Working a full time job interferes with my knitting. Last Sunday I spent the morning designing a machine knitted hat. I worked on both my Brother 970 and 260. Using the standard gage machine I got a baby hat and on the large machine I got an adult hat, using the same pattern. For me this was fun. Some of these will be for family and friends, others will go to the homeless shelter in town. 
Knitting makes me feel better. Well, except when I totally screw up the knitting machine by bending a needle. The machine doesn’t like it if you force it to work over a bent needle. Of course in my usual impatient way, I pulled the machine and broke the yarn. Not to mention I bent 2 needles so badly that I couldn’t get them out of the machine. I just walked away and asked Tom for help. OH yeah, that was smart. Mr. “Mad scientist” was working on his pool chemicals and could leave that to help. So I just went and got his tools (screwdriver, pliers and needle nose pliers). Hey, I didn’t use duck tape!After a few minutes with the needle nose pliers, I got the knitting needle straightened out and was able to pull it from the bed. Another minute and new needles were in and I was ready to go back to knitting. About 15 minutes later, Tom walks in and asked what was wrong with my knitting machine. When he saw the screwdriver, and pliers, he looked worried, as these knitting machines are not cheap. No problem I fixed it. He just took his tools back and left me alone with my knitting.
I managed to design and knit 5 hats in 4 hours. Not bad for someone that hasn’t used the knitting machine in months.
Before bedtime I also got in some hand knitting. Can’t tell, it’s a Christmas gift.
