Basic knitting

A bit of a break from vintage pattern projects and indeed, in a way, from sewing in general. Just in case you may have wondered why I didn't seem as productive as usual for the past two week, this is the reason. I've been working on this little cardigan. 

I made it on my knitting machine using two strands of very thin blue yarn and one of thin beige. The three together still make for such fine knitting that it would take me ages to do it by hand (I can knit by hand but neither well nor fast). 

It is a pretty basic garment, maybe the kind of thing that might make you wonder why I would bother making it myself. Well, I did because I can. And because I've been using my sporty cardigans a lot lately and wondered if I should add a knitted one to the collection.  

Long raglan sleeves, a back bodice, a front bodice in two halves connected by a zipper and fairly high collar. That's it. Not much different from lots of little cardigans out there. I'm still proud of it though. I made this pattern myself. Calculated how many stitches in how many rows would be needed. I've done this a couple of times before but I'm still pleased when it works out. 

The knitting itself went pretty quickly. It's the sewing together that usually seems to take forever but even that was OK this time. The thing that took a lot more time than expected was putting in the zipper. I had knitted a few stitches extra at the center fronts to sew the zipper to. I had decided to do that using the sewing machine. And I did. But unfortunately, I had stitched so close to the zipper teeth that the zipper didn't work. It would have been fine for a normal fabric but not for the more loose structure of knit work.

So, I had to unpick the entire zipper which was not a nice thing to do at all. I re-stitched it a bit further away from the teeth and then sewed the knitted seam allowance to the back of the front bodice pieces by hand. And then, I prickstitched the edges of the zipper tape to the seam allowance. Even after that, I did not end up with a finish on the zipper I would have been happy with in my sewing. And yet, I don't think I mind. 

A new sweater

Last week, when my sewing machine had its little problem, I decided to try and knit something. On the knitting machine, of course.

I looked at some of my vintage machine knitting patterns but I always struggle to match patterns to the gauge I can knit to with the yarns I have. In the end, I decided to try and make a pattern myself for a very simple little sweater.

I used two of the really thin yarns knitted together: a red one and an olive/beige one with slightly irregular thickness and a bit of shine.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. I made a couple of swatches to decide on the perfect settings for this combination of yarn and the result is light and soft but not too loose. I used the right swatch for my calculations for the pattern. I tried that before, last year, but I guess that time I had over-blocked the swatch. The striped sweater ended up a bit more snug than intended and a bit shorter too.

I did very little blocking on the swatches this time and the resulting sweater is very close to the measurements I wanted (2 cm shorter, to be honest. The width is spot on).  

The design is quite simple: straight body pieces with the flat double edges which are easy to make on a single bed knitting machine. A dropped shoulder and a straight neckline which mean the pattern doesn't require any reduction of stitches except at the shoulders. And tapered, three quarter length sleeves.

The cable-like detail which decorates the front is actually made using re-hung stitches. It's easier than making real cables and you don't need rows of purl stitching along them but because it is made by pulling the material in, that piece of the knit-work becomes a lot less stretchy.   

I'll try to make an illustration about how this works next time I use it.

In the mean time, I still haven't decided on a Lutterloh pattern and I'm working on a top for my grandmother. It should be a fairly simple jersey blouse using a block I made for her last year. However, the design and fabric she picked don't really work that well together and I'll have to unpick the collar because I made the top of the facing too narrow. I'll show it later.

knitwork result!

Ok, it took me a while to finish this sweater. I had all the knitting finished before my holiday but there were a lot of pieces to sew together. And then, there were the usual issues with E being busy and the weather turning first too warm for wool and then so rainy that it got dark early.

But, here we are. Knitted from a pattern from a Passap breigids booklet from the 1950's (which I wrote about here). These knitting books don't contain sizing charts but in other Dutch magazines from the same era, I'm between sizes 38 and 40. This pattern was in 40, 42 and 44, so I made the size 40.
And by the look of it, my guess about the size was spot on.

