My Knitting Machines And Me

More Socks

susyranner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:21:44 +0000

Still not much knitting going on around here. All I’ve done is a few more socks from leftovers. I found a blanket that I knitted for Floss from oddments quite awhile ago. As Floss is sadly no longer with us I decided to unpick the blanket and use the little balls of wool for the socks. Some of the wool isn’t in very good condition (Floss was a blanket digger!) but most of it is re-usable so I’ll probably get a few more socks out of it.

As I’ve said before, I’m not bothered about having matching pairs so I’ll just keep on knitting them until I’ve run out of wool.

Tonight I’m going to make a start on unpicking some of the socks whose toes have been darned, re-darned and re-darned again. I’ll use the good wool to make even more socks. Then I suppose I really should sew the back ankle seams up so that I can actually wear them – it would help, wouldn’t it?

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Socks

susyranner — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:12:38 +0000

I haven’t done much knitting lately, I’m suffering from a lack of inspiration.

I’ve been using up what’s left of the wool from the mix and match jumper(s) by making socks. I started off with a yellow pair, then a green and white pair. Then I decided just to knit all the wool up into socks without bothering if they matched or not. I knitted three navy ones, all different shades though it doesn’t show in the photo.

It doesn’t matter if I wear odd socks, nobody can see them when I’m wearing them so why do they need to match? I will just keep on knitting up all the odd balls and as long as they all come out more ot less the same size they’ll be alright – I’m not proud!

Once they’re all sewn up and ready to wear I’m going to renovate all the socks in my sock drawer. Most of them have been darned over the previous darns. I’ll re-knit them all but discard the parts of them that are worn out. I’ll get less pairs of socks out of them but at least the toes won’t all be darned.

That’s the plan anyway.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Merry Christmas To You All

susyranner — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:42:16 +0000

I have no Christmas knitting to show you so instead I’ll share a few seasonal pages from an old Modern Knitting magazine.

How about a few beauty gifts to hang on the tree?

I would have thought that the women’s perfumes would have cost the most but it’s the Busy Man’s Bar that comes out at the most expensive at a whopping twenty three shillings and sixpence. Don’t ask me how much that would be in today’s money as I have no idea. I don’t know much about pre-decimalisation money either – I’m much too young, I was only about six or seven when we changed to ‘new pence’.

How about some Christmas recipes?

So is anyone going to have a go at making the snowman cake? What a faff on! I think I’ll give that one a miss, although it would look cute sitting on the table on Christmas day.

Finally, some knitting. Here’s the pattern for the dress that’s shown on the front cover of the magazine.

If you don’t want to knit the dress, just have a read of your stars for December 1958 and see if they are relevant for you in 2011.

Mine says “far too much dislocation of plans, nothing turns out as expected, yet this month has plenty of sparkling moments. Health is good, so are your finances.”

Can’t say it’s all that relevant for me, I had a stinking cold last week and as for my finances the less said the better. Although ‘Nothing turns out as expected’ – that could be a description of my knitting.

I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

Using The Knitmaster Seam Maker

susyranner — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:38:42 +0000

About three years ago I managed to buy a Knitmaster Seam Maker from ebay. It is a machine that was made in the early 1960s for sewing up your knitting and works like a hand cranked sewing machine.

The needle is just like a knitting machine needle except the hook is a V shape rather than a U shape. Unfortunately the needle on my machine was broken so I used a normal knitting machine needle which I cut down to the right length using the broken needle as a guide.

I managed to get it working but kept breaking needles and the work wouldn’t feed properly so in the end I just put it away and forgot about it.

A few weeks ago I got it out again and started fiddling about with it, eventually getting it to work more or less as it should.

I increased the pressure on the presser foot by tightening the screw nearly as far as it would go. Then I reduced the stitch size which stopped the work from puckering.

It’s not perfect (having the wrong needle doesn’t help) but it’s usable.

