successful knitters must master.

I noticed that half of my garter bar is missing, although I have both sides of the "needle keeper" or whatever that thing is called that blocks the needles from moving when you are working with the garter bar.  Where could it be? Hope I find it with the missing sponge bars. 

My tools are in a plastic photo keeper.  I had a standard-issue Brother bottle of oil in the same container.  It leaked. I have oily tools.  Some of the oils show up on the decrease rows of the swatch.  These would disappear with laundering, but I am not going to launder my submission to TKGA.  I have already steamed it. Meanwhile, I put the tools on a microfiber cloth, and hope the cloth will absorb the oil.  I righted the bottle of oil  I guess from now on,  it has to go into a Ziplock bag before being stored with the rest of the tools.

I used my KH-970 for this exercise which reminds me that the lighting of the LCD display is terrible. I am going to order one of those little stick-on  7-LED battery-powered lights on it to see if it helps. Perhaps there is a way to fix this inside the Brother control box but I think the LED lights will probably be a lot more cost-effective.


Sunday, June 8, 2014

Swatches 1 and 2 completed

It doesn't sound like much, but it was a fairly big deal.

To finish two swatches, first I had to pick up the power cord for the KH-930 at the house of the gentleman who sold it to me.  He had inadvertently left it out of the box when packing up the machine. While I was there he offered me his late wife's steamer as he had not thought of selling it with the knitting machines. 

It seemed like it was fairly heavy-duty, so I made an offer, and he accepted it. 

Next step, set up the knitting machine.  I had finished assembling the motor drive a few days ago, so it was ready for installation of the machine.  Knowing I would eventually want to install the ribber, I decided to install the machine using the ribber clamps instead of the original clamps. 

Maybe because the spanner and the hex key was missing from the motor drive box, and I had been wondering if anything else would be missing, it did not occur to me to look in the box with the ribber.  Instead I panicked and went to the basement and rummaged through all the drawers of the toolcarts looking for ribber clamps.  I found some, but two of them were in a plastic bag labeled "bulky" and the third seemed to be exactly the same size as those two. 

Once I calmed down and realized that the ribber clamps would probably be in the box with the RIBBER, I went back UPSTAIRS (2 flights) and found them, clamped the machine to the stand. 

Next, tried to move the needles.  They seemed STUCK.  Forgetting that I had read a paragraph yesterday warning the novice knitter not to remove the sponge bar with needles in hold, because they would ever after remember it, I pulled out the sponge bar (with some difficulty.) It was in terrible shape.  And all the needles in hold flopped their ends out above the needle bed. 

After inserting the needles one by one.  I went looking for the long mailing tube with my extra sponge bars in it.  (I have not used it since we moved here 5 years ago.)  Wasn't in the 2nd floor knitting room.  Wasn't in the basement knitting room.  I came back to the computer and googled "KH-930 sponge bar" and found an article about how to repair an existing sponge bar.  I briefly considered following the directions, but realized it would necessitate a trip to the hardware store.  I remembered the Detroit metro-area knitting machine dealer was in Southfield, so I gave her a call. 

After getting reassurance that she had them in stock and that she would be open for me, I drove 75 minutes to Southfield, paid for the sponge bar, and drove back home.  I put the new sponge bar in.  Then I realized that the needles and the carriage really needed a little lubrication.  Guess where the Lori-Lynn cans are? All in the basement.  Back to the basement.

Then back to the second floor knitting room.  Finally, the machine is in workable condition.

Now to find a suitable yarn for the swatches.  Because this is going to the TKGA for evaluation, I wanted to use a yarn from my stash that was labelled.  I have some full cones, still in plastic, but didn't want to use them necessarily because I may need the yarn for actual projects some undetermined time in the future.  And the instructions say to use either a pastel, beige, or white color of non-fuzzy, non-novelty yarn.

I looked in the coned yarn that came with the machine.  I found two cones of partially used Tamm Diamante.  Problem solved.

Then comes the actual knitting of the swatches. 

Problems? Yes.  I haven't been machine knitting enough lately, or maybe I have reached that stage in life where I no longer blindly follow instructions, and have gotten out of the habit.  I pulled out 25 needles each side of 0, then pushed back every other needle to NWP. Fed the yarn through the yarn feeder, knitted the first row, pulled the other stitches into working position, knitted four rows as instructed, made an eyelet to mark the tension, changed colors, knitted 12 rows, hung a marker stitch on stitch 21 on each side, and realized that I had forgotten to pull out the 25 stitch on the right side, so I only had 24 stitches on that side.  Sigh.  Broke the yarn, pulled it out of the carriage, dropped that swatch off the machine.  Well, at least now I have waste yarn for marking the needles for the tension swatch.

