As arthritic fingers make hand knitting a bit of a pain I find that casting on by hand and doing the rib is fine. I then add some waste knitting and put it on the machine. Have you any suggestions for websites that may be able to help? Many thanks for your interesting magazine and I find the Starting Over articles very helpful Cheers, Christine Steptoe
Regarding the 4ply patterns needing more needles than you have you could knit the back in two halves and join them with mattress stitch for an invisible join.
Hope this helps Sue
Welcome to machine knitting.
You will need to look for patterns which use a thicker yarn than 4ply to accommodate the size you want to knit.
This website has many patterns for different gauge machines: http://needlesofsteel.org.uk/index.html
The patterns are sorted according to gauge mid-gauge being marked with an M. Some of the patterns for bulky/chunky may also knit up well on your machine.
Once you have become used to the tensions and sizing you will be able to adapt patterns by knitting a tension swatch and using the measurements from the diagrams printed in MKM to work out how mny stitches and rows you need to knit.
Kind regards Sue