My youngest got a new winter coat, a lovely teal Carhartt jacket featuring motifs by an American Indigenous artist. She made a comment about wanting a wide headband with a twist in the front. Momma to the rescue!
I found a teal yarn (I think it's a washable wool from Wal-Mart, like 15 years ago). Of course, I can't do just plain. Megan didn't seem to want a headband that exactly matched her jacket as well. I was going to machine knit this, so why not do some patterning? I only had the Singer 327 set up and the teal yarn was going to at the absolute upper limit, so I was also testing some cone yarns. However, the 327 did not want to play. At all. I tried a couple different cast ons, but it was in a bad mood and quickly, so was I.
I walked away with a snarled mess still on the needles. I speculated it was the sponge bar--it had been awhile since I've used it.
I got out the Singer LK150. It's been in its box, I guess since I got the Singer 155. I just scrolled back to see when I got the 155...February 2011! I haven't had the LK150 out since then?! Actually, in that post, I have the 155 and 150 on one table. Where was the 327? I don't know, but by using the LK150 tags, I found a post from August 2017 that described having some serious issues with the LK 150. This event had been wiped from my memory!
Immediately, the LK150 was unhappy. Needles were jamming, caps were coming off and jamming in the carriage or flying across the table. I couldn't find the tools. I bent one needle in the middle, so I tried taking an end needle out to switch...and along with the needle came goo. Icky, sticky goo. My husband pulled on it and pulled out a few inches of disintegrated sponge bar. This did not help.
I wanted to use the basic four stitch tuck pattern in the instruction book, in two colours. I cast on 25-25 stitches, based on
Anna Haferman's video. I was thinking tuck makes things wider but shorter, but I couldn't remember for sure. Having 50 sts meant one extra at each side for seaming (the 4 stitch tuck needed 48 sts).
It was really rough going. I got tired from standing on the concrete floor, wedged up between the spare fridge and the knitting machine. I couldn't find the right focal distance when needing to fix mess ups. At some point, I lost the right edge stitch but I couldn't find a dropped stitch anywhere. I did eventually find the right tools, including the 3-1 needle selector. At 160 rows, as per the video, I cast off and gave it a good stretch.
It looked short, and it was. I put it back on the machine, at the right end. I thought maybe those needles would work better. After two rows, I took it off and put it all the way to the left, where at least some of the sponge strip remained, though it was no better than in the middle. I added another 28 rows or so, but I think next time I'd do a total of 192 for our small heads.
I sewed it up, steamed it and presented it. Her comment "I thought you were going to do it all one colour?"
I had done at least one plain row after the cast on, I think partially by accident and also because I thought it would help. The instructions say the sewing together doesn't show, so I thought the plain row wouldn't show either. Perhaps because it's stretched out, it does.
This headband used 79gr and just for funsies, I weighed the yarn tails after sewing together, and they were 3gr, so I'm calling this 82gr!
Megan is much taller than me and this wide width is fine for her, but I saw so many of these headbands done on the plastic circular knitting machines that looked really wide. They have fixed needles though, so only by changing the yarn do you get size changes, and you can't vary the yarn too much or it looks too thin or is too hard to knit.
I order a new sponge bar on Amazon. That was interesting. There were only two or three options, with the quickest being almost a week wait and with shipping costs. Then I added a bottle of Singer sewing machine oil, and suddenly I could get it the next day, and free shipping. I do have Prime, so the original shipping costs were surprising. While waiting for it, I took out all the needles and got to cleaning it. So much dust and yuck. We couldn't find anything to really get down into the needle channel (not just the large slot, but the actual groove), so finally I took it to the shower and gave it a good blast. The needles I soaked in some water, rubbing alcohol and a drop of dish soap.
The sponge bar and oil arrived...in a large box! It took awhile to get all the needles back in. I'd get in a groove but then one would be difficult. Mine are "white" and light grey caps, but only the little disc on top, and the difference between them is negligible....until you insert them. Originally I tried to put them in different jars when I took them out, but I kept mixing up which jar was which. Next time, write it down on the jar. I gave the two piles of needles a few drops of the oil in the latch area, but I didn't do them individually.
At work, we did Secret Santa. We had a sheet to fill out with our favourite drinks, snacks, smells, what we love but don't buy, what we can't live without and something we collect. For collecting, I put Diet Coke in cans (I put it for all the categories LOL), and yarn. I received a gift bag from my Secret Santa, and there was this gorgeous skein of yarn. They obviously knew me (some of the teachers are new, and many are part time. There's some I don't even see) because it's a great match for my bright pink coat! It's 100% acrylic, so I was stumped on what to make. Not mittens, but I could do more hand warmers. I didn't really need a scarf or hat, though they are both options. Maybe I'll make a cowl with the leftover.
I really hate Blogger's formatting. In the last post, I had copied a section from a previous post and it messed up the rest of the post. Here, I had written that paragraph above earlier on, but decided to move it down by copy and paste. Blogger wants it to be centered, even though I keep asking for it to be left aligned. It won't align this paragraph to the left either, even though it's showing it's left aligned.
The picture on the label shows wide striping, but doesn't say how stitches that is over. It also shows greens, but my skein was definitely more turquoise. I decided I would do two row stripes, using each end of the skein. I cast on 20-20 and started with T4. I wanted it a bit narrower than Megan's. I realized it was too tight of tension though, so starting at row 57, I loosened the tension by one click every two rows. I kept it at 6* until row 104 and then started tightening the tension every two rows by one click. Because the two ends gets sewn together, they had to match. I knit to row 161, which was done with T9 and then a loop through loop cast off.
Quick grocery store selfie to send to Megan.
The sewing up is really interesting. I had thought, before seeing the tutorials, that there must be a keyhole. No! Watch the end of that Anna Haferman's video to see how it's done.
You can clearly see the looser tension in the middle section.
Here again you can see how the tension gets looser towards the left. I have issues with hats and headbands not laying right because of my glasses. I try to cover my forehead, but then it's weird on my glasses. Try to cover my ears, and the headband goes up high and doesn't cover my forehead. The way this headband twists at the centre front makes it even more narrow, so I guess the extra width they usually have, is needed. Or, don't wear it when it's freeze-your-forehead-skin cold.
The part knitted at 6* has a tension of about 5st/inch and 5.75 rows/inch. I think for general use, I'd do 5* or 6. The 6* does have nice drape but is verging on too loose. It used 67gr and I have 62 gr left. Do I make fingerless gloves? What's the latest tea on wearing matching items? Or should I make a hat to donate? How big of hat can I make? Some quick math reveals I have 124.26yds left. A quick Google search shows that'll be enough for a baby hat. Really, I thought there was more left in the skein!
Yarn In: 141 grams
Yarn Out: 2466gr + 82gr + 66gr = 2636gr
Balance: 2495gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0
And that's a wrap on 2025 (and Blogger changed the font!).
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