Chat

As a returning knitter I struggled with my ribber for months and followed advice to change the retaining bar. I had real difficulty hanging the ribber wire and frequently snagged my cast on row. I found a sturdier ribber wire and this has really solved the problem, it’s much easier to insert and I’m pleased with the way the machine knits.

I am a crochet and knitaholic and teach at a number of neighbourhood houses around my local area. Unfortunately I’ve developed deQuervains syndrome in both hands and after surgery have found it increasingly difficult to hand knit. So one of my lovely daughters (No 3 of 5) bought me a knitting machine, so I am starting on my machine knitting adventure. I’m new to machine knitting having just acquired a Singer Cardmatic 312 and unfortunately it came without any manuals. Hours on the net have led me to the conclusion that Singer and Silver may be interchangeable. I found a Manual for the Silver K105 and the machine and parts look identical. Can anyone give me an answer? Many thanks from Australia.

Hello Anne
Thanks for this lovely knitting magazine. Please could you include a T-shirt with collar or a polo shirt knitting pattern for ages from newborn to adult for both men and women in the magazine? As summer is fast approaching, not everyone would love a cardigan, but as we know T-shirts are always popular so a knitted T-shirt would be cute.
Thanks, Anino

I’m on the cusp of buying a knitting machine, I’m probably going to get the Silver Reed SK280. I have never even seen a knitting machine in real life before, so it’s a leap into the unknown for me. I hand knit a lot and I’m at the stage where I want to focus more on designing than spending hours knitting up stockinette in garments. Don’t get me wrong, I know hand knitting is a different craft from machine knitting and I’ll always have some project or other on my needles, but I want to venture into machine knitting. I came across your magazine recently and I wanted to pluck up the courage to say hi and introduce myself. It’s frustrating not being able to read the patterns in your magazine yet, the abbreviations are so different from hand knitting, but I know I’ll learn as I go along. It’s nice to meet you! I hope to meet some new and interesting people along my journey into machine knitting!
Best wishes, Valerie

Hi
I’m a computer based designer/illustrator and I’d like some advice about purchasing a knitting machine, specifically to make cushions and throws.

I’m looking for a modern knitting machine that is able to connect to a computer (ideally a Mac) so I can use a software based pattern designer to send information straight to the knitting machine. Does such a machine exist? I found that certain software can export in a specific format that certain knitting machines can read. This may do the job, but I assume (maybe ignorantly) that you should be able to purchase such a machine

I’m finding it difficult to find information like how big these patterns can be. I’d like to work with repetitive patterns but also single image. Can consumer knitting machines be used to create throws of a single image? and what is the maximum number of colour I could use?

I guess I’d like to understand whether I can create my own samples before investigating more commercial options.

Can anyone help a complete novice fill in the gaps.

Thank you so much

Scott

Hi
I’ve made a huge mistake. I spilt a very strong cup of tea on my new beige sweater that I had recently finished on my bulky machine. I lovingly hand washed it even though the yarn said it was machine washable. I put it in the washer to spin and thought I’d put it in the dryer for just a minute or two and then lay it out on the bed to finish drying. I forgot it in the dryer and by the time I remembered it it had already dried and shrunk by about half. I was so upset all I could do was sit on the floor and cry. I am a guy and I don’t cry, but I did today. I had worked so hard to adapt the pattern for that sweater to be what I wanted and I was so proud of it. I took it, wet it again and tried to stretch it out. It worked some but my poor sweater will never be what it was. I know I’m not the only one who has ever had this happen to them. It makes me feel so bad and stupid that I could forget something like this.
Just thought I’d write this to try to make myself feel better.
Take care and beware of the evil dryer!
Ronny

