Knitablogaglory

A Swarm of Traffic To Your Site

2009-08-07T06:21:00.001-07:00

If you are looking for more quality hits to your website then join here. I use this free system to get more hits and it works quite well.

TAKE ME TO THE TRAFFIC

A Swarm of Traffic To Your Site

TheInfoTube.com -

2009-08-05T11:56:00.001-07:00

Hi,

I have been busy working on my other website, www.theinfotube.com

If you have a moment free please take a look and let me know what you think. It is early days so far, so lots of new interesting items being added all the time.

TheInfoTube.com -

Look out the for the great free giveaways in the top corner of the site.

All for now,

Virginia

Click here for FREE......

2009-08-01T02:30:00.001-07:00

2009-07-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, we all need more traffic, well the most exciting thing about this is that it is FREE and it WORKS!

Earn more money for even more wool!

2009-07-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I just came across something really fun to do that also earns you money to buy even more wool!!

When you are all millionaires from it, just send me some wool please!

http://peaceandprosper.lawnchairmillionaire.com/

let me know how you get on, I joined!

Virginia

Meet the family and me!

2009-07-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,today just a little about me and the family.
watch the video below and have a smile on me.

Where have I been?

2009-07-17T13:52:00.001-07:00

Hello,
I am afraid that I havent been posting recently....still knitting though but mostly by hand.
Knitting machines have been packed up. I havent been able to sell them as postage from here in Tenerife is too expensive.

Last year Martin, my husband had a triple by pass so things have been a bit awkward here to say the least.

Fortunately he has now made a miraculous recovery.

In the meantime I have been busy developing my online business.
Take a look if you have a moment.

http://www.peaceandprosper.com

and tell me what you think of it.

I have been busy handknitting baby clothes. I have some fab french patterns which I translate aswell as some Spanish ones too.

How is your stash?

2006-10-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of sorting out my stash of yarns and I just wondered if mine is worse than anyone elses?

I have the double wardrobe full of complete packets of wool and the shelves and floor with loads of half used cones of wool.

Is this a bit obsessive?

Or are there others out there with similar stashes?

I am in the process of sewing up various projects which were knitted but not made up so that I can get to the ironing board once again. (photos to follow) and I have promised myself never to move on to the next project again before I have completely finished the last one.

The last of the mohicans

2006-10-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

And here is the finished article.

The first of the Mohicans!

2006-10-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a very creative day!! My nephews and niece told me about a mohican hat that they really wanted. They had seen Martin Gore of Depeche Mode wearing one on tour. Well I didn't know what the hell they were talking about but after a bit of research and a bit of fiddling I came up with the finished article this evening..all done in a day and ready to take orders!! So I have 3 to make already for the family!

Martin seen modelling it here for me, loves it and so do I ! It has a kind of gladiator, centurian feel to it aswell as the mohawk, of course!

Something really different to wear instead of a bobble hat in the cold weather this year and definitely will get you noticed!!

It only took about 300 gramms of wool in the main colour and I made it on the chunky machine.

Slowest part was putting the mohawk on, rather time consuming but I am going to dry a different method for the next ones.

All for now.

Onwards and Upwards

2006-10-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

So once the passap had proved that it did indeed work, I decided to unpack the Knitmaster580.

We got it set up on the work top but it kept slipping off the surface so we drilled through the clamps!! It hasnt fallen off again, yet!

I managed to do a few sample pieces and then tried to use the lace carriage..just for the sheer hell of it. Hmmm, thats when I ran into all sorts of problem regarding the programming buttons and also the lace carriage kept snagging on the needles and I bent one!! Martin tried to straighten it and it broke!! Fortunatley I had some spares ( I did try to think of everything).

What I found was that a small piece of the top of a cigarette packet slipped under the sinker plate bolts before the sinker plate was attached did the trick!!! No more snagging, it went across the needles like a breeze!! So I tried to follow my very first machine knitting pattern. ( I had created the black zipper cardi by trial and error) It was for a lacey pair of baby rompers. Bearing in mind that I didnt know what a ravel cord was etc etc, but I soon learnt and the result was..disappointing, pattern rather irregular and not centred but another learning curve had been crossed.

Oh how I wished that I had had someone to show me!! Sure, I have enough books to open a library here but they do not cover some very basic things!!!

