Beavering away

Dear Anne

I’ve come back to machine knitting after very many years. I was surprised to find out that all the magazines I remember for machine knitting have disappeared. I was even more surprised to see patterns in MKM for something you call ‘mid gauge machines’. I have Brother 838, 881 and 950i, so are they mid gauge? In between times I’ve been hand knitting and I’ve loads of double knitting, so can I use it? Best regards, Maureen

Thanks for asking and all your Brother machines are standard gauge models. You can knit soft DK yarn at high tensions (Tension Dial 10+) on standard gauge machines and low tensions on chunky machines (Tension Dial down at 1 or 2). Mid gauge machines are absolutely ideal for this weight of yarn. Whilst we’ve all been beavering away, often on our obsolete machines, a new generation of knitters has become hooked on machine knitting. The LK150 has been marketed as the ideal machine for hand knitters who would like to try out machine knitting for the first time. It knits yarns from DK to super thick weight over 150 needles with manual needle selection. To make a start, I suggest you clean your Brother machines, replace the sponge bars and buy a cone or two of decent quality 4-ply. Get back into the swing of machine knitting and then discover how much tolerance you have at the top end of the tension dial range. You may be surprised at the all-round performance of an old steel bed machine.

ON THE HOOK

Hi Anne

When we’re knitting Fair Isle, we have to do something with long floats and hooking them up is convenient. I always use a tip from years ago to hook the float on a needle above it, putting it on a stitch of the same colour. So, if the float is in the second colour and it’s red, put it on a needle with a red stitch on it. It then stops any ‘show through’ of the first colour! Kind regards, Lynne

FINE TUNING

Dear Anne

I’m a very lapsed machine knitter, trying to get going again. I knitted like crazy back in the 90s, then sold everything when I had to go back to work full time. I recently saw an old Knitmaster machine propped up in a corner of my local charity shop. They were pleased to see me looking at it and said a small donation would be fine, so I bought it. (I think they just wanted to get rid of it all!) There’s a machine and ribber, with lots of bits and pieces. I’m trying to get going again and it all seems to be here, but there’s no close knit bar. Should I have one and what does it look like? If I find it, what do I do with it? I’d be pleased for some help. Yours sincerely, Sheila

Welcome back to the fold, Sheila and a close knit bar is a long, thin piece of plastic. When a ribber is bought new, it’s often attached to the packing and more often than not, thrown away by mistake. Let’s suppose we’re using a 3-ply or 4-ply yarn and knitting on both beds, with cast on comb and weights attached. As the carriages are taken across, needles come forward and stitches are formed with no problem. If we use a 2-ply or finer yarn, the weight needed on the cast on comb can make it tight for needles go in the carriages at the right angle and stitches don’t knit off cleanly. Increasing the tension often gives us a fabric that’s too loose. If we push the close knit bar under the main bed needles, it lifts them very slightly. So, as the carriages are taken across, the needles are in the correct position to knit cleanly off the needles. When we’re using fine yarn, if some of the stitches stay on top of the needles, it’s a sure sign we need the close knit bar in place. A separate swatch is needed, as the tension will be different with and without the bar. Also, when we’ve finished knitting, the close knit bar must be removed. It shouldn’t be kept in position for all knitting. The bar lifts the needles to accommodate fine yarn, so it does the carriage no good to use it unless necessary. Spares are available for old Knitmaster machines and close knit bars aren’t expensive. Go to any dealer and we also have them in Mini Mart.

June update

Dear Readers

A couple of weeks ago, many of us  thought Spring had finally arrived… and it did for a week! Despite that lovely sun, we’re now back to bitterly cold winds and rain by the bucketful. If this weather is the best the south can do, I’ll need every thick sweater I can pack, for one last essential trip we’ve to make to Scotland in a week or two.

I hope you’ll start to smile when you read Clubline on Page 10. Chris sent me the photos you’ll see, from the Easter Yellow challenge Janet had suggested for the Rumney Class & Club. One-by-one the pictures popped into my inbox and I was beaming long before they’d all arrived. Chris said that every club member was smiling as they arrived and unwrapped their items. There’s something very appealing about lovely shades of yellow and we all love Clair Crowston’s gorgeous top on Page 14. She’s included instructions for both Brother and Silver Reed machines with a lace carriage. If you’re just starting your machine-knitting journey and Clair’s design is too much of a challenge, do try her chain stitch cast on edge. It looks great and lays flat. She’s explained it in full and we’ve included step-by-step instructions for a latch tool cast on in Purls of Wisdom on Page 17.

Are you in the habit of going for a walk, especially in woodland? You might like to turn to Page 50 to see what you can do with a handful or two of young, waxy ivy leaves. Google and YouTube will whisk away any scepticism. I’ve only to walk to the end of my garden for ivy in abundance and you’ll read that Joan Lafferty manages a similar number of steps to her knitting room in Magical Memories this month! At the end of Joan’s feature, you’ll notice that Macmillan’s coffee morning for cancer support is on Friday 26th September this year. Bill King’s tea cosy is enduringly popular and if you join the seam completely, it makes a cosy hat to keep out piercingly cold wind. I’d better knit one quickly, as I’m sure to need it on our trek North. Until next month, knit happy!

