I Made a TikTok

Well, I finally took the plunge and made a TikTok account. I kept seeing lots of fun videos being promoted by some really creative and inspirational yarncrafters on TikTok and decided I might as well make my own account there, even if it was only to hang out there and watch everyone else's videos. 😆

My TikTok tagline says: "I'm just here to watch all y'all's creative videos!" And that's true! I don't think I'll be uploading very many original videos there ... but who knows. Time will tell.

For now, I only have one video on there. I figured I should have at least one video uploaded to give my TikTok account some legitimacy. 😂

As I explained in the brief description of my TikTok post, the very first time I used my brand new Sentro 48 knitting machine, the counter didn't work. I had just unboxed the machine right before shooting this video. I cast on with some Red Heart yarn and had worked five or six rows when I noticed that the counter wasn't incrementing when the white needle passed the yarn feeder, so I grabbed my phone and shot some wobbly footage of the next time the white needle went by, in case I needed to have video evidence I could share with the seller to show them the counter wasn't working. But, wouldn't you know it, on the very next row after that the counter started working, and it has worked fine for me ever since! So I never had to send a complaint to the seller, and I continue to be totally happy with my Sentro 48 to this day. 😍 In my experience, the Sentro 48 actually runs smoother and quieter than either size of the Addis and also the Sentro 40. (I did briefly try to use a Sentro 22, but the gear was stripped on the one I bought, so I returned it right away and bought the Addi 22 instead.)

Watch on TikTok

 

 

Tooty-ta!

I don't remember exactly when was the first time I saw this TV commercial for Cox internet service, but right from the beginning it struck me how much the woman in the video-within-the-commercial resembled yarn and knitting machine guru Margaret Olander. 

I came across Margaret's videos on YouTube. (And here's a link to her blog.) I think if anyone spends any amount of time exploring videos about knitting machines, they will eventually discover Margaret's reviews and tutorials. Have you seen her videos before? Don't you agree that she looks like the woman in the Cox commercial?!

After noting the resemblance, I just had to see if I could find the original version of the Tooty-Ta video that the Cox commercial used. And here it is: 

Personally I think "Dr. Jean" (the woman leading the Tooty Ta singalong) could be a doppelganger for Margaret. 

 

Margaret has a boatload of useful and informative videos. Here's one she made about the Sentro 48 that I found interesting:

CPAP hose sleeve re-knit

A few years ago, I hand-knit a sleeve/cozy for the hose on my CPAP machine. It used one whole skein of Big Twist Sincerely Ombres in Gray Denim. I knit it flat on size 7 needles, then (without breaking the yarn) left a long tail and used a 5mm crochet hook to single-crochet the long seam together on the inside, which would make it easier for me to undo the work and reuse the yarn later if I decided to redo the hose sleeve, since that was my first attempt at knitting one.

It was around that same time when I first started hearing about the wonderful circular knitting machines like the Addi, Sentro, etc., and after spending some time studying what the machines could do, I was certain I could reknit this hose sleeve using a 22-needle machine. It would be a couple of years before I'd decide to invest in the Addi Express Professional, but that time finally came, and this is the first item I knitted on it.

I cast on with waste yarn for about 12-13 rows then started knitting with some Grey Heather Red Heart Super Saver. When I hand-knit the hose sleeve, it was only 17 stitches wide, and since the Addi has 22 needles, I wanted to be sure the reknit sleeve would be long enough, so I knit with the gray Red Heart yarn for 48 rows (about 11 inches). Then I changed to the Big Twist yarn and continued knitting. The counter read 358 rows when I stopped knitting with the Big Twist yarn and switched back to waste yarn for another 12-13 rows before casting off.

I had left a long tail (about 6 yards) before starting the Red Heart yarn in the machine. I used that long tail to pick up and SC in each stitch from the waste yarn on the cast-on end. Then I continued to SC in each stitch around in a continuous spiral (without joining at the end of rounds) until the yarn ran out. There was enough yarn for about 4 rounds of SC on that end. I finished off with the gray yarn and then removed the waste yarn from that end of the hose cover.

At the other end of the hose cover I had also left a long tail of the Big Twist yarn. I used that tail to pick up and SC in each stitch from the waste yarn. Then I chained 16 to form a long loop for the frame of my mask to slip through (to help hold the hose sleeve in place during use), then SC in the next stitch to join the loop to the edge of the hose sleeve, and SC in the next 10 stitches and chained 16 again for the second mask loop. I joined that loop with a SC in the next stitch and SC in all the stitches until I was back to where the first loop chain began. I put a SC in each chain of the loop, then continued with SC around the edge of the hose sleeve until reaching the second loop chain. I repeated putting a SC in each chain and then continued in SC along the edge of the hose sleeve until the yarn was about to run out and finished off there.

I think the extra stitches in the width of the Addi-knit hose sleeve will make it a little bit easier to put on and take off this version of the hose sleeve compared to my hand-knit version. These yarns are nice and soft (after machine washing and drying), so they make a nice hose cover.