Knit. Tink. Repeat.

You know "knit" but "tink"?  Spell tink backwards.  Knit.  Tink is used to mean "to un-knit", or, to undo the knitting.

Most sweaters are made by knitting the back, the front, the sleeves, then sewing them together.  This is a top-down raglan, meaning all the parts are knit at the same time, then separated at the underarm.  Thus, the neckline needs to be started with the desired size.  I was fairly pleased that I had to tink the neckline area only twice.

Things were going along swimmingly; i.e., no errors, until the contrast stitches on the body of the sweater.  I didn't want to make a sweater that was plain (stockinette stitch).  When I saw the sweater in the mag with garter stitch at the neckline and in the body, I knew that was what I wanted to do.

The beginning of the sweater (the neckline) of my sweater is worked flat, meaning a row is worked, then turned, then a row is worked, and turned, and so on.  The stockinette stitch is made with alternating a row of knit with a row of purl stitches.

Garter (the bumpy one) is made flat by knitting each row.

However, this is switched when working in the round.  After the neckline is made, the end of the row is joined to the beginning.  The work continues going round and round, and not turning the work.

Because the work is not turned, it always looks like the right side but actually every other round is the wrong side.  Thus, stockinette stitch is made by knitting every round.  Garter stitch (the bumpy one) is made by alternating knitting one round with purling one round.

I prefer the knit stitch over the purl stitch, but felt I could do alternate rounds of purl stitches to get the garter stitch pattern.

Sounds good, but, whoops, forgot to alternate rounds and just purled every round---for the full 3 inches!

You can see the difference in appearance of the band on the body versus the band at the neck.  How did I not notice this?  I guess I was paying more attention to the individual stitches, looking for stitch errors.

When I was through with the band is when I noticed it.  Oh, geez.  What I had succeeded in doing is making a reversible stockinette stitch (which is what stockinette stitch looks like on the wrong/back side of knitting).

There are three ways to tink stitches.  1) taking out the stitches one at a time.  This would be over 200 stitches for each round,  with approximately 22 rounds.  Ugh.  2) removing the needles and just pulling out the stitches.  This goes much more quickly but the results can be disastrous, with stitches coming undone where you don't want them to.  After that, the round of stitches must be put back on the needles, correctly. Ugh.  3) having a lifeline in place.

I had never used one but felt this was the time to use one.  Usually lifelines are used for lace patterns and are put in a round (or row) just after working it.  With this situation I had to put it in at the beginning of the 3" garter stitches.

A lifeline is just running a smaller yarn--or crochet thread--through the stitches so they won't come undone.

Lifeline, here I come------

By the way, my dressform does have two arms.  I was too lazy to snap on the other one.

Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting--a Review

The  Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen came out early this year.

My shelves are filled with design, fitting, and sewing books, but this book is on my "Best Ones" list.

 

It so reminds me of a college level sewing textbook from the early 50s I have, where there are photos of exactly how to fit---and on the person.                                                           

 

She covers bodices, including princess seams; sleeves of various types; skirts; and slacks.  The slacks fitting is limited.  Maybe she was limited to x number of pages and was left with only a handful for the slacks fitting.  I suppose it is possible that she will be writing a separate book on slacks(one can only hope). :)                                                             

 

The book is geared toward having a fitter and a client.  Though it is doubtful  that most of us have a fitter, much less clients, the book is extremely helpful.

 

Fitting yourself requires a lot of taking off and putting on muslins, but that would be the way to get the most out of this book.     

 

In some cases she made three muslins per garment, but then she is being paid by the client to get a perfect fit!  In many cases I think one muslin, with adjustments included, should be sufficient.   

 

The book gets a thumbs up--way up--from me.

 

ISBN# 13:978-1-58923-608-0 (pbk)

ISBN# 10: 1-58923-608-4 (soft cover)

 

As usual, click on the pics to view a larger version.

 

                                           

 

 

Tissue Topper

 

 

 

 

 

 

It surprised me a little that some didn't know what a (toilet) tissue topper is.  Why?  Well, I'm usually one of the last to know about something, so I figure that, because I know, then surely the rest of the world knows about it.  LOL.  Not true, apparently.  (regarding my being one of the last as well as anyone else knowing.)

