. . Welcome, everybody, to our monthly live.. . If you don't know me,. I'm sue the voice and the Hands. . behind the Knit it now videos.. . We've got a fun, fun, fun topic today. to talk about buttons and levers.. . I've been talking to a number of knitters. who it was really obvious that they just. . do not understand the buttons. and levers on their machines.. . And I'm really, really. passionate about this.. . And if I really get up. on my soapbox, forgive me.. . However, I really want you to understand. what your knitting machine is doing.. . Not just say, well, I pushed the part. buttons and I don't know what happened.. . What do you mean you. push the part buttons?. . What did you expect to happen. when you push the part buttons?. . Right.. . I want you to understand what. pushing those part buttons are.. . Or my side levers are on triangle.. . Okay, so what do you expect to happen. when your side levers are on triangle?. . I want you to understand what happens when. those things, when your machine. . is set in a certain way.. . So again, forgive me if I get up on my. soapbox because I'm really passionate.. . This is probably number two. of my passions for machine knitting.. . Number one, of course, is swatching.. . Number two is understanding your machine.. . So let's do the best we can to introduce. you to it and we're going to give you some. . challenges so that you can learn more. about understanding your machine yourself.. . Next up, stitch patterning. on knitting machines.. . What the buttons and levers do?. . What do the buttons and levers do?. . They create stitch patterns for us.. . We can have a machine that had. no buttons and levers whatsoever.. . And what comes to mind is one of those. circular centro machines. . that you just crank, right?. You just crank.. . It knits and it does its thing, right?. . But our machines have a little bit more. depending on your machine have a little. . bit more possibility as far as. stitch patterning is concerned.. . You need to be able to set all. the different buttons and levers and. . controls so that you can knit in pattern.. . A fact about stitch patterning.. . Buttons and levers are used to create. stitch patterns on any machines.. . There's three things that have to happen. in order for you to create. . any stitch pattern.. . The first is you need to tell your machine. you want to pattern one way or another.. . Every machine is a little different.. . The second thing is you need to tell your. machine which type of stitch pattern you. . want to knit, whether it's tuck or. slip or fair isle or lace or antarsia.. . The third thing is your. the position of the needles.. . Now, this is a little more Important. for manual machines and for brother. . machines, Silver Singer machines, the. position of the needles is kind of hidden.. . It's behind the scenes.. . You don't really get to see how. those needles are positioned.. . But I want you to understand. the relationship of the position. . of the needles to the settings of your. machine to the stitch pattern. . that you're going to create.. . So those are the facts. that we're going to cover today.. . Alrighty.. So we're stitch patterning.. . So the fact is there's three things you. need to do before you. . can get that machine.. . You have to talk to it, you have. to tell it what you want to do.. . You're going to do that by setting. the buttons and levers on your machine.. . So your challenge is to locate. and identify the levers,. . the buttons on your machine.. . Use your manual.. Use your manual.. . It'll show you exactly what buttons. and levers to push and learn the real. . names of those buttons and levers.. . Please don't refer to them as that thing. in the center of the machine, whatever.. . Find out what the real names of them are.. . I try to use the actual names of things. today and throughout all. . the courseware that we do.. . That way we're all on the same. page and using those same words.. . We want you to learn about needle. positions and their impact. . on knitting and pattern.. . Again, silver reed knitters,. it's more knowledge that you'll have. . for manual and brother knitters,. it's important that you. . understand those needle positions.. . The third thing is learn the differences. between the various stitch techniques.. . What's the difference between. slip and tuck and Fair Isle?. . I think you can visually see what. the difference is, but construction wise,. . what is the difference between. those different stitch patterns?. . Today we're going to talk about slip.. . Last month we talked about Fair Isle.. . I believe we have a number. of replays about Tuck.. . There's other information. and the site as well.. . So learn the differences between. the different patterns,. . different stitch patterns, types,. techniques,. . and apply these settings to your machine. and practice, practice, practice,. . practice the different stitch techniques.. . Again, we're going to focus. today mostly on slip.. . I was started to do tuck as well and we. could have talked for three. . hours if we did