Back on track

So I took up my labors again this morning, and failed time after time.  Finally I took the key plate out to the garage and fairly soaked it with silicon spray.  Problem solved!  My next try resulted in row after row of beautiful stitches, with no dropped stitches at all.  Of course, now I'm tired like a dead thing.

That's the up side.  The down side is that the row counter stopped working somewhere in the 50s and I have no idea how long this piece is.

Knowing nothing about knitting, I'm taking advice from the innerwebs.  I have read that since the knitting was under tension on the machine, I should let it rest for 24 hours before I check the gauge.  Tomorrow I will block it and see if the gauge is ok, and then I can start!

Keee-rap!

Yesterday I bought some yarn for my first project, and this morning I settled down to making a swatch, only to have absolutely everything go wrong.  I haven't been able to get beyond row 16, and now I see that one of the thingies in the hem weight has broken.  I'll be taking a break until I can calm down.

Machine knitting day whatever (no longer counting)

By day 4 I was no longer losing stitches at the ends, but I did finally drop one in the middle of the row.  I didn't catch it in time and it ran.

I don't think I did a very good job of picking it up, so I dropped another and let it run.  Fixing it went better the second time.

Next I decided to try knitting different yarns from my tiny stash, only to discover that moths had gotten to it!  This is all I could get out of the ball of gray yarn.

Isn't it pretty?  And it looks just like "real" knitting.  And finally I tried some slightly nubby tweed stuff (the actual color is a dark olive).

Sis has offered to put together a yarn package for me to play with, until I'm confident enough to start a real sweater.  Which should be soon.

In the meantime, I have no place to sew.  I'm thinking of moving the knitting machine to the top of the old ironing board, since it's easier to use while standing.

Machine knitting day three

I finally succeeded in casting on!

And followed up with many failures!

I don't know what I was doing to cause those first stitches to fall off.  Probably if I knew more about knitting I would know what was happening and how to fix it.  But finally I made my first 12 perfect rows.  Aren't they pretty?

Machine knitting day two

Waaaaa!  It's too haaarrrddd!  I can't even accomplish the first steps of casting on.

I told Sis I'm going to send it back, but I'm not.  I haven't got the hang of it yet, but I'm intrigued.

Sis's birthday celebration

I (Annie) was going to take Sis out for her birthday, but when I arrived in Seattle I discovered I hadn't brought my card case.  Sis generously offered to buy lunch, so now I owe her.  Here she is modelling the ring I gave for her.

We had lunch on the terrace at Maximilien's; it was loads of fun!

And when I got home, my new machine had arrived!

I can hardly wait to get started on it, but I've read enough around the web to know that I need to watch the video before I start, so I'm off to do that.

Window Pane blouse finished!

Having re-grown my thumb, I finished the Window Pane blouse yesterday!  It's so beautiful, I swoon every time I look at it.  I think, however, that the next time I make this blouse I will come down a size or two.

Here is Dahlia modeling the Window Pane by the rose garden (with David's handmade fence in the background).

Now it's on to Vogue 8813.

PS  Happy Birthday, Sis!