MMK's Blog

We will not be meeting in December--too much to do other than knitting.  Our next meeting will be on the 9th of January 2013.

Although we haven't been posting messages on our blog, we have been busy knitting for family, friends and charities. One of the best bits of news for the club was that Peggy, one of our members has been able to get back to machine knitting. She had 2 problems. First, her old Toyota knitting machine had stopped working and could not be fixed. Secondly, she had been suffering with a blocked tear duct that meant that she had a very running eye and could not see enough to knit on the machine. By a stroke of luck, the ladies at the Sherbourne knitting club put us in touch with a lady whose Toyota machine had been put away for a very long time in her loft. We managed to get it to Peggy and all that it needed was a good clean and a new needle retaining bar. Peggy's tear duct was finally treated and she is now knitting again. Her first project was for snowman scarf that she planned to sell at her Sew, Knit and Natter group. You can see Peggy modelling it for us. When it was put on sale it was snapped up by one of the other ladies in her group as it would make a perfect present for her young grandson. The pattern for the snowman scarf is in Machine Knitting Monthly December 2004 page 37 and January 2005 Page 30.

A number of our club members attended the Twisted Stitches show at Alexandra Palace in London. We promised each other that we would not spend too much money on yarn, but it was very tempting. Sandra splashed out on some lovely Rowan Yarn. She bought enough to make a waist coat and embellished it with some beautiful hand tooling techniques. Sandra knits with Singer machine which is a bit passed its 'sell by' date. It no longer will pattern so she can't do fairisle, slip or tuck. It does a nice stocking stitch, but if she wants to add something to her garments, she has to do it by hand. Here is the finished waist coat. She has done cables up the centre front and used one of Mary Anne Ogers edgings for the hem. The back is a real triumph with the beautiful lace pattern that was all transferred by hand--no lace carriage was used!

 

One of other members, Vivienne does most of knitting without using punch cards or the ribber (I'm not sure she has a ribber.) She brought along some slippers that were made on the Silver LK150 machine. It is a mid gauge machine which can do slip and tuck as well as stocking stitch, but it has to be manually. The slippers she made on the machine were much admired and I'm sure will be gratefully received on Christmas Day. The slippers are sewn up as you knit and the lining is knitted in as well. The patterns come from a book by Diana Sullivan called Footnotes. The patterns are written in multi-sizes and with directions for knitting them on standard, mid gauge and chunky machines. The yarn came from Hobbycraft.

 

MIDDLESEX MACHINE KNITTERS SPLASH OUT

Having dipped our toes in the water with our first Knit and Natter, the Middlesex Machine Knitters have taken the plunge and dived in again for a second year. This year on July 7th we are creating an even bigger splash!

On the main platform will be special guest speaker Iris Bishop, well known for her inspiring, informative talks and imaginative garments. We are also very excited to have an exhibition of creative garments, accessories and experimental art pieces from Morley College's machine knitting students, some of which will be on sale. How would you like to own an exclusive one off item?

We are delighted that Heathercraft, Sue Castro, Nina Miklin and our own Elaine Cater will be attending again this year and welcome new exhibitors Anne Smith, editor of Machine Knitting Monthly, Uppingham Yarns with a wide range of yarns, and Erica Thomson knitting with wire.

Liz Holness will be sorting out any machine knitting problems that visitors have; Janice Engall, from our club, will be showing how to create Dorset buttons, and Barbara Logan, also from our club, will demonstrate her Victorian sock knitting machine. You are welcome to have a go.
We will also have a charity table for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice - a charity caring for local families with a child or teenager with a life-limiting condition. All those who apply for advance tickets will be sent a FREE hand knitting pattern for a child's bag and a FREE surprise machine knitting pattern. Please knit these up and bring along to the  Shooting Star Children's Hospice table. Alternatively, bring along anything that you have knitted, as long as it is brand new. Everything will be sold to raise money for the Hospice.  If there is anything left unsold, then it will go to the Hospice's charity shops.

Try your luck with the raffle (prizes supplied by the exhibitors) and test your knitting knowledge in the Knitting Quiz. Don't forget that we will also be giving away FREE 'How to' leaflets.

If  July 7th turns out to be a scorcher why not enjoy your picnic lunch in the Church Hall's garden. And to quench your thirst - coffee, tea and soft drinks will be available throughout the day.

