. brightmeadowknits: Inspired

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Inspired

I came back from the 27th annual Monroe Machine Knitting seminar charged up and ready to finish my sweater! (too bad I did not get it finished in time to show it off!)

Here is a sneak peak at the yarn:

 
 
There are two strands of about a 2/24 acrylic.  I purchased this yarn in a plastic bag labeled Mill Ends.  I should know better.  I got the first half of the sweater knitted when I realized that half the bag was balls with two strands, and the other half of the bag was balls of 1-strand yarn. 
 
So today, in addition to the crochet cast-on and the 128 rows of stockinette I completed, I also wound four balls, first re-winding the ball into a cake, and from there, winding the two cakes into a larger cake.  I only hope the gauge does not vary too much from ball to ball.
 
I was having trouble with loops on left side of carriage.  I am guessing it is because I am using the full bed and the end needles which I normally do not get much use from.  Probably I am not pushing evenly across the bed.   So I got to practice the technique of "fast ripping" that was demonstrated at the seminar!
 
There were three sessions each day (Friday and Saturday) with four demonstrators at Monroe, Michigan this year:  Kathryn Doubrley (The Answer lady), Diana Sullivan from Austin. Texas, and a new pair of teachers from New York State, Barb Endler and Susan Adams. I was blessed to see many new-to-me techniques demonstrated, as well as tried-and-true ones. Truly I was blown away by Diana Sullivan's lace scarves, which she demonstrated.  She was kind enough to include instructions for one in the seminar handout.  Susan's explanation of WHY the knitting machine patterns the way it does was also helpful in inspiring future experimenting.
 
Thanks once again to Cathy Reaume and all of her helpers for organizing this.  It is wonderful to have the opportunity to attend seminars in-state.
 
 
Several of us from Northern Macomb, St. Clair, and Northern Oakland counties were talking about organizing a meet-up for later in the fall. Maybe October? 

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