You might wonder why I bothered messing about getting this machine to work when I’ve got a Hague Linker. Well, I enjoy the challenge and I just like using old machines.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

Knitting A Single Motif On The SK280

susyranner — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:54:34 +0000

I’ve been meaning to make a video showing how to knit a single motif for a while now so when a question was posted on the message board asking about it I decided to stop putting it off and just get on and do it.

Here’s the finished motif:

And here’s what the back looks like after latching up those long floats:

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Buttons, Buttons And More Buttons

susyranner — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:56:06 +0000

I spent this afternoon sewing buttons onto the finished panels of the mix and match jumper. 96 of them. I will probably have nightmares tonight about buttons.

I still have some more to knit, just some lower sleeves and a couple of lower panels for the main body then it will be completely finished. Apart from sewing on the rest of the buttons.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

That Jumper Again

susyranner — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:00:57 +0000

I finally started sewing buttons onto some of the finished pieces of the jumper which gave me a chance to find out if it was going to work the way I’d planned it. I am pleased with the way it’s turned out so I don’t think I’ve been wasting my time knitting all the different panels.

I wish I’d had enough of the light blue wool to make the lower sleeves but unfortunately I ran out.

In my original plan there was going to be some patterned panels but I don’t think that’s going to happen now. There may be one or two stripey panels but to be honest I think the plain ones look alright.

I still have some more knitting and sewing up to do but at least now I can start wearing the jumper at long last. I realise it won’t be to everyone’s taste and it certainly won’t set the fashion world on fire but as it’s me who will be wearing it I’m not bothered.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Mix And Match Jumper Progress

susyranner — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:50:33 +0000

I’ve knitted a few more parts for the jumper and have a few more to go. I say ‘jumper’ but it should really be ‘jumpers’ as so far there are four different jumper tops.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

It hasn’t worked out exactly as I had planned but I have pinned it together in different combinations and tried it on and it seems to be OK. I’ll carry on knitting until I’ve used up most of the wool then I’ll have to start sewing all the buttons on. I bought a job lot of clear buttons off ebay quite cheaply. Unfortunately my idea of clear and the seller’s idea of clear do not match. I thought clear meant see-through. Apparently the seller thought clear meant white opaque which is what most of the 300+ buttons turned out to be. Not to worry, I’ll still use them.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Mix And Match Jumper (susyranner.wordpress.com)
Mix And Max Jumper Part 2 (susyranner.wordpress.com)
Mix And Match Jumper Part 3 (susyranner.wordpress.com)

Knitting For Hens

susyranner — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:18:42 +0000

I thought I’d share this from today’s Northern Echo:

(Click to enlarge)

Although the reason for knitting the jumpers is quite sad, I posted this just for the look on the hen’s face.

I haven’t seen the pattern that the lady used but I’m sure that it could be converted for machines. I don’t think I’ll be knitting any hen jumpers though.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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Call For Knitted Sweaters For Penguins Affected by Oil Spill (craftzine.com)

Mix And Match Jumper Part 3

susyranner — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:16:43 +0000

I think I might have finally got this jumper figured out. I tried doing tuck stitch bands instead of ribbing but it didn’t look right so I tried the ribbing again only this time I did it at a looser tension so it wouldn’t pull in as much. I also made the panels a different size so that where they join is more or less at the waistline so if it does pull in a little it will look as if it’s supposed to be shaped.

Here’s how it looks so far:

I think it looks much better than before. I still need to knit some more panels in different colours so I can get a better idea if it will work how I want it to or not. Then there’ll be all the buttons to sew on – I’m really looking forward to that part.

Talk to you later,

Susan.

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My Knitting Machines And Me

More Socks

Socks

Merry Christmas To You All

Using The Knitmaster Seam Maker

Knitting A Single Motif On The SK280

Buttons, Buttons And More Buttons

That Jumper Again

Mix And Match Jumper Progress

Related articles

Knitting For Hens

Related articles

Mix And Match Jumper Part 3