Curtain Picture

Here, finally, is the picture of the finished curtain set. It is much more beautiful in person. I apologize for the poor quality- lace is very difficult to photograph.

Still working on the siberian slipper pattern; hope to get it ready before christmas.

Ok, Seriously? DUH!

So I have been pondering what the best way was to do all the increases in the Machine-knit version of the Amazing Siberian Slipper. The original (hand-knit) pattern calls for making seven stitches out of one stitch every 4th row. This is completely impossible to do on a knitting machine without involving waste yarn and grafting and essentially eliminating all the time you saved by knitting on the machine in the first place. So I was experimenting with spacing out the increases, but that wasn’t quite looking right either. Then, it hit me: instead of trying to increase six stitches why not decrease. Duh! If I flip the slipper over and start from the bottom I will eliminate my problem because I can easily decrease seven stitches into one. Yay! Now I just have to make sure that my DAK file for the slip stitch pattern doesn’t need to be changed to allow for knitting the other direction.

Pictures to follow soon, I hope.

Look what I got!

I just got this book in the mail from Tracy. Isn’t it adorable!

Tracy was running a contest on her blog (here) and I won. Thank you, Tracy.

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Next, I’m having a Design-a-Knit issue. (Well, it’s probably more of a me issue.) I am using the Original Pattern Drafting part of DAK 8 to draw out the pattern for the All-in-one Baby Cardigan. I got everything drawn and it looks great. The problem I’m having is that I can’t make the computer tell me to Cast-off the body stitches and then Cast-on for the arms. Here’s a picture:

Where the red arrows are the computer keeps telling me to leave one stitch in work; so it’s making a slit in the “fabric” instead of dividing the work for sleeves. I would appreciate any help anyone can provide. Here’s a link to the file so you can see what I’m talking about. https://www.box.com/s/qhz20yjpihi3wma5v9d8 This is an “.shp” file so it should work with any version of DAK. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or you can email me at emfashions at yahoo dot com.

Machine Knit Amazing Siberian Slippers

So I was reading Carla’s blog the other day and saw the cutest pair of slippers she was knitting. Check it out here: http://knittingisaromanticdrama.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazing-siberian-slippers-for-eden.html

Anyway, the pattern intrigued me, especially the increases in the center. I knew I just had to have the pattern. However, after I purchased the pattern, I couldn’t just knit it as written. Firstly, I hate garter stitch on slippers: it feels terrible on bare feet. Secondly, I knew I wanted to be able to knit them on my knitting machine. So I sat down with yarn and needles and made A slipper (yes, I actually only knit one) in a newborn size just to see if I would still like the pattern in stockinet. Loved it! (sorry no picture of that slipper, prototypes don’t photograph well) Next, I doodled and made modifications until I was satisfied that it could be knit on my machine. The final step was to duplicate the slip stitch pattern for DAK and figure out how to trick the machine into thinking my knitting was wider than it is. (BTW, no big trick there, you just tell the computer the final number of stitches, and set the point cams for the final number of stitches. It doesn’t actually matter how many needles are in work in between.)

So, without further ado, here are the pictures of the final (maybe?) slipper:

First modification I made to this slipper was to knit the sole and back in the contrast color. This wasn’t necessarily a style preference. The pink yarn is thicker than the grey yarn and therefore more suitable for the sole.

If you compare the front of my slipper to the original pattern, you can see that I had to modify the increases quite a bit to get it to work on the machine. (The machine just will not allow you to make 7 stitches out of 1.)

Once I am satisfied that I have all the bugs worked out of my pattern I plan to write the owner of the original pattern and ask for permission to publish my pattern. I don’t want break any copywrite laws by publishing it without consulting them first.

Oh, and if you want the original pattern, checkout Chicken Stitches website here:

http://www.chickenstitches.com/amazing-siberian-slipper-knitting-pdf-pattern

Pictures as Promised

Ok, so I finally finished knitting the other curtain and valance for the spare bedroom. This is a photo of the valance; it was easier to photograph than the curtain.
I still have a few ends to weave in. My lace carriage occasionally drops a stitch; I caught and fixed most of them as I was knitting, but a few slipped through.

This is the first lace pattern I have ever designed. I used DAK 8. I didn’t purchase the lace add-on because I don’t knit lace that often so I actually told the computer I was knitting Fair-Isle and then just used my lace carriage instead. Here is a close-up picture of the design:

You can see it’s just a simple lace design (the lace carriage transfers and knits in the same row). I have yet to design any fashion lace, although I would like to redesign this so the transfers are symmetrical.

I will post pictures of the entire set on the window as soon as we get them hung.