Next swatch, I forgot to mark  the mast tension. Sigh. 

Next swatch, the yarn looped and caught on the carriage more than once, leaving dangling broken ends.  Sigh.

Next swatch.  Forgot to put the needle back into working position after making the eyelet.  After I latched up the eyelets a few rows later, I realized that I had made the first mistake again, I forgot about that pesky needle at position 25.  I only had 24 stitches to the right of 0.  Sigh.

OK.  So, take a deep breath.  Take your time, Brenda.  Reach each instruction.  Do it step by step.
FINALLY I completed Swatch 1. 

Swatch 2 was a little easier. 

Then the new steamer came out.  It is simple to use and works great.  Best steamer I've ever had.  It was a good buy.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Classes - Techniques and Teachers

I have taken many classes over the years related to fiber arts.  As I am preparing my submission for the TKGA masters machine level 1 certificate, I realize I have not been very good about keeping track of which classes I took and the dates of the class and who the instructors were.  I am going to try and remedy that from now on.  I do have some of the notes but I do NOT have  all the dates!

Convergence July 7-10, 1994 - Minneapolis
MAFA 97 - Maryland
Stitches East - King of Prussia PA year?
11th Annual Monroe Area Machine Knitter's Seminar July 23-24, 1999
Lunasea (Lunatic Fringe) - Pensacola Florida Feb 19-21, 1999
GRAMKC 18th Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar April 20-21, 2000
GRAMKC 19th Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar April 11-12 2001
GRAMKC 20th Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar April 5-6 2002
GRAMKC 21st Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar April 11-12 2003
GRAMKC 22nd Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar October 1-2 2004
GRAMKC 23rd Annual Great Lakes Area Seminar September 30-Oct 1 2005
GRAMKC 24th Annual Great Lakes Knitter's Retreat September 14, 15, 16 2006
GRAMKC Fall Workshop, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.......
Knit it Now - Inspiration 2009
Knit it Now - Inspiration 2010
Third Coast Fiber Arts Festival 2012 and 2013
26th Monroe Seminar July 25-26, 2014 (planned)

Here are some of the instructors I have had the privilege of learning from, as evidenced by the class handouts I have collected over the years. I know there are more, somewhere...

Joyce Anderson - Pretty Bands, Seams and More 2003
Joyce Banfi - Shetland 1 Design Principles 2004
Joyce Banfi - Color Theory and Selection 2004
Joyce Banfi - Aran Knits 2000Deb Oswalt - Thread Lace
Peggy Barton - Q&A about all Accessories 2003
Peggy Barton - KH-970 CB-1   2003
Peggy Barton - Fun with Single and Double Bed Color Changers 2001
Michael Becker (Distinctive Knits) 2010 - Felting
Michael Becker (Distinctive Knits) ???
Diana Berns - Thread Lace Cocoon 2003
Diana Berns - Chenille Jacket 2003
Sandy Cherry - Classic Mix and Match Outfits 2003
Lily Chin -  Knitted Edgings1997
Lily Chin  - Pattern Draping, Elements of Design 2009
Lily Chin - Knitting with Computers 2013
Teena Crenshaw - Bog Jacket/Round Garments 2013
Candace Eisner-Strick - Tapas 2012
Mary Elva Erf - Documented Miniature Textiles for Doll Houses '94
Carol Foster -
Pat Frette - Neckbands and Collars 2003
Marcia Hauser - Knitted Jewelry 2006
Marcia Hauser - The Cooperative Knitting Machine Tips and Tricks 2006
Marcia Hauser - Beaded Bags and Shawls 2006
Lora Kinnan - DAK
Lora Kinnan - Simply Chic Jacket Standard or Bulky 2002
Lora Kinnan - Craft Sale Psychology 101 2002
Lora Kinnan - Dress Pants 2004
Barry Klein - ??? 2012
Barry Klein - ??? Stitches
Linda Knutson - Dyes for the 90's '94
Susan Lazear -  Garment Designer: A Versatile and Creative Tool for Design - 2009
Susan Lazear - Combining Knits with Fabric - 2009
Pamela Leggett - Knits and Fits, Sweater Makeover 2010
Cheryl Leone - Draping a Garment to create a pattern - 2010
Ileene Levy - Knitting with Cotton Spandex 2000
Linda MacMillan - Color for Knitters 1999
Linda MacMillan - Introduction to the Knitting Machine 1999
Eileen Montgomery - Crochet Edges, Knit Flowers, Knit Edges, Ruching, Slip Stitch, Tiny Christmas stockings, Bird's Eye/Card 1
Eileen Montgomery - Knitting with Beads 2005
Mary Anne Oger - Knitted Wardrobe
Deb Oswalt - Racking
Ron Parker - Electronic Fiber Connections '94
Diane Pickwo - Shadow or Illusion Knitting 2004
Sigrid Piroch - Folk Textiles of Slovakia '94
Scott Renno - Cleaning and Adjustments Make Your Knitting Machine Sing 2001
Yvonne Rhodes - Afghan Techniques 2003
Yvonne Rhodes - Norwegian Sweaters 2002
Frank Sanders  - Knitting Machine Maintenance/Machine Repairs 2005
Cathie Sanders - Embroidering on Knits
Linda Schuster- Blocking - September 27, 2013
Carol Scott - Knit Weave - September 27, 2013
Carol Scott - Diagonal Knitting - September 27, 2013
Carol Scott - Great Beginnings -September 27, 2013
Charlene Shafer (Knit Knack Shop) Disk to DAK - 2005
Charlene Shafer - Afghans
Tricia Shafer - DesignaKnit - Simple Graphic Conversions 2006
Tricia Shafer - DAK Designing Stitch Patterns-2006
Tricia Shafer - Beginning Stitch Designer -2005
Tricia Shafer - Finishing Basics for All Knitters - 2006
Tricia Shafer - More than 1 Crochet Cast on -2002
Tricia Shafer - DAK - How'd I ever Knit Without Interactive Knitting 2006
Tricia Shafer - DAK - Integrating Stitches with Sweaters 2006
Mariette Smith - Mariette's School of Knitting
Leslye Solomon - Sweater Designing MK 2006
Leslye Solomon - All About Punch Card and Electronic Machines - 2006
Leslye Solomon - Oh, Oh...How to Avoid/Fix Mistakes 2006
Joan Stiles -
Ellen Taylor - Drop Spindle Spinning  2013
Vickie Tylock - You and your Bulky Ribber 2005
Vickie Tylock - Fancy Cut and Knit Necklines 2002
 Carol Wurst - Tuck 2013
Jason Wurst - Fairisle the New Way Interactive with DAK 2004
Uniquely Yours - The Perfect Cardigan and Buttonholes 2001
Mary Zicafoose - Weaver and Mystic: Women in Textiles '94
??? - New Trends in Textiles '94