I subscribe to Machine Knitting Monthly and decided to try to make myself something. It is a cardigan with hand tooled vertical lace inserts and a scalloped hem. And I have to say that I am impressed!! At the moment all the pieces are made but....I need to make the front bands and I am having trouble...I pull forward the needles and hook on the front, purlside facing, but when I knit a few rows, some of the stitches are unravelling. I want a nice neat finish with a purl stitch at the start.
Should I e-wrap first??? If you know the answer please post a comment!! The cardigan awaits your suggestions.

First Impressions

2006-10-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to
Knitablogaglory !
My name is Virginia Anne, and although I am originally from Kent in the UK, I now reside in the Canary Island of Tenerife.
I qualified as a teacher of dress and design from Bath College of Education more years ago than I care to remember.
Now, for the first time in my life, I find myself with a few windows of time that I can call my own.
So, I have taken up machine knitting!! Hoorah!!
Having retired from the restaurant business in January, I set about my mission of aquiring said knitting machine and I duly went to ebay and found a Knitmaster 580, complete with a myriad of extra bits and bobs and even 150 bits of cones!
Well not knowing much about the whole machine knitting thing I thought I had made a sound purchase.
Of course the machine was in the UK and I was living in Tenerife. Not to worry I thought, I shall go over to the UK by car and bring it back. ( When I say I, I of course mean WE, Martin and I). Well a couple of months went by and I purchased a few more bits and bobs, including a chunky machine.
Well, I thought, if I was going all the way over to the UK to pick up the machine I had better make sure that I had everything that I needed.
Then in March, it was my birthday. Martin asked me what I would like and I said a passap machine and then I would really have this machine knitting thing covered.
Well a lace carriage or 2 later we made the journey by plane because we were not sure that all the stuff would fit in the car by now, and we organised shipping from Manchester to Tenerife, which only took 3 months!
Anyway, eventually it all arrived, including the hague linker and an overlocker and a small bedroom became "The Studio".

Now in the meantime I had decided that I would like to operate a mail order knitting yarn business from home selling spanish yarns. This turned out to be an amazing flop because no one wanted to pay the postage from here to anywhere so I have 2 wardrobes full of yarn now!
It was then that I embarked upon the most expensive sweater in the world for Martin. All he wanted was a zip up cardigan in black. It wasn't much to ask and he had been very understanding about all the paraphanalia that I had purchased.
Now please remember that I am living in Spain. I speak some spanish but machine knitting spanish..noooo. Which really doesn't matter because how many spanish people here use a knitting machine??? Well let's say not many!! It is after all pretty warm here most of the time. How many English speaking people here with a knitting machine? hmmm not many...well even less..no clubs to join...Yes I was on my own!!!!
It was now that the scale of what I had embarked upon dawned on me. I was like a goat between 3 bails of hay, not knowing which machine to approach first.
Luckily for me, hubby was a typewriter mechanic ( oops sorry engineer ) many moons ago and so he at least could come to my rescue when I shouted or screamed " mechanic needed" from the studio.
We first approached the box containing the passap duomatic and gingerly got it onto its stand ( somewhat incorrectly as we later found out). Then one evening after much cursing I finally exited the studio with a small piece of extremely tightly knitted stocking stitch and triumphantly placed it in Martins lap and tried it on him in various positions, as a sleeve, as a collar etc etc.
On subsequent days I produced several rows of patterns before it would refuse to knit another stitch, but my confidence was growing and the cursing became less. Martin on the other hand was by now getting impatient as I kept making scruffy samples which I saved in a plastic carrier bag.
Then he uttered those words, "lets face it darling, the machine doesnt work and you just bought a load of rubbish". It was like red rag to a bull. Just 4 days later and the black zipper cardigan was made!! ( not stitched up but knitted).
"I knew that would work," he said afterwards, "you are so predictable."
And so the first jumper was made, and the passap duomatic could stay!
More stories later but time to cook dinner.

By the way, this blog is my link to the outside knitting world so do feel free to post your experiences, patterns and suggestions.

By the way, the pictures below are some of my hand knitting projects. I love hand knitting, it is so easy to do some while the television is on and so much more sociable than being shut in the studio!