Knitter wanted

Do you have any ideas on how I can ask knitters out there? There’s no set timescale so this could be discussed, although it would be great to have them by mid January. Also I’d perhaps like to have a first one done as a sample early in January, to then approve go-ahead for the others. I’m not sure what the ‘going rate’ would be for such a thing but my budget is super tight so I’d be looking for chunky but budget yarn and any other way to keep costs down. Thank you so much for your help.
Best wishes
Charlotte

Charlotte I should be able to help you if you send me more details.

Lorna

lornahb
2012-01-05 20:28:16
Hi
These are quite big squares and using a chunky machine would use up a fair amount of wool for the 10 required. I have different yarn types and colours in stock and could knit up these squares for you for a nominal fee of £3 each. Please let me know if you require plain knitting Fair Isle or cable. The chunky machine I have is not automatic or electronic. If you commission me to do this work I could take a photograph of my work download it and e-mail it across to you so then you can decide if you want me to continue with the other blocks. As I have other projects I would need the go ahead ASAP and I could post these out to you if you are prepared to cover the postage costs.
Regards Lainie at Lainiesknits
Lainiesknits
2012-01-05 20:27:53

Home Knitting Pattern

I used to have the Brother Home Knitting Patterns and was doing just fine with them. I’ve since moved from Canada to Holland and had to leave all my things behind, so any one of the three packages would be fine. It would be great if somebody could help me out with that and I’d like to thank you in advance.
Best wishes from Maryke

Dear Anne

The Busybee website has Knitleader charts listed.
The address is http://www.busybeebasics.co.uk/Pages/charts.htm.
Although this is not quite what Maryke was enquiring about it may help her.

Kind regards
Sue.

Sue P
2011-12-01 16:17:05

You’ve created a monster ! (LOL)

Dear Anne
Thank you so much for printing my letter and photo in the Dec issue of MKM. I must admit, I can’t stand a braggard but I’ve shown the issue to every friend and relative I have – whilst wearing the sweater of course. (ROFL) I even took it to the local JoAnn’s and Hobby Lobby – two craft stores I use a lot and am friendly with the staff. I even got an invitation to demonstrate a Bond machine (paid of course) at the Hobby Lobby. The interest the photo caused and the oohs over the sweater I was wearing have added an Ultimate Sweater Machine to quite a few people’s Santa wish list, I’m sure. (LOL) Anyway, thank you so much for this. It’s done more for my ego and has been better for my Sunlight Deprivation Depression than a case of the best anti-depressant drug they could give me. (ROFL)
Best regards and may you all have a VERY HAPPY AND BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON ! ! !
Ronny Woods

PS – I have to get back to my machine. With only a few more days till Christmas, I still have a list of things I want to make to give as gifts. I always plan a lot more than I can possibly do and am I alone in this or do I have a lot of similar overloaded friends? Well I’ll do what I can and give a token gift and and IOU card to the ones I don’t have time to get to. (ROFL)

Jumper to copy

I have a jumper that I love wearing, but it’s now a bit baggy and threadbare to say the least. However, I love it to bits and would love it if someone could possibly copy it for me.
Thanks for any help.
Susan

Hi Susan
Can you give a few details about the jumper?
Is it Fair Isle cabled or some other pattern?
Would it need to be knitted on a chunky machine or is it a finer yarn?
Do you knit and would like someone to work out a pattern for you or do you need someone to knit it for you?
Sorry to bombard you with questions but more info would be helpful.
Regards
Sue.
Sue P
2011-12-16 17:45:48
Hi Susan
Can you give a few details about the jumper?
Is it Fair Isle cabled or some other pattern?
Would it need to be knitted on a chunky machine or is it a finer yarn?
Do you knit and would like someone to work out a pattern for you or do you need someone to knit it for you?
Sorry to bombard you with questions but more info would be helpful.
Regards
Sue.
Sue P
2011-12-16 17:45:48

Crafters’ Market

We also do a lot of summer fairs and fêtes so my knitting machines are working constantly, especially the garter carriage and I just hope they don’t wear out! Since I’ve been doing the Crafters Market selling my knitwear, lots of people have said, “I have a knitting machine but haven’t used it because I couldn’t get on with it”. My reply was simply, buy Machine Knitting Monthly and they could soon be knitting garments like the ones I am selling. I always take a copy with me and there was quite a bit of interest in the magazine so let’s hope the sales will go up!
Best wishes from Linda Collins on the Isle of Wight”

Tuition needed

I was wondering if there were any machine knitting clubs in this area or somewhere I could go to get tuition as I’ve no idea how to follow patterns or use the machine. I would be grateful for any help.
Thanks, Michelle Matthews in Ferndale, Mid Glamorgan.

