A "New" Knitting Machine

 I had three knitting machines: 

• An LK150, purchased new a few years ago. That's a midgauge and it handles sport weight yarn. All patterning is done by manual manipulation.
• A Knitmaster Empisal Thimmonier 323. It is a standard gauge machine for finer, sock yarn. This is the machine I bought in 1974 or 1975. I know I had it well before my eldest child was born in early 1976 because I knitted many of her baby clothes on it. It is a punchcard machine, meaning patterning is done by means of a 24-hole-wide punch card that determines whether to knit, tuck, slip or insert a second color, depending on the lever's position on the dial. It has a ribber, which is a second bed of needles that connects to the front of the main needle bed and, as its name suggests, it serves to do ribbing and much more.
• A Brother 950. It is also a standard gauge machine. It was produced in the mid-1980s, but I bought it four years ago. It is an electronic machine, meaning patterning is done by means of a program and a 60-stitch-wide mylar sheet. This increases patterning capability. It also has a ribber.

At one point, I also had a Brother 260, a bulky gauge, punchcard machine with a ribber, but within a year I resold it because I determined that I really do not knit really thick yarns that much. In fact, as far as machine knitting goes, I do not really knit very much. I'm still family-oriented and knit pretty much for the family, only. 

The Knitmaster and Brother machines are old and parts are hard to come by, so when I saw an ad for a Knitmaster (no model number) at a recycling center for €80, I thought I should take a look at it and see if it might be good for spare parts. I wrote the shop and found that the recycling center was an hour's drive from E's place in Tarn-et-Garonne. It is closer to Toulouse, straight south of Gaillac (good wine). We were at E's for our vacation, so on a Thursday we drove down to Caraman to the recycling center after I confirmed that the machine was still available. Surprise! It was 50% day! At €40, I was sure I'd buy it. I mean, even recovering the needles was worth that.

We put our masks on and entered the shop, which must have been an old garage or factory. One of the volunteers at the shop went to get the machine. The case was in very good condition and when I opened it up I discovered a Knitmaster Empisal 324 -- a slightly more recent model than what I already had -- in filthy, grimy, but otherwise good condition. Then, the woman said she had to go back to the stock to get the rest! She came back with the ribber. And she went back and came back with another box of accessories. Needless to say, I bought the lot for €40.

This week I cleaned it all. 
Before starting, I ordered a sponge for the sponge bar, officially known as the needle retention bar, and the side racks, which had disintegrated. Total expense for that, including postage, was about €18.

First job was to clean out the disintegrated sponge and replace it with the new, which I did as soon as the new sponge came.
Then, I had to take out the 200 needles of the main bed and put them in a jar with white spirit for a good soaking.

Next, I went to the hardware store and got some petroleum cleaning fluid to soak the carriage. The carriage is the part that rides over the needles, selects the ones to be knitted, or not, and places the yarn in the right place for the needles to catch it. I had to take apart the carriage (See the AnswerLady's husband Jack) because the plastic parts should not soak in the petroleum. That also allowed me to see that all the springs were there and that the parts that are supposed to move moved, even though they were gummed up. I put the soaking pan outside and let the carriage soak overnight. 

In the mean time, I washed the plastic bits. This machine must have been set up behind a sunny window because the plastic is quite discolored, almost orange. I got as much lint out from under the needle bed without dismantling it and then I cleaned the surface of the bed. 

The next morning, I wiped off each needle, checking for rust and making sure the latches moved freely before putting them back; I wiped down the carriage and made sure I got all the lint and collected dirt out before I put it back together. 

I tried it out: 

And this morning, I cleaned the ribber. I just finished putting back all the needles. 
Now, I really must decide to sell one, maybe two, of the standard gauge machines. 

More this and that

I haven't felt like writing. I've been binge reading Ellis Peters' Cadfaël mystery novels. Several years ago, one of the French channels showed the British series starring Derek Jacobi as Cadfaël and I enjoyed it. Reading the novels, I'm enjoying the stories even more. It's a time (mid-12th century) I know little about, except, of course, the abbeys and churches all around France that are often pre-Gothic architecture, or with a Roman base and early to late Gothic add-ons. I'm learning a bit of Catholic liturgy and history, too.

