New machine, new items, new expectations...

Today I want to talk about all that happened with my knitting lately, yet again sorry for no pictures but the camera broke again, I really should consider buying a new one.... but anyway, I can still write so, here's the news:
As you may know so far I have two knitting machines, both Knitmaster standard gauge machines, a 302 and a 321, with the first one, the 302 that I bought a couple of years ago I made some things such as a cardigan and some pairs of socks but it was always plain, because although it had a mechanism that enables you to make diffrent stitch patterns, it would never work, plus I wanted a ribber for it but on eBay it was never available so in November 2007 (the 302 was bought in August 2007), I decided to buy a new machine, I wasn't looking for a particular model, just a new-to-me machine, and I found on Ebay an auction for the 321, and another auction for a SRP50 ribber, so I bought both of them, and they were very cheap except for the postage that always rises everything because of being in a diffrent country.
With the 321 I must say I had lots of fun, I made wonderful sweaters, never using written instructions, always using the Knit Radar, I loved it, plus I had the ribber and it was such a blessing and again it made diffrent stitch patterns and the PUNCHCARDS made them, depending of how you set the carriage(s), so it was a great machine, and as you now I had a lot of accessories for it....
But the only problem is the yarn, you see here were I live the is only one yarn shop and it sells mainly hand knitting yarns, so finding finer ones that were usable on the 321 was always difficult.

So, about three weeks ago I decided to buy a bigger gauge machine so that it was easier to find yarn for it, so I decided for a Bond, didn't know the diffrence between the ISM and USM, but I decided to buy an ISM anyway and it was very cheap.
It arrived last Thursday and IT IS my salvation, it knits up beautifully and IT WORKS WITH ALL THE YARNS I CAN FIND IN MY LOCAL SHOP, YES!
So, since last Thursday I made three items, a Simple Shrug and a Tuck - Lace Wrap from the Bond America site and a Simple Hat with a pattern written in the pattern book that came with the machine, I am soo happy, really I never knitted so many thing in such a little time and also that easily!!

Today, I'll cross my fingers as I'm going to start on my first sweater so, wish me luck.

Bye for now,

Samantha

Adsense and its ethic rules

As you may have noticed some days ago I joined Adsense, which is a system powered by Google. This is a system for which I allow to give spaces of my blog to put adverts, it is Google itself who chooses the ads according to the theme of the blog. If visitors find intresting those ads and follow them, I earn a little something.

For that I what to specify that I do not ask third parties to clik on the ads for me. All those who click on the ads don't recieve any recomponse of any kind. And most of all I don't clic on my own ads as it's unethical and forbidden.

I still have to see if it works otherwise I won't keep it.

Bye for now....

Samantha

P.S. Photos of finished projects coming soon.....

Finally a come back

Well, it has been some time, I must apoligize myself for that, in my excuse I can say that it has been a tough year a school, very stressing really, so that's why I nearly forgot about the blog. Still, I'm here now, and I'll try to blog more often, espescially now that it's summer so I should have more time to post.

Now let's talk about what this blog is about after all, knitting, since last Semptember a lot of projects have gone by, some finished, some still in progress and some just started.....

This is what I'm planning to show you in the next posts:

MACHINE KNITTING:
-knitted man's sweater in dark red with a tuck pattern from the basic set punchcards.

HAND KNITTING:
-Knitted striped work bag in various colours and patterns.
-Woman's basque in autumn colours

CROCHET:
-Fine thread cotton dolly

VARIOUS WORKS WHICH ARE IN PROGRESS:
-HK- Colourful single bed cover in various colours and patts(19 pieces made,23 to go)
-C- Crochet double bed cover with nut patt. White 4-ply. (1 & a half made, 11 to go)

There will be photos of course, unfortunately it was too dark to take them today.

Bye,

Samantha

Finished items -1

I'm writing today because I wanted to show you all the things I've knitted since last post.

As you may know I have a KR6 Knit Radar for my Knitaster 321 but somehow I never got round using it because I couldn't get the hang of using the graph instead of using written instructions.
I was inspired by Susan's videos about using the Knit Radar, once I understood it now thanks to her I think I'll always use the Knit Radar.

This is my first Knit Radar knitted pullover:

It uses punchcard number 4 from the basic Knitmaster set, in tuck stitch, (don't get angry Susan if I copied it), here's how the pattern looks like:

It's in hot pink, it has borders made in a 1x1 rib. It was fairly easy to make, I got into trouble for the neckband as I had knitted it but I didn't know how to put on the neck with no mistakes, it wasn't easy sewing it either as I'm not an expert on sewing needles, but I got through it. It isn't 'perfect' but it's all right for me.

I also made a pair of socks,I knitted them by hand using 4 needles, (I hate using 5, I never made socks on 5 needles), here's how they look like:

I used a set 4mm sock needles, using 4ply they were obviously knitted in the round with no seams. The have a 2knit-2purl rib:

The cuffs are actually turned over as the leg portion is longer, I wanted them like that as I can leave them long like they are if I want or turn the cuff over and make them shorter, here's how they look with the longer leg portion:




That's all for today, but I do have 2 more finished items that I want to show them to you tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Samantha

Ebay sellers

What's going on with some Ebay sellers lately? I'm writing this because a couple of days ago I wanted to buy some spare needles for the Knitaster 321, and on the auction page there was written that the seller sent items worldwide, but unfortunately there wasn't written the postage price for Italy so, I write to the seller to know the price. And at this moment there is no reply, at first I thought I didn't send the message so I go to the 'My Ebay' page and it was in the 'Sent' folder. Then I go to Susan's blog and I found out that something similar has happened to her too. So what's going on with Ebay sellers lately? I mean just some becuase most of them are very kind and accurate. But there are always those who spoil the whole thing.

Bye for now,

Samantha

My new sewing machine

A couple of posts ago I told you I had bought a sewing machine, as my digital camera wasn't working properly I couldn't show you a picture, well here it is now:




I'm very happy with my new purchase!!!!!


I've bought a new accessory for the sewing machine, Ill tell you about in my next post.....


Bye for now,

Samantha

Who needs a chunky machine!

On Saturday I decided to go yarn shopping, this time I decided to buy some DK as I never tried it before on the Knitmaster 321, well the seller sold me the yarn as DK but it really was chunky, so I thought, what do I do with it now, it didn't want to bother knitting it by hand.

Then I took a look at the manual of the Knitmaster 321 and read that you could actually knit chunky on the machine by knitting the yarn on alternate needles, so I had a browse on my magazines, and found the pattern for a Teenage sweater knitted on alternate needles at tension 8*, at the weekend I so far knitted the back:

My digital camera wasn't working properly, that's why there haven't been much photos lately on the blog, well, I got it fixed now. That is the back, it is striped, I used light blue, brown and dark pink, ten rows for each colour. It has raglan shapings, you can see it better here:

I'll start the front as soon as I have some free time....

Bye for now,


Samantha