Tag: knitting

Book Review, Knitting Machines

Machine Knitting Techniques: Texture and 3D Effects

elyknits

If you have a little bit of Christmas Cash and you feel like investing in yourself for the New Year, pick up the newly-released Texture and 3D Effects Machine Knitting Techniques book. Amber Hards teaches texture and playfulness in her essential addition to the series.

“[Hards] encourages you to explore and experiment with confidence to produce exciting, tactile knitwear.”

publisher’s blurb

Find it here on Amazon.

The Details

Published: January 1, 2024 (US/NA)Publisher: The Crowood Press
Format: PaperbackPages: 144
MSRP: $24.99Canada: $32.99

Chapters

Materials and StripesManual Tucks
PunchcardsWeaving
I-cords, Strips of Knit, & 3D EmbellishmentPartial Knit: Frills, Bobbles, Loops, 3D Scales
Lace Holes & LaddersPattern Collection

Overview

Amber Hards is a UK-based knitwear designer and maker who has been teaching machine knitting since 2016. Her website showcases years of her work, and I encourage you to give it a look. I especially recommend viewing her “Loving Love” show. You can see why those behind the Machine Knitting Techniques series enlisted her aid with tactile knitting!

The Crowood Press set a high standard for photographic instruction with their Machine Knitting Techniques series, and Hards meets that here. Instructions are clear with illustrative photos. Hards uses color contrast strategically to illustrate steps and movement of textures, but the generally monochromatic palette helps you visualize the textures of the stitches.

The “Pattern Collection” at the end of the book is a bit underwhelming with only two patterns, but remember that this is a technique book. The focus is, as it should be, on technique instruction.

Practicality

“When I show students more textured skills, they often express feeling overwhelmed by the process. As different techniques are often presented as all-over swatches where the stitch or technique is packed together throughout the swatch, many of these textured effects often feel too “runway” or high fashion for a beginner or casual machine knitter. “Where on earth would you actually wear that?” is a common question.

You don’t have to use these techniques all over! A large shawl completely done in one technique can be stunning, but remember that small, pinpointed uses of these details can add to an otherwise simple garment.

This partial knitting shawl I made in 2019 looks like a myriad of connected i-cords or winding snakes of stockinette stitch. It was created by moving groups of needles in and out of work.

Designer Linda Jensen uses the same technique for the bodice of this Ripple Top. Confining it to one part of a garment doesn’t diminish the visual interest this stitch generates. It just refines it.

Pintucks in the shoulder area add interest to an otherwise simple October Cardigan by Jesie Ostermiller. Using them over an entire cardigan could be interesting, but confining the texture to one area created a way to draw the eye upwards.

This October Cardigan was knitted on my Passap Bulky Eight and was one of the first machine knitted projects I created.

It’s not perfect, but I learned so much making it!

Why don’t you try choosing a technique from Texture and 3D Effects and place it in a similar location as the pintucks in this cardigan?

Buy or Bypass?

Of the Machine Knitting Technique books released so far, I suppose you could skip this one, but I think that would be a mistake. Developing skills like these can help you in your other works. Paying attention to how textured stitches are weighted while you knit them, for example, helps you become more aware of your work as it sits on the machine.

Texture and 3D Effects might feel like it is written more for the aspiring designer than your everyday machine knitter, but let’s face it- if you are a machine knitter, you need to learn to be comfortable being the designer yourself because of the lack of available patterns.

Hards encourages playfulness in machine knitting, and I applaud that.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I hope you’ll explore your creativity on the knitting machine even more this year and realize that you might just already be a designer.

Happy 2024!

Thank you for joining me on this machine knitting journey! What texture technique from the book will you try first? Let me know in the comments!

Disclaimer: Links on this site may be Amazon Affiliate links. If you choose to purchase an item using my affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

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I purchased this book with my own money. All opinions are honest and my own.

If you would like to submit a book, yarn, accessory, or other idea for review, please contact me through my contact form.

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yarn review

CONE Yarn Review: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport

elyknits

It’s fall, y’all! …well, it is autumn according to the calendar.

Sweater weather hasn’t fully arrived yet in Northeast Oklahoma, but I am here for you with a seasonally appropriate review of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport 100% wool yarn ON CONES!

Before we get into my knitting experience, here are

The Details

Fiber Content100% Wool
Yardage/Meters1682 yards / 1598 m
Ounces/Grams16 oz / (1 lb) / 452 g
Yarn Weight/SizeCYC 2 / Sport
Made InMitchell, NE, USA
AvailabilityBrownSheep.com, Brick-and-Mortar Local Yarn Shops
Construction3 plies
Put UpCone
Hand WashYes
Machine WashNO
Flat DryYes
Machine DryNO
MSRP$55.80
Price Per Yard$0.03

Additional Info
•This yarn will felt if you do not follow proper care instructions.
•NatureSpun is treated with a moth proofing agent at the time of dyeing that makes the wool “unpalatable to the wool moth larvae.” (See their FAQ page for more details.)
•The main wool breeds used are Corriedale, Rambouillet, and Columbian.
•This construction is available in fingering, sport, worsted, and chunky yarn weights.
•Sport and Fingering are the only options that come in cones.

mid-work on a standard gauge knitting machine

Machine compatibility

4.5mm StandardYes
6.5mm Mid-GaugeYes
8mm / 9mm BulkyYes

Mid to high tensions felt best on a standard gauge machine. Low-mid tensions felt appropriate for the mid-gauge machine. Low tensions are appropriate on a bulky machine unless you plan on using specific techniques that require looser gauge.