that.. . So today we're going to focus on slip.. . So so much you can do with slip.. . So I said, the first thing you need to do. is talk to your machine and say,. . hey, machine, I want to pattern.. . Here's a punch card,. here's some electronic data.. . Here is, you know, whatever you're going. to say, Machine, I want to pattern.. . You haven't told it what. kind of pattern yet.. . You just want to say, wake up, hello.. . On a brother machine.. . Wake up, hello is the change knob.. . And a lot of people call this the KC knob.. . The indications are KC1 and KC2 for knit. . card, which to me was like a mind opener. . when I realized what KC stood for.. . It's knit card.. . It's saying, okay, machine,. I'm going to put a card in.. . I'm going to give you some electronic. information and I want. . you to knit in pattern.. . I want you to select needles for me.. . Now, LK knitters or. manual machine knitters.. . You, you don't have the luxury of the. machine selecting the needles for you.. . You're just going to use that. needle pusher and you're going. . to select your own needles.. . You're going to have to do it by hand.. . But the ideas are completely the same. whether you choose the needles or. . the machine chooses the needles for you.. . So on a brother machine,. it's this change knob.. . On Singer Studio Silver Machines,. you have your side levers and the same. . thing with the LK,. it's your side levers.. . You're saying to the machine,. you've got these side levers.. . Hey, machine, I want you to direct those. needles through a different channel and. . I'll talk a little bit more about that.. . And I want you to pattern.. . I haven't told you what kind of pattern. yet, but I want you to pattern.. . Forget plain knitting,. I want you to do something for me.. . I understand on Toyota machines,. I've only used a Toyota machine once.. . There's something called the card lever. on the right hand side. . and it's the same thing, it's a card.. . It's like knit card, card lever,. saying to the machine, hey,. . I'm going to be using a punch card and I. want you to read that punch card and I. . want you to do something. with the needles for me.. . Automatic patterning.. . Alrighty.. So knit cards.. . Hey, machine, wake up.. . I want to knit and pattern again.. . Side levers on the LK, same thing.. . What do those side levers do?. . What does telling the machine. that you want to pattern do?. . It actually changes the configuration. underneath your carriage.. . If I can hold up my LK here because. this is the lightest one I have,. . you can see that there are channels. where the needles go through.. . If you look at the needle butts,. you've got butts sticking up and those. . needle butts travel through. a channel depending on.. . I'm sorry about the Background noise.. . I don't usually have somebody here.. I got distracted.. . If you change the position of, let's say,. these side levers, it changes. . where those needles travel through.. . And depending on where that channel. directs the needle buds,. . it brings the needles in and out to form. stitches or not form. . stitches or create pattern.. . So the same thing with any of the buttons. and levers on any of the machines.. . I have another picture here.. . Alrighty.. . So we've got an image here of a heavier. carriage and it also has a. . channels that the needle butts go through.. . Now, this is a little bit more complicated. than my LK,. . but you can see the concept is the same.. . The needle butts will travel through. the channel, the needles will push. . in and out, forming stitches or not,. depending on what you tell the machine.. . So my challenge to you is to take your. carriage off your machine and hold it. . really securely, turn it over and. get rid of the sticky notes and make. . and change either your side levers,. change your KC button, change. . any, any of the dials, buttons. and levers and see what happens.. . Just to get a visual of what's. going on underneath that machine.. . Goes a long ways to understanding why you. drop stitches or understanding why. . your carriage might jam, Heaven forbid.. . So that was the first thing first.. . We're saying, wake up, machine.. . I want you to pattern.. . The second thing is you need to tell. it what type of pattern to use.. . It goes back to your original challenge. of understand the difference. . in construction between the different. stitch patterns, between slip, tuck,. . ferrile, lace, whatever it is,. the construction method.. . We're going to use the cam. buttons on Brother machines.. . They have the little buttons on the front. and they're tuck, lace, part buttons.. . Brother is famous for using. the word part instead of slip.. . I've never really understood that.. . Maybe there's some sort of translation. reason why they use the word part.. . Who knows?. Whatever.. . But the Brother machines use the cam. buttons on the front of the machine,. . front of the carriage.. . The Silver Singer Studio. machines have cam levers.. . So it's just a little sliding. lever that goes back and forth.. . And this