I've been knitting, too. This t-shirt took me a long time to do. The cables are hand-manipulated on the machine and I could only manage one or two hours at a time. I had to remember to do cables at row numbers 6 times an odd multiple in x columns and at row numbers 6 times an even number in y columns. And remember where I left off after an interruption. I'm happy with the result. I had to do the neckline 3 times before I got it to lie flat. It fits. It could have been smaller, but that's okay, I can wear it.
That, and a pair of socks for S. He asked. The old socks are now in C's drawer. He also chose the yarn. Slowly but surely I'm working through my stash.
I've also got a promise to buy my bulky knitting machine from a young woman who lives in the southwest, in the Pyrenées. Since we are going that way, soon, to visit E, I'll take the machine down with me and meet her husband at the Montauban train station for the pick up. This is the machine I got in England last year for my birthday. It's a good machine, but I am not going to use it enough to warrant having it. I have discovered I don't really enjoy knitting thick yarn. And when I do, it's still not so thick I need the bulky gauge. I still have the simple mid-gauge machine, which is fine for the yarn I use. I've got two standard gauge machines, but I am tempted to rid myself of the electronic one. It's more than I need.

Last Saturday, there was a Paris version of the March for Our Lives. It was a standing demonstration -- no marching. We had a part of the Trocadero, across the Seine, facing the Eiffel Tower. The weather was perfect! I don't know how many of us there were -- a few hundred. We shared the place with other demonstrations: a group of Togolese -- a small group, but with drums, so very loud; a tiny group of people in support of Tariq Ramadan, the cleric accused of several sexual assaults, including rape; and a tinier group that looked like they were just dancing. Four groups competing for space. The photographers -- there were several photographers for our group -- spread out all over the place.
I went up to the Hague a couple of weeks ago for a day trip to see Barbara, one of my best friends from high school. She and I reminisced and talked of Erica, who died on March 1. (I posted about the trip with Erica two and a half years ago.)
I'm still trying to distance myself from the issues of Americans living abroad. I'm not disinterested, just not actively advocating these days. I needed to step back. At the AARO Annual General Meeting on March 21, I was honored to receive recognition for my years on the board.

Thoughts

I think I may be closer to renunciation. I need to have a long discussion with the kids. Those of you who know me know that this has been on my mind for several years. It comes in waves.
That said, I'm still an American resident overseas and a member of AARO and I still support AARO and think it is a good association. I encourage Americans residing overseas, or thinking of it, to become members of AARO. I especially encourage young adults, even those Americans born abroad to be become members.
To take my mind off such matters, I've been knitting. My aim is to reduce the stash of yarn I have. Some of it has been stashed since we moved to this house in 1985. Some, most, is more recent because I got over-enthusiastic in my purchases since bringing my machine out of hibernation. I've since added more machines, but I only work on one project at a time.

On Sunday morning, before going out, I experimented and made a poppy. I based it on Safia Addnan's YouTube demonstration of a five-petal flower. It only took a few minutes to make. Of course, in England and other Commonwealth countries, the sale of poppies goes to support veterans and if you can, you should contribute, even if you wear this nice knitted poppy. I wore it the other day and got compliments.
In France, the symbolic flower for WWI is a cornflower, not a poppy. I haven't figured out how to knit that. They don't make such a big thing of it, here. If there is a charity to donate to for this, specifically, I don't know what it is. Here's the story and the poem behind it and in English. Looking at the picture on the wikipedia page, it looks like it could be done: two five petal flowers, where you create slits (cast off and cast on again) to avoid the rolling. One larger than the other. I'll try it out. In the evening, hand-knitting. I'm on socks, again.

