Odds and Ends Archives - Page 2 of 7

English Rib for the Machine Knitter

English Rib, also known as Half Fisherman’s Rib or Shaker Knit, is a ribbing variation you can machine knit on any machine with a ribber. Above you can see swatches of English Rib, Swung English Rib and Fisherman’s Rib.

English Rib on a Singer Knitting Machine

To knit English Rib on a Singer machine, we start by casting on as we would for a 1 x 1 rib.

We can see in the above image the Operation Table from the manual for my Singer machine. The first portion deals with the cast on if you use that method, but we see in the second portion our settings for the stitch pattern.

Starting with the carriage on the left.

We aren’t using the punch card so we set the patterning lever to the circle.
On our main bed carriage, we set the left side lever to the circle and the right side lever to the triangle.
We set the cam lever to tuck.
On the ribber carriage we leave both set levers on ‘1’
Pitch is ‘P’ and swing set to 5.
We set the tension or stitch size appropriate to our yarn and the same on both carriages

Then we knit

On the first carriage pass knitting from left to right, both beds knit as usual. I expect as I learn more about using knitting machines this will be proven wrong, but to me it seems as if setting that side lever on the main carriage to triangle allows the carriage to ignore that the cam lever is set to ‘tuck’.

Knitting from right to left, the ribber knits as usual but on the main bed the machine just lays the yarn in the hooks without knitting it. It knits on the next carriage pass when we go from left to right.

We can reverse this and have the machine knit right to left and tuck left to right. We just need to set the left side lever to triangle and the right side lever to the circle.

More on English Rib

You can see a full demonstration of knitting English Rib on the Singer knitting machine on my channel. While you’re there don’t forget to hit the subscribe button!

Ribber Basics – eWrap Cast On for Ribbing

I prefer the eWrap cast on in all situations including when I’m casting on ribbing.

The zig-zag, or circular cast on shown in machine manuals involves multiple steps and changes to the carriage settings and I can count on forgetting at least one setting. I’ve had many FUBAR’s using the circular or zig-zag method suggested in the manual. But eWrap cast on has never done me dirty like that.

Look Ma, No Ripples!

You know what else the eWrap cast on doesn’t do? It doesn’t create a ripple in my work. Consider the swatches pictured below.

1 x 1 Ribbing knit on the Singer Knitting Machine

Or these swatches…

eWrap Cast on – 1 x 1 Rib

For a 1 x 1 rib, we set the pitch on our ribber to ‘P’ and the swing to 5. Using our 1 x 1 needle pusher we pull our desired number of needles from the main bed and the alternating needles of the ribber bed with our carriages on the right (COR).

We wrap our yarn counter clockwise around the needle, effectively we are forming the letter ‘e’ with our yarn around the needle.

For our ribber needles, we wrap clockwise. Knit one row and insert cast on comb.

2×2 Industrial Rib – eWrap Cast On

For 2 x 2 Industrial Rib, we set our pitch to ‘H’ or half pitch. Swing is set to 5. With our carriage on the right (COR) and using our 1×2 needle pusher, we pull needles on the main bed and ribber bed so they look as above.

Again, we wrap our main bed needles counter-clockwise and ribber needles clockwise. Knit one row and insert cast on comb.

Casting On with the Ribber – Singer Knitting Machines

Casting on with the Ribber was one part of machine knitting I really struggled with. I still struggle with it some days. Getting the first steps exactly right and then completely bodging it up in the next one because I missed a carriage setting is the norm for me. But this is how we do the circular cast on with Singer Knitting Machines.

The photo above is the Singer operation table for casting on with the ribber.

Row 1

Row 1 tells you your settings. Reading from left to right:

Punch Card – we’re not using it for ribbing, so set it to the circle.
Knitter Carriage – Set the Left Side Lever to the circle, set the Stitch/Cam Lever to Stockinette and the Right Side Lever to the circle. Unless you’re knitting part rows, Russell Levers are always set to ‘II’.
Next 2 items are on the ribber arm that connects the two carriages. One is in the image above between the 2 screws that attach it to the knitter carriage.
Tension Dials – here you are instructed to set the stitch size on both carriages to zero. The stitch settings need to be as tight as possible for this cast on method.
Ribber Carriage Set Lever left is set to ‘1’, Pick Knob is set to the arrow rather than the ‘U’, auto set lever to ‘1’, and Set Lever right is set to ‘1’.
Pile Levers – these are located on the sides of your ribber bed. The one with the blue circle.
Half Pitch Lever and Swing – for 1 x 1 rib, we set the pitch lever to P and the swing to ‘5’.
The final column tells you which direction to move your carriage in.

Row 2

Row 2 shows your needle arrangement. For a 1 x 1 rib every other needle of the main bed is put into work. On the ribber, every other needle but alternating with the main bed needles is put into work.

Row 3

Row 3 is just indicating you should add your cast on comb (affiliate link) and weights (affiliate link). Center your cast on comb in the work and evenly distribute your weights. The number of weights is based on number of stitches cast on.

