We’re pleased to let all our readers know that the July magazine has been mailed out to subscribers and is officially on sale on Thursday 10th June.
July 2021 (Issue 282)
2021
April 2021 update
Dear Readers
What a mixed bag of emotions there’s been for me this month and your first port of call must be our Clubline Special, bringing you the happy news that two Australian knitters, in the same club, were born within four months of each other a hundred years ago. The club is Macknit, the New South Wales Machine Knitters Association (http://mkansw.org.au) where Passap expert Fay Butcher has had a long association. I’ve received their quarterly Newsletter for years and I’ve many happy memories of times spent with New South Wales knitters at Metropolitan’s Dream Week. Dorothy is slightly older by four months and it’s only recently that she’s stopped entering shows. She’s a fantastic knitter and her baby garments are exquisite. She’s also a beautiful lady, who never takes anyone for granted. She’s as camera-shy as I am, so we’ve just a small number of photos of her. Dorothy’s 100th birthday fell on the day of their monthly meeting so they celebrated on the day, but she couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about! You’ll see her in a photo talking to Judy Schultz, President of the Newcastle Club.
Pat is the younger of the two and still drives. Like many of us, she’s yet to find the notes she made to finish a garter carriage cardigan she started four years ago, which now only needs one sleeve! She’s sent us some lovely memories of things mothers taught their children years ago, which will give us all a giggle. For sure, Dorothy and Pat have filled every second of the 52,560,000 minutes of their lives. I’m truly grateful to Newsletter Editor Margaret Tulloh, Dorothy and Pat for their kind permission to share this story.
Much closer to home I’ve the sad news that two knitters, many of you will know, have recently died. The first is Denise Turner, who became a great friend. Many of you will have seen her name on our letters’ page, or received items you needed with just a letter ‘D’ at the end of a short message. If she had it, she’d give away any number of things such as patterns, spare needles and instruction manuals along with passing on endless information. News of the second death has only just reached me in time to include now and it’s the sad passing of Ann Noble, from Donington Knitting Club. Over the years, Ann and I became good friends and we met up once a year at the Nottingham Show, to catch up with life and living. I hope to contact club members and include a little more next time. There’s also a third very personal loss for me, of a lovely lady who was born in the same year as Denise. We never met, but we shared the same name and she always called me the Knitting Lady. All three had hearts of gold and may they now rest in peace. Until next month, enjoy the spring sunshine and knit happy.
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June 2021
Subscription copies sent out Thursday 6th May
On sale Thursday 13th May
Ask your newsagent to reserve a copy or order a subscription now
Save the date
Save the Date! Full schedule now available!
Three days of crafting fun from Saturday 1st to Monday 3rd May 2021
Search Press is bringing you a whole host of amazing FREE art and craft tutorials and projects to give you plenty of inspiration this spring. Enjoy brilliant author demonstrations and tutorials, as well as plenty of great offers and giveaways!
The free virtual art and craft festival is to get everyone into the spring mood and you can enjoy from the comfort of your own sofa.
The dates are from Saturday 1st to Monday 3rd May, 10.00 am to 4.30 pm on the Search Press Facebook Page. If you don’t want to forget about the festival make sure to join the events page here.
It’s completely free and there will be demos from some amazing artists and crafters.
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 (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.
Making Felt Hats
ISBN 9781782218265
RRP £9.99
Available 7th April 2021
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