MK Cotton Washcloths & Cast On Rag

These gems are easy to make and you're friends will love you if you make them a dozen for Christmas.  Tie a bow around them and give them to everyone.

Machine:  Standard Gauge, I used Brother 970

Material:  100% cotton, I've found people like the natural color or white so they can bleach them if necessary.   Use 1 strand 8/2 cotton or 2 strands 16/2 (available from weaving shops). I usually buy 2 cones rather than try to wind off this thin stuff.  It just makes life easier.

WASHCLOTH DIRECTIONS:

These are knitted using the tuck buttons as well as the slip buttons at the beginning and end of the cloth to create a pattern.
You don't have to change the pattern row count as  you push in the different buttons.

Machine tension loose, I used 8 on my Brother 970 carriage and a medium antenna tension

Pattern:   xoxoxo

              oxoxox  (x is tuck (or black), o is plain (or white)

Hang cast on rag on its bound off edge directly on 80 needles.  Place weighted bar in the hem.  NOTE:  You don't have to use a cast on rag but I just find it easy.   

If you used a cast on rag, knit across with ravel cord then crochet cast on or e-wrap cast on with your washcloth cotton.  (If these are for me I e-wrap cast on, if I make them to sell or give as a gift I do crochet cast on so that the cast on and bind off look the same).

Set up machine for 1x1 tuck stitch shown above

Turn on KC button and knit across.  Every other needle should be selected.

Push in both tuck buttons and continue knitting for 17 rows (total 18 rows counting 1st row)

About this time I add claw weights to each edge to make sure the edge stitches knit off properly.

Push in slip buttons and continue knitting for 10 rows

Push in tuck buttons and continue knitting for 162 more rows (total 172 rows)

Push in slip buttons and continue knitting for 10 rows (Total  182 rows)

Push in tuck buttons and knit for 17 rows, ending on left.  (total 199 rows) 

Turn off KC button and knit 1 row to the right.   Latch tool bind off.  

Washcloths will be loosely knit but shrink when washed.  

Wash and dry your washcloths and  steam them if you wish fold them and they're ready to give to friends.

Recharting a Wider Sweater to Fit On a Knitting Machine

A few years ago someone on the Hobby Machine Group asked how she could knit a sweater she wanted to make when she needed a size 3X and only had 150 needles.    I went into Knitware’s Sweaters 2.5 software and I charted a sweater for a mid-gauge machine with 7 sts, 10 rows per inch. Then I figured out how to turn the whole thing sideways.

Here’s what I did: 

Directions tell us to cast on 206 sts for the front and back which is impossible on  150 or 200 needles.  The sleeve stitches increase from the bottom ribbing to 125 stitches so that’s do-able.  We’ll leave the sleeves as charted but we have to turn the front and back pieces sideways.  By knitting a sweater this way, with the sleeves left as they are, we eliminate the “dolman” look and we have a defined shoulder seam which is slimming.

I’m not going to write the whole pattern out but below the images will give you an idea how I would convert a Knitware (or any software) pattern to work on the mid gauge.  I looked at "Just My Size" catalog and got the measurements for the 3X size.

Using a paint program I’ve turned the above front and back pictures sideways. To help me visualize what I’m doing as I calculate the sts and rows I’ll need.   If you don’t have a paint program, just draw your shapes out on paper.   Remember, we have a gauge of 7 sts/10 rows per inch.

All we have to do is change the stitches to rows and the rows to stitches to refigure this pattern.

Knitware’s Back:  The directions for the original back tell us:

1. Cast on 206 sts in WY using tension 7 and open end method.  Work 5 rows ending COR (carriage on right)
2. RC00 Change to main yarn and stockinette stitch.  Work 174 rows.  COR
3. Armhole shaping:  Cast off 11 sts at beginning of next 2 rows.  COR.  Dec 1 st at each end of every alternate row for 52 rows.  Total 228 rows with 132 sts remaining.  Continue until 270 rows total with 132 sts remaining.
4. Shoulder shaping:  Cast off 9 sts at beginning of next 8 rows.  AT THE SAME TIME, at row 272 start neck shaping
5. Shape neck COR.  Thread center 50 sts to WY.  Decrease 1 st at neck edges every rows 5 times.
6.  

If we look at the original schematic we see that we need 17.4” from the top of the ribbing to the underarm.  Since we are working with 7 sts per inch (SPI) instead of rows, we need to multiply 17.4 x 7 sts per inch.  That works out to 122 sts.  This should be a closed cast on but considering the fact that we are increasing some stitches for armhole we won’t center it on the bed in the beginning, it will be centered after the armhole stitches are added.  I don’t shortrow, I like increasing on the right with e-wrapping and decreasing by just putting 2 sts together.  All the seams are covered anyway so what difference does it make?

RC 00:  Starting with waste yarn, ravel cord, Ewrap cast your 122 sts on needles 97 to the left to 27 on the right.

Knit 15 rows.

RC 15:  Armhole shaping:

Increase 2 sts every other row 9 times, then 3 sts 6 times for a total of 36 sts ending with carriage on the right.  K 2 rows then ewrap cast on 33 sts to get us from the armhole to the shoulder.

I’m not going to tell you how to do the rest of this, I think you can get the idea from the schematic and directions above. 

Here’s the rest of the pattern if you want to try it:

FRONT:

     1-2 Follow steps 1 and 2 for back.  COR

      3.  Armhole:  Dec for armhole at both ends, as for back.  Continue until 236 rows total with 132 sts remaining

      4.  Shape neck.  COR. Thread center 30 sts to WY.  51 sts each side.

      5.  Right neck: LH needles in HP.  Dec 1 st at neck edge every row 15 times until 36 sts remain.  Then work 19 rows         even.  Total 270 rows.

Shoulder shaping:  cast off as for back

7. Left neck: COL, work as for right neck, reversing shaping.

 The neckline is deeper so we need to get out the calculators once again but other than that, its fairly easy to convert.

SLEEVES:

Sleeves are knitted as written

1. Cast on 70 sts in WY using tension 7 and open edge method.  Work 6 rows ending COR. 
2. RC00 Change to main yarn and stockinette st.
3. Inc 1 st at each end of every 5^th row 25 times, then every 6^th row 3 times to 126 sts (143 rows total).
4. Work even to total 148 rows. COR
5. Shape cap.  Cast off 11 sts at beg of next two rows (104 sts rem).  Work 70 rows, while dec 1 st at each end of every 2^nd row.  Total 220 rows.  COR.  Cast off remaining 34 sts loosely.

Of course you’ll have to figure out some sort of hem or ribbing after you take the pieces off the machine.  .  Remember one thing, sideways knits tend to stretch vertically but there’s not much give horizontally so keep that in mind, you’ll need to add your ease horizontally.

Copyright 2006 by Rosalind Porter, Traverse City, MI