Market bag.

It was one of my good friend's birthday yesterday. She always asks for something I knit, crochet or machine knit for her birthday gift, and this year she strongly hinted that she wanted a string market bag, like those I use all the time.

Well, I've been making these bags for a few years (they're cute, freakishly expandable, really useful and everybody likes them) but she had never received one!

Although I prefer them in colored cotton, she wanted a more traditional looking "filet à provisions", so here's what I made for her:

I used a combination of different cotton and nylon fibers to make it as strong as possible, since it can hold a whole lot of stuff, as you can see! ;-)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's day to all knitters!!!

Machine knitting a bunch of grapes!

For the last few days, I've been experimenting on the Passap, trying out all sorts of things and getting a little bit impatient... I know the result I want, but although I'm making progress, I'm still not there yet...

So, to take a break from the trials and errors marathon, I made something easy and fast without any increases or decreases, without any short rows!  I made an afghan!!!

As you can see, it's reversible! The grapes come from a Deco card I punched out many years ago, I have no idea where I got the motif... Probably from an issue of Modern Knitting or of Machine Knitting Monthly... I'll check it out...

I made a wide border at the top and a narrow one on the bottom. It could be part of the design, but really, it's because I was running out of purple yarn! ;-)

I'll be making another afghan tonight as a mother's day surprise gift for my music loving mother. I have just the motif for it!

Happy mother's day to all!!!

A nice dose of Vitamin D!

My Vitamin D cardigan is finished, blocked and took a walk with me this afternoon!!!

I made it longer than the original (7 eyelet rows) which means that the last rows were quite long to knit... Long and a bit boring, but in the end, I do love how it looks and fits.

Since I like it so much, I'm currently trying to figure out how I could machine knit a Vitamin D...

Because of the shape, I'm thinking i would have to knit it sideways, experimenting on swatches to get the right ratio of short rows to straight rows...

I am intrigued by the shape of Ozlorna's :-) Dalek people cosy, it looks pretty close to the Vitamin D. It might only need a bit of tweaking!!! ;-)

Machine knit Rose jacket.

My dear old mother asked me for a knit jacket!

She wanted something that would be perfect for this time of the year. You know, when you don't feel like wearing a coat anymore but a light cardigan isn't quite warm enough...

Well, she explained the type of jacket she wished for, chose the color (to go with a favorite skirt) and the wool yarn. Then,  after taking her measurements, I went to the Passap and machine knit a rather basic, plain jacket.  But, since my mother is anything but plain, I went nuts and did some a lot of duplicate stitching with embroidery wool!!! :-)

The flowers were inspired  by many  pictures and cross stitch patterns.

Have I told you that I love to decorate plain knits with duplicate stitching?

It fits her and she loves it, but it still needs to be blocked!

Machine knit cape, how to make the split!

I've had a few questions, here and on Ravelry, about how I split the knitting in half to make the cape. I haven't found a way to put stitches in holding position when I'm working in AX/AX on both beds. I also think the stitches would get stretched out as the first half of the cape got longer... So, here's how I do it:

First of all, cast-on stitches using the whole width of the machine.
Once the back is long enough, write down how the pushers are arranged and what color is next. Now, put half the stitches on hold by either transferring them onto decker combs or, if you don't have enough decker combs, you can do the same thing by manually knitting the stitches with thick waste yarn, making the stitches as large as possible. The thick waste yarn will prevent the stitches from unravelling. Remove those stitches from the machine, letting them hang down as you knit the first front half of the cape. Make it 4 to 5 inches longer than the back, to compensate for the thickness of the shoulders.

Rehang the stitches that were on hold, check the placement of the pushers and which color is supposed to be next and then, knit the second front half.

If you have any questions, just ask! :-)