(If you’re wondering, I knitted the pictured sweater at Tension 5/5 for the ribbing and Tension 10 for the colorwork.)

What I’m Looking For

I’ve laid out what I’m looking for in a book in recent reviews, but I haven’t really talked about what I want in a yarn. The completely unhelpful answer is “It depends.”

It’s about purpose.

Am I indulging myself in a luxurious, expensive specialty garment, or am I making a jacket I am going to wear every single day? Is the item for someone who will take the time to properly wash it, or is it for a busy new mom who barely has time to think, let alone check the care label on some knitting she got from Auntie Em?

I want to say I’m a bit of a yarn snob because the yarns I end up choosing for personal projects tend to be hand dyed from indie dyers that are specific wool breeds. I want that handmade, one-of-a-kind element to be there from start to finish.

But I can also appreciate acrylic and will argue that has its place in your stash alongside your finest, rarest fibers.

My considerations boil down to
•Will this work on my machine(s)?
•What is its purpose (everyday workhorse vs luxury) and does it meet it?
•How does it feel on my skin?
•Is it easy to care for as a gift?
•What are the color options?
•Is it sustainable/renewable? (This can be difficult to answer depending on the amount of information available)
•How does it block?
•Does it match the claims it makes? (i.e,. “just like silk!”)
•Is this going to be discontinued just because I like it?

I’m kind of kidding with that last one, but I’ll admit I’ve started to stay away from brands that are always introducing new yarns and then discontinuing them after a year. If it’s gone by the time I get to knit with it and I can’t find more, why bother even trying it? That’s a major yarn peeve!

Speaking of yarn peeves, you may not mind these things, but I sure do!

•Knots in low yardage skeins
•Knots in general
•Donut put-up
•Quickly discontinued
•Splitty construction
•Loose/easily lost labels (especially those wrapped but unsecured labels on those dang donuts)

sweater on a wildflower bed of saltmarsh asters

Knitting It Up

I bought this yarn to knit the Sweet and Simple Block Jumper by Kandy Diamond from her new book, Discovering Machine Knitting. (Check out my review here!)

Nature Spun has a great selection of colors. The two colors I used, Autumn Leaves, an olivey chartreuse, and Pomegranate, an autumn red, had very nice depth of color due to a tiny bit of added black. It really made the colors pop.

With more than eighty vibrant colors spun in four different weights, the possibilities are unlimited for creating something beautiful with Nature Spun.

BrownSheep.com

When I think of 100% wool yarns, I think “scratchy,” but that isn’t the case with Nature Spun. It is a bit more textured than a chemically treated superwash wool yarn version, but that is normal.

Nature Spun is pleasantly soft and squishy with a bit of a size bloom in the twist as it comes off of the cone. Brown Sheep Company classifies Nature Spun Sport as a CYC 2 yarn weight, but I wouldn’t call you wrong if you said it was a light DK or CYC 3 weight, as it is on the heavier end of “fingering” weight yarns.

in bright sunlight, true to color
colorwork and ribbing stitch definition

This yarn flowed very nicely through my machines. I didn’t encounter any breakage or splitting, and when I needed to un-knit a few rows due to a punch card mispatterning, it didn’t cling to itself or create fiber halos around the strand of yarn as I unraveled it. It did shed a slight bit of fuzz as it went through the knit carriage, but others wools I have worked with shed the same amount.

having a soak



I lightly steam blocked the sweater pieces before putting the sweater together. After a bath in some Eucalan, I wet blocked the finished sweater.

The yarn bloomed a tiny bit more after a steam and a soak, but the stitch definition is still nice and clear.

This wool is WARM. Much too warm for Oklahoma in general, but I had to try it on even if it was 82F outside when I finished. If you’re at higher latitudes, this should keep you very warm in the winter.

If you’re picky about your yarn’s sourcing, Brown Sheep Company says it sources its wool from local growers, and the entire process save wool scouring, carding, and combing is done at their Nebraska location. Plus, they are family owned.

Final Thoughts

This yarn is much nicer than I expected it to be, especially as a nonspecific wool blend at $0.03 per yard. Brown Sheep Company’s product listing claims “breathability, resilience, vibrancy, and warmth,” and I haven’t experienced anything to contradict that.

I joked with my husband that we needed to buy a building downtown and open up a yarn shop just so I can get a wholesale account with Brown Sheep Company. I really enjoyed working with this yarn, and I plan to purchase more of it. I personally don’t mind its care requirements, but if you plan to gift an item made from this, make sure your recipient knows how to wash it. It’s basically a one-season/winter only garment yarn in Oklahoma, but I think it’s worth it. I give it a solid

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport on Cones is a workhorse yarn you’ll want to add to your stash.

Thanks for joining me on my machine knitting journey! I hope you’ve enjoyed my review. What factors do you consider when judging yarns? What do you want to see next on the blog? Let me know in the comments or contact me through my site form.

Disclaimer
I purchased this yarn myself. All opinions are honest and my own.
Amazon product links may be affiliate links. As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to use my link. If you don’t have a local place to support, please consider supporting the site and using my link.

