A very busy couple of weeks…

Well the last several weeks around here have been very hectic: I’m still teaching, doing the bookwork for the store at home, watching all 4 children, and I’ve added taking 2 online classes to the list. I know, I must be crazy, right?
Despite all the craziness, I did manage to get some knitting done.
These first two pictures are of a hat I made for my Aunt’s son. My kids call him “Baby Jacob”. He’s a little over a year old and is nearly as big as my DeeDee. So, she got to be my dressmaker’s dummy, so-to-speak.

---

These next two pictures are of a pair of mittens I knitted for “Baby Jacob”. DeeDee loves to have her picture taken; can you tell?

My new Etsy store

After months of work fitting knitting in in between babies, school and work, I have finally managed to open my Etsy store. If you have time swing by and check it out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheKnittedStork

More on Marilyn and How to fix a scarf gone awry

A couple weeks ago I wrote about my experiences with a certain project that I stayed up waay too late knitting. I am proud to say that I finally got it finished. Yay, me! The project, oddly enough, was a knitted top for a cushion on the top of a hope chest. (Ah, the things my husband volunteers me for!) A gentleman my husband works with wanted a custom top for a hope chest he was making for his daughter. Apparently her two favorite things are giraffes and Marilyn Monroe and her favorite color is purple; from this the following project was born:
1. I knitted the background piece. .

2. Next I knitted the “Marilyn” insert for the top. (I wanted to do this all using DAK, but as discussed in my last post my carriage is acting up)
3. I sewed around my insert using my sewing machine and turned under and hand-sewed the raw edges.

4. I hand-sewed the insert piece to the background piece.

The finished piece: Ta Da!

---

Ok, I don’t have time now to narrate these pictures, but I’ll come back later and finish this post.

1. Scarf right off the machine, with the back seam sewn

2. My totally botched embroidery job.

3. Sew a line of stitches above the embroidery.

4. Cut off the bottom of the scarf about 1/4" from the stitching

5. Repeat the sewing and cutting for the other end of the scarf.

6. Latch fringe onto both ends of scarf, being sure to insert the latch tool on the inside of the stitching.

7. On the finished scarf you can't even tell it was shortened. The fringe covers the raw edge.

DAK 8 and My Computer

Just got off the phone with Irene at Knitcraft. I'm having a problem with my carriage and DesignAKnit. I keep getting an error message when I knit Fair Isle or Jacquard that my carriage is going the wrong way when it isn't. Strangely, I don't get the error when I knit tuck or slip stitch. At any rate after much deliberation and discussion we have deduced that I must have a loose wire in my carriage. Yay! What fun! I get to take my carriage apart now and see if I can find the problem. I'm hoping it's obvious because I'd like to fix this myself and not have to send the carriage off to have it fixed.

Wish me luck!

This is why I shouldn’t knit when I’m tired:

573 Rows and I didn’t make sure my purple yarn was selected so the entire thing fell off into my lap. That’s what I get for knitting til 1:00 AM.

Machine Knitting Words of Wisdom

I'm getting ready to go to bed after arguing with my machine most of the night (my machine and DAK 8 are fighting each other at the moment) so I thought I'd quickly share some of the things I've discovered that make my knitting go more smoothly.

1. Don't knit while you're distracted. Put the kids to bed or send them to Grandma's; it's impossibe to knit when you have a 2 yr old and a 3 yr old clamoring for your attention.
2. Always check your machine settings EVERY TIME you sit down to knit. If your house is like mine, occassionally little gremlins come by and push buttons and flip switches. Just because you left your ribber on half-pitch and your machine set to tuck doesn't necessarily mean they will still be that way when you sit back down. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and check your machine before you knit.
3. Don't knit when you're tired. I find I make most of my mistakes when I'm sleepy: my brain just can't seem to focus on what I'm doing.
4. Don't get in a hurry. In my experience things are way more likely to go catastrophically wrong if you're rushing to finish a project. I've had carriage jams, incorrect patterning, bent needles, dropped stitches, and occassionally had my entire project fall off into my lap, all because I was in a hurry. Take my advice: don't rush!

Now that I've blathered on and on I think I'll go to sleep. (please excuse any misspellings and gramatical errors: I am half-asleep as I'm writing this.)