NEXT ISSUE July 2025

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On sale Thursday 12th June

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Hang on

Dear Anne

No names please, for obvious reasons! As you well know I’ve a rather ‘picky’ daughter-in-law. It’s fine, we get along very well and I know my place. She’s ‘wonder woman’ and I never quite make it! However… can you believe I’m now knitting like crazy for her? What’s happened? I’m making the coat hanger covers from an old Stash Box. When she dropped the kids off, I was doing some ironing – you know, the funny thing we ‘oldies’ still do! I had some things hanging up on my padded hangers and she spotted them straight away. She wondered where I bought them and I told her I made them. When she came to collect the ‘holy horrors’ (love them to bits, but they can be a handful!), she gave me a tin of rather nice biscuits and asked if I’d make some for her. Well I was never going to refuse, was I? So I seem to be on a mission to replace every hanger in her wardrobe. Remind readers about them Anne, as they do look lovely and work a treat for keeping things in place. They also stop ‘pointy bits’ forming at the shoulders. Keep going Anne and I’m so sorry to hear about Sally-Ann. You’ll miss her a lot – well, we all will. I loved her pages and how she kept us ‘bang on trend’. Best wishes to one and all.

June 2025 (Issue 329) with Bill King & Clair Crowston

Clair Crowston’s sweater on our full-colour June 2025 cover has a large size range and instructions for both Silver Reed and Brother lace carriages. We’ve our usual mix of patterns for standard, mid-gauge and chunky machines including an Anne Baker prem baby cardigan from her Karabee Collection. You’ll want to make our eco-friendly laundry soap and knit Bill King’s tea cosy for cancer support. We look at finishing rib edges, working a lacy seam, pressing acrylic and quilting on Japanese machines. Alison Dupernex is an invaluable support and Bill King looks at single bed techniques that can be expanded for double bed knitting. After her retirement, Susan Guagliumi’s expertise lives on. If you’ve not found it already, check out Nic Corrigan and the Machine Knit Community, the new custodians of Susan’s invaluable online content. Joan Lafferty looks as if she might try a bit of physical exercise and we’ve all the usual advice, news and reviews.

NEW DIGITAL VERSION From the January 2025 issue, you can now buy the digital version of the magazine. Just head for the SHOP and select either the hardcopy or downloadable option. The downloadable magazine is just £4 (sterling) for each issue and available straight away. It saves the huge expense and wait for overseas postage, so check it out NOW!

Neck and neck

Hi Anne

Please pass onto newbies that whatever a pattern says, always decrease for the point at the front on a ‘V’ neck on every row to the fold line. Especially if you’re knitting in a pattern with horizontal lines. After the fold line, increase on every row for the other half of the band. If the shaping is done on the second stitch from the edge, the mattress stitch join using half the stitch from each side gives the finished appearance of one central stitch. Bye for now, Yvonne

Bag of tricks

Hi Anne I wonder if you’d like me to pass on this golden oldie for the newbies. There’s a well-trodden way to deal with the mess we can get into when trying to knit intarsia patterns in lots of colours. Stretch a piece of nylon cord or string between the legs of the knitting table and tie it securely at each end. Now peg some small plastic bags on it, in the same way you’d hang out the washing. Make sure you just peg it at the back, so the top of the bag stays open. (Envelopes will do, but it’s best to see the colour through the plastic.) Using a wool winder, wind the contrast yarn to be used into small balls. Drop each colour into its bag and you can then pull the yarn from the centre of the ball, so it runs smoothly as you use it. Old tricks? You can’t beat ’em, can you! Best wishes, Shelagh

Let’s use it!

Dear Anne I’ve just come back to knitting after a long gap, so I dug out my old Knitmaster 700 and you’ve one more regular reader! I live on my own and as my husband died a while ago now, I need something to do. You can’t beat a knitting pattern for getting the old grey cells working. Shaping necks and armholes and crossing cables can really be a challenge when there are so many other things going on at once. We’re often told: “Use it or lose it” and what can be better for our brains than following a knitting pattern? What can be better to keep our bodies moving than actually machine knitting a garment? What can be better for our hands and finger joints than putting it all together? I’m just waking up to the fact that there’s more to life than daytime telly! I urge all other readers to keep at it, to keep going. Kind regards, Isabella

May update

Dear Readers

It’s been a busy month and you’ll remember me telling you that my dear friend, Susan Guagliumi, has retired. We all know that her knowledge and skills are immense, so I’m very happy her library of online classes is in the safe hands of Nic Corrigan and the Machine Knit Community. (The full story is on Page 8.) The MKC is an exceptional online space for machine knitters of all abilities around the world. Nic is a designer with a studio in West Yorkshire. She offers step-by-step classes, modern designer-level knitting patterns, self-paced workshops, masterclasses and much more, along with an online support network at mkc.community

The MKC is a safe place to meet and be inspired by other machine knitters and it’s open for membership just three times a year. As we go to press, the next opportunity to join is in April. So make haste if it’s something you’ve been meaning to do, or you’ll have to go on the waiting list until September. The MKC encourages us to get the most from our machines so we can inspire, motivate and learn from each other. It’s packed with activities from monthly challenges to live events and classes. Many of machine knitting’s finest tutors and designers share a wealth of experience and knowledge, including our own Bill King.

As you’ll read on Page 8, the MKC is now the custodian of Susan’s invaluable online content. It will be available to MKC members in different formats within the online platform and makes sure her classes remain available to as many machine knitters as possible, for the foreseeable future. This change doesn’t affect Susan’s Craftsy classes, which are still available through Craftsy.com and it doesn’t impact anyone currently enrolled in her Teachable classes. You’ll still have access to the classes on Teachable, but no new classes will be sold on that platform. You’ll find their new home at mkc.community. All Susan’s free videos remain on YouTube and her books will continue to be sold at Amazon.com

Lastly, I’ll mention again that the digital version of the magazine is now up-and-running. Each issue from January 2025 is available as a high quality digital download at machineknittingmonthly.net/shop/. It’s a big file, so do make sure you’ve a good Wi-Fi connection! Until next month, keep knitting our way!

NEXT ISSUE June 2025

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