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Tips and Tricks

Choosing Colors

elyknits

In my last post I showcased a project where I used NINE colors to push my creative boundaries. I ended that post feeling more confident, but when I went to choose colors for my next colorwork project, I found myself even more color-shy than before!

Since I’m still not convinced I know enough about colors to be allowed to choose combinations on my own, I thought I’d share different ways to choose a color palette that will help you build and discover your own color stories.

Use a Color Wheel

To me, using a color wheel feels like the “pro” way to choose colors. It’s the way “real” artists do it, or so my head says.

(I’ve considered myself a “real” artist for a while now, and I only just bought a color wheel, so let’s all remember to ignore those negative “not a ‘real’ artist” thoughts if they pop up, okay?)

If you don’t have a color wheel and/or a local place to buy one, please consider using my Amazon Affiliate link to support my site! I may receive a small commission at no cost to you, and it helps me keep my content free.

This post from Felt Magnet explains how to use color wheel and defines the associated terms. There are lots of other great posts on Color Theory and color wheels out there, so search up a few and give them a read if this one wasn’t enough for you.

I bought my color wheel from the Across Generations natural dye booth at the Fiber Christmas in July fiber festival. She doesn’t seem to have any in her Etsy shop, but her colors are so amazing and inspiring that I wanted to make sure I linked her because you can …

Use Your Favorite Artist’s Colors

You like them for a reason, right? If you aren’t confident enough to trust your gut, trust someone else’s!

Since most artists now have websites and/or social media, you can keep up with their work without going to galleries.

Find a piece that speaks to you and identify your favorite colors from that piece.

From my slightly overwhelming experience with nine colors, I suggest you start with just two or three.

Kacy Latham is my favorite artist, hands down. I love the way she plays with bright colors and texture as well as the way her shapes flow. We actually grew up in the same town, and while I don’t know her well because she’s a bit older than me, I’ve followed her art journey for years now. She is constantly pushing herself to create and share her work, even painting numerous public art pieces for the residents of that tiny town in Texas to enjoy.

What colors would you choose from this piece from Kacy’s Instagram?

I chose the darkest navy blue from the top right and the rosy, bronze-y brown just left of middle.

Follow Indie Dyer Collections

Don’t forget your favorite fiber artists!

If you keep up with your favorite dyers on social media, look through their feed or ask them how they choose their colors when you visit their booths at fiber festivals. Jenny at 316 Dye Studio recently released an entire collection inspired by Bob Ross paintings!

Sometimes indie dyers will even feature curated palettes of their yarns, so it’s worth it to go see what they’re up to when you’re looking for color inspiration.

Go Through Your Finished Objects

Even if you’ve knitted it up already, take a look at your favorite yarns and completed projects and try pulling your color palette from them, especially if you used a kit or a yarn with an existing color palette.

I don’t even know where this scarf is right now…

I hand knitted this Gallatin Scarf back in 2016. I hated the yarn but loved the colors. The self-striping element made knitting through the pattern interesting, and I can see this palette being perfect for a floral colorwork sweater.

Use an App

As mentioned in my Confronting Color post, you can browse a color palette app like Coolers.co for inspiration. You can also create your own palettes with up to five colors without a Pro subscription.

My favorite feature might be pulling a five color palette from an existing image.

sunflower from my garden
my friendliest breakfast layer
Goldie’s Palette

You simply drag the white circle selector to different colors to change what it generates in your palette.

Canva.com also has a similar image palette generator. I’ve only used the free versions, but both Coolers and Canva have additional features in their subscription only tiers.

Browse Pinterest

It’s one of my favorite time wasters that I can justify as not actually being a time waster because I find can find punchcard patterns and more on it…

As ad-filled and misdirected as its links can be, Pinterest is still perfect for making mood and inspiration boards.

Ask Around

In addition to having fiber suggestions, your local yarn shop is a great place to ask about color combinations. Since the owners have likely already ordered for the coming season, they might be able to point you in the direction of future color trends.

Your LYS’s staff probably aren’t the only helpful people around in your fiber community. In my experience, there’s always at least one regular who everyone counts on for their color choosing capabilities.

Get Stitchin’, where I teach lessons, in Tulsa, OK almost always has a trunk show rotating through the shop. She also carries yarns and fiber from local specialists, so if you don’t have a favorite indie dyer or fiber farm, you will soon!

You probably have a local shop closer to you than you think. Ravelry has a Local Yarn Shop Directory, and most yarn brands have a stockist locator on their website. If you don’t have a local shop to frequent, I hope you find one soon!

How do you choose colors for your projects? What other ways should I try to find color inspiration? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for joining me on this colorful leg of my machine knitting journey!

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Tips and Tricks

Finding Cone Yarn

elyknits

Knitting machines can use a range of yarn from all kinds of put-ups like we saw in my last post, but the easiest and best put-up for machine knitting is cone yarn. Cones don’t need extra preparation before use, have more yardage in general, and often feature unique textures or colors that you might not find in hand knitting yarns.

If cone yarn is so great, why is it harder to find? 

In the USA, machine knitting isn’t as common as it once was. While the hobby is growing again, it’s kind of seen as a niche within a much more popular one or even as “cheating” at hand knitting. Yarns made and wound on cones specifically for machine knitting aren’t really a thing here anymore. 

