Felted fairaisle tablet case (Part 1)

Since I got a new tablet for Christmas, I am making a tablet case from a felted fairaisle piece.  I think it will look artistic and cozy, and also protect the tablet.  Note that the tablet already has a glass screen protector and a plastic case, this is just extra insurance and hopefully a fashion statement.

 It is a true learning experience.  Let me share the journey with you!

Materials: 

Yarn: 

Yeoman Fifty-fifty (white) and mill end acrylic boucle.

Trim: 

leather scraps from an old sofa

Whoa! You say.  " Why is she trying to felt acrylic?"

ANSWER: I have experience with knitting a cardigan sweater with the 50-50 yarn that hubby threw into the dryer.  I knew it would felt.  I also have experience with yarns in fairaisle felting at different rates, leaving a touchable texture, and wanted to get this effect.  Plus, it was what I had available.

You say "I don't have a sofa to take apart" 

ANSWER: Be creative.  Go to a thrift shop and find an old purse to use.

Thread: Coats and Clark Heavy Duty

Stabilizer: tear-away scraps left over from machine embroidery project

Trim/ Hardware: Magnetic snaps, zipper, chain, D-rings, snaps

TOOLS:

Brother KH-930

Vintage White Sewing machine

PROCESS:

 

Step 1.  Decide how much fabric will be needed.  Sketch basic design, and measure tablet.  Figure on about 25% shrinkage.  I skipped the sketching because I had an idea in my head.  Relying on my memory did cause a problem later.

Step 2. KNIT the fairaisle piece. I used built in stitch pattern 10 from Stitch world, but after knitting a swatch, decided I wanted something bolder and knitted the fabric double- high and double-wide. Bind off.

Step 3. FELT the piece. I used standard laundry detergent in our front-loading washer and dryer.  I put it through three cycles before getting the density I wanted.  My original idea was to sew up the flat piece before felting, and insert a plastic block (made from cutting board) to keep the shape.  I had a suggestion from a fellow knitter just to make a flat piece and cut to size after felting, so this is the approach I chose. It seems to felt better if other laundry, like towels, are included in the load, to provide abrasion.

Step 4. Add the leather trim and sew the basic bag.  Since I've really never sewn leather on my machine before, I should have started with my swatch, but I forged ahead anyway. 

   a. I chose to use the vintage cast-iron machine because I didn't want to break any plastic gears in the newer machines.  They don't make them like they used to!

   b. I made sure to use a leather needle and heavy duty thread.

   c.  I used a long stitch length, the longest the sewing machine would support.

   d.  Trim the leather so the edges are straight.

   e. Sew the trim to bag. Sew with leather side up. Use tear- away stabilizer under the fabric to keep it from stretching.

f. Sew the side seam.  Oops, that was supposed to be a center back seam.  That is why I should have made a sketch first.  I can live with it.

g.  Turn inside out and test the fit. Oops again.  Guess I should have measured the leather. Can't live with this.  Good thing I have a whole sofa's worth of leather.  Actually now I am seeing this together, not sure if I like this leather with this fabric.  The leather has gold undertone and the boucle yarn has more of a silver undertone.

h. back to the drawing board.  

i. Right away I see design flaw.  If the flap is attached to the back, it will need to be cut out and attached separately.  Maybe best to make entire flap out of leather.

j. By fitting the plastic block to my bag, I realized I will need a lining.  The fairisle floats are not entirely fasted down, and are snagging on the corners of the block when I try to insert it.

I will come back later and report on the (hopeful) success or failure of this project.  

Meanwhile, I am working on getting familiar with my circular sock machine. I hade a wonderful lesson from a fellow CSM owner and am starting to be more confident. I am also feeling happy because I have been learning to darn socks.  I started a Pinterest board on mending, darning, and repairing things. More to come.

Newest TKGA Master Machine Knitter Level 1

I submitted my package for level 1 Master Machine Knitter, and yesterday I received it back.  I am thrilled to report that I passed and  I did not have to re-submit anything!  The judge, Uyvonne Bigham, sent along a personal note that mentioned some of our mutual acquaintances in Missouri and Grand Rapids.

She was so nice, and very complimentary on the evaluation.  Succeeding on this project really makes me feel motivated to start knitting more.  There is nothing like positive feedback to build you up and make you happy and ready to change the world.

She even took the time to knit a swatch to illustrate the one criticism she had of my work, which was that I was not hanging the marker stitches for some of my swatches properly.  (I did not mention to her that on one of my swatches I actually FORGOT to hang the stitch markers and so I inserted them after the fact. So, now I am telling the world!)

Here is the hat I submitted:

I'm working on designing a sweater in Garment Designer using a similar yarn that I had spun by Zeilingers from same fleeces, it is DK yarn weight and I am using the bulky machine at tension 5.  I knitted a swatch for it and did not make it so neat and tidy as the work I did for submission, since I am making the swatch simply for measuring the gauge.

 

 

All three sections of this swatch are 40 stitches by 40 rows. First is stockinette, and  I am using the 1x1 punchcard on tuck stitch for the 2nd and 3rd sections.  The middle section is using the tuck stitch at normal setting,  and the section on the right was made using the same punchcard at a double-high setting. I can get more width from the fabric on this setting, even though the fabric is bulkier.

 

Notice on these swatches,  instead of hanging a stitch marker, I left a needle out of work, as I learned when I first started machine knitting. 

 

When designing for a  plus-size person, you must remember that it takes a little more design effort to plan ahead for having the garment sections fit on the available needles of the machine.    There are several ways to accomplish this, and one is to use tuck stitch or slip stitch or a woven design to make the fabric using standard 4 pieces of a sweater, front and back plus 2 sleeves.  All of these techniques result in a larger gauge, with  fewer stitches per inch in the resulting fabric.  This means that you can achieve a wider fabric with fewer needles.

 

Another way to accomplish the end goal of have a garment that fits, is to make more garment pieces. One example is making a cardigan with seam in the back (4 body pieces plus two sleeves) or  using a centered or underarm panel to obtain more width. (6 body pieces plus two sleeves)  

 

Using a fairisle, cable, or other decorative technique to make the additional panel stand out means that the resulting gauge will be different for the panel. In this case, the seaming using mattress stitch will not be quite so easy as if you were to have the same number of stitches on each panel. 

 

The more pattern pieces, the more sewing together must be done.  Sometimes I use a sew-as-you go technique to join the pieces together as they are knitted.  A linker or sewing machine may also be used.  

 

Additional techniques can be used to create a larger garment.  Turning the garment sideways when knitting is often successful for plus sizes because the number of rows is not limited. 

Elizabeth Zimmerman, although a hand-knitter, published a mitered design called "Surprise Jacket" that was translated for machine knitting by Susanna Lewis and published in the short-lived but visually stunning MacKnit magazine.  I think there is also a similar  "origami" jacket in one of the books on my shelf - Is it Kathleen Kinder's book or Susanna Lewis?   Time to do some research, I guess.