Thursday, June 5, 2014

Robotic knitting with miniscule capital investment

My imagination has been sparked by reading about the student in Barcelona who used Arduino Galileo card to interface to a knitting machine (I do not recognize the brand from photos, but it says Brother, not any machine I recognize.)

My background of interfacing with industrial controls on the shop floor and conviction that STEM education for girls is a good thing, together with my passion for machine knitting, draws me into this guy's  web.  Literally.

Here is a video: Knitic

Progress and Scrapping Off

Last night I completed the bibliography/references section of the Master's submission with some of the most useful "technique" books and magazines on my shelf.   Then I went back to the unfinished "Abbreviations" section, I piled up all the books, open to the corresponding "Abbreviations" section.  One that I did not find right away in any book as an abbreviation but occurred to me as I was looking at the related information was "S/O" = "Scrap Off".  I can't remember ever seeing this abbreviated this way in a pattern, but who knows?

I guess the next logical step is for me to make sure that all the books I have referenced in my bibliography are in my "library" in Ravelry... Or I could try to get something knitted, instead of being on the computer all day.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

On the way to the Master's

I spent a few hours tonight preparing the Microsoft Word document to accompany my submission of the Knitting Guild of America  Level 1 machine program.   Completed the cover letter, got 75% of the abbreviations done, created a page for each swatch, observations page, and project, and started the references section.  I just realized how late it is, so I probably will NOT install the new-to-me KH-930 tonight.  Tomorrow is another day. 

My order from Amazon came in, I got "More Big Girl Knits" and "Knitting Plus".  I spent some time looking through them, some of the patterns are very attractive and highly knittable. I may want to convert to machine knitting, though!

Monday, June 2, 2014

Anyone read German?

Sounds like a great book, unfortunately I won't be able to read it until it comes out in English.

A new book has been published by Verena Kuni with title “Häkeln + Stricken für Geeks” (“Crochet + knitting for Geeks”) with some mentions to Knitic with text and photos. The link to the book is here: http://www.oreilly.de/catalog/haekelnkgger/

Motor drive set up

Ed helped me complete the stand and motor drive installation tonight, I was having trouble holding the drive unit and using a screwdriver at the same time.  After we FINALLY got it installed, we realized that 2 steps back in the instructions I had managed to pinch the belt unit between the end supports.  So took it back off, loosened the belt, and reinstalled.  It went a LOT easier once the belt was in the proper position.

Step one of getting the Level 1 Masters - read the instructions.  I'll do that now.