is a 3, .. . It says Tuck, slip, stockinette, plain.. . And then I forget what the.. . Oh, knit in.. . The last one says knit in.. . Knit in is another way of saying. fair isle.. . Knit in, fair Isle.. . On this Titaxma machine,. it only has three cam levers.. . It says intarsia.. . I can set intarsia from that cam lever. because it has built in intarsia.. . I can knit plain.. . And again, it's using part because. the Titexa machines are brother clones,. . so it's using that word. part again, which is slip.. . So back to your challenge.. . We've covered a number. of buttons and levers already.. . I want you to identify what those buttons. and levers and use the real terms. . on them of what is on your machine.. . What you do on your cam levers,. you can set your buttons,. . you set whatever buttons they are.. . Mark it on a little drawing.. . Our technique reference cards are under. in our tools section.. . You can print those out.. . It has a little drawing of a carriage. where you can write and make notes of your. . own with magic markers or whatever.. . Let's go there right now.. . Alrighty.. . From our main menu, we can go to patterns,. we can go to charting tools.. . And under charting tools,. I think it's down a little ways. . Technique reference cards here.. . And you can choose what. brand of machine you have.. . I believe I have most. of the bases covered here.. . And you can download a card and start. writing all over it if you want to.. . Okay, so here we go with needle positions.. . If you're brand new,. this may be new to you.. . If you're not,. it's probably a good reminder.. . The needle positions on our. needle beds are important.. . This is how the machine knits,. and this is how the machine patterns.. . By taking those needle butts that you see. sticking up and dragging those needle. . butts through those channels. in the carriage to form the stitches.. . If the needles are all the way back. in the A position, all the way furthest. . away, there's no channel to go through.. . Nothing's going to knit.. . If the needles are all the way forward. in the D or E position. . and your carriage is set to hold,. you've got some levers or buttons or. . something that's going to set. your carriage for hold.. . Those needles are not going to knit.. . Now, what is critical for patterning are. the needles in working or middle position,. . which is usually what B or C position. that the letters change. . on the different machines.. . So it's the two sets of needles,. needles in the middle of this. . image that you see here.. . So working position and middle position.. . That's what makes the difference between a. stitch that knits in white or stitch. . that knits in black,. or a stitch that tucks or one. . that slips or doesn't knit at all.. Right.. . So needle positions are very important,. especially for our LK knitters.. . You need to put those needles in the right. position and set your carriage. . to do what you want it to do.. . For brother knitters,. same thing your Automatic patterning. . machines will select the needles for you.. . For Silver Singer studio knitters,. just remember that you need to pay. . attention to the positions of the needles.. . I think Tina got into trouble because. maybe she had ripped out and needles were. . in all sorts of different positions and. she tried to run her lace carriage across.. . Tina, correct me if I'm wrong, but if. I remember right, that's what happened.. . So even though she was using a Singer or. studio silver reed whatever machine,. . she still needed to make sure that those. needles were in the right position to go. . through the track on her lace. carriage or any carriage.. . So those needles have to be in position. to go through the track. . and form the stitches properly.. . Middle position is. what will be used when you're patterning.. . So C is where you're knitting.. . So let's just say you sit down at your. machine right now and you cast on and you. . start knitting and you look. at your positions of your needles.. . They're all going to be in C position.. . For plain knitting,. if you're going to be doing any. . patterning, you may be pulling some. needles out and those needles will. . to middle position and those needles,. let's say for slip,. . the needles that are out in middle. position will knit and the needles. . that are in B or working. position will slip or tuck.. . So that's the difference. between the two positions.. . And look over your needle bed after. ripping out and other manual manipulations. . and make sure the needles. are exactly in B position.. . That's exactly what she reminded us of.. . And Tina, that stuck in my head all week. and hopefully it's. . stuck in somebody else's head as well.. . Since you suggested that you. mentioned that in Heartbeat.. . Okay, so needle positions,. even if you're a silver reed knitter,. . you really need to understand that.. . Now let's take a couple steps back here. and understand I keep talking about. . the difference between. brother and silver reed.. . The biggest difference between