On the retail side, cones are larger and more difficult to display compared to other put-ups. Most shops don’t have the shelf space to dedicate to a few 1-2lb cones that would otherwise be filled with 10-15 skeins or hanks. Many hand knitting or crochet projects don’t need the thousands of yards that can come on a cone. Additionally, shipping cones generally costs more for the number of products you get than other, smaller put-ups. 

The downsides of retail shouldn’t keep you from using cone yarn in your machine knitting.

Let me butter you up a bit, reader. If you’re a machine knitter, you already work harder to find your materials, parts, and resources than other yarncrafters have to because of that niche! A little work to find cone yarn is nothing to you, right?

Finding Cones Locally

I’m a big believer in shopping at local small businesses whenever possible.

So please, 

Check Your Local Yarn Shop

Maybe they have cone yarn and you missed it! It’s easy to get distracted among the beautiful colors and textures in a yarn haven. Trust me, I understand. 

If your local yarn shop doesn’t stock cone yarn, ask them about it!

Most shops are happy to accept special orders.
**Please keep in mind that many distributors have a minimum dollar amount to place an order for new accounts, so it may take your LYS time to reach that amount depending on their size. Pay up front and work with your local shop so you both benefit! Convert your yarn friends so more of you need cones! (No downsides to that one, right?)

Get Stitchin’, the shop where I teach lessons, recently became an Ashford dealer. Now they have 0.5lb Ashford cotton yarn cones alongside their Ashford spinning wheels and looms! Those gorgeous yarns work wonderfully on 4.5mm standard knitting machines. The owner is happy to order other yarns in, too. I just have to ask!

Oh, speaking of looms,

Ask the Weavers!

Ask your weaving friends or your region’s weaving guild where they source their coned yarns. Many of them will use hand yarns, but those who work with finer yarns will often use cones. (If you don’t have any weaving friends yet, try to make some! Weavers are fun!)

Chat with the Regulars

I live in rural Oklahoma. Most people probably think of Native Americans and buffalo when they think of the state. They definitely don’t think of yarn.

That doesn’t mean hand or machine knitting doesn’t exist here, it just means I had to look a little harder than someone in a big coastal city or European town might’ve had to. 

As some of you know, I used to work at a yarn shop in the suburbs that focused on hand knitting and crochet. When my hands started to deteriorate (I talked about it in this post), I had to start looking for other yarn craft options.

I saw Addi circular machines online, but I had never heard of a flat bed knitting machine. I mentioned my machine research once at the old yarn shop with the other regulars, and wouldn’t you know, one told me about the Fiber Christmas In July festival, a wonderful local fiber festival, and a vendor there who specializes in machine knitting!

Who knows how long it would’ve taken me to figure things out if I hadn’t stuck around and chatted with the yarn shop regulars?!

My teacher and mentor Pamela Carrico is the fiber artist specializing in machine knitting that customer told me about. Her shop has both hand knitting yarns and machine knitting cone yarns! She has new old stock vintage yarns as well as quality acrylic 2/24 yarns that she sells by the pound, which is really helpful if you want to do a colorwork project but you don’t want to pay for pounds of yarn colors you may only use once. 

Asking around helped me find an instructor and materials in one place!

Things worked out wonderfully for me, but what if you don’t have a local yarn shop or yarn community? Making your own is always an option, as is joining an online one.

If you don’t have a local yarn shop, please consider finding a small business online and supporting it before you turn to a big box store. You’re more likely to find someone who can really help you find what you need at a small specialty shop, too!

Call (Yes, Call) Other Yarn Shops 

I have the Millenial Aversion to Phone Calls. If you’re not a close friend or family, I much prefer text or email, so I understand there can be some discomfort in this tip.

But remember, many machine knitting shops have been in business for decades, meaning they have operated without texts and emails for a long time, so a phone call is going to be your best option, especially as they take care of things in store. Don’t forget to leave a message if you need to. Save the shop’s contact information so you know they aren’t spam when they call you back. (Yes, you’ll have to answer the phone, too!) 

At the bottom of this post, you’ll find a list of shops that I know stock machine knitting cone yarn in the USA. If you know of more, let me know in the comments!

Some of these shops don’t have cone yarn listed on their websites but can tell you what they have when you call and ask. Many have “dead stock,” or discontinued cone yarns that are still perfect for knitting. They just aren’t made anymore.

Online Marketplace Listings

If you weren’t able to find anything with info from your LYS or yarn friends, try using Google, Craigslist, and Facebook searches for “<your location> cone yarn” or “<your location> machine knitting.” Don’t forget to check Facebook Groups that may meet locally or regionally, either! 

Cone yarn is often listed in large lots from estate or garage sales. Since it takes up so much room, many people are happy to meet you somewhere and give you the yarn for an extremely low price or even free. I’ve found yarn like this several times. It’s worth checking regularly.

Set a search alert using machine knitting and cone yarn terms so you’ll know when something near you pops up. When you pick up your yarn, ask the seller about their source or where they learned about machine knitting and cone yarn. 