I knitted the body in sand coloured wool and the facings in ocher yellow. I had used the yellow yarn to set up the stitches and I really liked how the two looked together, so I used a contrast colour, as the pattern  describes.
And in the end, I rather like the bow.

One annoying thing though: Judging from the photograph in the booklet, you'd expect the sweater to be shaped at the waist... In fact, it isn't. If you follow the pattern, you start at the waistband and then add stitches every few rows. It's only getting wider. 

I consider sewing some elastic at the back to pull in the waist but I'm not sure yet. I think I'll see how the top works in normal wear first.

Vintage sweater in progress

I've finished knitting the pieces for this sweater from my new vintage patterns. It's sleeveless so the main pieces are simple enough: just front and back. And I've finally mastered the trick for making a scooped neckline on the knitting machine, so that went well. It was interesting to find out that this top is knitted with a bust dart. I've never seen that in a knitting pattern before (not that I'm an expert on knitting patterns, of course).
What surprised me is the number of detail and finishing pieces. I expected a collar piece, but facings?

Have you ever seen a knitting pattern with facings? 

The original pattern is described for grey and white yarn, with the white used for the facings, one side of the bow (which is also a double layer) and inside collar. I chose this mixed, sand coloured yarn because it was the only thing in my stash that seemed to have the right gauge. I used the ocher to set up for the bottom edges and I really liked how the two colours looked together. So, even though yellow is not a good colour for me, I decided to use it for the 'white' pieces.
For the sleeve bands, you were supposed to pick up stitches but I couldn't make that work. This is a pattern for a thin yarn, so the stitches are close together. And the needles on a knitting machine are in a fixed position. Picking up those stitches at the armholes would pull them all out of alignment. So, I knitted separate bands and sewed them on. 

You are actually supposed to have the purl side showing on all the detail pieces but I think I won't do that. 
As you can see, the sleeve bands and facings are on. Now, I only have the collar, bow and sides to go... I hope all the pieces will fit.

Vintage (machine) knitting (again)

First of all, thank you all so much for your kind comments on my previous post. Those mean a lot to me.
For now, I'm working on to finish those final weeks and after that, I have a holiday planned. After that week away, I hope to be ready for a fresh start. 
I'll let you know when there is news.

For now, I thought I'd return to regular posting. I've done some sewing but I don't have any pictures yet.
Instead, I thought I'd share a new vintage find of mine which I'm quite excited about: 

These little knitting magazines. When I found them on Marktplaats (the Dutch Ebay offshoot), I recognized the name "Passap". That's a brand of knitting machines. So, I emailed the seller to ask if that was what those magazines were for and she wrote back that they were. Obviously, I then bought them straight away.

They are small, thin booklets which were published jointly by Passap and yarn manufacturer "Scheepjeswol". They were real magazines though, 11 were published each year and you could subscribe to them. The text suggests a clear attempt to create a community of Passap knitters through these (which is really interesting because that's exactly what crafting websites, whether or not they are connected to brands, are doing today). There is regular mention of meetings and contests and many magazines contain a feature on how to make special stitches, many of which are suggested by readers.
The ones I bought are from 1955 to 1960.

At first, I was a bit disappointed about the selection of patterns. The members of the Passap knitting community were certainly knitting for the whole family. 

There are lots of children's patterns. 

And the men are not forgotten either. In fact, there are, on average, only one or two ladies' patterns per magazine.

However, I've got over 50 magazines and (after the mysterious breast growth of 12/13) I now fit into normal Dutch 1950's and 60's ladies' sizes. 
And there is some great stuff in there. Oh, and how great is it that they use photographs to show each and every design?