Row 4

On row 4 you will adjust the settings for your Ribber Carriage. You will change the left set lever to ‘0’ so the ribber will not knit on passes to the left. Only the knitter carriage knits.

Row 5

You will change the cam lever on your knit carriage to slip. For this pass, only the ribber knits.

Row 6

Cam lever goes back to stockinette, only knit carriage knits.

The cast on is complete.

Now you can set your tension on both carriages to one appropriate for your yarn. You will also need to set the ribber carriage to knit in both directions by changing the left set lever back to ‘1’

If you have a ribber but haven’t used it or are considering getting a ribber for your machine you might be interested in my post on Why You Want a Ribber for Your Knitting Machine.

Simple Knitted Dishcloth for Chunky Knitting Machines

When I first learned to hand knit, dish cloths were the go-to beginner friendly project and I love the results. But – I absolutely hate hand knitting dishcloths. It’s such a short row to knit that it feels like I spend more time turning the project than actually knitting. So working out a pattern for a knitted dishcloth on the chunky machine was a must do project for me.

Now if you follow me on YouTube, I did a couple of videos on rehabbing my Singer 150 Chunky Knitter. It’s still got a few issues with needles, two of the brand new needles in the center portion of the bed were defective. Which is why my e-wrap cast on is off center. I’ve cast on 25 needles for my dishcoth because I prefer a smaller cloth. This dishcloth can be knit on any machine capable of knitting this weight of yarn. No patterning capability needed.

For the first row, I set my carriage to tuck stitch. For my machine that is done by setting the Russell Levers at the sides of the carriage to position ‘-‘ instead of ‘=’. Set the stitch selector to stockinette. On my machine, tension 9 is a good stitch size. Keep in mind the yarn shrinks in the wash which can make the cloth feel more like a pot holder than a dish cloth if the stitch size is too small. You can see how much the washed dishcloth on the right of the first picture shrunk compared to the just knitted cloth on the left.

Next leaving the first 2 needles in working position, I pull every other needle out to ‘hold’.

Then I knit two rows. Next I change my Russel Levers back to ‘=’ to knit all needles.

Knit one row. Change the Russel Levers back to ‘-‘ to skip held needles.

Pull opposing needles to hold position starting one needle from the edge this time. Knit two more rows using tuck settings. Then one row with Russel Levers set to ‘=’ to knit all needles. That’s all there is to it.

I continue on in the pattern until my row counter is around 70. Then I bind off after the last row of all needles knit.

If You’re Here…

If you found yourself here, most likely it was because of a turtle planter I made using a wire hanging basket, some moss, chicken wire and four clay pots.

By all rights that post should never even have been noticed let alone gone viral. The pictures were low quality and even the video I made showing the process was awful. But I planted it with succulents – Oh My! (heavy sarcasm here and it was actually hens and chicks or sempervivum) and one day a very popular site – Goods Home Design – shared it on their own site and all of a sudden my crappy little post went viral.

Exciting right?

Well no, not really. Absolutely it was exhilarating to have thousands of views in a single day. Some of those views turned into followers but I was never able to build that into any sort of community. I would get comments asking me where to buy the baskets or the moss, but it never extended to anything else I was doing. And the truth is I don’t like succulents much at all. I’m up in Canada and growing any sort of succulent that looks nice is a lot of work and supplemental lighting.

A Painful Truth

For a while after that stupid turtle went viral, I tried my hardest to ride the wave and turn it into something bigger. I made crappy posts on shittier crafts that nearly always went into the garbage after. Worse it was garbage I didn’t even enjoy making.

I followed other diy bloggers and sometimes watched them share that stupid turtle and give all of the credit to Goods Home Design. I’m pretty fu*king confident Goods Home Design made way more money off of my work than I ever did. Some bloggers even posted their own “turtle” which even if they gave me credit for the idea still left me with a bit of resentment.

Blogging about Blogging?

There is an entire corner of the blogging world where bloggers blog about blogging. I do believe some of them make a living and at least a few of them make a very good living doing so. But if you look really close a lot of it is just scammy bullshit. Pay $10 for this single page PDF that will tell you how to build for success type garbage. As much as I would love to make money at this (I do make a small amount that covers the hosting costs) I’m not here for the scammy shit.

Moving Forward…

So to put this all together, moving forward I won’t be doing scams and nor will I be cobbling together shitty crafts for views and clicks. What I will be doing is the things I enjoy doing and sharing some of those projects here. So no there won’t be any more topiary – probably.

There might be some garden crafts – I really liked the chicken wire allium I made. At least until my current dog destroyed every single one of them along with all of my solar lights. There will be some knitting – both hand and machine, some sewing and whatever other hobbies I decide to pursue. If you’re down for that, I look forward to hearing from you on future posts here and on my YouTube channel.

Meanwhile…

The turtle gets to stay for the people who still find it and enjoy it. As I add new posts, I will probably delete some of the older posts. At least the ones that are crap or making crap.