If your local search doesn’t pan out, try some of these smaller businesses online:

Cone Yarn Stockists

Carrico’s Creative Cornerhttps://www.cmodesignerknits.com/Cone Yarn by the Lb, old stock, and more!
Knitcrafthttps://knitcraft.com/SilverReed Importer
The Knit Knack Shophttps://knitknackshop.com/ Tamm Yarns
Peter Patchis Yarnshttp://peterpatchisyarns.com/Email list of Specials
The Yarn Depothttps://yarndepot.orderpromos.com/LARGE cones
Rocking Horse Farmhttps://www.rockinghorsefarmknitshop.com/Machine Knitting Camp
Get Stitchin’https://getstitchin.com/ Ashford Dealer
Ashford Yarnshttps://www.ashford.co.nz/Find local dealer!
WEBS Yarn Storehttps://www.yarn.com/Valley Cone Yarns
YARN ITALYhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/YARNITALYGreat Variety
Silk City Fibershttps://www.silkcityfibers.com/“Wholesale” price
Paradise Fibershttps://paradisefibers.com/collections/coned-yarnFree Shipping after $150 Lower 48
The Wooleryhttps://woolery.com/Weaving Yarns

Have you tried machine knitting with cone yarn yet? Were you able to source it locally? What are you planning to make? Let me know below in the comments!

Disclosures:

I teach hand and machine knitting classes at Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK. I’m not paid to promote the shop, but things that benefit the shop often benefit me as people may purchase my work from the shop or sign up for one of my classes! 

Carrico’s Creative Corner is my mentor’s shop. I’m not paid to promote her shop, but I happily mention it to support her and her work.  

Shops listed are provided for informational and educational purposes and are not affiliated with me.

Thanks for joining me on my machine knitting journey! I hope you learned something useful today. 

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Tips and Tricks

Your YARN is the Problem — Part One: Hand Knitting Yarn Prep

elyknits

You might have encountered one of these problems before: the yarn stopped flowing through the tension unit and the tension wire bent all the way towards the carriage and needle bed, the carriage jammed, an entire row knitted at a much tighter tension than you wanted, the yarn broke. 

If you are experiencing problems when you machine knit with hand knitting yarn, your yarn preparation (or lack of) might be the problem. Here are some things to consider about different yarn put-ups and the ways they can affect your tension while knitting. 

various types of yarn put-ups

Hank
Must be wound into ball or cake before use

Donut
I absolutely hate the donut put-up, so I’m going to rant about it!

It does nothing other than look pretty on a shelf. Hand knitting will cause it to fall apart. Putting it in your bag after purchase will cause it to fall apart. Looking at the outer layer cross-eyed will start it on its slinking, unwinding, collapsing journey!

Unstable put-up
Uneven tension
Needs to be contained
Flops around

Yarn Ball
Can roll away
Needs to be contained in a basket or bucket
Yarn can get caught under the weight of large balls causing uneven tension

Skein
Center pull often results in “yarn barf” and/or collapsing skein
Needs to be contained
Outside pull means flopping/traveling/rolling skein and uneven tension as yarn enters machine
Outside pull means stopping after a row to pull out enough yarn to knit a row every time to avoid flopping

Cake
Manual-recommended put-up for Silver Reed LK150
Flat top and bottom
Should not roll
Most even tension of all put-ups mentioned so far
Require ball winder and swift

Cone
Best put-up for machine knitting
Even tension
Large yardage
Not a commonly used put-up for hand knitting yarn

You aren’t an awful knitter if you don’t knit from yarn cakes or cones! But they are the best put-ups that are least likely to cause issues.

I’ve knitted center pull from a skein before. Everything turned out fine, but I did have to stop and fix a few tension issues as I knitted.

I knit from yarn balls all the time, especially for scrap yarn. Sometimes they jump out of their container when I’m knitting quickly and I have to chase them down. It happens.

Knitting from less than ideal put-ups just means I accept I might encounter problems and have to fix them.

A Note on Yarn Cakes

Ideally, yarn winders should wrap around the sides of the cake and not on top or bottom.

If your yarn winder wraps the yarn around the sides and over the top and bottom, the cake will flop and turn like a yarn ball and add additional tension as it does. This is not an ideal cake for machine knitting, but you can make it work by pulling yarn out periodically so it doesn’t have to flop and roll.

Flopping that happens to an “ideal” cake that isn’t wound over the top/bottom likely means there is not enough lead length of yarn from the cake to the tension unit to the carriage (such as the yarn sitting on the table instead of the floor behind the machine), so be sure to give your yarn ample space as it feeds into the tension unit.

Finding Cone Yarn

There are many places to find cone yarns online, but PLEASE visit your Local Yarn Shop first!

If they don’t have any cones, just ask. Most shops are more than happy to custom order yarns. (Just remember some distributors have minimum orders and it might take a bit to meet that number!) And if you don’t have a yarn ball winder and swift, most LYS will wind the yarn you purchase there into cakes for you.

My Local Yarn Shop, Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK just became an Ashford dealer! I don’t weave or spin much, but do you know what comes on cones? Weaving yarn!

(Disclosure: I teach classes, sell Silver Reed knitting machines, and sell my work at Get Stitchin’, but I’m not paid to promote it. I mention it because I both sell and shop there.)

Carrico’s Creative Corner in Bartlesville, OK, my mentor Pamela Carrico’s shop, has a wonderful array of cone yarns as well as hand knitting yarns. Pamela sells cone yarn by the pound, which is a great option for knitters who don’t want to commit to an entire cone and thousands of yards of one color. She also often has new old stock of discontinued yarns that were made especially for machine knitting.

