Ouch!

Knitting is supposed to be relaxing, right?  Sit on the couch and watch TV.  Ride the train and keep busy.  Watch the kids' swimming lesson and make a sock.

Well, machine knitting is not like that at all.  It's loud.  It's physical.  And sometimes, you get hurt!

I got an order from my sister-in-law for an "Edith hat" and "Gru scarf" from Despicable Me, for Hallowe'en.  There was no way I was making a 9ft scarf without using my knitting machine, and the best option was the standard gauge with ribber, since I should be able to find medium grey and black fine yarns with no trouble.  Well.

I wrote about the flooding in the spring.  With the resulting construction on and off, my workstation became more of a dumping grounds.  Although I had projects I wanted to make for myself, the mess down there was very uninspiring.

 Ugh.  Terrible to look at!  The other side of the room is just as bad.  There's no where to put a lot of the stuff while we're working, half the floor is missing, the walls are bare concrete.  But I was determined, so I got at it.

It really didn't take too long, even with cleaning the machine.  However, what you can't see is that a LOT of stuff just went over to the other desks!
I got started with swatching, didn't like my available yarns, feared they wouldn't be enough anyway.  Couldn't understand why a sock yarn, at 30st/4" was giving me a hard time (the black stripes).  Went and bought some new yarn, Loops & Threads "Woollike".  Got started on the Gru scarf, but still was having troubles.

And not just normal troubles.  Stupid operator errors, kids needing things upstairs, clumsiness, something about the black yarn...everything was joining forces to make this project unpleasant.  It almost got to be funny--knit a few good rows (usually in the grey), switch to black, see another thing that might be causing the problem, something else goes totally wrong...and then it all dropped off the machine.  Yup.

So, after a time out, I got back to it on Monday.  I switched out the old black for the Woollike black, thinking the slightly thinner black would make a difference.  No.  Realigned the ribber, but it still got slightly off alignment when pushing to the right.  More weight, less weight, etc.

Then, as I was leaning over the machine, I pushed the carriage and squashed my finger against the back rail.  As I sat down to pout, my knee knocked the 7 hanger (which I can never get to stay in!) and the large ribber weight (519gr/18oz) came down on my bare toes.

At this point, my husband said I had to quit for the night.  I quit to make dinner LOL. My toe is very blue and sore still.  Normally on Tuesdays I got skating at lunch, but not today.

I got back at the machine, but this time, I switched the SRP20 ribber carriage for the carriage I normally use.  When I had packed up in the winter, I had put on the 321 ribber to test it out while the mainbed was getting some work done.  At least I think the ribber on it is the 321's.  Even if it's the one from the 327, doesn't matter.  The other ribber carriage (just says SRP) seems to be the solution.  But then I got the latch tool stuck while trying to fish down tails from a black section and then those tails got knitted in to the next row, jamming the carriage and making more mess that I barely got fixed before I had to leave for work.  This project is seriously cursed!!