Visit Diana's blog:  http://diananatters.blogspot.com  for all kinds of machine knitting tips, patterns, links to instructional videos, photographs... WARNING:  Blog contains inordinate numbers of knitting posts and a strange contagious enthusiasm for knitting, and exposure may lead to AKBD (addictive knitting behavior disorder).

Beginners Course - 2-DVD Set of 35 video machine knitting lessons

Goldilocks Challenge - Fat book of great bulky gift projects

Enchanted Edgings - A "magic" way to make scalloped lace edgings

Beautiful Ribber Scarves book and hi-def DVD

EZ Entrelac booklet and hi-def DVD

Garter Bar Course - Two hi-def DVDs

Making Socks on the Standard Machine - book and DVD

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Now Available: 

Beginner Machine Knitting Course - 2 DVD Set                             

by Diana Sullivan

Warning:  These DVDs contain no car crashes or love interest, and no plot whatsoever.  There is absolutely no reason to view them unless you want to master your knitting machine. 

As a matter of fact, this 2-DVD set of video lessons is exactly what a beginning machine knitter needs to become proficient quickly!

These 35 lessons have been filmed very close-up in sharp detail, and Diana works slowly and explains each step.  All the lessons except the standard gauge swatch lesson were filmed on a bulky machine with big needles to make things especially easy-to-see.  They are intended for people who never machine knitted before.   In other words, this is several hours of closeups of needles, yarn and hands.  

Click here to see a sample of the video.

How can you get the most out of this course?  Well, if you're a beginner, work at least one lesson every day - watch it, then knit it.  Each lesson takes only a few minutes to watch and a few minutes to knit.  Your mind continues to process the information and fill in the gaps between knitting sessions if you do a little each day - it's just something about the way we learn.  After a month or so, you'll have all the hand and eye movements mastered, know the jargon, and be well beyond the beginner stage.  In fact, you will probably know more basic knitting techniques than lots of people who have knitted for years but didn't have the opportunity to learn in a systematic way.

The DVDs are also useful for intermediate knitters who need a reference.  That is, if you need a particular technique, you can go to that lesson directly using the menu system on the DVDs and the table of contents on the back of the DVD case.

What's included in the DVDs?

Lessons on Disk One:

Thread the Machine

#1 Open Cast-On 

#2 E-Wrap Cast-On

#3 Diana’s Cast-On

#4 Latch Tool Cast-On

#5 Plain Hem

#6 Mock Rib Hem

#7 Picot Hem

#8 Shortcut Picot Hem

#9 latch Tool Bind-Off

#10 Tapestry Needle Bind-Off

#11 Tapestry Bind-Off #2

#12 Loop-Through-A-Loop Bind-Off

#13 Crocheting to Cast Off

#14 Transfer Tool Chain Edge BO

#15 Holey Bind-Off

#16 Increasing and Decreasing

#17 Short Rowing a Toe

#18 Short Row Shoulder Method #1

#19 Short Row Shoulder Method #2

#20 Short Row a Dart

#21 Carriage Jams, Ripping Out,  and Fixing Dropped Stitches

 

Lessons on Disk Two:

#22 Kitchener Stitch

#23 Mattress Stitch

#24 Shoulder Join Method #1

#25 Shoulder Join Method #2

#26 Idiot Cord

#27 Latched Ribbing

#28 Sew As You Go Seam

#29 Divide & Knit Neck

#30 Gauge Swatch

#31 Turning a Cable

#32 Increase Several Sts at Edge

#33 Decrease Several Sts at Edge

#34 Gather Stitches

#35 Increase Stitches Across Row

Cost:  $25.00 + shipping.  Sales tax applies in Texas.

 

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These beautiful scalloped lace edgings are perfect to dress up garments, put around blankets and pillows, and run along shawls and stoles.  Most of them have a beaded edge that can be gathered on ribbon or I-cord.

Diana's preprogrammed lace patterns are very unusual, in that they reduce the number of lace carriage passes, automatically increase and decrease for the fancy edges, and some even have rolled edges, beading, and curves.  This is a greatly simplified method of making fancy edges that eliminates the time-consuming, error-prone business of making manual increases and decreases.

The book contains:

1.  Detailed instructions on making Brother lace, and in particular, how to make these special automatic zigzag edges.

2.  Scalloped lace scarf, using a regular Stitch World Pattern - so you can learn to work with traveling edges even without a specially programmed stitch pattern.

3.  Enchanted Forest Scarf, using the special stitch pattern to automatically increase and decrease along the edge.

4.  Lots of beautiful 24-stitch original lace edgings, suitable for either an electronic or 24-stitch punchcard Brother/Knitking machine.  The fancy lace edges that made it into the book are Merlin's Mesh, Happy Ever After, Fair Godmother's Lace, Una's Crown, Unicorn Bridle, Sea Serpent, Journey, Eye of Newt, King's Crown, Magic Spell, Curving Path, Tiara, Magic Fans, Little Princess, Fairy Tale, Far Far Away, Dragon's Breath, Rapunzel's Braid, and Into the Woods.  To see photos of all these edges, click here.

5.  Close-up photo of each edging and a punch or input diagram for each lace.

6.  In the interests of a happy ending, the book includes the fairy tale about the bewitched machine knitter.

The DVD contains:

1.  Detailed instructions for a non-traveling lace edging, for a traveling lace edging, and for a multiple transfer traveling lace edging.

