So, I started making an afghan, on my new sweater machine. I just wanted to get to know it, nothing fancy. Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn in pink and brown. Stripes of different widths… No muss, no fuss. Pure stockinette heaven.

Because I only have one machine, I can only work with 120 needles at one time. No worries. I’d make three strips and sew them together.

I got strip number one finished last evening. It only took me a few hours to machine-knit 300+ rows. I was quite impressed! My back was hurting at the end of it all and I decided to stop for the night.

After a bit of internet surfing, I went in and made some changes to my work space (which had been commandeered from my dresser top) and cleaned things up. I got it all neat and tidy and organized. Just the way I like my work space!

Today I go in and begin on the second afghan strip and wouldn’t you know it… I had problems from the first row. Well, evidently, in the course of attempting to knit, I broke one of my keyplates. The #4 keyplate, which is the smallest plate that works well with worsted-weight yarn. Incidentally, it is also my biggest keyplate. Ugh.

I proceeded to try and do some knitting with the #3 keyplate. I knew better than to try, from my previous test swatches… Well, that didn’t work too well. Why was I surprised??? Dropped stitches all over the place. *sigh*

So, I’m left with a long, brown and pink, unevenly-striped scarf. I guess I’ll just crochet a cute edging on and wear it. Well, it won’t keep me warm on the sofa, but it’ll keep my neck warm when I go outside.

Bah…

UPDATE: Because my ISM is so old (from the 80s) they no longer make keyplates to fit. So, sweetie told me to get the “upgrade” kit! This consists of a new carriage (different design) that comes with keyplates that include half-sizes! So, now I’m going to have a wider variety of yarns I can use! Yay!