the blue blog archives: leaving on a jetplane

The vests are finished, although it's unclear whether they're a success or not. As I mentioned in the comments yesterday, a few minutes after snapping the photos, S started tugging at his vest and saying "no, no". I let him take it off (sad mommy moment) but am officially attributing his vest-aversion to a "no"-phase that he seems to be going through right now. B, thankfully, maintained his usual fashion disinterestedness. Although I didn't end up having enough knitting time to get sooty mango finished, it is almost half done now. I set it down the front here, having just finished the armhole decreases.

One last thing to report - my father-in-law got the knitting machine up and running! Now that it's bolted to a table and oiled up, I can move the shuttle back and forth smoothly. My brother-in-law is the only person still living who actually knit something with the machine, so I had him help me knit a few rows while he was here to see the boys. Here we've got actual live stitches in the machine! And here's the knitted piece hanging below. Yes, it's a little hole-y, but it is knitting. As the Germans say, 'aller Anfang ist schwer.' And here's a slightly better piece of knitting that I managed with the help of my father-in-law. I'm still not clear on how to cast off from the machine. Maybe I can find some general info on machine knitting that can give me some clues.

posted by alison at 12:14 am | in sooty mango , vacation 2003

Comments

Have a safe trip home. Will you be bringing the knitting machine home in carry-on baggage?

Posted by: Melissa at October 29, 2003 8:11 PM

yes - ditto here - if it's bolted to a table, does that mean you only get to play with it when you are off in the hinterland? or will it be coming home? (p.s. uh-oh he's already in the 'rejection of mom's handmade garments' phase. that can be dangerous!!)

Posted by: carolyn at October 29, 2003 8:57 PM

Ooooooooo, does this mean we'll be seeing you on Sunday? I feel the pain of your sad mom moment. Send Stefan to prep school where he'll be forced to dress up every day. That'll teach him. ;)

Posted by: Kerstin at October 29, 2003 10:57 PM

Gute Heimreise, Alison!
The vests are very cute and the boys look great in them with the white roll-neck-shirts underneath.
Don't worry about Stefans "no's". It might have been to hot for him that very moment. Try again, he will probably have forgotten about his protest. Could you take the knitting-machine home with you ? If you cannot find general instructions, maybe I can try and find some for you in a local knitting-machine store.

Posted by: Inga at October 30, 2003 4:06 AM

So glad the knitting machine is up and running. But oh no! You're leaving? Looks like a few yarn packages will be following the jet plane after a layover in Germany :-(

Have a safe trip!

Posted by: Becky at October 30, 2003 6:11 AM

Hey Alison! Thanks for your live-from-your-vacation posts. Have an easy trip home.

Posted by: claudia at October 30, 2003 7:30 AM

Safe trip home, how cool about the knitting machine. When do you get to go back and play with it some more?

Posted by: Chris at October 30, 2003 9:34 AM

ah, knitwear rejection

looks like it might be time to tack any of these words onto the word sweater--

train! (or variants)
car!
boat!
airplane!

i.e., "Look Benny! Here's your train conductor vest!"

Sometimes it works... :-)

Posted by: Leigh at October 30, 2003 12:40 PM

oop, I meant Stefan--my bad!

Posted by: Leigh at October 30, 2003 1:37 PM

Knitting machine cast off. Could it be like the Bond USM ? To cast off on a Bond you use a special hook and it is done by hand with the hook.

Posted by: Ruth in Houston at October 30, 2003 2:15 PM

I have experienced the "no, that's too itchy or I don't like it," a couple times. Hard mommy moment for sure! But it's fun when they get older and can help pick out what they like.
This is probably a dumb question, but where do you purchase Phildar yarns from? Do you order from other countries? I love their children's patterns!

Posted by: Amber S. at October 31, 2003 10:35 AM

Hi Alison--

you might be able to find some machine knitting books at the library when you get back. There's a sort of funky intro one written by Hazel Pope? or Hazel Carter? which has good basic information. You might also like "Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine KNitters", and Susanna Lewis' book on machine knitted fabric. I also have a knitting machine manual I could xerox for you; it wouldn't be quite accurate but much of the info would be applicable to your machine. There are at least as many ways to cast off by machine as there are by hand. The problem I had most often was getting the bind of too tight.

Glad to hear about your tip for ribbing-- that's exactly what I started doing though I extended the difference to all my purl stitches. This method was confirmed by several expert knitters at SOAR this week so further adjustments are probably a matter of my personal tension. Have a safe trip home!

Posted by: carrie at October 31, 2003 12:13 PM

We're back and the knitting machine is still bolted to a table in the in-laws basement. They want to bring it over when they come next year to visit. So, I've got until then to read up on machine knitting. I was able to read through the original manual, but it wasn't very specific about binding off. It mentioned moving the stitches from one needle to the next and sounded like what you describe, Ruth. Thanks Carrie, for the book tips. I'll see if I can find anything in the library and if not there, I can order a book online. Inga, you have all the best stores by you - a machine knitting store?! Wow! If they know of a good general guide to machine knitting, I would be interested.

Amber, you can find Phildar yarns at www.knitntyme.com or www.breiweb.nl. I know of people who have ordered from both and haven't had any problems (the owners of the Dutch site speak english).

Posted by: alison at October 31, 2003 3:28 PM