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Best regards
Tatjana

All accessories and patterns and keyplates for different yarns. Would suit beginner or student. £35.00 ono. (Plymouth) email cosswoss@hotmail.com

I read all of your articles, and especially look forward to Joan Lafferty each month – she makes me laugh a lot and even my husband asks what she is up to this month. Could you publish a picture of her please? It feels like having a conversation with an old friend reading one of her articles with good humour and some important tips. I enclose my subscriptions for the next 14 months and look forward to more ideas, techniques and articles.

Many thanks
Sue Frost
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

One problem I have is tinnitus and I discovered that the noise of the carriage made it much worse, so I shall now have to save up for an electronic. Having done very little knitting since Christmas, the workroom has been empty. However, I did manage to finish something I’d virtually completed last year. I’d promised myself a wall-hanging and it was in four panels – two in the centre with Siamese cats (still, after 40-odd years!) and two end panels with single and double ‘ladders’, into which I threaded multi-coloured lightweight chunky. I trimmed the fringe and my son put up a long pole. I made four hangers and then we put it up on the rear wall of the living room so it draws the eye as you enter the door.

Perhaps the recession will persuade people to get ‘doing’, as we did during the war. I remember getting cards of sock darning wool from Woolworths and wherever else, when I couldn’t spare clothes coupons for ‘real wool’. We used it to make the ankle socks we all wore to save wear on the heels and toes of our very precious (and very scarce!) stockings. I also used up all the oddments of 3-ply I could find to make a stripy front for a jumper when I could only get enough wool for the back and sleeves – and very dashing it looked, too. I’m knitting very simple socks at present, because I have chronically cold feet. Cast on sixty stitches on one needle, divide on to three needles as you knit the first round; 6ounds in rib, 20 in pattern (often double moss stitch) then another 6 rounds rib and knit a fold line – purl one, knit one, instead of knit one, purl one. Naturally, if you were a purist you turned the sock! After that there’s 20 rows rib followed by 20 rows stocking stitch (what else), then divide for the heel of your choice. Finally, stocking stitch for the length of the foot and turn the sock through before decreasing for the toe. You were then on the wrong (purl) side, which made the toe grafting easier.

The trouble came when you lost a needle, because it was impossible to buy steel sock needles during the war, all the metal had gone to the war effort! To do your sock on two needles, you planned the seam for the centre back, knitted as far as the heel, then left 15 stitches each end for the heel. You continued the front foot to the toe and then did a ‘short row’ toe; as you continued back up the foot, you picked up and ‘knitted in’ a stitch on each side as far as the heel – where you knitted another ‘short row’ toe and grafted the stitches to your 15+15 stitches and sewed up the back leg seam – just like socks on the machine! It helps to look back and have a laugh!

Best wishes
Edna Cahill
Isle of Wight

I would recommend anyone who has not done so to obtain the reinforced extension rails if using either KG88 model, especially if trying out garter stitch and lace. It’s tedious when you have to keep removing and replacing the back rail, as the garter carriage and the lace carriage both lock into the drive belt. I recently tried a small sample of this and it looked super, well worth the hassle on a small area but not worth doing for the whole garment. However, I haven’t got the reinforced extension rails and the garter carriage looked a bit precarious when sitting on the normal rail! I think that later Brother machines came with these fitted as standard.

If the small magnets on the back rail sections come off, they can be glued back on with a small dot of superglue – and yes, this has happened to me! The point about the sponge bar cannot be emphasised enough. If it is completely dead then the garter carriage will stop at the first needle in WP as the needle is too high for the carriage to move over. The main carriage is more forgiving, so you may not notice the problem until you come to use the garter carriage. A simple test is if there is any vertical movement in the needles at the business end (that is, the hook) when in WP then the sponge bar needs checking.

Also a good idea is if you are resting the machine for any significant time is to remove the sponge bar from the machine until you go to knit with that machine again. No need to do this with the Passap and Pfaff of course, but here any damaged needles must have their hooks broken off before being removed or serious and expensive damage happens to the retaining spring. I wouldn’t be surprised if machine knitting sees something of a resurgence in the recession, making a one-off garment for a fraction of the cost of buying a designer label item is a strong incentive. Keep up the good work!

Katharine Humphries
Poole, Dorset

So I now have a Brother linker all due to MKM. I have two Brother machines and hadn’t thought about accessories at all.

Thank you for the article.
Best wishes from Ronda Green

I had to quit my subscription for a while, but have a bit more money in my pocket right now and will not hesitate to spend it on a good investment: your magazine!

Can’t wait till I get the next issues (big happy smile)
Greetings and sincere regards,
Annette

I’ve been knitting jumpers for my (step) great grand-daughter who lives in Ohio. While browsing through some vintage magazines I came across the enclosed pattern from a November 1956 (I was eight then!) Modern Knitting magazine. The instructions looked intriguing, but proved to be a lot less complicated once I was actually knitting the garment. I decided to do the hem as a 2×1 mock rib. I use mock rib as I don’t have a ribber. I was using a Bramwell acrylic yarn to knit the waistcoat and although I love the colourful fabric it creates, blocking with a hot iron over a damp cloth is a definite no-no! Hence I wanted a hem which would lie properly.

The original waistcoat is plain and designed for a small boy, but in these unisex days I simply used pink, added a simple single motif of bunny rabbits and swapped the buttonhole band over to the other side to make a neat little top for a small girl. With the brown top, I used a sheep border all the way round the bottom. Instead of having it as a waistcoat with a front opening, I stitched up the front seam, added a false placket and half a dozen clear buttons to make it look like a waistcoat, but it simply pops over the child’s head. I also finished the armholes on the brown one with two rows of double crochet as I thought it looked better, being unable to press the armholes flat.

So, I thought I’d share it with you. There’s a wealth of inspiration from the 50s and 60s , beautifully neat collars, tailored jumpers and so on that can be adapted to today’s fashions. These are particularly useful, I think, to those of us who have older, more basic machines and no ribbing attachment.

Yours sincerely
Vivienne Fagan in Hanwell, London

Many years ago I knitted my children hand muffs with a pattern which I’m sure came from a Machine Knitted News pattern (and I’m talking at least 20 years). Now my grandaughter has found her mum’s original and would like one of her own……..but I can’t find the pattern, nor remember how I did it!

Has anyone got a pattern which I can use / adapt?

Many thanks
Susie

I have recently purchased my first knitting machine so that I can make 4 ply garments for my grandchildren. In the past I have done a lot of hand knitting, usually in DK, and have had access to a wide range of lovely patterned and random dyed wools. Now that I’ve started machine knitting I find that the choice of 4 ply wools is rather drab – the only random dyed wools I can find on the internet tend to be sold in 100g packs for socks, usually 100% wool and VERY expensive.
Can anyone suggest where I can purchase colourful 4 ply wool?