Of course, my knitting machine is a "Brother" not a "Passap". From what I've seen in vintage machines, it looks like the Passap had some special features which make it work differently from other brands and of course you need a double bed/ribber for many patterns. However, I think I'm 'experienced' enough to recognize those issues (and there are some 'single bed' patterns) and work around them. 
It will be nice to work with patterns designed for the knitting machine. Of course you can use normal patterns, but it can take quite a bit of 'translating'. Some things which are easy when knitting by hand, are difficult on a machine and vice versa. Whatever the differences between the brands, these patterns were made with the logic of machine knitting in mind.

I think it will be best to start fairly simple. I've picked this lovely top. It doesn't have ribbed edges so it can all be knitted on my machine and I should be able to wear it straight away (except on really warm days of course). I may leave the bow off though.

A simple thing

All my sewing/crafting time this past week was spent on this rather modest project: It's an infinity scarf.

It took that long because I kind of made the fabric. Rather than using jersey, I knitted using the full width of my knitting machine and some of the very thin yarns in my stash. Because I bought some cones of yarn before I really knew anything about machine knitting, I've got quite a few of this super thin stuff. I made a loop scarf before, sewing three strands together which worked well. This time, I decided to try and see if it was even possible to knit properly with a single strand (I've been kind of worried those cones were actually some kind of weaving thread).
As it turns out, it is possible to knit this stuff although I would like the knitting to be a bit more dense and stable for clothing. For a scarf, this loosely knitted 'fabric' is just fine.

My decision to try the thin yarn allowed me to knit with some of the brightest colours in my yarn stash. I'm quite happy with the combination of the turquoise and red. 
Even with the speed of machine knitting (and no shaping to worry about), it took me a while finish this thing. There are 1320 rows of knitting in that scarf...

Soon, I'll be back to sewing and to experimenting with knitting cables.

Cables

Recently, I've bought two books which will, hopefully, help me improve my skills in machine knitting. These two:

 

The first one is a new book which is all about how you can make a huge variety of stitches on the knitting machine without the need for fancy extra tools. Different stitches are arranged in chapters according to sort and clearly explained with photographs and work schematics. The text is also clear about whether or not you need a double bed machine for a certain kind of pattern (really useful for me because I only have a single bed machine)

The second book is no longer in print but used ones are easily available. The title suggested it's what I want and there was a rather informative review about it as well, so I decided to try it.  

So far, I've looked through both books and each seems promising in its own way. I was thinking it might be a good idea to sit down and read them properly before starting on anything, but I couldn't control myself.

You see, ever since I first tried knitting (hand knitting, a few years ago), I've wanted to make something with cables. As I've explained before, hand knitting wasn't my kind of thing.

When I bought the knitting machine and studied its manual, I was inclined to believe that knitting cables required some kind of implement not included in this particular set. Until I found a book about knitting machine stitches in the library. In it, there was the suggestion that you could knit cables on a knitting machine by manipulating the stitches by hand using the two and three eye tools. I tried using that book and got some result, but the instructions were rather sketchy so the real method still wasn't clear to me.

Now, using my new book (in which cables are chapter four or five), I've started to make swatches systematically.

These are not cables. They are what the book calls 'rehung stitches'. Basically you knit for a number of rows, then pick up certain stitches several rows down and put them back on the needles. Either on the needle they came from or on one to the side of it. You can get pretty cool effects that way but unfortunately, it pulls in your knit work lengthwise and compromises its vertical stretch. So, it's not an effect which will work well in any kind of project.

These are my cable swatches:

Rope cables: single, parallel and opposing.

And serpentine cables: single, parallel and opposing. 

On my single bed machine, I have to leave the stitches right next to the cables un-knitted. I can purl them by hand later. On the swatches, I didn't feel like doing that everywhere, so you can only see the actual effect of a cable in the fabric on the single rope cable and the opposing serpentine one.

I want to try some less standard kinds of cables next and then try and design a very simple sweater or cardigan using several varieties of them... Wish me luck!

My holiday sweater...