Mostly Knitting

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the Bois de Vincennes.  First stop was at Stade Pershing to see some of the game between the PUC and the Wallabies. PUC I get; it stands for Paris Université Club and the baseball section has been around for more than a hundred years. It might not sound great in English, but we speak French, here. This is the club I belonged to when I was a scorekeeper and this was Louis' club when he played. Wallabies? They are from Normandy, from Louviers, not far from Rouen. Why did they choose an Australian animal?
Back to the game. I don't know what the score was when I strolled in, but I think I watched 2 innings, maybe it was only an inning and a half. There were so many errors on the part of the PUC defense, I couldn't keep track of how many runs were scored. Then, when the PUC finally came up to bat, without hearing the slightest clink of the aluminum bats, I saw too many walked in runs. The bleachers, if that's what you can call them, have been condemned, already, for several years. The city replaced the old splintered wood with plastic that melted out of shape, almost immediately. So, you climb over the barriers and sit, sort of, for as long as you can stand it. It was warm and sunny, but after losing all interest in the game, I got up and continued my walk.
The fall colors are starting to show up nicely. Lots of people were out rowing on the Lac des Minimes. I finished going around the lake and had, what I assume will be, my last ice cream cone of the year from the stand. I turned towards Fontenay-sous-Bois and came home that way. According to MapMyWalk, that was a 5.67 km. walk.
I got home and picked up my crochet work. I'm adding a scallop edge to the skirt hem of a dress I knitted on the machine last week. It's an Anne Lavene design. I'll add the same edge to the sleeves and to the waist, when I join the bodice to the skirt. I made it with a fully closed skirt, seam on the side. I used Yeomans 100% Cotton Slub CK2, which, I have decided, I don't like. The idea is to dye this once it's all assembled. That's why I chose it, but the yarn kept getting all knotted up, coming off the cone, and I found it tedious to work with. Even crocheting, it gets all knotted up, so it's not because of the speed in machine knitting that made it do that. Also, it knitted up slanted, so it's awfully hard to block and get straight, again. I'm still not sure the center of the bodice will find itself in the center. One think I can say in favor of the yarn is that it is economical. I bought 2 cones and have not even used half of the first, even though I made 2 bodices! I thought I had made a mistake, when the first one looked so off-balance, so I made a second one, paying extra special attention not to make any mistakes -- and I didn't -- but it came out just as skewed. I'm going to finish this thing and see what it's like all put together.
Before that, I had tried to make a sweater for Paul, a double-knit. It looks all knit on the wrong side and on the right side, it looks like vertical stripes. It looks all stretched out in the picture. Doing the 5-stitch crossed cables every two rows turned out to be too much for me. There were some dropped stitches; I had to start over; again, dropped stitches, again, start over. When I discovered the dropped stitches, again, I gave up. The color doesn't show well, here. It's a dark, inky blue. Beautiful, fine, merino wool, also from Yeoman's. I had the yarn shipped to France. Yes, it was a bit expensive to do that, but still cheaper than a trip by car to England. (I ordered a lot of yarn!)
For anyone still interested, AARO had its own presidential election debate on October 19. We invited all four parties, but the Green party did not respond to our invitation. We posted the video the next day. It was a good evening. Cordial. Nothing like what we see going on in the US.

A Very Full Month

View of Najac from the VVF

A week after my last post, I fell. We almost had to replace the mailbox, which is in the lower part of our gate, but Paul managed to pound it back into shape. I more or less plunged into it as I tripped on a flagstone! My glasses flew off after cutting my eyebrow; One of the lenses got scratched and had to be replaced and my brow needed 6 stitches. I sprained my wrist, but that was not officially diagnosed until 2 weeks later when I was wondering why it was feeling worse instead of better. I had scratched up knees and a big bruise that is still a bit tender.
I couldn't knit! Hand knitting was out because it does require a bit of wrist flexibility and machine knitting was out because pushing the carriage with my right hand hurt and even when I used my left, there are manipulations that require using my right.
Just before that, however, I won an ebay auction for a Brother 950 machine and a compatible ribber! In order to save a bit, I had it delivered to C's house and they brought it down in their car in mid-August. I have now set up the machine (just yesterday, in fact) and will work a bit on it if the room doesn't get too hot. We're expecting the temperature to get up to 37°C today. That's 98.6°F!
At the end of July, C flew into Paris with Au. She spent one night with us and then went off to a friend's birthday party and went straight back to England from there. Au stayed two weeks with us -- first time visit all on her own!
The next day, it was back to the airport to pick up K & S, on their way from Italy to Israel. We didn't really get to spend much time with them -- a shame, but the weekend plans were set: a day at

Start of the festivities at Disneyland

Disneyland Paris with the Parisian cousins, uncle and aunts, to start off. She also spent a night with the Parisian cousins and went to the aquarium with them. S. came home with us after that and spent the next night, here, with Au.  We did some high culture, too: the Musée d'Orsay and the Studio Blue Sky art exhibit; animated film art from the first pencil sketches to the finished product -- very interesting and there's some really beautiful artwork. Paul took her to the top of the Arc de Triomphe one day when I had a meeting in Paris. The second week, we stayed more at home and she helped me knit. By this time I had a brace on my wrist to prevent awkward movements. She was the motor, pushing the carriage back and forth and I was the manipulator, creating the cables. She knit herself a scarf and the two of us collaborated for the cardigan and hat. We also watched some of the Olympics. It's a shame the gymnastics were on so late, here in France. She loves gymnastics and swimming. We had a nice picnic lunch with A in the Parc Floral and Au had a nice day out - aunt and niece - in Paris. We also had a visit to see the