2.  Video showing procedure for Enchanted Forest Scarf using Stitch World #168 and Diana's method to avoid counting and avoid mistakes.

3.  Video showing Enchanted Forest Scarf made the easy way - with Diana's preprogrammed enchanted method.

The "Beautiful Ribber Scarves" DVD and book are now available!  These scarves required more written instructions, charts and diagrams than usual, so we went with an 18-page, 8-1/2" x 11" coil bound, full-color book.  On the video, I included all the significant steps for each scarf, even the steps that they have in common.  You can choose the scarf you want from the DVD menu and then follow that without skipping around.

These scarves are a wonderful way to improve your ribber skills and make something beautiful as you learn.  The scarves turned out terrific - you should have heard the gasp when I pulled them out at Knit Natters!  I worked hard to choose the prettiest, most practical, and interesting stitches I could, and then make very clear instructions.  What's more, when you finish knitting and binding off, these projects are done!  Only one or two even benefit from a light steaming - there's no edging, or blocking, or assembly.

There are eight different scarves in the book:
 

• Burgundy tucked rib scarf - a variation of 1x1 rib and tucked ribbing, using a very simple chart.  This one is lacy but lies completely flat.
• Green English Rib scarf - everyone should learn English Rib.  It's a great-looking stitch, simple, easy, elegant, and also lies flat.
• Purple full-needle rib tucked scarf - You probably have dozens of tuck patterns that you can translate into FNR tuck scarves and other projects.
• Zigzag scarf - an interesting use of ribber racking to make a wonderful, rick-rack shaped scarf.  I've included the cheat sheets with the rack numbers.
• Red wavy tuck stitch scarf - here's a tuck stitch over 1x3 ribbing, a very fancy closed stitch that knits up very quickly.
• Cream tuck lace scarf - this one is 1x3 lacy tuck that looks a little like butterfly lace and a little like fagotted insert lace.  
• Honeycomb tuck scarf - I got hooked on the honeycomb scarf on the Passap machines, but did you know your Japanese machine can make it, too?  
• Diana's favorite:  the light blue "quilted" scarf.  This is an unusual technique.  You knit circular except for the selected needles, which knit through both layers.  It's warm, thick, and would also be an amazing stitch technique for baby blankets, because it's thick and has the quilted texture.  This one is big, though, a full 8 ounces of sport yarn.  Note the finish on this scarf is a smiles-and-frowns cast-off, closing the top of the tube just like the bottom.

The majority of the scarves use only 4 ounces of yarn and make good one-sitting projects.

The DVD and book are $25 plus shipping.

 

  Garter Bar Video Course

by Diana Sullivan

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Finally, master your garter bar!

    18 Lessons on 2 DVDs cover:

• Adjusting and using the stopper
• Using the garter bar as a stitch holder
• Decrease evenly across a row of knitting  (two methods)
• Increase evenly across a row of knitting
• Simple method to calculate spacing for increases or decreases
• Making garter stitch efficiently
• Quaker stitch - unusual and easy to do
• Turning several cables, fast!
• Moving only desired stitches - all other stitches stay securely in place
• Fancy cables using machine's patterning capability                 
• Fancy lace using machine's patterning capability
• Eyelets and hand-manipulated lace
• Gathering a ruffle
• Vertical weaving
• "Parking" stitches to knit later when dividing and knitting a neckline

• Getting all the stitches back into the hooks quickly
• Speed ripping - pull out a whole row in one tug!
• Doubled, mitered V-neck band

Have you got a garter bar that you hardly ever use?  Probably the most useful but underutilized accessory for knitting machines, the garter bar can make your machine knitting experience easier and more enjoyable, and even allow you to do patterns you didn't think were practical by machine.  For instance, the garter bar can make hand-tooling lace fast and practical on a machine with no lace carriage.  Diana shows you how to truly master the garter bar and get more out of your machine!  These eighteen lessons are all newly filmed in 1080p high definition for a wonderful, clear picture, terrific for enhancing your own skills.  Each lesson will make an interesting demonstration for your knit club or students!  Packaged in a slimline two-DVD case, $25 plus shipping, plus sales tax if sold to a Texas resident.

 

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How good a sock can be knitted on the flatbed knitting machine? 

You actually can knit a terrific sock on a machine with a ribber!  In fact, the entire foot area, with shaped heel and toe, can be knitted circular with no side seams and an invisible grafted toe seam.  A seam is required in the ribbed cuff.  You can knit the socks using quality hand knitting sock yarn.

Here's how to do it, in all the detail that you need. 

First of all, in the book, there are seven pages of sock knitting tips and techniques, including information on making socks to fit and doing beautiful finishing.

Secondly, there are detailed written instructions for the women's medium size.  You can follow those for your first pair and after that, you'll want to work from the one-page chart showing all the sizes from little kids' to big guys' sizing.

The pattern chart is printed in color on the inside back cover.  Because there are so many sizes given, the columns of the chart are in various colors to make it easy to follow your desired size instructions.

The DVD, filmed in high definition 1080p, shows every step in the process, including how to cast on and knit the ribbed cuff, fold, rehang and weight the cuff for circular (tubular) knitting, the necessary steps to do the short-rowed heel and toe, even the finishing seams including invisible Kitchener stitch for the toe.

There's a bonus on the DVD that you'll want to try, as well - a method for folding and rehanging the cuff that uses a garter bar and is a big time-saver. 

Price: $25 plus shipping (and sales tax if sold to a Texas resident).