In the end, the amount of preparation you do when machine knitting with hand knitting yarn is about what you’re willing to put up with. You may be willing to deal with a ball rolling around or unwinding from the outside of a skein before knitting every row, but if you find yourself constantly encountering tension issues and uneven knitting, look to your yarn put-up and preparation first.

Thanks for coming along on my machine knitting journey! How do you prep your yarn? Are you strict about it, or do you knit from whatever you feel like using at the time? Let me know in the comments!

Knitting Machines, tutorial

Yarn Plating and the SilverReed LK150

elyknits

Have you heard of plating? Not metal plating- yarn plating on the knitting machine!

Most knitting machines can plate with an attachment or interchangeable carriage piece, but plating is a built-in carriage capability on the Silver Reed LK150 6.5mm mid-gauge machine.

It’s described in the manual as two different yarns knitted together where

one yarn appears on the knit side while the second yarn appears on the purl side of the knitting

SilverReed LK150 Instruction Manual p22

The yarns are usually different weights and fibers with one giving additional support to the construction of the fabric and/or adding special visuals like the swatch below.

(If you really want to dive into the technicalities, check out section 6.8.3 Plating in Knitting Technology by David J. Spencer. I thought it was a fascinating read!)

rainbow rayon thread plated on the knit side over a wool dress yarn purl side

Adding Structure – My AHA! Moment

The swatch above uses a very thin, thread weight rainbow rayon yarn over a wool dress yarn of about fingering weight to create a fabric that couldn’t exist without utilizing plating. But how did I get there?

When I was a machine knitting beginner, my friend gifted me THREE CONES of thread weight rainbow rayon yarn. It’s lovely. I adore the colors.

But…

The yarn is so thin that I found it difficult to work with on a standard 4.5mm gauge knitting machine. It’s just too small, and I had no clue what I could make with it. Perhaps a light shawl, but I didn’t think that would work.

Plus… rayon isn’t known as “the poor man’s silk” for nothing. It has a smooth texture and a lovely drape. But that drape comes with drop sometimes. Rayon knits can stretch in length under their own weight, and that can create some fit issues like armholes dropping or skirts falling to an undesired length.

So rayon isn’t always a good choice for some projects unless you combine it with another fiber and use it in a blended yarn, but I already had yarn that was 100% rayon with no clue what to do with it…

That’s when my teacher and mentor Pamela Carrico of CMO Designer Knits introduced me to plating. She gave me the wool dress yarn and suggested plating my rainbow rayon yarn on top of it.

It’s. Perfect.

The wool yarn grants elasticity and memory to the fabric and gives it structure due to the way wool fiber clings to itself at the microscopic level with tiny scales. That wool yarn basically negated rayon’s inherent issues.

The wool is about fingering weight and was much more manageable than thread for me as a beginner. The fabric it created was still nice and lightweight, so that meant it was still wearable while being wool, which matters in Oklahoma.

A “what the heck” yarn turned into “this works perfectly” in an instant.

Visual Appeal

The wool yarn has a blush pinkish grey appearance that doesn’t photograph well and didn’t stand out much on its own. As someone attracted to color, I would have passed it up if Pamela hadn’t suggested it.

She knew that rayon needed structure, and she knew my particular rayon didn’t need more color.

Adding the rayon to the wool took it from slightly boring to amazing. The wool didn’t really need anything, but the rainbow colors helped it make a complete fabric.

You won’t always have yarn features or issues to work around like I did, but you might find yourself wanting something more from your yarn, and plating offers that, too.

Lurex metallic yarns are easy to find on sites like Etsy, but sparkle isn’t all you can add to your work. Bouclé yarns add both visual interest and texture to your fabric. The possibilities are nearly endless.

So if you find yourself with a yarn that just doesn’t work on its own, try plating with it!

Plating Issues

Perfect plating places the yarn on the correct side every time, but for me on my standard gauge machine, that meant very careful carriage pushing and checking every row after it was knit. Even then, it didn’t always come out as planned.

rayon rainbow thread yarn on fingering wool dress yarn

If you look closely, you can see plenty of rows where the wool came through on the purl side and the rainbow rayon came through on the knit side. I wanted the rainbow on the purl side and the wool on the knit side for this swatch, but that just didn’t happen.

So where does the LK150 come in?

So far I’ve only discussed my experience with plating on a standard 4.5mm machine, but that’s not what the title said this post was about!

In my personal experience, I have not had the issues with yarns visiting the incorrect side of the fabric when I use the LK150 for plating. Instead of using an interchangeable part, the plating feature is built into the carriage, and I believe this is what makes it a more “stable” plating option.

For the smaller “top” yarn, I’ve used the thread rayon yarn, lace weight yarns, and even sock weight yarns on top of fingering and DK weight yarns. I even attempted plating two fingering weight yarns, which worked, but it wasn’t quite as nice of a fabric as the other combinations.

While preparing this post, I tried running the carriage across the needle bed very quickly, and I still did not experience yarns hitting the incorrect side of the work. This may not be universal and my machine’s younger age (about 3-4 years) might matter. I’m not complaining!

Plating takes yarns that might not be suitable on their own for your machine and makes working with them possible.

How to Plate on the LK150

Thread one yarn into slot 1, thread a second yarn into slot 2 and knit the night away!

