. brightmeadowknits: June 2018

Friday, June 15, 2018

Michigan Fiber Festival Workshops

I will be teaching three workshops at Michigan Fiber Festival this year.

The first one is sold out.  It is an introduction to Machine Knitting - Machine Knitting 101, and is a full-day class.

Machine Knitting 101 class in Ray Township, MI in May 2018 (Image credit: Cora Foley)
The other workshops are 3-hour workshops. There is still time to register for these, and the cost goes up after July 1, so the time is now.   Click the links to register on the Michigan Fiber Festival Web site.   Check out other workshops on other fiber topics while you are there!

320 - Machine Knitting With Handspun Friday AM By Brenda Fish

 Description: Have you avoided using handspun with your knitting machine because you were told that knitting machines need fine, evenly spun or acrylic yarns to work? This seminar will demonstrate various creative ways to use handspun yarn with a mid-gauge or bulky knitting machine, using techniques such as hand-manipulation, knit-weave, and surface embellishments like embroidery, couching, or felting.
Skill Level: Intermediate
What Students Need to Bring: Small or remnant balls of handspun yarns for sampling and their knitting machine (optional).
Material Fee $5.00. Covers background yarn for samples.


330 - Hacking The Brother Kh910 Machine Knitting With AYAB Friday PM By Brenda Fish

Description: This lecture-style class surveys status and evolution of the latest developments in open-source hardware and software that use home knitting machines from the 1970’s as a foundation. The second half of the class will be a demonstration of replacing the original electronics in a KH-910 with an AYAB (All Yarns Are Beautiful) circuit board and connection to a laptop. Instructor will demonstrate generating a stitch pattern and knitting out a 2-color photo.
Skill Level: All levels
What Students Need to Bring: Note taking materials
Material Fee: None lecture class.  

Llama wall hanging downloaded to KH-910 using AYAB (Image credit: Cora Foley)


Thursday, June 7, 2018

The Zone to knit

I had lunch with my chair yoga class yesterday.  Among my fellow devotees was an author.  She and I discussed the need to devote a larger block of time to get into "the Zone" for doing your work. 

Well, that certainly happened for me today.  I started to cast on the required stitches for the back of my sweater.  I knit several rows of waste yarn, then changed to the garment yearn.  I knit a row.   Then I put the needles in hold for the second row.  That is when I realized that the tension dial was still set to 4 from my experimentation with various trims, and I needed it to be at 10.   Well, I hadn't really gotten very far yet, and I decided to just start over.

Next, I could not find my 1x1 needle pusher.   I looked everywhere.  I could not find it in the new tool roll I made (photos in an upcoming blog post), or under it.  It wasn't in any of the drawers of my rolling cart.  It wasn't on the floor, in the lid of the knitting machine, on my chair, in a magazine, or anywhere logical that I could see.  I decided to go have lunch. 

After lunch, I returned to my workroom and still did not see the tool.  So, determined, I used my original tools, my fingers, to move the needles into the 1x1 arrangement.  I knitted the first row of waste yarn.  What do you know?  There was my needle pusher tool, lying on the crossbar of the stand, directly underneath where the carriage had been.  Mystery solved.

But, what was wrong with the waste yarn? It was not lying nicely across the needles in working position.   Instead, it had sprung up in the air in several places.  I manually manipulated it back to where it should have been and hung the cast-on comb.  Or at least I tried.  I was having trouble getting all the hooks of the cast-on com to catch in the loops of the waste yarn.  Static?  A disturbance in the force?  I hadn't made the proper offering to the knitting gods before starting?  Three tries later, I decided to flip the cast-on comb over so that the hooks pointed out.  This was successful, in part because I finally realized I wasn't applying enough "drag" to the yarn that I was feeding in as waste yarn, not wanting to take the time to run it through the tension mast.  Another problem solved.  I finally knitted the required 12 rows to complete the garment side and knitted another 8 rows of waste yarn.

I wasn't really into the Zone yet.   I decided to come downstairs and see what was happening on social Media like Facebook and Ravelry.  I fully intended to look up my DropBox information to send to a friend to "carch" some files, but it completely slipped my mind until just now. 

In the meantime, my eye caught some movement outside the window, and I realized that there was a small turtle dragging his shell across my patio.  I ran and got my camera.  I wouldn't have really needed to run, because he hadn't moved far when I returned.  I snapped several pictures and posted them, and then hung around waiting for some action on his part, which turned out to be not forthcoming.

I got distracted looking at a pattern book or magazine  "Pat' s Patterns"  from the 1990s.  I had remembered a technique for enclosing edges that was demonstrated at a seminar, I think by Pat Frette, and I think I bought the book.  So while looking for it, I found this magazine from the other Pat.  It has a cute, easy to make Blouse from cotton yarn with a mock V-neck and cap sleeves formed by the excess fabric of the shoulder..  The sleeves are adjusted by a cord through eyelets at the top of the shoulder.  There are only two pieces, front and back, and no neckline or armhole finishing required.  So this should be an easy, quick garment to finish for wearing this summer.  I am pretty sure I have several cones of cotton yarn around here, although probably not the exact brand she used. I'm not fond of the fairaisle pattern across the bust, though, I'll need to adjust that.   Wonder if I can get gauge? 

So, I'm still not into the Zone, and my sweater back is still waiting for me to go finish it.   I don't know how Nancy Zieman accomplished so much in her series 10-20-30 minutes to sew.  It's not helping that I don't have a deadline.  Maybe tomorrow I need to figure out exactly how much time I have before Fiber Fest rolls around and I have to have my class curriculums completed!

Monday, June 4, 2018

Short-sleeved kimono - Part 3

I've finished the two fronts of the kimono sweater, and am thinking about the binding or trim I will be putting on it.  My original idea was that I would use the shiny, rayon yarn alone in the trim.  So after I knitted the second front, I knitted another swatch to use for the trims.  I tried hanging the bound-off edge with right side facing, knitting a row, turning it with a garter bar, and knitting a 20-row hem (turning on row 10) using a slightly slighter tension because the yarn is a finer yarn.   I did NOT like the result.  The bound-off edge was stiff, but the tighter tension made the edge wavy.  I unraveled it.

I re-hung it with right side facing again, added a second strand of the rayon and used a larger stitch size,  knit 2 rows to compensate for the roll of the fabric, then knit 5 rows and hung the hem.  Again, this did not work. 

I unraveled it again. 

I thought about using a "binding" knit and folded in half.  I tried it, and  didn't like it either.

I am going to have to get out a trim book.  I have several.  I have hardcopies of Mary Ann Oger's Band Practice and 50 Ways to love your Knitter, and I also have two in my Kindle library by Bonnie Triola "Machine Knitted Trims and Edges." One is for single-bed machines, and the other is for double-bed machines.   Probably I have others in my library, but those two (or four, actually) come to mind right away. 

I am thinking that perhaps my next step will be to experiment with an industrial rib, since the fabric of this sweater is heavier than the lighter-weight trim.   That will mean moving to a a different machine, since the 930 I am currently using does not have a ribber installed.  Or, alternatively, installing a ribber on the 930.  Decisions, decisions.