New, free Knit-A-Long

Dear Anne

I’m a subscriber to your magazine and have an announcement which may be of interest to your readers. I know printing deadlines are such that an announcement in print will be at least a month away, but the schedule I’m putting together will allow machine knitters to join partway through. A KAL (Knit-A-Long) is starting up for machine knitters who wish to explore the techniques of UK-based Alison Dupernex as described in her new book, Machine Knitting – Designing With Colour, though Alison is not participating.

GOALS

  • Inspire and encourage each other to try new techniques, colour combinations, stitch combinations, yarn combinations shown in Alison Dupernex’s book
  • Internalise the proven fact that doing more swatches, trials, sweaters (or whatever) ultimately yields more quality than trying to achieve just one quality object ⇒ so we will encourage ‘more trials’ rather than ‘perfection each time’
  • Find joy in personalising some aspect which we find inspiring within Alison’s book and use them in our future fabrics and garments

You must have her book to participate. We will not be posting online any stitch patterns or garment designs to preserve Alison’s copyrights. It will be hosted on MeWe dot com, a social media site. Search for KAL Alison Dupernex Spring 2021.

Our Zoom meeting days and times are as follows:  1st Monday and 3rd Tuesday of each month, 6.00 pm PST (West Coast USA) for Mondays and 10.00 am PST for Tuesdays. The early time was specifically for our current UK members.

Our first meeting is Tuesday April 20th 10.00 am PST.  I will post a Zoom link on the site closer to the date. The link to join the group is https://mewe.com/join/kalalisondupernexspring2021 or go to MeWe.com and search for KAL Alison Dupernex Spring 2021

There is no fee to join and people can join midway through, since we are all going to choose our own projects. The requirements are (a) to have Alison’s book and (b) to do machine knitting.

Thank you for your help and best wishes, Donna Hinshaw

Any interest?

A reader wonders if any person or organisation might have an interest in this old (1956) Japanese machine? It was left on her doorstep but, sadly, unless someone wants it then it will have to be consigned to the tip. She feels it would be a shame as it’s standard gauge and looks as if it’s in good condition. It might also be in working order, so get in touch with Anne at MKM and she’ll pass on details.

May 2021 new subscriptions

This is May 2021 and our latest issue

NEW SUBSCRIPTION If you’d like a monthly subscription to the magazine, no money will be taken with your order and it will start next month with the June 2021 magazine, to be mailed out to subscribers on Thursday 6th May. If you’d like to start with this May magazine, please buy it as a back issue.

May 2021 (Issue 280)

We’re pleased to let all our readers know that the May magazine has been mailed out to subscribers and is officially on sale on Thursday, 8th April.

Sewing Street

Sewing Street will be launching Bobbi Heath’s Making Felt Hats on Wednesday 31st March at 10.00 am. The book will be available exclusively through Sewing Street until 7th April 2021.

Watch the launch on Freeview 72, Sky 670, online or on YouTube.

Pre-order

Making Felt Hats

ISBN 9781782218265

RRP £9.99

Available 7th April 2021

 www.searchpress.com

So easy

Dear Anne

Here’s my quick and easy hat to go in the shoe boxes. Just knit a strip of ribbing, seam down the long edge, fold it in half width-ways, gather the top edges together and finish with a bobble or a cord wound round in a circle to make a flat disc. Make it nice and long and you’ve a chunk to fold back for a brim. Change colour halfway or knit stripes, finish it off with the cord disc then turn it inside out to make two different coloured hats in one. Best wishes, Joan in Edinburgh

On-line workshop

Scottish Machine Knitters Association workshops have moved online and are now open to everyone. The next is on Saturday 24th April, starting at 7.00 pm. You’ll learn to knit ‘bargello-style’ and the workshop is for all machines with an intarsia facility. The technique uses the intarsia function and due to time restraints, you’ll design the fabric then make the front of a cushion pad. Payment is £8.50 (£5.50 for members) with PayPal, or slightly less for BACS payments. The cut-off date is 17th April and you’ll find full details at www.scottishmachineknitters.org.uk

Beverley Ward’s new shop

Beverley has written a circular sock pattern, which can be knitted on any standard gauge machine with a ribber.  It all started when she wanted to knit some socks to wear with her walking boots. She looked around for some to buy, but couldn’t find any she liked.  A friend had been on a course to knit socks on an old-fashioned sock machine, so she tried to buy one – until she saw the price of them!  This got her thinking that she must be able to knit socks on her knitting machine using the circular knitting setting.  It was important not to have a seam down the main part of the leg and she worked out how to do it. She’s uploaded the pattern to her Etsy shop, as she thought others might want to knit them as well.  You can see from the photos that she went mad, knitted loads of pairs and here’s the link.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/852358165/machine-knitting-sock-pattern

Block and tackle

Dear Anne

With time on my hands the other day, I was looking back at some back issues of MKM and saw this great tip, which I’m definitely going to try. I’m a bit of a stick-in-the-mud and use the same shape on my Knit Leader over and over again. I always block my knitting but all the measuring to get the exact shape is a bit tedious and time consuming. This reader traced the pattern from the Knit Leader sheet onto a piece of silk organza. She used BluTack to anchor the organza firmly and some permanent marker pens for the lines. From dressmaking, I know that silk organza can take a hot iron and lots of steam. It’s also transparent, so it’s easy to see the Knit Leader lines and trace through. The silk organza then gets pinned onto a blocking mat and it’s so easy to pin each piece to the traced shapes. I’m so pleased with the idea that I’ll go off now to knit a sweater and try it out! I’m sure that with different coloured marking pens, you can trace several garment shapes onto the piece of material. Keep safe and best wishes, Liz in Doncaster

Double up

Dear Anne

I so enjoy reading the hints and tips, but haven’t seen this one mentioned for ages. Back in the day, when we were all too scared to put a pair of scissors anywhere near our knitting, one of the cut ‘n’ sew enthusiasts passed on a gem. When you have to work a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine for a cut and sew neckline, use a double sewing machine needle. The job’s done in half the time! Best wishes, Grace in Stockport