Then there’s Fiona Morris with patterns and yarn; Forsell Yarns with Undy Yarns; the Guild of Machine Knitters; Heathercraft pre-owned machines and accessories; Iris Bishop and her new collection; Jane Woodward and Shades of Cashmere yarn; Nina Miklin with her new patterns and luxury yarns; Riverside Spinning with yarns plus home comforts; Sue Castro with her novel patterns and ideas; Undy Yarns who bring their shop to the show and Uppingham Yarns with a wide range of yarns. In addition, John Scotton and Hilary will help me and bring Hague linkers, twisters and accessories. New this year will be Claire Watson at Thread Yarn & Fabric with a selection of finer yarns including lovely Tussah Silk plus Tessa from Silkwood Angoras with hand-dyed angora yarns. We featured Les and Tess in Spotlight in April 2008, Issue 123. It’s looking good, so please try and join us on the day.
I’ve chatted with Alison Dupernex recently and she’s back at her machine designing for us, having been away at shows for several months. She tells me she’s stocked up on cottons and also knitted us some sumptuous throws for cosy autumn and winter months. Don’t laugh – the summer will soon roll by! Several readers have also mentioned the tremendous talents of Mark Fast. He truly is a knitwear sensation and it’s great to know that domestic machines are being used to produce such amazing catwalk spectacle. Sally-Ann has been on the case to feature him in MKM since we read about him in The Times back in February. So far she’s had no joy but she’ll keep trying and will hopefully succeed.
Finally, do turn to Newsline this month to see the fabulous new books now available from Iris Bishop, Elaine Cater and Nina Miklin. The trio are three of the best designers currently working in machine knitting and they present masses of expertise in their quite different approaches. Devotees of all three will be thrilled with their latest offerings and Elaine also has a special MKM offer on a garter carriage book. It’s been much requested, following on from our article on the garter carriage last time. At just £6 including UK postage, Simply Garter Stitch is not to be missed and the offer is open until the end of July.