brother. and silver reed machines is. . brother's pre select needles.. . So in your knitting in pattern on brother. knitting machine,. . automatic pattern knitting machine,. you will pass your carriage across. . and it'll knit the row for you. and it will select the needles that are. . going to pattern on the next row.. . You pass your carriage back,. it'll knit the stitches for you. . and select the next row.. . So if you have a punch card,. I don't have one handy here.. . If you have a punch card,. that's every other needle.. . Your machine will select. every other needle.. . When you come back,. it'll knit every other needle.. . Maybe red and white,. red and white, red and white.. . Whatever, if you're doing Fair Isle.. . But it'll also pull out the next set. of needles that you need to knit.. . The next row.. . Silver reed machine sits. all behind the scenes.. . You don't get to see that in advance.. . The brother is almost like when. you're manually selecting needles.. . Before you knit the row,. you have to select your needles. . and then you knit your row.. . So the brother machines do. that for you automatically.. . The Silver Singer Studio machines. do it all behind the scenes.. . They select the needles and knit. the row at the same time.. . You push your carriage across.. . You don't see any needles sticking out.. . You just see needles. that are in working position.. . Silver reed punch card machines. pre select with the drums.. . I think we saw drums earlier, did we not?. . In this image. right here on the right and the left you. . can see kind of sticking out with fingers.. . These are the drums on a silver reed punch. card machine and those read. . the punch card in advance and read select. the needles and knit. . all in one fell swoop.. So you're not.. . You're reading it for the next row, but. you're not seeing the needles coming out.. . The letters don't really mean anything.. . It's more understanding.. . And please don't apologize. for being a newbie.. . It's not the letters so much.. . And I always hate to talk about C, D,. E and F whatever, because. . some machines even have an F.. . Brother and knit king.. Brother and knit king.. . So they're going to look like this,. which is an A, B, D and E.. . Right?. Is that correct?. . See, I did it again.. . The dumb letters messed me up.. . My brother machine here is A B, D and E.. . So let's forget about the letters.. . Let's talk about out of work position,. hold position.. . And the two in between are working. position and middle position.. . Actually, I think there's a couple,. at least one video in the learning. . library about needle positions.. . So take a look at that and probably it'll. be focused on Brother because I've always.. . I'm a brother girl.. What can I say?. . So again, between the two machines,. Brother Toyota,. . they will pre select the needles.. . Silver Singer Studio.. . It's all kind of behind the scenes, either. with the drum or with the electronics.. . You can't really see what's going on.. . So let's dive into slip stitch,. skip stitch, slip skip.. . You'll see them both. referred to the same words.. . Slip stitch would be defined as certain. needles do not knit when. . you knit across the row.. . But the yarn, the working yarn travels. under the needle. . and leaves a float on the purl side.. Of the knitting.. . We'll see that a little more. clearly here in a minute.. . On Brothers, slip stitch is. controlled by your part buttons.. . On Silver, it's the cam. lever setting it to slip.. . On Toyota, there's apparently a pattern. dial and you need to set that to empty.. . And correct me if I'm wrong. on that because I'm really just guessing.. . On the Toyota, Toyota, I've only used one.. . And the LK slip stitch is. controlled with the side levers.. . So no matter what the device is that's. telling the machine to slip,. . it's going to skip any of the needles. that are in B or working position,. . which is kind of counterintuitive.. . When you knit plain,. all the needles in B position knit.. . When you're knitting slip, all the. needles in B position do not knit.. . So it's just like I said,. it's kind of a little mind bender there.. . So slip stitch,. because you've slipped some stitches,. . you've got those floats. on the purl side of the knitting.. . Just like when you're knitting Fair Isle. and we talked about Fair Isle, I think. . last time, Fair Isle, we've got floats.. . We're carrying colors across the back. of the work underneath the needles.. . So when you turn the.. . Turn the Fair Isle knitting over.. . I don't have any Fair Isle here.. . You can see floats hanging and we usually,. you know, cringe at the floats. . when working Fair Isle.. . But when working Slip,. we embrace those floats because those are. . what gives you all that texture. on the purl side of the knitting.. . Normally, plain old slip stitch will be. used as a wrong side facing fabric,. . which means your purl side is going to be. the side that's going to be public,. . that's going to be showing to people.. . Another way that you can use slip. stitch