I used to scoff in the face of sweaty summer knitting. The only concession to the hot Aussie summer was a shift to knitting socks or with cotton yarn. Sylvi, the biggest garment I’ve ever knitted – in thick wool yarn – was knit during summer.

But thanks to RSI I have become a cool weather fibre crafter. The table loom and knitting machine reside in the workroom, the hottest room in the house, where the aircon struggles on a really hot day. Only if I take the knitters or inkle loom downstairs where the aircon isn’t as challenged do I get any weaving done, but until recently I haven’t felt the inclination to work with yarn at all.

All the sorting through books and patterns a month or two ago must have had some effect, because suddenly I began thinking about weaving again. And it occurred to me that I could also set up the Bond Sweater Machine downstairs as well.

The last project I tried on it went through four restarts and was eventually abandoned, leaving a bad impression of the machine. I even entertained the idea of selling it. I was sure the problem was the yarn, but the only way to know was to set it up and give it a whirl again.

The first yarn I tried was a bulky one. I wanted to add a panel to a vest I made years ago. But while it knit well enough, there wasn’t a key plate that produced a gauge loose enough to match the garment, so I put that project aside.

Next I tried a silk yarn from a frogged project. While it knit beautifully, I decided that I just didn’t like the colour of the yarn and put it aside too.

Then I frogged a project I’d knit on the machine a few years ago, the ‘Ode to the 80s’ jumper, using an alpaca merino yarn I bought at the Legacy Lane Fibre Mills in Canada a few years ago. It had knit up into a wonderful drapey fabric, but I’d never sewn it up because it was too short and, being a sideways knit, couldn’t be lengthened:

I decided to knit up a simple vest of two rectangles sewn at the sides and shoulders, with a boatneck. The machine worked fine. After the first rectangle I grew more confident and decided to add a bit of a cowl to the front. All that requires is to gradually widen the top. I cast off by hand then blocked the pieces to make them easier to sew up:

It didn’t take long before I had the knack of using the Bond again. Just like with hand knitting, it’s more enjoyable if you use a lovely yarn. After knitting these pieces I made a long one out of some gift yarn that I initially thought would become a scarf but have other ideas now. And I’ve been developing patterns for three other batches of yarn in the stash, making tension swatches and going math. We have another week of 30-35 degree C temps to get through, so I reckon the machine will be clamped to the kitchen table for a while yet.

I think I have bonded with my Bond again.