Wow, how time can fly…
A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing the first on-blogging-vacation-for-the-holidays notifications and year-round-up posts on other blogs. And I thought there was no need for me to make either of those. Obviously, I would first finish my sweater, somewhere before Christmas, post about it and then get on to other stuff… Famous last words…

I mentioned before (previous post) how much work went into making those fair isle sections. Fortunately, when I was about half-way through, I got the hang of it. Stupid mistakes (which means in this case: forgetting to push a button before knitting a certain row) became rare and I could usually correct them. I also learned which steps in this design came with a risk of dropping stitches and managed to prevent some of those.
After that, I finished the plain knit front, back and sleeves in a single evening. I used the 'fake rib' from the manual for the bottom band and sleeve cuffs. 
At that point, just before Christmas, I thought I'd finish this thing rather quickly.
All I had left to knit was the collar, which starts with knit 2 purl 1 and then puts all the knit stitches together to form a knit 1 purl 1 rib for the top bit. Because I was a bit worried about the fake rib and the collar would be rather eye-catching, I decided to do that in a proper rib stitch, which can be made on my single bed machine by knitting the knit stitches by machine and then, by hand using a separate machine needle, creating the purl stitches in the spaces you've left open. But before I could even get to that, I already hit a snag: To combine two stitches into one over the entire length of the work, I had to take all of them off the machine, onto a normal knitting needle and then put them back on with two stitches on one needle (the purl-stitches-to-be are needles in 'rest' position and open spaces in the knit work at this point). And I only happened to have one set of knitting needles in my house: size 5, way too thick.
Fortunately, my parents were coming over on Christmas Day, so I called them and asked my mother for some thin ones. She brought me a set of size two needles which she doesn't need again any time soon.

Then, of course, social obligations took over and then a minor cold. And that making-real-rib-stitch-by-hand thing turned out to be very well possible, but really time-consuming. And when it was finally done, the resulting piece of knitted material was way too small. I had knitted the knit stitches on a higher tension than the rest of the sweater, like I was told to do for the fake rib. It looks like I should have used the same tension, or a slightly lower one. I might have been able to attach the finished thing to the yoke but it would never have fitted over my head. 
So, after hours and hours of hand-purling, it was back to the drawing board, or, in this case, the knitting machine. 
I had, by then, sewn up the sleeves to get a better look at that fake rib and I wasn't disappointed. The size was certainly good. So, I would have to try and make the collar in that way. 
It worked, even though the part I put on the inside (for fake rib, you knit just the knit stitches you need for the rib, for double the amount of rows and then you hang to first stitches on the last ones, doubling the whole thing), where I had to go from knit 1 purl 1 to knit 2 purl 1 isn't pretty. I had to pull on the work to get that done and add quite a lot of stitches in the middle so there are holes. But they are on the inside…

After that, A LOT of time went into sewing this thing together. All those yoke pieces had to be matched up with great care and sewing the yoke to the body pieces was no walk in the park either. Oh, and attaching the collar was rather fiddly as well.

I finally finished the sweater on 1 January, but at such a time that there wasn't enough daylight left to take pictures. On 2 January, I had to go to work, so really, today was the first opportunity I had to take pictures. Fortunately, E was willing to help me with that.

The sweater turned out a bit wider in the body than I had expected ( based on the pictures with the pattern. My stitch swatch was a good match, so this should be how it's supposed to fit) but fits well. I was a little worried about the less stretchy horizontal seam where the body and sleeve pieces are connected to the yoke but even though they are there, they aren't that obvious after pressing and they don't bother me when wearing the sweater. It's actually really comfortable and, because of that thin yarn, not too warm either.
And I'm really, really pleased with my fair isle design for that yoke.
I'm not sure how much use it would be to anyone, but if you like, I could share it.

Right now, I think it's time to go back to sewing for while, even though I'm already thinking about other knitting projects. I might try and do a round-up post for 2013 after all, but really, if I don't get to that in the next week, it's not going to happen.

Happy 2014 everyone!

