Chat

This will be my fourth year and we now get holidaymakers coming over specially to see us. I’ve sold over 25 chunky ponchos and still have a stock of ten left, which I’m hoping will sell next year. I’ve also designed a jumper, which is easy to knit and has many variations of patterns. So far, I’ve sold at least 30 of them with about six now left in stock. They’re very quick and easy to knit, so I’ll send you the pattern when I’ve a spare minute. I’m sure readers will be interested in the pattern. I got a lot of pleasure out of knitting it because it gave me the opportunity to try out different punchcards.

I tell all the visitors to the stall about Machine Knitting Monthly, when they ask how I manage to knit so many things in such a short space of time. It’s hard to believe but, in 12 months, I’ve knitted 216 items including jumpers, cardigans, ponchos, scarves, mobile phone and kindle pouches. My friend Ann and I have also knitted lovely evening shrugs by hand whilst sitting in the Gazebo, so we never stop.

At present I’m writing the pattern for a scarf, which I’ve aptly named ‘Keyhole’ because of its shape. A friend of mine was knitting a much smaller version on fine needles from a pattern, which, I believe, came from America. I decided to incorporate my own version and do a chunky one, which has enabled me to use up lots of my little spare bits of yarn too. So far, I’ve knitted 12 for my Crafter Market in the Spring. I’ll send the pattern as well and, in the meantime, here are a couple of photos of the chunky version. The scarf can also be adapted for the standard gauge machine as a smaller version, but obviously more rows will need to be knitted. However, it’s easy enough to work out the desired size.

Over the years I’ve acquired lots of unwanted knitting machines and just recently I’ve been selling some of them which, in turn, gives me some spending money for more wool! Best wishes to you all and I’ll write the patterns as soon as I can. Kindest regards, Linda Collins

Hi Anne, Just like to say thanks to the people who responded to my queries about the garter carriage, and also to ask those of us who hoard old magazines if they can help me.

Many years ago (wouldn’t like to say how many) I remember reading an article in a machine knitting magazine by one of the regular contributors (it may even have been our own Joan Lafferty) about giving your knitting machine a jolly good spring clean. In it she described taking out all the needles and giving them a bath in some sort of spirit to get rid of all the hard accumulated oil.

I returned from Bournemouth (jolly good time had by both me and my husband – really enjoyed it) fired by the need to get my knitting room (the loft) sorted out and one machine put away and the other one thoroughly cleaned. I looked for the above article but couldn’t find it and came to the conclusion that in my last turn-out I must have chucked it.

My query is does anyone remember that article and who it was by? It went into cleaning in some depth – much more than your usual thorough clean.

I found some American demonstrations on YouTube, but the things they did to their machines seem a bit scary to me. I’d be bound to lose things!

Can anyone help?

Mary L

I have a Brother Electro knit KH190 but the pattern cards slip and it is getting worse. I have taken the unit out and cleaned it but the problem is no better. I can not find anyone local who can fix my problem so I am hoping someone out there can either sell me another part or suggest how I might be able to fix it my self.
By the way, I love your mag and dive in to it as soon as it drops through my letterbox. I go straight to the patterns to see if there are any I would like to try. Pity there are not more bigger sizes though.

Hi
I live in Norwich, Norfolk and I’ve just bought a Pink Passap Duomatic. Is there anyone who can help me use it? Thank you.
Christine Watson xx

Hi
I recently became the proud owner of an LK-150 and have been immersed in learning use this machine. However, the one accessory I would love to own is the FC-6 Fair Isle carriage. If anyone is looking to sell their FC-6, please get in touch. Thanks Trish

Hi Anne
I have a little problem with my otherwise excellent garter carriage KG-95. I use it on my Brother KH-894. I can put it on the needle bed from the right-hand side, no problem, but when it comes to putting it on the left-hand side it goes clunk and won’t go onto the needle bed. As you can guess this is very frustrating. I use rails each side of the bed and am beginning to suspect that the left-hand side rails might be slightly twisted.

Also a little bit of one of the two ‘doo-dahs’ (don’t know what to call them, but they are like two little white u-shapes at the back) has broken off. However this doesn’t seem to affect the knitting.
Hope someone can help me with any advice. Also where can one purchase another G-carriage as a spare, just in case old faithful finally gives up?
Best wishes, Mary Langridge

The programme is made in conjunction with the V&A and there are examples from their collections as well as interviews with designers, tracing the history of knitting in Britain from before the Second World War through to the present day. If you missed this programme when it was broadcast, it is well worth seeing on iplayer. I hope the other two programmes in the series are as informative.
Sue

I’ve just got a Knitmaste 700 and would like to know if anyone is doing any courses in machine knitting in the Inverness area.

In PKMJ 39 Alice reviewed ‘KnitPad’, a Windows program written by Doug Webb, which contains all the Passap stitch patterns for both the E6000 and the Deco. The Deco patterns are stored in a section of the program called KnitPick which opens in KnitPad. Although the 3 and 4 colour patterns are in a format which the E6000 can read, it would not be too difficult to re-configure them as a punchcard. I have been looking for templates for the Deco patterns numbered from 21-100 for quite a while, without success, so when I saw this information I thought I’d see if it was still available. The original Website is no longer accessable but a search on Google for ‘doug webb knitpad’ took me to: www.janthevillageweaver.com from where I was able to download the KnitPad program. Not only does this program have all the Passap stitch patterns stored in grid form with the facility to print copies but there is also a section where one can design one’s own stitch patterns and save them. The grid provided has a total size of 179 stitches by 200 rows but for designing 40 stitch punchcards you can place a marker on the 40th column and work within that boundary. I can see this simple program being most useful and thought I would share this information as I’m sure other readers will find it useful too.
Regards
Sue Pritchard

My friend and I decided to open a small boutique, selling cashmere apparel for women. As I mentioned we are beginners in this area, so I have one question regarding the yarn and specifically about the count. Many suppliers offer us different kinds of yarn like Nm 2/60, 3/80 and so on but we don’t understand which one is the best for us?! We have flat machine 5 and we will use one and more plies for our apparel. My question is what does it mean Nm 2/60 (numbers and letters)? How should we choose the yarn so it is good for our flat machine?! Thanks in advance for your help!
Regards, Marina