The deadline for advance registration for the Fall Festival Knitting Machine Seminar is August 31st. The event is hosted by Needle-Tek and it’s in Clackamas, Oregon.

This year, an extra day has been added to host Iris Bishop, a renowned machine knitter from the UK. I love how Iris combines completely different types of fair isle designs in the same garment. It will be great to see her samples in person rather than pictures from books.

Here’s crossing my fingers I didn’t procrastinate too long in mailing in my registration.

For me the answer is straight forward. A blog allows me to share photos and information with anyone, anywhere, at anytime. This is especially important for those of us addicted to knitting machines yet isolated from others who share our passion.

The easiest way to demonstrate is by answering Enka’s question on how to thread a Pinkie 4 color changer.
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I’ve spent two days trying not to think.
It hurts too much.

I bawled all the way home from the airport.

I’ll see her at Christmas.
It doesn’t help the tears.

Sing your heart out dear.
I could not be prouder.

ilyvm

Here you might discover new-to-you machine knitters, hand knitters, or knitting related stuff I stumbled upon while doing research for future posts.

I’ll also use this space to thank other bloggers for highlighting me on their blog.
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Just found your Web site this morning and am so happy I just want to get started kniting this baby blanket as soon as I find out how to install the racking handle and how to put the deco on to the front bed. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank in advance. Elaine

The racking handle is easy to install. The only catch is you have to give it a good push at the end so it pops into the socket that shifts the beds back and forth. Follow my simple 9 step photo tutorial and you will be up and racking in no time.
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Free Knitting Patterns - Hand
Free Knitting Patterns - Machine
Free Knitting Patterns - Stitch Designs

The Hand and Machine pages are a collection of photo links back to the posts where the patterns originally appear. I’ve included a brief description of the equipment I used.

This should make searching a lot easier.
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Besides writing this blog, I also enjoy reading other sites. I know first hand how strongly people feel about full vs partial feeds. In the past, I’ve published a full feed. For a variety of reasons, that is no longer working for me.
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The show, Ashley Paige Bikini or Bust, follows a high end Hollywood bikini knitwear designer throughout her day. To say she is a frazzled business woman would be generous. I wish her design approach and actual production process were highlighted. Instead, the viewer must agonizingly trudge through her dysfunctional life to catch glimpses of what makes her business work.
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Now that you have cleaned out the old gunk and glued in the new foam, it is time to attach the interfacing, tape the ends, and reinstall the bar into your knitting machine.

You will need a steam iron, woven fusible interfacing, ruler, pen, fabric scissors, and a small bit of packing tape. A rotary cutter and cutting mat are optional.

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Some knitters like to use weatherstripping to refurbish their sponge bars. You can find directions on page 10 of this pdf from the Carolina Machine Knitters Guild and a video at Podcasting For Machine Knitters.

For a variety of reasons, this method didn’t work for me. Either the weatherstripping wasn’t available, gluing the woven ribbon made my bar too stiff and inflexible, or the materials were more expensive, averaging $2 per bar versus about 25 cents for my approach.

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