Dear Readers

Then there’s Fiona Morris with patterns and yarn; Forsell Yarns with Undy Yarns; the Guild of Machine Knitters; Heathercraft pre-owned machines and accessories; Iris Bishop and her new collection; Jane Woodward and Shades of Cashmere yarn; Nina Miklin with her new patterns and luxury yarns; Riverside Spinning with yarns plus home comforts; Sue Castro with her novel patterns and ideas; Undy Yarns who bring their shop to the show and Uppingham Yarns with a wide range of yarns. In addition, John Scotton and Hilary will help me and bring Hague linkers, twisters and accessories. New this year will be Claire Watson at Thread Yarn & Fabric with a selection of finer yarns including lovely Tussah Silk plus Tessa from Silkwood Angoras with hand-dyed angora yarns. We featured Les and Tess in Spotlight in April 2008, Issue 123. It’s looking good, so please try and join us on the day.

I’ve chatted with Alison Dupernex recently and she’s back at her machine designing for us, having been away at shows for several months. She tells me she’s stocked up on cottons and also knitted us some sumptuous throws for cosy autumn and winter months. Don’t laugh – the summer will soon roll by! Several readers have also mentioned the tremendous talents of Mark Fast. He truly is a knitwear sensation and it’s great to know that domestic machines are being used to produce such amazing catwalk spectacle. Sally-Ann has been on the case to feature him in MKM since we read about him in The Times back in February. So far she’s had no joy but she’ll keep trying and will hopefully succeed.

Finally, do turn to Newsline this month to see the fabulous new books now available from Iris Bishop, Elaine Cater and Nina Miklin. The trio are three of the best designers currently working in machine knitting and they present masses of expertise in their quite different approaches. Devotees of all three will be thrilled with their latest offerings and Elaine also has a special MKM offer on a garter carriage book. It’s been much requested, following on from our article on the garter carriage last time. At just £6 including UK postage, Simply Garter Stitch is not to be missed and the offer is open until the end of July.

It was indeed exceptional, except for one thoroughly mean act brought to my attention at the end. One of the stands hoped to sell a couple of wool winders. They had been donated and the proceeds were to be donated to a worthy cause. £10 was asked for one that holds a plastic cap and the other was £7.50. The show was very crowded and the exhibitor couldn’t always see what was going on at the other end of her stand. When the crowds cleared, the £10 wool winder had gone and not been paid for. Perhaps it was unintentional or maybe too tempting when other winders were being sold at the show for around £30? It left all of us wondering how much more stock had gone the same way. Surely the vast majority of knitters are honest and fair minded? This miserly person won’t ruin it for the rest, but it was a bitter pill to swallow on an otherwise lovely day.

On to happier things and I managed to have a quick word with Beryl Jarvis. We were all thrilled to know that Jeffery now has a permanent job. He’s proudly showing off the medals he won in China on the front of a leaflet for the Special Olympics in Leicester in July this year. (Lord Mayor’s Special Olympics Appeal, Leicester Games 2009 Ltd, c/o A12 New Walk Centre, Welford Place, Leicester LE1 6ZG.) Beryl also mentioned that Uppingham Summer School will take place again this year from Monday 10th to Friday 14th August. We’ll include full details next time, but one of the courses fills quickly and they often have to turn people away. Beginners and experienced knitters are welcome and Brother punchcard machines are available, or take your own. If you can’t wait until next month, contact Uppingham Summer School, 34 Stockerston Road, Uppingham, Rutland LE15 9UD, telephone 01572-820800 or visit www.uppinghamsummerschool.co.uk

Also received just too late for Newsline this issue was a note from Dorothy Hughes who is Regional Officer for GMK. She’s organising an exhibition at Living Crafts in Hatfield from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th May 2009. This is held in the grounds of Hatfield House. We’ll see Dorothy at the Nottingham Show so if there’s any more information, we’ll include it next time.

The captcha box is used on any page where you upload content to the site. It shows a word that you have to enter in order for the form to submit properly, and is used to prevent spam.

However, AOL users will have found that they were unable to enter the word correctly. This is because the first time that an AOL user visits a page, AOL will store a copy of that page on its server. Then, when the AOL user goes back to see that page, instead of showing them a page from the site, AOL shows them the one stored in its memory instead. It does this to save money, and unfortunately it causes problems on pages where certain bits of content change (such as the captcha box).

So, until Matt can find a way of getting round this problem, we’ve removed the captcha box from the site.

I’m sorry for the trouble it’s caused you, and thank you for letting us know about the problem – we’re ‘on the case’, so to speak!

Best wishes
Anne

The changes are only to the checkout process. There are now 4 steps to checking out your order, once you’ve chosen your items:

1. View cart
2. Select postal region
3. Confirm you’re happy to pay the postal charges
4. Checkout your order on the PayPal site

I hope it makes things easier for you, but – as ever – Matt is on hand to help you with any queries. Just email him and he’ll try to answer you within 24 hours (but not on weekends!).

That’s all for now!

Anne”

The exhibitor list is looking good and new additions this month are Carl Boyd coming along with his new patterns and Jane Woodward back in her usual classroom. As we’ve mentioned, Carl is working on a new collection and you may also remember that Jane was on holiday last year and couldn’t make it. She’s back this year with Wendy’s help and the sleeved wrap featured on page 35 is the first of Wendy’s designs for MKM. It’s been much admired, so we snapped it up for the magazine. You can belt it, button it, pin in or let it drape into soft folds and points. It’s a very flattering shape to cover all manner of ‘lumps and bumps’ and the length takes it well past any ‘thunder thighs’!

When I went to the Isle of Wight last autumn, I spent a lovely morning with the Newchurch Knitters. Jan’s coffee and cake went down a treat and Linda showed me lots of her designs. Amongst the goodies was a pile of Tan-o’-shanter hats, which she makes by the dozen for young and old alike. The pattern is ever so easy and you can add a brim or pon-pon if you wish. Best of all, they can be knitted from any oddments and take next-to-no-time. The base of the hat needs to be picked up on a circular needle for eight rows of garter stitch but you can vary the number of stitches you pick up, to fit different head sizes. It’s a fabulous pattern I’m sure you’ll want to cut out and keep.

As the days get longer, spring will soon be here and the cover girl on our latest issue (February 2009) wears a lovely jacket from Anne Baker knitted in Charlotte, from Chris Brennan. It’s very soft yet holds its shape beautifully and, when knitted in Fair Isle, makes a gorgeous warm garment. You can use Anne’s stitch pattern, or chose one of the hundreds you must have stored away. If haven’t used Charlotte before, raid Chris’ stand at Machine Knitting LIVE! (Sorry, he doesn’t do mail order.) At his knock down prices, every cone will be a bargain!

How was your Christmas and New Year break, and what are your plans for the New Year? Let me know by leaving a comment!

All the best
Anne