More knitting

Yes, I'm still knitting. Cheating on my sewing… Should I feel bad about that?

There are some peculiarities about knitting machines that I didn't discuss yet: 

First and most importantly, the normal knitting action, which I showed you in the previous post, results in flat knit work. The kind for which you would need to knit one row and purl the next when knitting by hand. Which is really convenient because that's the stitch you need most often. What's less convenient is that alteration between knitting and purling isn't really possible on a single bed machine (yes, there should be a trick which somehow involves turn stitches, but I don't quite understand that yet).
So, you can't make a regular rib or any of the many effect stitches using knit/purl variation. 
My manual shows a kind of mock-rib which I want to try, but haven't tried yet. What is odd though, is the fact that my 1957 Libelle magazines include the occasional pattern designed especially for knitting machines and those often have ribbed bands. Could those simple machines back then do something mine can't? Was there a trick everyone knew so they didn't need to explain it? Or were you supposed to knit those bits by hand? I just don't know.

Another issue is gauge. You can't just knit any thickness of yarn with any knitting machine. And the terms used for the size of the yarn is different too. My manual just speaks of one, two and three strands in the yarn… Apparently it means I can knit with yarn for normal needle sizes (European ones) 1 to 5. Or 2 to 7, depending on your source. I tried super thin yarn and it works, but the resulting fabric is so thin it's transparent. I haven't dared to try my thickest yarn yet (which should be for about a 7 needle) because I'm afraid it might damage the needles.
Anyway, there are knitting machines especially for bulkier yarns. And I'm sure there may also be some with their needles closer together so you can knit that superfine yarn into something non-transparant. Which really would be like making your own jersey fabric.
I'm happy with the gauge on my machine. As I've mentioned before, garments from bulky yarn may look nice but for me, they're just to warm for regular wear.

And about yarn, you really have to use yarn on cones for a knitting machine. You can get a wool winder and put yarn from balls on cones but you have to use cones when knitting. Because you knit a row at a time, the yarn has to be pulled up quite quickly. With a cone, which is just a giant spool, that's no problem. A ball of wool would get all tangled up.

And then we come to tho issue of patterns. 
Patterns especially for knitting machines are few and far between. I googled for them, both in Dutch and in English, and in both cases I was taken to Ebay listings for knitting machines and to normal knitting patterns on the first page. 

Of course, you can use some normal knitting patterns. I made my cardigan using one of those. But then, you have to deal with the knit/purl issue. And the fact that it's kind of impossible to measure your work while it's one the machine. And occasionally, you'll have to re-think to order of construction (like whether to knit from the top down or from the bottom up).
Oh, and a lot of modern knitting patterns are for (fairly) bulky yarns, so they may be no good on a regular knitting machine. Luckily, I like vintage patterns. 

Considering the pattern-situation, I was really surprised to find that, in 1957, Libelle printed a pattern for knitting machines in each issue (and this was a weekly magazine…). Knitting machines must have been really popular back then.
I have most of the issues from that year and there are a few project I like.

Right now, I'm working on this one, but with a difference.

You see, I like the sort of semi-fitted shape with the round yoke. They cleverly constructed the yoke from 10 separate pieces, negating both the need for more needles than there are on most machines and the tedious task of endlessly having to decrease stitches in the middle of your work.
But I don't like how blocky the yoke looks in that contrast colour and with that check pattern… 
In fact, I thought this might be a good opportunity to try out some of my machine's special effect stitches.

It will do several of those. That's what the buttons and handle are for.

Use them with one strand of yarn and the "N" setting and you get these kind of lacey things…

And switch to "MC" and introduce a second strand of yarn and you can do fair isle!

After these successful swatches, I decided to make a fair isle yoke. And with those small pieces, I'd limit the risk of messing it all up at the last moment. You know, by dropping a stitch in the second-to-last row, or something like that (you can pick up dropped stitches, but if they unravel far down, it gets difficult and in fair isle it's really hard because the extra hreads at the back make things really confusing).