That’s all it takes, but you should also make sure the yarns are not close to each other where they might twist or static cling to each other as they feed through the tension unit and carriage. Twisting two yarns together can make an interesting fabric, but that is not what we want in plating.

I can never remember which slot places yarn on the knit side and the purl side, so the first row of my swatches is often opposite of what I intended.

I’ve written it all out here so you won’t have the same problem! I’ll refer to the smaller yarn as the plating yarn.

slots 1 and 2 from the top
slots 1 and 2 from the front, angled upward

If you want your plating yarn to show on the purl side, thread it into slot 2 of the carriage.

If you want the plating yarn to show on the knit side, thread it into slot 1 of the carriage.

Once your carriage is set, swatch for tension and knit as usual!

I really do mean “knit as usual.” You can short row, cable, increase, decrease, and transfer stitches as you normally would while yarn plating.

You will want to be careful about where each yarn sits on the needle with any laddering and latching up to form purls for ribbing or texture stitches. The yarns need to stay on their respective sides of the knit fabric.

The same goes for stitch transferring and fixing dropped stitches. Make sure you catch both loops of yarn and re-hang them in the right orientation.

What do you think? Have you tried plating yarn before? Do you think you’ll try it now on the Silver Reed LK150? Let me know in the comments!

As always, thank you for reading and coming along on my machine knitting journey!

Seminar

Spring Seminar Coming Soon! April 1, 2023

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That’s right! It’s nearly time for our next seminar!

Hand and machine knitters, you won’t want to miss this!

We’re learning how to design a custom fit knitted sweater!

Attendees will learn measurement tips and tricks to accommodate various body type needs and draw a body block schematic based off of their own measurements.

We’ll discuss ease—what it is, what it means for fit, and how you may not actually wear the “size” you think you do because of it.

That’s not all! We’ll talk about how material choice affects garment fit and design considerations you should consider when adding elements to your sweater.

Hope to see you there on April 1, 2023 from 10:00AM – 4:00PM at Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK.

Visit Get Stitchin’s website to sign up today!

https://www.getstitchin.com/machine-knitting-seminar

Knitting Machines, resources

Resource Roundup- YouTube Edition

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Do you have a favorite machine knitting YouTuber? You will after this post!

Each channel name links to the channel, so check them out!

Anna Haferman

Anna has a tutorial about using a KnitLeader with the LK 150! How awesome is that?

She also has project videos with really clever ways to work fair isle among other things. I’ve been watching her channel a lot lately, and she might be my favorite machine knitting YouTuber!

Diana Sullivan

Diana’s channel features beginner lessons along with cast-on, cast-off, and edging videos.

This pinwheel baby blanket was one of my very first machine knitting projects. (Her channel doesn’t allow embedding videos, so there won’t be a preview for this one.)

Creative Tien

Creative Tien features machine knitting, crochet, and sewing tutorials. I found the channel very recently but have really been enjoying it.

I really like the scalloped edges from this video:

Knitology 1×1

Channel owner Elena works in London as a knitted textiles designer and shares stitch and project tutorials.

The braided cable in this tutorial makes a lovely tank top strap that I can’t wait to try:

Claire Newberry

Although she only has a few videos, they’re worth the watch. Plus, she wears gorgeous sweaters as she films!

I particularly enjoyed her bead knitting video. The swatches she displays at the beginning are gorgeous!

Carole’s Country Knits at Rocking Horse Farm

I believe they might be more active on Instagram, but the Rocking Horse Farm channel is still worth a visit!

My brain isn’t quite happy with the 90 degree rotation from flatbed to circular sock machine, so this short rowing video has been helpful:

The Answer Lady

You may know the channel from the Ask Jack machine maintenance videos, but channel also includes pattern tutorials, tips, and tricks. I’ve seen Circular Sock Machine tutorials recently, too!

The Knitting School Online

TKSO offers more classes on their website than their channel, but you can get a good idea about their paid content through their YouTube content.

This double bed jacquard video made me excited to try out my color changer attachment.

Roberta Rose Meads (previously Roberta Rose Kelly)

Some videos may be “old” by YouTube standards, but the channel is a wealth of knowledge.

I’m obsessed with short rows, so learning you can do intarsia using short rows was amazing! Check it out:

Susan Guagliumi

In addition to her books, Susan Guagliumi has Craftsy videos! Not all of them are on uploaded to YouTube, but if you’re looking to see if her Craftsy content is worth it, and I’ve had many people tell me it definitely is, check out her channel!

Knit It NOW

Sue at Knit It NOW has a wonderful website with a yearly subscription that she introduces on her channel. You can have a free membership with access to some of her content on her website, but YouTube is still a good way to browse some of what you can find at her main site. (Her channel doesn’t allow embedding videos, so there won’t be a preview for this one.)

While in-person learning will always be my learning preference, I love finding new machine knitting video resources!

Who am I missing? I’d love to watch your favorite machine knitting YouTubers.

Thanks for tagging along with me on my machine knitting journey!

News

February Happenings

elyknits

Wow! January flew by! I hope you all are staying warm and well.

Winter Knit-A-Long Continues

Don’t worry if you missed any meetings in January!

If you’d like to join us in knitting the Festival of Stitches by Lisa Hannes, please do! This is a very casual KAL focused on knitting fellowship as we all finally take time to make something for ourselves.

