The Bond

Back in the summer, I got a great deal on a knitting machine. I had seen this in craft stores and just turned my nose up thinking “Oh, please! That’s not real knitting!” and never gave it another glance. Then I heard an episode of Stash and Burn about “The Bond” and all the great FO’s Jenny and Nicole had from using this. So I decided that maybe it wasn’t a knitting cop-out after all, and that it might be just the thing to get my small attention span through some bigger projects. I mean, who hasn’t just about fallen asleep slogging along those seemingly endless rows of stockinette on projects larger than your basic dishrag?

I am one of a few women at my church making blankets, scarves, and other warm items for First Fruits, a charity that is helping out several families in Eastern Kentucky. Most of the ladies are crocheters, and their projects go by pretty quickly. Knitting, on the other hand, can be slow-going. So, a couple of weeks ago I set up my machine and started knitting long strips of stockinette that, hopefully, will make it into a few nice afghans for this project.


Here are my problems, though:

• The machine is LOUD. My husband kept turning up the TV and was trying to be patient, but I finally had to start waiting until commercial breaks to work.


• It doesn’t do so well with textured yarn. I was using a navy boucle and it was very hard to see/fix dropped stitches.


• On Row 250 (I needed to get to 329), the yarn snapped and the whole piece came off the machine. I couldn’t see the live stitches to save them on a straight needle, so I’m thinking about hemming that end -- not sure if that'll work.


• I am the Queen of Unfinished Projects. Ask me about writing, soapmaking, weaving, cross-stitch, reading . . .So, I’m not certain that I’ll ever get these strips sewn together.

Maybe, if I post a blog about this machine project, I’ll trick myself into some accountability.

(Maybe not)