I knew how many stitches and how many rows went into those yoke pieces, so I cut those on paper. I also knew that my machine has eight buttons which means it can only control the needles in sets of eight. 

When I was happy with the design, I drew out a chart, to tell my self when to press which buttons.

The good news is, it works. The bad news is it takes a lot of attention and effort. Forget to change one setting and you have to unravel a row, lose tension on one thread and stitches fall off. Drop a stitch and you can't put it back on because you can't see whether loose threads at the back are just that, or belong to the stitch.
In flat knitting, I could have an entire back or sleeve done in two hours. These things take that long each. If they work out at all. And they never do in the evening. Even if I think I'm not tired, apparently I'm too tired for fair isle knitting my own design.
Four down, six more to go...

The knitting machine - 2

In this post, I'll try to show you how the knitting machine works.
I'd like to say, though, that if you consider buying a knitting machine, you should make sure you either get one which comes with its manual or you can get instruction on how to use it. If possible both.
I started out with just the manual and I have to say that most things I tried based on that went wrong about twenty times before they started to go right. Sometimes that was because I didn't properly understand the lingo yet, sometimes because there is only so much anyone can show in text and pictures, sometimes because the instruction were a bit sparse and often because I had yet to develop a feel for this thing.
It was a bit of a struggle and I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to figure it out without the manual.

When, on to knitting. Let's assume the machine is safely installed on a table and the sled with the thread guide are in place, like I showed in the last post. Position the sled at the right side of the needle bed.

To start knitting, you have to move those needles you want to use forward like this. 

Then, you can hang the comb between the needles. It attaches to the underside of the machine with two twisting bits of metal at either side. There are other ways of setting up stitches, but this is the easiest one and the most appropriate one if you just want to try it out.

Release the thread from it's resting position on the shaft of the thread tension unit and pull it into the hole in the thread guide on the sled. Pull on it until you hear the click which indicates you've inserted it in the hole at the bottom as well.
Hold the loose end at the bottom. If you don't the tension will pull it out.
Now, you can, gently, move the sled to the left. 

It should form a kind of zigzag between the needles you pulled forward and the teeth of the comb. Release the comb from the machine and let it hang just by that zigzag of thread. Hang the weights on the comb.

Move the sled back from left to right. This time, loops form around the zigzag and at this stage, you may recognize knitting stitches.
And that's all there is to it. Moving the sled back and forth over the needles creates normal flat knit. To increase the amount of stitches you just pull out more needles and to decrease, you hang two stitches on one needle (it takes a bit more trouble to decrease more than one at a time though. A bit more trouble, not a lot).

The experience of knitting in this way is, I guess, probably more like weaving that like hand-knitting. 

The machine makes each stitch like this (I'm trying to show it here by doing one by hand):

It pushes the needle forward so the stitch(=loop) which is on it is pushed back over the moveable lip of the needle. 

Then, the thread from the thread guide is pulled over the extended front of the needle. 

Getting caught there when the needle is pushed back again and the loop pushed the lip forward. 

When the loop is pulled over lip, it slides from the needle and has become the next stitch and a new loop hangs in the hook of the needle.

When you move the sled, its parts make one needle after the other go through these motions. It works great. If it all works.
That's something to watch out for: in order to go through the motion of knitting properly, each needle must be able to open all the way and close all the way. And to do so easily and smoothly. Needles which don't either cause dropped stitches or the piling on of loops. Those have to be replaced.
You also have to make sure that there's always a bit of tension on the thread in the sled. That is why the tension unit is there, but something may happen (like the cone suddenly unwinding quicker) which makes the thread go slack and if you try to knit with a slack thread, it won't get caught in (at least) the first few needles. Don't ask me how I know…

I hope this has clarified the process a little. I will continue in a next post about gauge, fancy stitches, patterns and other less hardware-minded things.