A full moon over Ginals

On the second Friday of her stay, we left for Najac. We arrived at E & G's in Ginals fairly early in the afternoon for a nice visit with them before heading to the hotel in Najac. They then joined us at the hotel, later, for dinner. It's become a tradition. The menu at the hotel Le Belle Rive is somewhat of a tradition, too; it doesn't change. It's still a very nice, friendly, inexpensive hotel, and it has a swimming pool and a tennis court.
Saturday, we visited Najac. First, we got the little treasure hunt booklet from the tourist office for A and then set off. We covered the whole town from the market place to the church at the other end -- down hill, up hill, down hill, up hill...., a visit to the potter for the stages of pottery making, investigating the bakery for the story of "fouace", finding the architectural elements of midieval buildings....  We did not go all the way up to the fortress. (You can read about last year's visit.) We had lunch on the way back to the tourist office and then, after Au collected her treasure, we went back to E's to wait for the rest of the Northampton family to arrive! The kittens (also mentioned in last year's posts) have grown and are very friendly. They still follow E and G around everywhere if it's close to meal time, but are very independent, otherwise. The wet, wet spring has given way to an extremely dry summer and the vegetable garden has suffered a bit, but there are still plenty of tomatoes.
The family arrived and after a short hello, we accompanied them to the VVF (Village Vacance Familiales) for their check-in, which took more than an hour. They were sent to the very last bungalow down the very steep hill. All the activities are at the top.
We had a picnic lunch at the bungalow on Sunday. It's very near the viewpoint -- a spectacular view of Najac and the setting off point for some hikes to Najac and to the St. Blaise bridge. If you believe the hiking times posted, it would take about as much time to hike over to Najac as to go up the hill to the parking lot to get the car to drive there. Same for the bridge! We stayed in Najac while we waited for the Parisian family to arrive. They had a bit of a mishap on arrival. They had parked the car temporarily while they went off to find the "gite" they had rented. Going back to the car to drive it up to the gite, it wouldn't start. It was parked at such an angle that the gas wasn't making it to the engine. What is nice about family vacations is that we were there. The gite owner lent L a couple of 5-liter recipients and Paul drove him to the gas station for more gas. In the mean time, G unloaded the car and dragged everything up the steep hill to the gite, which is right across from the church. I stayed with the kids so she could absent herself to do this. It took quite a few trips! On filling up, however, the car still wouldn't start. The gite owner got out his car and towed L's car to a flatter position, where is finally started. When he went back to the gas station to fill up, he didn't need to put in much gas. It wasn't empty when this happened, just parked at a really bad angle! The British family was already at E and G's (all my in-law children's names begin with G!) for our big family barbecue dinner, so we set off with the Parisians as soon as we could. All the Lebelle cousins together! Lots of fun with the kittens and just the freedom to run around. The evening ended with a beautiful sunset and a full moon.

St. Blaise bridge, 13th century

The next day, we picnicked at the St. Blaise bridge. Paul and I walked over from the hotel, a little over a mile along the river. We got there very early and staked out a table. I sat on the riverbank and tried to draw the bridge. There were canoe-ers out for the day; a couple of them stopped to jump into the river from the bridge. They really had to know where it was deep enough, because the river is not at all deep these days. The British family arrived. Ch sat in the same spot I had occupied and in just a few minutes had a much more reasonable drawing! We started our picnic and A arrived. She had left Paris on Saturday and spent the night a few hours from us. This made it a big family vacation. We had all our kids and grandkids more or less with us. In fact, on Monday, L & G invited us all to their gite for a full family barbecue. On Thursday, we all, minus one, visited Cordes-sur-Ciel and Albi (last year's visit). Friday, another full family barbecue lunch before A set off for Paris.  Saturday, L and G, et al, went off to the beach for the second week of their vacation and we went with the British family to St.-Cirq-Lapopie and PechMerle in the afternoon. We didn't visit the cave this year, we stayed outside with the little one while the others visited. Sunday, another picnic at the bungalow and later in the day we went to E and G's to say good-bye. We left Najac early on Monday morning.
As usual, no family pics in the blog. I've sent the links to family members.