I had no problems setting everything up, but it took some trial and error to get it all working in what I imagined to be the right way. I decided to be productive with my playing around and make samples with the 3 yarns I plan to use, in the various tensions the machine has. Here's a pic of me underway:

After 3 hours I was left with over 600 rows of knitting completed- definately not something I could have done without the machine!

The white "snake" is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using Patons' Astra. The pink is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Patons' Canadiana, and the blue is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 8, 8.2, 9, 9.1, 10 with Patons' Decor. The yellow lines are pieces of cotton woven through to mark off the sections. The snakes were all done Monday, and this evening I started measuring 4" squares in each to see what gauge I got. I've measured the pink one so far. Unfortunately none of the gauges matches the 20 sts x 26 rows I normal need with the Decor or Canadiana, so I think I'll have to go back and make more swatches using the middle tensions (each whole number has 2 other divisions before reaching the next whole number).

I stopped using the machine around 7pm and spent the night relaxing with Yannick, enjoying some Domino's Pizza (I had $5 off) while watching Medium and CSI:Miami. Yannick and I have a mutual dislike for, well, we affectionately refer to him as "the arrogant redhead", and greatly enjoy making fun of his character flaws. Especially how he takes himself so seriously. Hysterical stuff.

Today I got home from work intent on making some progress. Earlier today I had a chance to make a st st gauge swatch using the Alafoss Lopi. I started one in garter too but didn't get to finish before leaving for work. I need to mark off a 4" square with a contrast yarn then felt the swatches so I can measure how much they shrunk. Because I'm making the bag larger than the original I need to be able to calculate how much larger to make it in each direction. So when I got home I finished the garter swatch, measured one of the above machine swatches, then sat down to do as much work as possible on Duffle Coat.

That's when I became the dolt refered to in the title above.

First, as directed, I seamed the shoulders. It took me a few minutes to figure out their placements 'cus there's no schematic included, but finally I matched up the cables and st st stripes and did a very nice seaming job. See-

Look how nicely those peices line up! They're only bunched 'cus I left my tape measure underneath before taking the pic.

So I did both sides, then moved on to the next step: button bands. I picked up all the required sts, did my required number of rows including the buttonholes. That's when I realized it. Look:

This is what it looked like right before doing the button band. I kept thinking to myself "man that neck opening is small! How will that fit around a kid's neck?" Once the button band was done, it was even smaller. I mean, the neck opening was no more than 2" wide- in circumference! What did I do wrong?

Easy. See the cutouts on the armhole sides? Those L shaped wedge openings that I had assumed were to fit in the sleeves? Nope. Those are the neck edges. I'd seamed the two front panels on the wrong sides.

Luckily I don't weave my edges until I'm done. (Thanks Nicole!) It wasn't hard to frog the button band and pick out the mattress stitch joining the shoulder seams. I even had time to rejoin the seams the right way and pick up the band sts and do a few rows before stopping for the night.

Oh well. At least doing the button band gave me a chance to realize that I wasn't given enough buttons! I was given 6 but this size sweater needs 7. So I won't be able to finish the sweater after all. I'm not going to sew on any buttons and take the chance they have no more of that type. I'll wait and see what they have in stock first.

To Shell from the comments: A) I'm SO SORRY you don't have addi Turbos there! I love them for non slippery stuff. And thank for the "talented" comment, it's really sweet of you to say so! B) I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who wasn't wild about Robots. My brother's name is Aaron! Wait- was it you who already told me that your son has my brother's name? I really should take notes on who's who! :)

To Kadi from the comments: Hi! I hope you'll be at the next meetup! I had a good time there. I purchased the issue of Rebecca at RedBirdKnits in December, and the link to the page with all their Rebecca magazines is here. I just took a quick look and saw they have 3 issues available: one in the original language (is it Danish? German?), the one I have that you looked through, and a new issue.

And a big HI! to Bernie even though you only emailed me when you needed something. ;]