Easy Gift

Who hasn't known a child to build a fort with a sheet, or wrap one around their neck for a superman cape, or pin one to their hair for a bridal veil? My kids love stealing pieces of fabric from my sewing room, and using them for blankets, forts, costumes, etc. I decided for my 4 year old niece that I would knit her a big piece of lacy pink fabric, to use her imagination with.

Back in the spring, I saw an ad on kijiji.ca for some cones of baby coloured machine knitting yarn. I emailed the poster, and it was one of those "wow, you're just like me!" moments...the similarities in our lives were fascinating, although she had just had her first baby. The yarn had been her grandmother's, and she knew nothing about it. Somehow though, I got distracted, or was broke, and forgot to follow through. A while later I saw the email in my box and did a face-palm. I emailed her, and she said since she hadn't heard back to me, she gave it to a machine knitter from Omeemee. I knew instantly who it was, LOL! I emailed her and teased her about taking my yarn. She wrote back saying that she had good intentions to make baby blankets for the hospital, but the yarn wasn't working the way she wanted. And if I wanted it, I could have it, and in fact, she'd be in Brooklyn in two weeks and could even drop it off. For free. Well. Everything for a reason, and there are usually very good reasons why I procrastinate!!!! Marg is the creator of a very popular circular knit dishcloth, and to thank her, I knit a couple of her dishcloths for a gift--I figure she's either sick of knitting them herself, or knits so many for others that she never gets any for herself (I've shown them on here before, they're quite pretty!).

I chose card 7 (Singer), and started with a swatch. I wanted to do it as a tuck rib so that I wouldn't have to worry about edges. As soon as I put every other needle out of work on the mainbed, chaos happened. This card has every other st knit and the alternate sts tucking, for two rows, then it alternates. I tried different combos with ribber needles, but nothing was working. I looked in the mainbed manual to see if there was something else to try. It showed this card doing tuck lace by putting TWO needles out of work! That was the ticket. I could pretty much use what ever pattern of ribber needles that I wanted to--the more I had, the wider the fabric, however, it did seem that placing them in different spots relative to the out of work needles gave different widths too.

Relaxed the fabric is somewhat boring but it is lacey and stretchy.But stretched out with the weights...It's rather neat. This is now the backdrop on my computer, LOL. Of course, it doesn't stay this taut once off the machine and washed.This is the needle set up I ended up with, I used T10 and I think needles 90L-90R, or at least 85-85. I was concerned about going all the way to the ends of the bed; I don't have extension rails. Because it's every other needle tucking, it didn't matter which needles were sent out of work, as long as it was at least two. I did keep track of the rows, but unfortunately forgot to look at the counter before starting the next project. It was at least 500 I think. I think I weighed it, but again, I don't have the info. It turned into a huge, fluffy, frothy, cotton candy squishy piece of fabric. I would have liked it wider, but I was also limited by the fact I had to mail it!
I hope my niece likes it and has some fun!