December Meeting

Our December meeting will be held on Tuesday 5th. As is usual, this is our Charity Evening, when everyone brings items, either hand made or donated, which are then given to our chosen charity. This year we are again supporting the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital, who always appreciate our gifts and raise a lot of money for patient amenities. Machine knitted items are always popular and sell well.
We will also have mince pies and tea/coffee, and of course lots of chatter!
We would like to take the opportunity to wish anyone who is reading this blog a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and , of course, Happy Machine Knitting! Long may it continue!

November Meeting

Another interesting evening at this meeting. Our guest speaker was Elaine Cater, probably best known for her garter carriage knitting, but tonight the subject was her latest work on Lace Combinations. Some knitters may remember these combined techniques featured in older Brother pattern books but Elaine has brought them up to date with samples and garments. She made it sound so easy to combine lace with either fair isle, tuck stitch or weaving and the resulting fabric looked fantastic. Elaine herself was wearing a beautiful waistcoat knitted in lace and fair isle, and had with her a jacket which was knitted in lace and weaving. I fell in love with the baby shawl which was knitted in a combination of lace and tuck stitch and looked like a real heiloom piece. Even the edging was interesting being knitted in a lace and slip stitch combination. Definitely one to try. Her latest book is definitely a winner.
Not only did Elaine talk about these techniques, she demonstrated on the machine and explained how the pattern needed to be programmed. Seems there is a difference between the patterns for punchcard and electronic machines! Easy to understand when it is explained!
Elaine also has books by Mary Ann Oger which cover a variety of things. One for the wish list is The Necks Best Thing, plenty of changes to the traditional neckline.
Elaine also explained to us the Guild Challenge for next year, plenty of scope for all to enter.
Unfortunately we were all so absorbed in watching and asking questions we forgot to take any photos this month! Maybe someone will knit something in lace combination for next month!

November meeting

I'm looking forward to the November meeting next week (Tuesday 7th November 8 pm). We have Elaine Cater coming to talk to us and show us some of her recent work. Elaine works on a Brother punchcard machine, but I believe the techniques she is going to be showing us can also be worked on a Knitmaster if you use that machine. I know Elaine is famous for her work using the Garter Carriage, but that's not all she does. I believe she will be using the lace carriage as well as other stitch structures that can be worked on a single bed machine. I haven't asked her yet if we can take photos, so if she agrees we'll post some up here and maybe a close up of some of the samples she will be demonstrating.

If there's anyone out there that finds this in time and would like to come along to see Elaine then you will be made welcome. The location is given on the left hand side, or if you need directions then post a comment and we'll get back to you.