The first time

You may not know that I also run a knitting club and we meet once a month in Hounslow, West London. About 18 months ago a number of club members asked if we could hold a Knit & Natter Day. They’d attended similar events and found them both enjoyable and stimulating. The only drawback was the travelling distance and transport so on 17th September we held our first Knit & Natter from 10.30 am to 4.00 pm. It was a great experience, but full of stresses and a few strains leading up to the day. Any club contemplating such an event might find my checklist a help, as I know of no instruction booklet on how to set it up.

Find a venue We were lucky to have a club member on the hall committee of a local church – All Saints in Hampton, Middlesex. The hall had plenty of room, was light and airy with parking and disabled access. It was also reasonably priced for the hire, so it didn’t break the bank.

Find a date It’s important to hire the hall when as many members as possible can attend.

Decide on an entry price and what it will include We decided on £5 plus free coffee or tea. If we’d charged a nominal amount for the drinks, it would have helped to defray the costs. Many people who attended wanted to give us a donation for their teas.
Invite exhibitors to the event. We were lucky to have Brenda Bristow from Heathercraft, Sue Castro and Nina Miklin for the day. Others we invited were either away or had previous commitments.

Find a guest speaker Carol Chambers agreed to be ours but things were touch and go, as she was due to have a knee operation and thought it might be scheduled on the week of our Knit and Natter. Thankfully it was done ahead of time, which was a great relief to us and showed, once again, that she’s a fine designer and speaker.

Publicise the event MKM and the GMK newsletter informed many machine knitters and messages were placed on some Yahoo knitting group sites. The church newsletter also carried details before the event.

Ask club members to demonstrate aspects of knitting if they’ve some special skills We’ve a very talented group of knitters involved in other crafts as well. Jenny Kelly used DesignaKnit to design and knit our logo. Barbara Logan demonstrated her sock machines and allowed visitors to have a go. She also created our embroidered name badges, so visitors would know who we were! Norma Valvona demonstrated adding embroidery to knitwear with her sewing machine. Brenda Moger and Margaret Grant helped anyone with hand knitting problems. Sandra Saunderson and Janice Engall showed how to make Dorset and woven buttons. This proved to be extremely popular and I think almost everyone who attended left with a Dorset button made at the event. All our members (except one with a holiday booked a year in advance) supported the event. It was a real team effort with not enough space here to mention everyone, but in the end we all enjoyed ourselves.

Organise the front-of-house Janet Naylor posted herself at the entrance to take money and issue tickets. Sandra’s husband Harry took charge of parking and directing traffic.

Middlesex Machine Knitters meet on the second Wednesday of the month (except for December) at Hounslow Community Association Hall, 9 Montague Road, Hounslow, London TW3 1JY and everyone is very welcome. Whether we decide to do it again will be discussed at our next club meeting but I do hope so. I’m sure the first time you try something is always the most difficult and we should know that, we’re machine knitters!

Craft Fayre

There are lots of different crafts including, hand-crafted wooden gifts, decorated hessian bags, a lady covering old tired comfy shoes, a hat maker and willow basket maker. There’s free admission and a raffle for two charities. The hotel postcode is PE15 9LH and please call Barbara on 01354-651734 for more details.

Using DK?

Does anyone know if it is possible to use double knitting yarn on a Toyota 901 please? I’m finding it difficult to get 4-ply in the yarn I would like.

