-
The Notorious Kevin McCallister Moose Hat Pattern
A few years ago, I got the idea to make a recreation of the toque (or beanie for those of you south of the border) that Kevin wears in the movie Home Alone. I wasn’t sure anyone would recognize it, but I thought it would be neat to have. I found a hand-knitting pattern online for a similar hat, but I wanted to make it on the machine. At the time, I figured out a pattern, knitted it on the Superba machine in a pretty heavy DK yarn (which really pushed the limits of the machine, might I add) and made some notes on it on Ravelry. I liked it,…
-
A Treasure Trove
Every so often I’ll see a tip on social media that is worth the hours I’ve wasted to scrolling. Today I learned that if you google “the magazine rack” it will take you to a section of the Internet Archive (or Wayback machine) that has tons of old magazines available for viewing. Including those pertaining to machine knitting! Here is a link to that search specifically: https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack?tab=collection&query=machine+knitting&page=2 You can find some of these on other sites, but this is a really nice layout and it’s got a lot that I haven’t seen before. My favourite part of these old magazines is the ads. I can’t imagine a time when you…
-
Elf Sweaters – Free Pattern!
I thought for sure I had posted about this pattern before, but it looks like I may not have. Even if I have, it’s been years since I first put it up, and I’ve given the document a fresh branding makeover for 2025 so I’ll post it again. If you are someone who likes to dress up your visiting house elf, ’tis the season for knitting some tiny sweaters. I know there are tons of patterns for hand knitted elf sweaters out there, but this one is “designed” (I use the term loosely here!) for a standard gauge 4.5mm (or 5mm) knitting machine with ribber. It’s four rectangles, so if…
-
Machine Knit Elf on the Shelf Sweater
I know it’s February, and actually almost March. Consider me very early for next Christmas, not late for this past one. I made this in December for our visiting elf, but never got around to writing up the pattern until today. Here are a couple of photos of the sweater: As you can likely see, it’s a very simple roll-neck pattern. The front and back are exactly the same, and there is no shaping anywhere. For those keeners who might want to recreate this and need no further instruction, here is the (hand-drawn, not to scale) schematic: If, however, you’d like a little more detail, you can find the full…
-
Needle Quest – Part 2
If you read Part 1 of this series, you will know that I was on a quest for suitable needles for a Bellinky linker. They are virtually impossible to get as it turns out, and although I have a stash, they won’t last forever, and other people are in need of them as well. I won’t keep you reading for no reason: the new needles work perfectly! But not without a few adjustments, so read on if you’d like details. I received the 88×1 needles (very quickly might I add) and look how closely they resemble the Orange PYE-2 needles: I apologize in advance, by the way, for these photos.…
-
Ten-Minute Dishcloth
This is a pattern I came up with out of necessity. What do you do when all the dishcloths are dirty or have wandered away, the washing machine is full, the dryer is broken, and you just want to clean something? Well in my case, you make a dishcloth. OK that, plus I have a lot of worsted weight cotton I want to use up. For me a dishcloth has to have some specific requirements: It has to hang over my tap or sink nicely, without dangling too much. Too big and it hangs all in the way of the handle, too small and it falls off into the sink.…
-
Three Colour, Single Row Height DBJ on the Brother and Superba – Part 2
Well if you read Part 1, you will know that I had found a method for knitting single row height double-bed jacquard, on the Superba, via a couple of different methods, but not the “offset” method that would, a) keep all the colour changes on the same side of the bed, ultimately allowing for, b) use of a colour changer. Now I must take you back to a conversation I had via email with the makers of Superbaknit back in 2018. At that time, I had been using the “Skip stitch” function to knit DBJ, and noticed that it was limited to three colours. I wanted to use four with…
-
Three Colour, Single Row Height DBJ on the Brother and Superba – Part 1
Recently I started exploring double-bed jacquard (DBJ) on the Brother 940 in more detail. I had only played with it a couple of times to knit a couple of the two-colour patterns from Stitchworld, as a test when I first got the machine. Recently while flipping through Stitchworld, I noticed a couple of beautiful three-colour patterns that are in there, and thought I would give them a try. Unfortunately there isn’t much information in the manual about how to knit in three colours, but I assumed I could figure it out – not much different than two colours after all – so I tried to knit #390 and was unsuccessful.…
-
RetroBrite – Again!
You aren’t experiencing déjà vu, I have actually blogged about this very topic before. But I needed to do some of the pieces on my new Brother machines, and since I always get a lot of questions about the process, figured I might as well make a video. It still works amazingly well. Case in point: It’s a simple, inexpensive process that yields quick, dramatic results, and takes years off your knitting machines. (I should sell face cream.) If you are curious about the process, check out my YouTube video here: Check it out, and let me know if you try it, I’d love to see your before and afters!
-
New Toy: The Bellinky Linker
Have you heard of a linker/linking machine? Some of the hardcore knitters probably have, and probably use one. Maybe you’ve seen the Hague style – a big cylinder type thing with spikes all around the outside? Looks like a torture device or something for making sausage? Anyway, linkers are machines that are used for linking or seaming together pieces of knitting with a chain stitch instead of hand sewing. There are different things referred to as linkers – some which operate on the knitting machine and move along the bed, linking together open stitches, like the SC-3 carriage for Silver Reed type machines, or the Hague cylinder style linker (although…
