Free Motion Mavericks - Week 285 - New Tricks

Looks like I've cracked it!  

This is the view down between three needles inside a little sample sleeve.  After watching a few YouTube videos and two very messy false starts, I have found a way to do circular knitting on double pointed needles.  Many avid knitters love knitting socks, and with all the interesting yarns available, end up knitting enough pairs for an entire street.  I can understand the fascination with making endless variations on a theme, but socks hold no great attraction for me, so I have never bothered learning to knit in the round.

This week I took the plunge.  The aim is to make a child's cardigan entirely without seams.  Making the back and fronts all one piece is easy, so this gets rid of the side seams.  Knitting all pieces together for the raglan shaping means no shoulder seams.  You end up with one flat piece to sew down the sides and sleeves.  The big challenge was getting rid of the sleeve seams by knitting a little tube.

So here it is.  I have knitted just enough to make sure I could do it.  Knitting on a tiny scale in a fancy rib, with two colours, and increasing for the beginning of the shaping was all a bit of a tussle, but I did it!

The real fun will come when I am making a real cardigan and I am sorting out the big join-up of the sleeves with the main piece, but I think I have thought it out.  The only way to find out is to actually make it.

Meanwhile on the home front, following on from Richard the plasterer (milk and no sugar), Gary the decorator (milk and two sugars) was with us last week and has done a grand job in the dining room.  Reorganising is still going to take a while.  My husband is taking the opportunity to do some long overdue repair and restoration to a cabinet and sideboard, and the sewing corner is still stacked up with stuff.  So no real sewing in sight for a while, but I'm loving the knitting.  I hope all you non-knitters aren't getting too bored.

Finally, are other people having problems with Blogger at the moment?  This post has taken me about five times the length of time it should have done.  It keeps jumping back from arial to default font, the size of the font changes of its own accord, and it was impossible to change the size of a picture.  I hope it is just teething problems with the introduction of the new format.  Why did they have to change it?  I say that about everything.  And our internet keeps dipping.

                                                        

Here goes for Week 285:-

This week's featured project is Vasudha's Hands to Help quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.