July, 2012 Meeting

July saw an informative program put on by Nancy, in which she demonstrated her new and improved software/database program. This updated version is unlike any other knitting software on the market. Not so much a program for designing knits, as it is a program for calculating yarn usage, converting gauges, tracking yarn, content, colors and weights, and what your author could really use, a place for tracking your patterns so that they can be found again, and easily!
 

Nancy demonstrates her software

The pattern tracking capability works in such a way that you don’t have to know exactly which pattern you want, rather what type of item you’re in the mood to make, or simply the color. For example, I want to make a sweater. If I search for sweater, every sweater pattern I’ve entered (and yes, there is a place for photos) will come up. I can narrow it down by size, sex or even color (say I wanted to make a blue sweater). Voila! Up will pop the sweater patterns I’ve entered that match the criteria of my search! Of course, databases are only as good as the information entered into them, so it would behoove us to enter as much information as is possible. This would be very time-consuming and take away from actual knitting time, but oh so worth it down the road, if you’re like me and have hundreds, if not thousands, of patterns to dig through.

Students listening closely to Nancy's presentation

The yarn tracking capability works in much the same way as the pattern tracking. You can search through all the yarns by color, fiber content or weight. Again, as long as you do the requisite updating to the database, you should be able to find the perfect yarn in your stash for your project, and be able to calculate if you have enough (or enough left) for the project at hand.

 

If you’re interested in this software, please contact Nancy. Her contact information is in your membership book (I won’t post that information on the World Wide Web—your author believes in as much computer safety/security as is in her power to provide).
 

 

In addition to the program, there were some fun knits for show and tell:
 

Fun knits! Everyone was excited to discover that the yarn for Cindy J's lime green scarf could be used on a machine, as it was Patons Lace Sequin yarn. The sequins don't jam the machine or break off!

 

Hats galore, made by Joann

A pretty, sparkly poncho/shawl

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

Okay, I’m not going to go into what I did on my summer vacation, but I will say that it made for my absence from our knit-in on June 23, 2012. Still, others did go and reported what happened when Carole Wurst from Rocking Horse Farm was there to present how to use the lace carriage, and especially the garter carriage.

Below are excerpts of what Guild members had to say:

“Carole focused on the garter carriage and the lace carriage, which I thought I knew all about, but there is always something new to learn, and I did.

I brought some patterns with me to try. One being Carole's pattern for the smoke ring scarf and the other for her hat scarfer. I did make the lace smoke ring and decided rather than making a plain hat for the scarfer I would try it in a lace pattern. They both turned out good.” — Donna

“I went to part of it. I got there when she was going over the g-carriage. She gave us some wonderful tips on using it and how to prolong the life of the curly cord. She also gave some info on the lace carriage. I had to leave before the lace carriage part, but for the time I was there the demo was well received and a lot of questions were brought up, which Carole happily answered.”
— Bruce

“The knit in was a full day of sharing, knitting and learning. In the morning Carole presented information on the care and feeding of the Garter Carriage to a receptive audience. We all came away with a new understanding of this interesting addition to the Brother standard machine tools. Those who had GC's wanted to go home and make use of them right away. The afternoon presentation showed us how to use the Brother lace carriage, and what to do when there was a miscount on the number of transfer rows. The knit-in was well attended and we are looking forward to the next one.”– Mary Ann

 

Discussions About Machines and Yarn Often Took Place

Knitting and Shopping Enjoyed By All

Marilyn Winding Yarn

The Room Was Decorated for the 4th

Donna Shows Off Her New Tattoo While Working on her Project

Conversation Over Lunch

If you missed this one, the next knit-in will be held on Saturday, August 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at The Crossings.

Build an Ark?

Well, it has certainly been a very, very wet June so far. It seems all it does is rain and storm on a daily basis. There has been flooding from the north to the south borders of the state. I would say unequivocally, that the drought from last summer is most definitely over!

