One of my friends from the knitting class we both used to go to came round a couple of weeks ago, and suggested I might have a go at machine knitting with the garter carriage. The garter carriage not only does garter stitch, and patterns, but is connected to the power and works automatically, and chugs up and down the bed all by itself. So once you’ve cast on and got it all set up, it just knits.

What a good idea, I thought. So I had a go with a small sample, and did a sort of basket stitch with a garter stitch border, and it worked really well.

Next step – try a full sized baby blanket for an impending (actually, almost imminent) baby. That caused me a few problems – five stitches dropped during the knitting process, but I thought I’d just cover the resulting mess up with baby-type appliquéd motifs.

Finally, after 444 rows (including 22 rows at the top and bottom for the borders), I was in so much pain with my hand I haven’t been able to touch the damn thing at all. And can’t find any affordable motifs either.

Currently I’m planning to take it off on waste yarn, which means I just change yarns and knit a few rows in stockinet, and just take it off without casting off.

So I think it was worth trying, but really, it hasn’t worked too well.

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