Work in progress

All sorts of yucky stuff has happened since I last posted, but it's all turned out A-OK, so I shall ignore it and carry on like it never happened. My apologies to all my dedicated readers.

So, I finished the fateful Buttercup. As expected, it is too small, but I think I can find someone it will fit. The bias is another thing. I blocked the snot out of it and it's still pretty bad, but it might be wearable... WTF, it was fun to knit. I might try it again, on slightly thicker yarn.


I broke down and bought a garter bar forn my machine on eBay (I will NEVER buy from anything other than a reputable vendor on eBay again. It's become a haven of scammers misrepresenting themselves and their products and I feel dirty just being on there. That being said I bought the garter bar from Sunny Choi, about whom who I have nothing but good things to say. Too bad the bad brings down the good.) and now I can (in theory) transfer multiples of stitches at the same time so I can do proper shaping without driving myself mad. Can't wait to try it.

My Dye Version Bamboo socks are almost done. I am knitting toe up since I want to use up ever scrap of yarn. As usual, I weighed the ball, divided it in two by weight, but for some reason not that I'm two inches or so from the top they are wildly different weights. I can't figure out why. Admittedly, the heels get turned separately, but they look the same and I can't see that making so much difference. There must be some weird sock black hole where the extra yarn just disappeared into. The toe up heel-flap heel rocks. I tried the Widdershins method, but I have a different stitch count and it made my head hurt trying to do the math. I found a much better version at Forward Motion. I had to suspend my disbelief, but I did and it worked, much to my surprise. The lycra in the yarn probably helps but these socks fit so well. Much better than the short row heel, simple though it is.

And machine knitting? I love lace.

I had to fix the lace carriage. I had a good look at it and there was something seriously weird going on with the back wheels.
They have a million trillion pieces that all work together, but the one of the bottom plastic thingies was out of whack on both wheels. I took my handy dandy dissecting kit and jimmied it back into place and now it seems to work fine. I don't know if that was what was responsible for the disaster I had before, but I decided to do what I should have before and start from the first lace card and move on. I started with fine fine acrylic and it kept etting hung up on the gatepegs - like it didn't quite transfer enough. I switched to fingering and it was MUCH better. Got hung up a few time, but no much. I'm not sure if the missed holes are due to the gatepeg issue or something else entirely - I don't know how to determine that but I'm sure all will be revealed in time.



Lucky Jack - a whole new binky.

Here's three generations of mummy-made binky. All the same yarn. Try not to be too grossed out.

And a few words about my new office. Not to gloat, but it's better than I could have imagined. It's improved my concentration, my productivity, and my ability to block at work :)



Hey Elvis - I bet it you take a few days off it'll fix you up so you don't have that weird look on your face. On second thought, maybe you need three MONTHS off.