Hi
Yes you can use DK on your machine. Page 11 in the handbook has a useful guide to yarns and tensions. You can match a strand of your yarn with the thickness of those shown in the photo to get an idea of the tension to use.
Kind regards Sue
Sue P
2012-01-06 18:24:37
Thanks Sue
I tried using DK and it worked but the fabric was a little on the stiff side. Just to complicate matters my machine broke down. I’m happy to say all is well now but I’m on catchup. Playing with DK is going to have to wait at least until after Christmas. I’ve managed to acquire a Brother 230 from a friend but it’s not quite a complete machine. It needs the tensioner and rods (whiskers I call them) and a few other bits and pieces to at least get the main bed going again. It has a ribber but one of the back plates is missing for some strange reason and the coupling between the main bed carriage and the ribber is also missing. I remain hopeful that I’ll be able to find these eventually.
LadyF
2012-01-06 18:24:02
Hi

Sorry to hear there are parts missing from the 230. Did you know that there are a lot of machine-knitting related things on Ebay UK? You should be able to find what you are looking for there.

If the DK is too thick to knit using every needle have you tried using alternate needles and a tighter tension? That usually works and gives a good feel to the fabric. You have to give the knitting a good tug to close up the stitches.

Hope you are successful.
Regards
Sue.

Sue P
2012-01-06 21:39:00
Hi Sue
Thanks for your comments. The Toyota is now fully operational and whizzing along happily. I keep a close eye on eBay and have found items for both machines. Just took delivery of an intarsia carriage for the Toyota today – something else to learn. I’ve got most of the parts to get the Brother 230 working now also from eBay except for the tension unit. However I downloaded an instruction manual for it and had a close look at the tension unit on there. There’s no adjustment with it simply a square block with two eyes on it where you thread the yarn through. It would seem the tension for that machine is on the carriage itself so I would probably be able to use the Toyota’s tension unit there at it’s widest setting to just really guide the yarn.
At the moment I’m making (or trying to) a sweater in Fisherman’s rib on the Toyota. I’m having problems with the raglan shaping. First time I’ve tried it using the ribber. The instructions on the pattern weren’t too clear and I got it wrong (thank goodness for wool winders) so I’m trying different ways of tackling this. The instructions in the Toyota manual are easier but doesn’t give such a neat finish as the other one would. It’s just trial and error and eventually I should get it right.
It’s certainly a lot of fun and it keeps me busy.
Best wishes Fiona
LadyF
2012-01-09 12:32:24
Hi Fiona

Sounds as if you are getting on really well!

I have a KH260 which is a chunky Brother machine with punchcard and its tension mast is the same as for most machines. You will probably find the Toyota one works OK.

If you are knitting Fisherman’s rib on a 1×1 setting the easiest decrease is to transfer the outside stitch on to the next needle on the opposite bed. Then join the raglan seams with backstitch. When sewn neatly this gives a good straight seam line.

It sure is a lot of fun and every garment we make is unique!

Kind regards
Sue.

Sue P
2012-01-09 17:50:50

Flaw in stocking stitch pattern

Hi
When knitting plain stocking stitch, a flaw in the knitting appears. On the purl side, it looks like a slipped or missed stitch on the row it appears and is knitted up again on the next row. On the knit side, you can see it is a flaw in the knitting as it looks different from the rest of the knitted row. This is happening as I continue to knit stocking stitch, but in different areas of the work in progress and I am wondering how I can correct this. I can’t continue to improve on my machine knitting if I cannot correct this fault. Does any one have any tips or suggestions that I can do, or is it the fact that I have not set-up the carriage properly when knitting plain stocking stitch?
Thanks for any help.

Hi Lilian
This sounds as if it could be a tension problem have you tried loosening the setting on the main carriage tension dial?
Do you have sufficient weight evenly across the work?
Also check the condition of your needles and make sure the latches are opening and shutting freely. Change any that are damaged.
I hope you manage to get it sorted
Sue.
Sue P
2011-12-02 19:11:26
Hi Lilian
This sounds as if it could be a tension problem have you tried loosening the setting on the main carriage tension dial?
Do you have sufficient weight evenly across the work?
Also check the condition of your needles and make sure the latches are opening and shutting freely. Change any that are damaged.
I hope you manage to get it sorted
Sue.
Sue P
2011-12-02 19:11:26