Knitting Machine Woes & Triumphs

Ok ~ so I bet you can't guess what I did? huh ~ huh ~ huh ~ bet yah can't .... well, all right, maybe the title DID give it away! Yes, it's true, I DID buy a knitting machine. ok, ok, I'll be honest. I bought three. No, wait, I only bought two, the nice lady at the garage sale threw the other one in ~for Good Measure~.



Yes, it's true ~ I can now knit at LIGHTNING SPEED!!! MWWAHAHAHAHA And guess how much $$?? ( Cuz you know it's not really a deal until you can brag to all your friends & acquaintances about what a DEAL it was...;-D) $25 bucks each!!! Yup, $50 bucks for the two, and third one thrown in for free!

AND....wait, there's more! If you ask now, I'll ALSO include the model #'s AND let you know how much they are worth on the current eBay market!!

:-D (that's a cheeser, in case you were wondering)


Well, twist my arm! Ok, so the OLDEST FREE-BEE is a KnitKing Auto KK98 punchcard. And there is a Brother ( Brother & Knit King are one & the same) on eBay right now just like it going for $1499.00!!!



WOO-double HOOOOO! And I tried that baby out, and it makes lace, and does these funky tuck stitches and slip stitches and stuff BEAUTIFULLY! Plus, it wasn't that hard to figure out. ( it took me all of 2 days....but I admit it, I was a bit obsessive about it...nevertheless... hah! 2 days!)








The next one is a KnitKing Compuknit IV (essentially a Brother KH940). It is basically like this one on eBay. Please note the $2500.00 price tag. (Mine was $25 too, hehehehe, minus about 4 zero's!!!) Mine came with all of those gadgets too, even two G-carriage's, an intarsia carriage, and all sorts of pattern disks & this garter bar thingy ( haven't used that yet), and a color changer doo-hickey, and even a funky old square disk reader.






The instructions from that were SO funny:

"An introduction to the floppy disk ~ .....there is also another quite separate memory in your machine called "RAM", which allows you to program your own stitch pattern designs.....the disk will accept information from the knitting machine quite happily."

We all know what a quite sad disk will do ~ or what we will do to it, ( didn't they used to sell sledge hammers with Win95 ??)

Yes, this one took me three or four days to figure out... it was a doozy,

BUT

I have played around on it and produced some REALLY pretty tuck stitch patterns, a funky lot of slip stitch examples and some cool thread yarn knitting that looks so fine I am gonna use it for baby clothes!!


AHAHAHA ~ all of that size 10, 20 & 30 bedspread crochet thread that I have been hoarding will actually get USED.
So eat THAT, Wood Genius! HAH! ( I may now have to get more... wouldn't want to run out... colors, this could go beyond Christening layettes....hmmmmm)
























And lastly, but certainly not leastly, I ALSO got ( for a measley $25, might I remind you all ... hehehe my bargain diva prowess is PROCLAIMED!!) a KnitKing CompuKnit Bulky (again, the same as a Brother Electronic KH270).



Which, there is also one of THOSE on Ebay as well, going for... guess it.. guess it...

$3145.00!!!

WOO HOOO!! doing the happy dance~ arm pump, butt wiggle, neck jive HAPPY DANCE!

So yah. And so it goes. In fact, I am going to have to haiku this. Sorry, you know me, those haiku just sorta roll on out ~

Three knitting machines
five days of intense study
a lifetime of yarn.

Oh that's so appropo. I just hope Wood Genius doesn't see it. He might regret handing me that $45 cash out of his pocket last Saturday at the garage sale. ( I only had $5 on me) Of course, if he hadn't, I might have had a heart attack right then & there. And then he'd be stuck doing his own laundry and making light conversation with total strangers..... sympathetic to the sad ordeal of cleaning out my ~Stash~...es. ( I have multiple stashes... but let's not discuss this right here & now, eh?)

Crocheted Baby Blankie and Layette thingy ma doo ee

Ok, I bet all of you homeschoolers are wondering if I even homeschool anymore. The answer is yes ~ in fact, I absolutely DO! The dealio is, though, I just don’t have time to post it all,

However, in the spirit of bending to my current whims & obsessions, I amazingly DID have time to photograph a couple of crochet projects I did for my sister-in-law’s new baby. (If little Lucy turns into a boy at the last minute, I’m sorta toast, because I just sent these off, and she (Lucy) isn’t quite born yet.) It helps that I specifically posted these so that my mother in law could see them first. :-D (We love you guys & miss you SO Much!)

Any way here are the goodies.



This is my stitch sampler blanket ~ or I like to call it my Jacob’s Blanket of many colors/ stitches. It is made of hand-dyed cotton yarn. The cotton yarn has a nice little rayon thread running through it which gives it a pretty baby shine.








This is the layette, which hopefully fits little Lucy. It should fit up to 3 months, but that’s if the child isn’t born weighing over 9 lbs. Which I suppose is possible. Afterall, my second oldest ( who is now ~ GULP ~ almost 17!!) weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs even. You could set her next to other babies & she looked about 3 months older/ bigger. I don’t wish that scenario on any mother! ;-D






This is just an old baby gown that I made for my 4th oldest daughter ( garsh, and that child is now.. hoo booyy! 13… whoa, where do the years go??!?) I hand-smocked it, but the funny thing is, I had no clue about how to smock, so I just did it, and that’s what turned up. I recently bought some books about smocking, and realized that there are little patterns with guidance dots, and machines that will pleat it for you, and all sorts of goodies that make it easier. As I read those books, I was like “ Ooohhh… duh… yup, THAT would’ve been nice to know!” I just posted the picture because that was what was on the dolly underneath the new crocheted outfit.




And how do you like that dolly? ~heheheh~ That is my sad attempt at putting together somebody else’s cast-off ~ found on eBay~ cheapo-deluxe ~ porcelain doll project. But hey, it’s pretty much life-size for a little older than newborn ( about 3 months) so it makes for a good try-on model, and besides which, the daughter who received her couldn’t care less that she has sorta funky arms, a tippy head, and some bad face paint..

So it’s all good.