Presentation/ Redovisning.

Presentation board: inspiration, test knitting, sketches, processes.

Blocking 2 of the 4 squares, each 40 cm x 40 cm.

All four squares are blocked and ready…

Lining up squares for sewing together.

My fishy pattern!

Punching holes to match my pattern design. This is pattern #1 – Guernsey inspired, but I chose #2 -fish!

Pattern #1 test knitting and contrast colour test.

Machine – beginning the cables.

Cable knitting, rear view.

At the machine working cables with tools by hand.

Crochet needed to join up the “dropped” stitches either side of the cables.

Trying out edging colors…

Edging colour test.

The basic form in need of some edging and finishing touches…

Picot edge test swatch.

Poppy – the chosen colour for the edging.

Invisible stitching!

Picking up LOTS of stitches for lower edge picot detail.

Trial and error on the neckline…

Rib, improvised reduction for shaping, poppy picot edging.

Today we had our “redovisning” or “presentation” for a machine knitting project at school.

I am an experienced hand-knitter but a novice at the machine!  I learned a lot along the way, not least to avoid wearing long sleeves (yes, I jammed my jumper in the machine -twice!) There is a lot of fine-tuning work to do by hand.  A surprising amount in fact.  And cable twists are a sight to behold but take a loooooong time!

I hope these pictures reveal a bit about the process of machine knitting and provide a bit of inspiration to anyone out there in blog land to give it a try.  I am hoping to keep going and to try more projects in the future as I just started to find my groove as the project time drew to a close.

The final details were knitted and crocheted by hand.  In fact it was a chance to catch up with all the murder and intrigue in the series “Shetland” showing on Swedish television while knitting with the delicious Shetland yarn!

Let us say it was a bit of a “love-hate” relationship, but the machine and I did eventually build some kind of understanding and started to head towards friendship.  Certainly I have a lot of respect for those that can really drive these machines with confidence and I was inspired to see what the second year students came up with. Kristina kindly let me share some pictures from her brilliant presentation…

2nd year student with experience of dye techniques.

Kristina shares her expertise.

She made 3 garments in the same project time.

Happy Knitting – Machine or otherwise!