|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Bond
Buzz, Issue #10
March 19, 2004
Free from Bond America!
Dear Friends,
Welcome all Bond Sweater Machine® and Wyr Knittr™ owners to another
issue of the “Bond Buzz” e-newsletter!!
This is a very special Bond Buzz, especially for those of you who are subscribers to Ultimate Knitting magazine. We are very pleased to announce our new relationship with our friends at Family Circle Easy Knitting magazine.
While Kathy Pryce and I totally enjoyed
putting together Ultimate Knitting for you, the amount of time it took
meant we couldn’t develop more new products for you. Family Circle
Easy Knitting knows the importance of supporting Bond/Sweater Machine
knitters and will be publishing a regular column and patterns just for
you which I’ll be writing! The patterns and columns will start with
the fall issue. Subscribers to Ultimate Knitting will automatically receive
the balance of their subscriptions with Family
Circle Easy Knitting. A letter from Family Circle Easy Knitting will be
sent to all Ultimate Knitting subscribers about the change, but we wanted
our loyal Bond Buzz subscribers to know asap.
For those of you who delayed subscribing
to Ultimate Knitting, you can still get some of the back issues by clicking
here:
For those who did not subscribe to Ultimate Knitting and would like to
receive Family Circle Easy Knitting, click here.
Now for something completely different….. How many of you have been
to your local craft or yarn store, just to see the bins of the fancy yarns
decimated? Lots of hand knitters struggle to find their stitches buried
in the exotic stuff, but Sweater Machine knitters can make light work
of
the fancy fuzz. I recently received an inquiry from a Bond Buzz reader
about some problems
she had experienced trying to knit really fancy yarns on her machine,
and I thought it would be an ideal topic to cover in Bond Buzz.
First let’s look at some of the types of fancy yarns: eyelash (often
called “fur”), boucle (pr: BOO-KLAY), ribbon or tape yarns,
thick-n-thin (sometimes called homespun) and super-bulky yarns and chenille
yarns.
~ For the eyelash-type yarns, knitting on the Ultimate Sweater Machine
is a breeze, as the core of these yarns is normally quite thin and slippery.
~ Many boucle yarns are also easy to knit, but check the gauge that’s
printed on the yarn label. Boucles that have a gauge of 13 sts to 4”
or less may be challenging, especially if the loops are very large, but
may work using every-other-needle. Extra weight (extra claw weights – even a double hem) will also help in knitting some of these yarns.
~ Ribbon or tape yarns can often be very rigid, so stick with the thinner
ones or those that are a knitted construction. You can tell by the stretchiness
of the yarn.
~ For the super-bulkies, you’ll need to use every other needle and
extra weight.
~ And for the chenilles, my favorite, of course is the colorful and super-easy-to-knit
on the Sweater Machine yarn from Caron®, Jewel Box®. You can now
find Jewel Box in AC Moore, Jo-Ann’s and many craft and yarn stores.
Chenille yarn is usually easy to knit on your machine, but be sure to
pay attention to the tendency for solid color chenilles to bias (knit
at a “diagonal”), which cannot be blocked out. Jewel Box does
not do this since it is has 3 plies.
To order extra weights: an extra hem (you can have steel rods cut at a hardware store) or claw weights or an extension kit (which you’ll need for making an adult sweater on every other needle), click here.
Until next time, happy knitting,
Cari
Cari Clement
http://www.bond-america.com
And please visit our parent site at http://www.caron.com