All Saints Church Hall is only eight minutes from the M3 and located on The Avenue in Hampton, TW12 3RG, West London with no parking restrictions. Buses 111 and R70 stop nearby and Hampton Rail station is half a mile away.  Entrance is £5 and for students £4. For advance tickets please send a cheque made out to Elaine Cater  to 31 Watergates Lane, Broadmayne, Dorchester, DT2  8HA. The ticket will be held for you at the door. Also please provide your email address so that the FREE patterns can be emailed to you.

If you want any more information email watergates31-knitting@yahoo.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you and hope you will have an enjoyable day!

Note: Please allow plenty of time to get to the venue. Hampton Court Flower Show is on from July 3rd - 8th. On Saturday July 7th they are open from 10.00. If coming via the M3 do NOT come off at Junction 1 for Staines Road East (your Sat Nav may say this, and this is where flower show people would go) but carry on on the A316 till the next exit for Feltham/Lower Feltham and take 4th exit on right (Nailhead Road) signposted for Hanworth.

We will be meeting as usual at the Hounslow Community centre on Wednesday the 8th of February. I have been working on some unusual cables and will be demonstrating some of them. I will also help anyone who would like to do the cables that were featured in MKM done by Bill King. The instructions for doing them with a punch card machine were a bit tricky, so I will show members what the card would look like if they want to knit it on a punch card machine. Jenny and I will give an update on our Knit and Natter which is scheduled for the 7th of July in Hampton Middlesex. So far we have heard from Nina Miklin, Erica Thompson and Iris Bishop that they will be coming. Iris has agreed to be our guest speaker.

Although most us had been busy with Christmas, we still had a few new garments to admire from those of us who had been able to get to our knitting machines. Janet used up some of her 'stash' of mohair to hand knit the beret.

Vivienne was busy knitting for her newest grandchild. The little sailor outfit with its matching hat is machine knitted in 4 ply acrylic.

Barbara G showed us the beaded top she had machine knitted using 3 ends of fine yarn. The shoulders were embellished with a collection of silver beads that really made the garment look very exciting.

Janice hand knitted this lovely boy's cardigan in a very soft hand knitting yarn. It has a lovely soft feel and I hope we can post the name of the yarn in our next posting.

We discussed plans for our first Knit and Natter which will be held at All Saints Church Hall in Hampton on the 17th of September 2011.

Next month we will be looking at ways to cover cut and sew necklines.

We shall be holding our first meeting of the year on January the 12Th from 1.30 to 3.30. We didn't have a meeting in December, but instead had a lovely pre-Christmas luncheon at Merits Restaurant at Richmond College.

We will be trying out a few more ideas from Susan Guagliumi's new book, More Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitter. We will also be discussing what progress we have made for our Knit and Natter day which will be held on September the 17Th at All Saints Church Hall, The Avenue, Hampton, TW12 3RG

Our August meeting will be on TUESDAY 10th August. This change of day is only for August and we will be back to our usual 2nd Wednesday of the month in September.

This doll was knitted by a new member. It was make as a present for a driving instructor and is made in his likeness and dress with appropriate clothing and insignia. We are very pleased to welcome such a talented new person to our club.
This stand was shown at the AGM of the Machine Knitters Guild on the 19th July. The club also represented the Guild at the Machine Knitting Live! show in Croydon on the 17th of July. Although many members of the club supplied the samples it was Janice, Norma, Sandra and Jenny who manned the display and signed up new members for the Guild.

The next meeting will be on July 14th - the second Wednesday of the month as usual. We start at 1.30 and are delighted to see new members.

Margaret and Brenda have been as busy as usual. The scarf, knitted by machine is a delicate lace pattern. It has been steam pressed to "kill" the yarn. This shows off the pattern, stops the curling and softens it so that the resulting scarf is a pleasure to wear.

This is my work so all the details are correct. The shawl is approximately 4 feet square and weighs 4 and 5/8 oz (130 g). It is made with pure shetland lace weight wool 1 ply. It took about 6 months to complete but that was just working in the evenings when the television was on. The final round before the edge had 1176 stitches and the border had twice that many rows!

A close up showing the border. It needs another stretching to show it off properly.