2024

Dear Anne

The other day I’d just come to the very last row of a fairly complicated Fair Isle when the lot dropped off the machine! As we all know, hooking it all back pulls on the stitches so I held the knitting carefully. I threaded a bodkin (wool needle) with nylon cord and carefully eased it through each stitch, before hooking it all back on the machine. It worked really well, as the nylon cord slid smoothly through the stitches without pulling. It’s definitely an idea to put in the memory bank. Best wishes, Claudia in Epson

Hi Anne

Shut your eyes and ears please, but this might help another reader. Having just finished carefully punching out a card recently, it then fell on the floor. When I moved to pick it up, it got caught under the metal leg of my chair and was badly creased. However, I saved it with my iron. I carefully used a light and even pressure, with the iron on a cool setting and a piece of paper over the punchcard. It was only the long time I spent punching it that gave me the courage to have a go and it’s been fine in the machine. Keep up the good work. Best wishes, Sue in Maidstone

Dear Anne

I use quite a lot of fine yarns and always had difficulty winding ‘half of a large cone’ equally. Now I pop the large cone onto my kitchen scales, halve the number of grams and then wind off until the large cone weighs the smaller number. This way I finish up with two equal cones, give or take an odd bit. It’s also really useful for the lovely patterns we have from Alison Dupernex, when she says ‘about 100g’. At this time in my life I feel really daft, as my scales were always in the kitchen for weighing food, not in my knitting room. To be honest, I bought them ages ago when I was going to slimming club each week and never got the hang of using them properly. Now they’re in my knitting room. I just pop on an empty cone then ‘zero’ the scales to have a really good idea how much of an oddment of yarn is on a cone. Yours sincerely, Margaret (who never did make it to slimmer of the week!)

Dear Anne

I’ve recently completed a shadow pleated skirt on my Knitmaster 700 and I’d like to pass on a tip which might interest other readers. When I’m putting the pleating back onto the needles, the stitches tend to slide off as I work my way along the needlebed. If I put a loose elastic band around the completed side and move it, say, every five or six needles, the stitches don’t slide off and there’s obviously no damage to the needles. It really helps and I’m sure I can use the technique for other things, too. Best wishes, Chris in Staffordshire

Dear Anne

I’m in my 70s and suffer from arthritis in my hands and back. I now have a Silver Reed LK-150 and this machine has meant I’ve been able to start knitting again. I love the LK-150, as I’ve been unable to knit for several years since the other machines were too heavy. It’s so light and easy to use. I loved the Mint Set pattern for the baby’s cardigan with a hood which you printed in May on Page 37. Like everyone else we’re having to cut back and I used yarn from Aldi. Best wishes, Tricia

Hi Anne

If you still have to hand the address of the charity that takes knitting machines, tools and so on, please could you let me have it? Kind regards, Alma

Tools With A Mission (TWAM) is a Christian charity that collects unwanted tools and equipment including knitting machines, sewing machines, yarn and accessories. Items are refurbished and sorted into kits for Sub-Saharan Africa, where TWAM works closely with local grassroots organisations. The head office is at 2 Bailey Close, Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate, Ipswich, Suffolk IP2 0UD. They’re open Monday to Friday from 9.00 am to 4.30 pm, but you must ring first. Their number is 01473-210220 or email post@twam.uk