is to add both texture and color.. . In these two examples,. we've got slip stitch in color.. . The large V's here in this left hand side. are you've knit, let's see,. . four rows in the teal color. and then one of the teal stitches we're. . holding, we're not holding, we're slipping. while we knit four rows. . of the coral color.. . And then that one teal. stitch gets stretched up over those four. . rows of coral and creates. this beautiful stitch pattern.. . In this case, it's slip. stitch from the knit side.. . So the knit side is going to be. the public side of the knitting.. . You can do quite a bit with it.. . Let's go to the desktop here.. . We're going to go to patterns.. . Let's Go to our stitch library. and take a look at some things.. . I'm going to search by technique.. . And I've got multicolor slip here.. . Look at all the things you can do.. . This is two colors in a row. without Fair Isle.. . Yes, there's going to be floats.. . However, you're using slip. stitch instead of Fair Isle.. . A lot of different things. that you can do with it.. . Here's an interesting one.. . This particular one is kind of a wavy. and if you look closely,. . here is the purl side and you can see. that there are some slip. . stitches there right in here.. . You can see those floats in the back.. . But it's a really, really pretty. interesting stitch pattern.. . So lots of choices as. far as multicolor slip.. . Multicolor slip is created by knitting. generally two rows of one color or. . a number of rows of one color and then. a number of rows kind of in stripes.. . But because you are,. . because you are slipping.. Let me go here.. . Just like in this example,. you're going to mix up the colors.. . So multicolor slip is really,. really fun to knit.. . Usually use a color changer. with multi color slip.. . Because you're changing.. . It's not Fair Isle.. . You can't put the teal and the coral color. . in your, your yarn feeder and your. . carriage like you do Fair Isle.. . You only put one color in at a time.. . You knit a couple rows,. switch the colors, knit a couple rows.. . So more than likely to have success. with you doing multi color slip,. . you need to use a color changer or. you're going to drive yourself crazy.. . All right, speaking of long floats,. let me show you. . a three color slip stitch pattern.. . I got so excited when I saw this one.. . Three colors in a row.. . So normally, you know,. someone will say to you, no,. . you can never knit three colors in a row.. . Well, not with Fair Isle you can't,. but with multicolor slip you can.. . This pink and blue and white. is absolutely gorgeous.. . And we do have this in our stitch library.. . I just put this one up.. . It's a new stitch pattern for us. and I can show you what it looks like.. . It's in our stitch.. Okay.. . I'm sorry, I got myself out. of whack here a little bit.. . Here we go.. Here's what the stitch pattern looks like.. . This is a three color slip stitch pattern.. . Now, if anybody does any double bed. chicard or if you're interested in double. . bed jacquard, you're going to go ding,. ding, ding, ding, ding.. . That stitch pattern looks a lot like it.. . Because multicolor slip is what. you use for Double bed Jacquard.. . Double bed, meaning you put some ribber. needles into work to cover. . up all those floats.. . And speaking of floats,. here's that same stitch pattern, right?. . Beautiful.. . But can you see all the long,. long, long, long floats in here?. . This is why double bed Jacquard. gets really, really heavy and thick.. . You got all this going on.. . Let's pretend I put some ribber needles up. as well to cover and to. . secure all those floats.. Voila.. . Double bed Jacquard. kind of heavy and thick.. . That's one of the reasons it's not. my favorite, but so if anybody says to me,. . I want to learn how to do double bed. Jacard, my first words to them are,. . can you do double multiple slit,. multiple color slip stitch?. . You've got to be able to do the multiple. color slip stitch before. . you can do double.. . Bet your card, because that's what it is.. . All right.. . I do have a little tutorial here. in our slip stitch classroom.. . We have an entire classroom. about slip stitch.. . It's under learn. classrooms and slip stitch.. . And one of the entries in the classroom. talks specifically about two color slip.. . And by the way, it's also. called two color jacquard.. . The word jacquard really just. means multiple colors in a row.. . Jacquard is used in weaving,. and I'm sure jacquard is. . used in other textile terms.. . And normally most people from machine. knitters will say, well,. . I knit that in jacquard.. . Well, what do you mean that you. used your ribber as well?. . Double bed jacquard. and two color jacquard.. . Two different things.. . Just a little.. A little one, did you know, sort of thing.. . So we go to classroom,. go to learn classrooms.. . All we're talking about today, excuse me,. will be in our slip stitch classroom.. . And there's lots and lots and lots. of topics in here. . about slip stitch in