 

I've seen many in my life and there are many shown in crafts magazines.  This topper is a combination of several sources, including me.

 

I like the idea of an extra roll being handy, but not blatantly, so the guests won't wonder where a fresh roll is, should they need it.

 

This one is crocheted, but I have seen some knitted or even done in needlepoint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need to use a washable yarn such as acrylic or cotton, and a hook size of your choice, but I wouldn't suggest a huge one as it will make the topper too "holey".

 

I used a G hook, chain 4, 10 double crochet in 4th chain from hook,, join with a slip stitch in 3rd chain of ch4 (11 double crochets).  Do not turn, but continue in circles.  The next round is 2 dc in each dc.  Continue in rounds increasing one stitch for every 5 sts.  This is fairly standard for making circles.  This isn't a coaster so being completely flat is not critical.

 

Many tissue rolls are double rolls so make certain that the circle is the diameter of the side of the roll.  when that has been achieved, do the sides.  To do that, just make 1 dc in each dc around, join and continue.

 

Fit it on the roll every so often.  Adjust number of stitches if too snug or too loose.

 

There are several ways to finish these: it can be straight down or about an inch or so above the bottom, add a flounce.  This is a basic one and I just added a bow to the top, but crocheted flowers can be added to any part of the topper if desired.

 

Double crochet stitches are usually used, but almost any can be used as long as it is not too open a stitch pattern.

 

 

 

This is one I made many years ago in a little different style.

Click on the pics to see them larger.

I didn't give complete instructions because most of my followers don't crochet, and those who do, will surely be able to figure it out. ;)

White Jeans Machine 4042

This is a temporary post and will probably be taken down in a few days.  These pics are to help a person with her machine, and as I don't have a place online to store photos, I'm putting them here.  Maybe some day......

The first 3 show the tension bar in the up position. 

The next two show the foot and ankle with the needle bar up and down.

The final 4 are with the tension bar down.  Click on pics to make larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Quilt--My Contribution

Several years ago my SiL got the idea for us to make a quilt for my MiL.  It took us two years before it was completed.

 

She would do the actual piecing and quilt; I would do the crossstitching of angels.  She handstitched a heart around each angel.

 

 

 

 

 

 Each thought the other had the harder portion.  LOL.

My MiL had been a quilter for decades; my SiL was quite new at it.  I thought she did a great job!   My MiL was quite emotional when she saw what her present was.

 

 

The quilt was now in a box in the garage of my FiL's house protecting some serving platters.  A few weeks ago a connection to a hose to the clothes washer split and caused a minor flood in the garage.  I was certain that the box had been out of danger but decided to check it.  It was dry, but upon checking the quilt I noticed that it must have gotten some water damage as the colors had run.

 

When my SiL arrived the next day I showed her the quilt so she could see what had happened.  She couldn't see anything wrong.  How could she not?  "The colors didn't run; it's a batik fabric".

 

Of course it is!  Doh.  In my defense, the garage isn't well lit.  Somehow I don't think that is a good enough defense.

Stupid Spammers

Earlier this month at Pattern Review there was a discussion about spammers at Blogger.  I had commented that I had received a few but almost all of them wind up in the Spam folder.

Well, the spammers might have heard me because they got aggressive and sent more spam to me!  I knew comments could be moderated but I really didn't want to do that.  The Pattern Reviewers mentioned that there were various settings which could be utililized.

It wasn't that I was getting dozens of spam comments--and all but one landed in Blogspot's spam folder--but they were annoying me when I opened the related e-mail and saw those comments.  I set comment moderation for posts older than a certain number of days which was only about two posts for me.  I haven't had any since.  (Guess they got tired  of waiting for me to read them in the moderation folder.)

So, what makes these spammers stupid?  Well, they picked posts which were over a year old!  Really?  Come on--thought they were smarter than that!  The point is for people to read the comments and click on the link.  How many read comments that old on a regular basis?

Geez, do we have to educate spammers on how they should do their spamming?

As a test I eliminated the moderation and set it back so anyone could comment.  The spammers returned.   If you don't want any spam messages, not even in your moderation folder, the only way is to not allow any anonymous comments, but you could be keeping away some new readers.

Spam messages, posted or not, are annoying.  There have been many blog posts on the internet about dealing with them.  What is your opinion?