Wet as it’s been, there’s a place that’s warm and dry. The Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota will hold its next knit-in this Saturday, June 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at The Crossings in Brooklyn Center.

From 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., our guest dealer-speaker will be Carole Wurst from Rocking Horse Farms (click on the link, or find them on Ravelry). She will present and offer hands-on practice of several advanced knitting tools and techniques.  Her focus will be on the G-Carriage and Lace Carriage.  She will happily answer any other questions you have about any other machine knitting topic as well as minor machine adjustments.

As always, the knit-ins are open to members and non-members alike, but best of all they’re free, and in the case of this month, dry!

Happy knitting!

Knitting on a Bulky Machine with Punch Cards

At the May meeting of the Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota, Karen put on a wonderful demonstration of how to knit on a bulky punch card machine. Many of the punch cards that come with a punch card machine will knit the same pattern in different techniques, which in turn gives a different look to the finished object. Be sure to check your manual to see which cards will knit which technique before starting. Some patterns don’t work well, if at all, with some of the techniques, such as tuck stitch, in which two stitches cannot tuck side by side. There must be a plain stitch between them.

The techniques that Karen demonstrated were fair-isle, slip stitch, tuck stitch and thread lace.

Note: Please forgive the video quality. Your author is an administrative assistant by profession, and neither a videographer nor a film editor.

To view the video larger, start the play, then hover your mouse over it, and click on the YouTube in the lower right corner to view it directly on YouTube.

Here are close-up photos of the finished sample:

The Fair-isle Sample

The Slip Stitch Sample

Tuck Stitch Sample

Thread Lace Sample

May, 2012 Knit-in

It was a dark and stormy night…

Okay, it was dark and it was rainy, but it wasn’t stormy, and it was daytime. So, what better way to spend a gloomy day than knitting with friends! On Saturday, May 5th, the Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota held it’s second knit-in of the year, and what a turnout! It was probably the best turnout we’ve had to date.

Knitters hard at work knitting and socializing

Cindy Schmatz of Cindy’s Knitting Room was our guest dealer demonstrator, and she was there to demonstrate different cast-on and bind-off techniques for use with or without a ribber. The one she spent the most time showing us, because it’s tricky, and can be painful (yes, painful) to the knitter if not done correctly was the Broken Toe Cast-on. This cast-on is done with the ribber for those times you want a tighter cast-on edge that doesn’t get “frilly” like the typical circular rib cast-on. It makes a very good looking edge, and is well worth the effort to learn and do.

Mary Ann and Karen working hard on their projects

Bruce hand-manipulates a baby afghan

Cindy talks her friend, Pam (right) into buying a new (to her) machine and becoming a machine knitter. Way to go, Cindy!

Sue concentrates on her work

Knit-in Scheduled!

Hi, folks! The next knit-in is scheduled for tomorrow, May 5, 2012 from 9 to 5 at the Crossings! (see calendar for details.) This is in the big room (not the one we hold our meetings in, but the big room on the other end of the building—I think it’s where they play Bingo).

Cindy Schmatz of Cindy’s Knitting Room will be there demonstrating cast-on and bind-off techniques with or without a ribber. You can’t start or finish a project without these techniques, so this is a perfect opportunity for beginners to come learn from a pro, then try out your newly learned skills!

Visitors are welcome and encouraged to attend, as this event is free for everyone. Hope to see you there!

April Showers

Well, it looks as though somebody finally paid the water bill, as we have been having quite a bit of rain lately. This is a good thing, considering the faucet was turned off beginning in August, but I'd much rather have our precipitation come at regular intervals throughout the year, rather than all at once, or worse, none at all for lengthy periods of time. Let’s hope this means an end to our drought, but unfortunately, it also means the beginning of mosquito season.