Every Wednesday from 12:00PM to 4:00PM we’ll be at Get Stitchin’ working on this beautiful wrap.

I’ve had a wonderful time making new friends and chatting with old friends. I hope you’ll join us if you’re in the Tulsa area!

Important Date Change–Machine Knitting Spring Seminar

Originally scheduled for April 8, 2023, our Spring Machine Knitting Seminar is now APRIL 1, 2023 from 10AM-4PM.

Someone, not naming names, (EMILY), used Orthodox Easter to schedule the week before Easter. (I learned something, though. That’s good, right?)

Joking aside, I apologize for any inconvenience this scheduling change might cause. I hope that we have changed things early enough for anyone who has already planned their trip to Tulsa to reschedule without issues.

Again, the Spring Machine Knitting Seminar is April 1 from 10:00AM to 4:00PM.

Visit the Event Page on Get Stitchin’s website to sign up.

Pamela Carrico of CMO Designer Knits returns to share over 40 years of machine knitting experience with us.

We will be learning to make a body block and designing a custom fit sweater from that body block!

Eureka! Fiber in the Ozarks

March 16-18, 2023
Eureka Springs Community Center

Find some ELY Knits handmade goodies among others from the Get Stitchin’ crew at the Eureka! Fiber in the Ozarks festival in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Visit the festival’s website to learn more.

Sock Club is coming in March!

There’s more fun coming to Get Stitchin’! Sock Club is starting up in March and will run all year through November. Every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month from 10:30AM-12:00PM I’ll be going over the Sock of the Month.

If you prefer weekdays, Ms. Terry has a weekday meetup every 2nd and 4th Tuesday.

This is not a class, so you will need to have some experience already, but Ms. Terry and I will be around to help you troubleshoot. This will be a great opportunity for newer sock knitters and veterans alike as we explore heels, construction methods, and new sock yarns.

As always, you can check out my Google Calendar for standing classes, events, and shows.


Class booking and availability will be according to Get Stitchin’s website, so be sure to check their Classes page.


If you would like to book a lesson that is sold out or is not on the schedule, please contact me and we will find a date and time that work for you.

Patterns

The Doodle Beanie — Free Machine Knitting Pattern

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I was playing around on my Silver Reed LK150 a while back and came up with this simple beanie that begs to be customized. This hat has a folded brim and a cinched crown that would look great with an added pompom.

It’s just a rectangle, but it’s the perfect template to doodle around with and try out new things as you develop your machine knitting arsenal of techniques. I hope you enjoy it and put your own spin on it!

Materials

50-150g of Worsted Weight Yarn (Samples use Cascade 220 Superwash Wool at T7)
Silver Reed LK 150 6.5mm knitting machine

Sizing

Baby- 60 stitches, 30L-30R
Child/Teen- 80 stitches, 40L-40R
Adult- 90 stitches, 45L-45R
Adult L- 100 stitches, 50L-50R

Gauge

4 st per in at T7 in Cascade 220 Superwash

The Doodle Beanie concept will work with any machine gauge and suitable yarn. Knowing your stitches per inch from swatching yarn is immensely beneficial, so I encourage you to swatch beforehand if you have no clue what yarns knit best at what tensions on your machine. 

Pattern Instructions 

Set Tension to 7.
E-wrap CO 60 (80, 90, 100) stitches.

Brim:
Knit 20 (30, 40, 40) rows.
Hang hem by picking up the e-wrap and hanging it on the needle above it. 
Knit 1 row at T9. 

Revert back to T7.
Reset to RC000

Body:
This is the place to experiment with stitch patterns, stripes, etc
Knit 20 (30, 40, 40) rows.

Crown: 
Transfer stitches to EON.

Tension down to T6. Knit 1 row.
T5. Knit 1 row. 
T4. Knit 1 row.
T3. Knit 1 row.


Finishing:
Do not remove stitches from needles. 
Leaving a tail long enough to seam the beanie, cut yarn. 
Thread needle and sew through the live stitches from the opposite side of the tail before removing the beanie from the machine. 
Cinch the top of the beanie together. 
Pull tightly but be careful not to break your yarn. 

Mattress stitch the sides of the beanie together. Weave in ends. Attach a pompom if you like. 

Modification Tips and Ideas

For a rolled brim, halve the number of rows in the brim step and do not hang the stitches.  

If you are not comfortable using your transfer tools or are in need of a very quick knit, tensioning down alone will work, but you will need to cinch the top together above the remaining live stitches like the pictures below to close the crown. The density of stitches at the crown is why we decrease to EON.

If you want a bit of a slouchy beanie, you can add 5 rows and skip tightening tension in the crown altogether. It will be easier to cinch the top if you decrease to EON.

Try knitting two strands of smaller yarns together or using variegated yarn to spice up the simplest version of this hat. 

Abbreviations

COCast On
BOBind Off
WPWorking Position
CORCarriage on Right
COLCarriage on Left
EONEvery Other Needle
RC ###Row Count ###, i.e. Row Count 023
T#Tension and size number (Tension 1, Tension 2…)

What will you doodle?

Did you knit a Doodle Hat? Please consider sharing your projects on ravelry so I can see what you made. I love seeing project pictures!

If you’d like to help support the site, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi.

As always, thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey! Let me know what you think below in the comments. I’m also happy to hear from you via my contact form or on Instagram.