For my next experiment, I used Lion Brand Wool Ease (a wool/acrylic blend) in forest green heather, with a blue Marage 4 ply fingering yarn (which came as sample yarn with a weaving loom.
The Wool Ease is approximately the gauge of the Fisherman’s Wool I’ve used before, but the fingering yarn is much lighter than the Caron Simply Soft I’d paired previously. Continue reading
Learning any new skill requires practice . . . a lot of practice. I did all of my initial learning on the Addi Express using single strand Gauge 4 yarns. But Addi says that socks are properly made with a double strand of knitting yarn, so I gave it a try, even before I was really proficient at using the Addi.
This was the result. It’s actually a fantastic sock! But I’ll explain what happened here. Continue reading
This is part 2 of a set of cue sheets to use when making socks on the Addi Express.
General tips for using the Addi Express Loom are here:
Tips for Using the Addi Express Circular Loom
Continue on to STEP 4A —
Addi Express Machine Knit Socks
(You may want to refer to Sylvie Rasch’s video and to the tips posts listed below before beginning.
These cue sheets won’t teach you how to make a sock on an Addi, but will make knitting socks a lot easier
once you understand the basic process.)
These instructions consist of five steps:
1. Cuff: Cast-on, cranking counter-clockwise, completing rounds for cuff.
2. Heel: Parts one and two.
3. Foot: Completing rounds, counter-clockwise, for foot
4. Toe: Parts one and two.
5. Finish: Grafting toe seam and winding in ends.
The only thing I knew I wanted to make on my Addi Express was bed socks. It’s been quite a journey. The seventy-first and seventy-second casting-ons I did resulted in these:
Not exactly socks, but sock booties. They fit perfectly! And they’re a more-or-less adequate beginning attempt. (As I experimented, my samples got shorter and shorter.) These are knit from Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool — proving that wool can, indeed, work on the Addi Express! Continue reading
Here are a few tips, summarized, for maximizing success while using your Addi Express circular knitting machine:
Best tip of all: There are nearly invisible numbers in front of each needle, all around the Addi. Take a marker, and make the needle numbers visible! This will save you SO much grief over time! Continue reading
Years ago, Mr. Noile and I saw a demonstration of a vintage circular sock loom at a crafts exhibit, and we kind of fell in love with the idea of using an ancient device to make something at once so practical and so luxurious.
We soon learned that sock looms — the metal, ancient, venerable kind — are pricey, and that they can be a tricky item for a novice to buy. And that vendors tend to have lengthy waiting lists for the few that become available. So we let the idea simmer. Until now, when I wanted something new to learn to wrap up the year.
So a really talented artist in Japan has made a bunch of incredible cat backpacks. Her name is Pico Miho, also known as nekoseisaku pico, and you can see her phenomenal work here, on Bored Panda. Her cats are handcrafted, from a huge number of pattern pieces, and sell for around $1,000 USD. Also, she’s not making any at the moment.
This is one of Pico Miho’s cats.
Fraudsters all over the internet will try to sell you a fake.
They will take your money and break your heart. Don’t let them do that.
Leaving aside the question of whether I am willing or able to pay $1,000 for a cat backpack — putting all my money, as it were, where my eccentricities lie — they’re not available. I went for the next best thing. Read on to meet Rufus, my Folkwear Ragdoll cat — and, now, backpack.
We’re not interested in holidays, or anniversaries, and we don’t remember our own birthdays, much less anyone else’s, but we do celebrate one tradition: a new year tea. Or maybe it’s an end-of-year tea.
In any case, it’s how we mark the coming year. Continue reading
Mr. Noile had a favorite waxed canvas coat for a long time, and I bought a more rarefied waxed canvas coat myself a few years ago. I’d never sewn with the fabric, though, so making these bags was a new experience.
I’m not alone in loving the look of classic waxed canvas; it’s a bit like aged leather, without necessitating the murder of animals.
