Knitters in Spalding?

I still find understanding some words difficult, such as drop the stitch and reform for garter stitch. Maybe in a future magazine you could do a glossary of what these words actually mean to those, like me, starting again. It was the wonderful patterns in your magazine that have prompted me to buy a second hand chunky knitting machine as well and I am eagerly awaiting its delivery. My daughter has now started knitting for her children on a basic Knitmaster machine and I’ve also started buying your magazine for her.

Thank you for all the hard work you put into your magazines, it’s really appreciated.
Sandra Price

Dewsbury knitters?

Thank you
Susan Johnson

If anyone would like to get in touch with Susan please email me an I’ll pass her details on to you.

Anne

Anne
2010-02-04 19:12:17

Bury Knitters

Hope you can help and thanks for a great magazine and kind regards from Irene Patten

Hi Irene : the great news is that the Bury Club is up and running again and back to 14 members. Tutor Joan Adams has joined and they’re once again full of ideas and plans. For more information call Catherine Lancaster on 0161-764 6572.

Anne

Anne
2011-11-05 14:20:18
Hi my name is Christine and I live in Bacup. I too just missed the Rochdale show and I am looking for machine knitters who live in my area. I would also like to find some tuition courses that are nearby. Also willing to do a residential course. Can anyone help?
casbeare
2011-11-05 14:20:18

Club in Redruth?

Everything is aligned up with the needles and the two machines. What I need is someone to show me how to use it properly as I’m getting very frustrated with it. I don’t know if there are any clubs in my area, but I’ve never heard of any. I live in Cornwall and wonder if you can help at all? Thank you for reading this.

Cheers
Barbara Adendorff
Redruth, Cornwall

Barbara has a Brother KH830 and KR830 ribber. Ideally she needs a Knitting Buddy in Cornwall so if you think you can help please get in touch. I have her address details and phone number.

Anne

Anne
2010-02-04 19:09:49

End of the cold weather?

Many of you ask repeatedly for inspiration and I hope we can provide it this month. There’s an amazing Andy Holden exhibit at the Tate until 10th April and I can’t wait to go into London to see it. Yes, your eyes aren’t playing tricks : there’s machine knitting at Tate Britain! Andy broke a Knitmaster and Silver Reed machine before seriously injuring a Brother chunky during his epic knit-in. The result is absolutely awesome and I’ll include a feature in the next couple of days.

I’ve had more inspiration on from the next generation of Oz knitwear designers. Tony Bennett has sent us some great examples of their work and not one of them had any experience with machine knitting at the start of their year. Tony was a tutor at his local college and I wish he was over here to share his undoubted talent with us. Interestingly, lots of the yarn the students used was from Yeoman so we can replicate some of the ideas.

For those of you who like to attend workshops with eminent names in machine knitting, I need to mention that there’s a rare opportunity to work with Iris Bishop on an individual basis from July 19th to 23rd. It’s hands on and you’ll experiment with single and double bed fabrics, in preparation for textiles and garments. It’s for Japanese machines only, but single or double bed. Places are strictly limited and for more details please call 01270-628414.

Good luck with your endeavours and happy knitting.
Anne

Light & Lacy

Hi Brenda I’ve found something useful in the files which might be relevant in your case. Back in August 2000, Doris Coutts told us that some years ago, she had to go in for a hip replacement and had made a bed jacket for the stay in hospital. A good friend told her that bed jackets are useless if you have to have a drip in, so she hurriedly knitted a lightweight stole. My late sister also needed a stole rather than a jacket in her final stages of terminal cancer. This one is very easy to knit and Doris used one strand of 2/30s acrylic yarn on her Duo 80.

Cast on 120 sts on each bed in full needle rib and work a border of 5 straight pin tucks (40 rows), using stitch size 4/3 and blue strippers. Change to Card 108, Deco on 2, locks on N/BX, stitch size 4½/4½ and knit 800 rows. A little weight can be used, but if you are using a motor, it is better to tension the work by hand. At the end of the 800 rows, knit the end to match the pin tucks at the start and cast off. Finishing this stole consists of darning in two ends! The stole weighs 130g, is warm and is still going strong over 20 years later after countless washes.

Doris has made similar ones in various fine yarns; they make great gifts, bazaar items and so on. They provide extra warmth for the shoulders when you’re reading in bed in the wee small hours, or laid across the top of the duvet to snuggle into on very cold nights. Add a fine Lurex thread in silver to a royal blue or black yarn and it will do for evening wear! For knitting on any machine, just find a suitable lacy tuck stitch pattern.

There’s an even easier Maggie Andrews shrug pattern on page 33 of February 2006 (Issue 97). Maggie uses 4-ply Acrylic and pushes 198 Ns at centre of machine to WP. Counting from the left, arrange Ns 3 in WP and 10 in NWP across the bed. Start off with waste yarn, then set RC at 000. Using MY, K 696 rows. Maggie adds cuffs and ties and this can be knitted in a strong bold colour for day or evening wear.

Anne

Anne
2010-02-03 20:36:05

War effort

which has recently come up with what it calls a (moebius) snood, a lacy scarf with a single twist before stitching the cast-on to the cast-off edge, making a circle with a twist. When you put it over your head, it hangs in a neat fold in front.
that this is not a real snood. Snoods, as we made and wore them in the 1940s, were constructed from a single knitted or crocheted square. The row ends were gathered up at each side and fine elastic was threaded right round, through the cast-on and cast-off edges, so they looked like decorative hair-nets. The big joke was that if you made a larger double square, stitched the sides and put handles on the cast-on and cast-off edges, you’d made yourself a shopping bag for the groceries. That’s not as daft as it sounds and useful too because it was difficult to find shopping bags to buy during the war, when all materials went into ‘the war effort’. I’ll try to do a sketch on the laptop (the iMac doesn’t ‘do’ drawing!) and send it by snail mail!

Best wishes
Edna Cahill, Sandown, Isle of Wight

Mock Rib

I have a silver reed 840 and when I do the first line everything is ok, but when I put the carriage back all the stitches fall off. it works fine if I cast on by hand.

Thanks.

Hi with regard to your problem when doing mock rib.

After doing the first row push all the needles out to d position for the next 4/6 rows and knit the rows – this should resolve your problem. After the initial 4/6 rows just knit normally.

Linda Collins
2010-01-28 20:57:59
Hi with regard to your problem when doing mock rib.

After doing the first row push all the needles out to d position for the next 4/6 rows and knit the rows – this should resolve your problem. After the initial 4/6 rows just knit normally.

Linda Collins
2010-01-28 20:57:59

Machine Knitting meetings in South Wales

Thanks for any responses.

I myself am returning to machine knitting as a designer. I am thinking of setting up classes in design in machine knitting and would be interested to hear of any contacts you make who would be interested in these.

Angela Coryn
angela.coryn@btinternet.com
Tel: 01269 822375

angela coryn
2010-01-19 17:37:41
Hi Gail
I’m also returning to machine knitting after a period of 20 years and I’d like to be in contact with you and anyone in South Wales. (I live in Newport.)
I have a Brother 830 and would also like to exchange interests patterns and ideas.
Best wishes Mo
MAUREEN
2011-09-30 20:23:27