Dear Anne
Thank you so much for printing my letter and photo in the Dec issue of MKM. I must admit, I can’t stand a braggard but I’ve shown the issue to every friend and relative I have – whilst wearing the sweater of course. (ROFL) I even took it to the local JoAnn’s and Hobby Lobby – two craft stores I use a lot and am friendly with the staff. I even got an invitation to demonstrate a Bond machine (paid of course) at the Hobby Lobby. The interest the photo caused and the oohs over the sweater I was wearing have added an Ultimate Sweater Machine to quite a few people’s Santa wish list, I’m sure. (LOL) Anyway, thank you so much for this. It’s done more for my ego and has been better for my Sunlight Deprivation Depression than a case of the best anti-depressant drug they could give me. (ROFL)
Best regards and may you all have a VERY HAPPY AND BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON ! ! !
Ronny Woods

PS – I have to get back to my machine. With only a few more days till Christmas, I still have a list of things I want to make to give as gifts. I always plan a lot more than I can possibly do and am I alone in this or do I have a lot of similar overloaded friends? Well I’ll do what I can and give a token gift and and IOU card to the ones I don’t have time to get to. (ROFL)

You may not know that I also run a knitting club and we meet once a month in Hounslow, West London. About 18 months ago a number of club members asked if we could hold a Knit & Natter Day. They’d attended similar events and found them both enjoyable and stimulating. The only drawback was the travelling distance and transport so on 17th September we held our first Knit & Natter from 10.30 am to 4.00 pm. It was a great experience, but full of stresses and a few strains leading up to the day. Any club contemplating such an event might find my checklist a help, as I know of no instruction booklet on how to set it up.

Find a venue We were lucky to have a club member on the hall committee of a local church – All Saints in Hampton, Middlesex. The hall had plenty of room, was light and airy with parking and disabled access. It was also reasonably priced for the hire, so it didn’t break the bank.

Find a date It’s important to hire the hall when as many members as possible can attend.

Decide on an entry price and what it will include We decided on £5 plus free coffee or tea. If we’d charged a nominal amount for the drinks, it would have helped to defray the costs. Many people who attended wanted to give us a donation for their teas.
Invite exhibitors to the event. We were lucky to have Brenda Bristow from Heathercraft, Sue Castro and Nina Miklin for the day. Others we invited were either away or had previous commitments.

Find a guest speaker Carol Chambers agreed to be ours but things were touch and go, as she was due to have a knee operation and thought it might be scheduled on the week of our Knit and Natter. Thankfully it was done ahead of time, which was a great relief to us and showed, once again, that she’s a fine designer and speaker.

Publicise the event MKM and the GMK newsletter informed many machine knitters and messages were placed on some Yahoo knitting group sites. The church newsletter also carried details before the event.

Ask club members to demonstrate aspects of knitting if they’ve some special skills We’ve a very talented group of knitters involved in other crafts as well. Jenny Kelly used DesignaKnit to design and knit our logo. Barbara Logan demonstrated her sock machines and allowed visitors to have a go. She also created our embroidered name badges, so visitors would know who we were! Norma Valvona demonstrated adding embroidery to knitwear with her sewing machine. Brenda Moger and Margaret Grant helped anyone with hand knitting problems. Sandra Saunderson and Janice Engall showed how to make Dorset and woven buttons. This proved to be extremely popular and I think almost everyone who attended left with a Dorset button made at the event. All our members (except one with a holiday booked a year in advance) supported the event. It was a real team effort with not enough space here to mention everyone, but in the end we all enjoyed ourselves.

Organise the front-of-house Janet Naylor posted herself at the entrance to take money and issue tickets. Sandra’s husband Harry took charge of parking and directing traffic.

Middlesex Machine Knitters meet on the second Wednesday of the month (except for December) at Hounslow Community Association Hall, 9 Montague Road, Hounslow, London TW3 1JY and everyone is very welcome. Whether we decide to do it again will be discussed at our next club meeting but I do hope so. I’m sure the first time you try something is always the most difficult and we should know that, we’re machine knitters!

There are lots of different crafts including, hand-crafted wooden gifts, decorated hessian bags, a lady covering old tired comfy shoes, a hat maker and willow basket maker. There’s free admission and a raffle for two charities. The hotel postcode is PE15 9LH and please call Barbara on 01354-651734 for more details.

Does anyone know if it is possible to use double knitting yarn on a Toyota 901 please? I’m finding it difficult to get 4-ply in the yarn I would like.