With nursing school behind me, I’ve finally found time to set up the hand-me-down knitting machine my mom gave me some 20+ years ago and start figuring out how to use it. As always, when I find something new to do, it takes my life completely over for a while, so knitting is pretty much all that’s been happening around here recently! Jeff the Great Enabler has cheered me on, sought out new yarn stores to take me to, and enthusiastically praised each item I’ve produced. I *do* love that man! 🙂

Today I put the finishing touches on version 1.0 of my first original knitting machine pattern. Original, in this context of course, means “using the best ideas from a dozen or so other sources and combining them into something I can call my own.”

For whatever reason, one of the first things I decided that I wanted to knit was socks. This was a problem, since I don’t have a ribbing attachment, which means I can’t knit socks “in the round,” or without seams in them. Since I have ADD, I can’t stand to have any sort of annoying lumps, bumps, scratchy bits, or labels in my clothing, so I really didn’t want any seams, but for now I’m stuck with them and have to make the best of it.

In spite of having made it all the way through nursing school, I still have a lot of engineer-type traits, including always looking for better ways to do things. So my challenge was to come up with a sock pattern with the smallest, flattest seam possible, so that until I find that elusive ribbing attachment that will work with my Brother KH-588 machine, I can still knit serviceable socks. As of today, I can now produce socks on my knitting machine which pass the ADD test — I can wear them all day without noticing the seam. Yay me!

I’ll post the pattern shortly. First I need to sleep. Stay tuned!