April’s meeting had a tremendous turn-out! Thank you to all who came, and especially to our visitors. The meeting began with an ice-breaker, facilitated by Polly, in which we tossed a ball of yarn randomly around the circle of members, all while holding onto the string (to show how we’re all inter-connected), and the member who caught the yarn had to say something “interesting” about themselves. It seems machine knitters like to get out and do a lot of traveling to exotic locales! Who knew? We all do, now! Thanks, Polly!

Mary Ann gave a demonstration on different seaming techniques. It’s been said that hand-knitting is a lot of knitting with very little finishing, and machine knitting is a little knitting with a lot of finishing. That may or may not be true, but one thing is certain: when knitting on a flat-bed machine, there will be seams to sew.

Mary Ann discussed five different seaming techniques:

• Mattress Stitch
• Kitchener Stitch
• Bickford Seam
• Sew As You Go (SAYG)
• Grafting

(Bold and purple letters below are links to video or photo demonstrations of the stitches highlighted.)

Mattress Stitch is probably the most commonly used, and easiest seaming method for knitters to learn. It is the sewing technique used to join the sides of a sweater, front to back, and is accomplished by picking up the “bar” in the middle of the stitch on one side to be sewn, then going across and picking up the corresponding “bar” in the middle of the stitch on the second side.

Kitchener Stitch is the stitch used to join the ends of knitting, rather than the sides. It was supposedly invented by a Lord Kitchener, a British field marshal, who wanted his men to have a more comfortable seam in their socks, rather than the one used at the time, which would rub uncomfortably across the toes. It is the stitch knitters still use to this day to seam the toes of socks, and isn’t as daunting to learn as it “seams” (pun intended). It is easiest to accomplish this seam from the purl side of the knitting, rather than the knit side. One simply picks up a purl bump from one side, goes through the corresponding purl bump on the other, then comes back through the neighboring purl bump on the second side, and back through the original purl bump on the first side. After this one goes through the back of the neighboring stitch to the first bump, and across to the second stitch on the other side, etc.. An easy mnemonic to remember is “Go across the street to visit, then go through the neighbor’s back door. Go home again and go through the neighbor’s back door before crossing the street again.”

The Bickford Seam can be used as an alternative to Mattress Stitch when you want a flat, almost-invisible seam. (Mattress Stitch, while completely invisible from the knit side, is not flat, and is obvious from the purl side.) When executed correctly, it looks identical to the SAYG seam (see below). There are a number of different methods to accomplish this, but the result is the same. On the edges of all knitting one will see a loop and a bump. One would insert the needle into the loop on one side, through the corresponding loop on the other side, then back through the knot above the second loop, and into the knot above the first loop. Loop to loop, knot to knot. It can also be done loop to knot, loop to knot. Do not pull the stitches tightly together, as this deforms the pieces you are trying to seam!

Sew As You Go (SAYG) is a method of joining seams right on the machine. It can be used for a number of different projects, such as joining different color blocks, or for joining the side seams of socks that are made on the flat-bed machine without a ribber, allowing you to make the whole sock in one piece, and without the need to seam. (This is how you would make a sock (or slipper) on the Bond machines, which don’t have ribbers available for them.) It is accomplished by picking up the bottom loop edge stitch from a finished piece and placing it on the first needle to be knit with the first row of the next piece. Knit 2 rows. Pick up the next loop, and hang it on the first needle, knit 2 rows, etc.. The pieces will be joined together automatically. You can also try it by hanging the knots of the finished piece to see if that hides the seam a little better, or experiment with picking up both loops of the stitch, instead of the outer loop.

Grafting on the machine is an easy way for joining Kitchener seams without the need for waste yarn, and minimizes the chance for errors in picking up the wrong stitches. It’s also the easiest method for doing Kitchener Stitch from the knit side, rather than the purl side because you can easily see which stitches to pick up. Finally, it can be used when knitting knit side to knit side, purl side to purl side, or, if desired, knit side to purl side because you only need to keep track of the stitches that are hanging on the needles, rather than digging for the right stitches through waste yarn. Give it a try!