itself.. . Learn classrooms, slip stitch, Kim.. . It's not in patterns,. it's in stitch patterns.. . If we go to patterns stitch library, we've. put everything in our stitch library.. . So there's our stitch pattern.. . As a matter of fact,. designin it does a great job in separating. . things out to create. multicolor stitch patterns.. . Just as an aside,. . what can you do with slip stitch?. . In conclusion here,. what can you do with slip stitch?. . Not only can you knit a single color slip. stitch and put lots of texture on the purl. . side of your knitting. or texture on the knit side of your. . knitting with just a single color,. you can knit multi color slip.. . You can knit Two color slip,. you can knit three color slip.. . I imagine it's conceivable to do more. colors, but oh my gosh, when I knit this,. . I was knitting, what, six passes. of the carriage for each two rows.. . So that was just a lot of rows.. . I had a couple hundred rows here, right.. . And there's not a very big swatch.. . So,. yes, you can do multiple colors,. . but what else you can do with slip. stitch is you can create marker rows.. . Now, I've put links in our show. notes to all of these terms.. . If these terms are not familiar to you.. . Marker row is a way of using slip to mark. a row you're knitting along. . in stockinette, let's say.. . And for some reason you want to put. in a marker row, maybe to pick up a hem or. . to create pin tucks,. you would maybe slip every other needle. . and you'd get tiny little. floats every other needle.. . Then you could pick up those little floats. and pick up the,. . pick up the pin tuck or the hem or,. you know, whatever you want to do.. . So again, we've got, I've got in the show. notes, I've got links to these terms.. . So we didn't take you all day here.. What else can you do?. . Is lift stitch.. My favorite I cord.. . We can use I cord for slip stitch.. . I cord is basically knitting over just. a few stitches, slipping in one. . direction and knitting in the other.. . And that process. creates a corded piece of fabric,. . just a little cord that you. can use for ties and things.. . What else can you do?. . Textured stripes, kind of like that cabled. stitch pattern that I showed you.. . There's a cable, there's a little plain. knitting, there's some slip stitch rows, a. . little plain knitting, and another cable.. . Mix and match machines are really good. at those horizontal type stitch patterns.. . So mix them and match them and get. yourself some interesting textures.. . There's also in the stitch. pattern library, slip and tuck.. . Combining slip and tuck.. . Those are really interesting.. . I can show you those really quick.. Here we go.. . To get out of there, sue patterns,. go to stitch library. . and we have some slip and tuck.. Where is it?. . Slip and tuck right there.. . Let me give you a good. example of a slip and tuck.. . Here's one that's really up close.. . Well, that one's combined slip and tuck.. . So take a look at the slip and tuck.. . By combining stitch patterns,. there's no reason. . that you can't combine stitch patterns,. not in the same row,. . because your machine really is smart.. . But it's not that smart.. . You're going to Alternate. slip and tuck rows.. . You can create pin tucks.. Pin tucks.. . Just little tucks in your knitting. with slip stitch.. . Cool.. . Cool technique again, there's links. in the show notes to all of these terms.. . You can also look them up in the glossary.. . What else can you do with slip?. . You can free pass.. . I'm knitting away and oops,. I have to rip out a row.. . My carriage is over here.. . My working yarn is over here.. What do I do?. . Use slip as a free pass.. . Now, if you've got a Singer Silver studio. machine, you can pop that carriage. . and bring your carriage over.. . But you're lucky for the rest of us,. your carriage is over here.. . Your working yarn is over here.. . All your needles are in.. . In B position.. . In working position.. . Set your machine to slip. and free pass across.. . Get your carriage over. to where the working yarn is.. . It's another great use for slip.. . And there is also a slip cast on.. . So in the learning library. is a slip cast on method.. . That's kind of of fun.. . It's maybe not the prettiest cast. on method that there is, but it is fast.. . I already showed you the classroom,. but don't forget, it's knititnow.. . com.. . i'm not sure if there's. a shortcut for it or not.. . You would go to learn classrooms. and then scroll down to slip.. . Whoa.. We got lots of classrooms here.. . Slip stitch.. There we go.. . And lots of good stuff. in the slip classroom.. . Our classrooms are. a compilation of everything having to do. . with the topic on the website, be it. . patterns, stitch patterns, live replays.. . When this replay is up, it'll be there. in the slip stitch classroom courses.. . Anything to do with the specific. topic in the classroom.. . That's a question I get asked a lot.. What's the difference?. . All right, again, in conclusion,. . practice makes progress, not perfect..