Our April meeting

Time is moving on very fast again. Our April meeting will soon be here. On Tuesday 3rd April we are having a hands on and problem solving evening, so the knitting machine will be there, and bring your knitting needles as well.

I've been having a go at some of the things Gillian showed us last month, and combining it with machine knitting. It's still in the experimental stage, but showing definite possibilities. So many ideas running round in my head, so little time to do them!

Bring the things you're working on, or have finished recently. We'd love to see them.

If you have a specific problem please post a comment, or drop me an e-mail and we can try to sort it out on the night.

Another goody

Here's a beautiful garter stitch cardigan using a Busy Bees pattern knitted by Sue.

Gillian's samples

Two more of Gillian's samples. The scarf is multi-directional squares knitted in variegated eyelash type yarn, making an interesting pattern.

Knitting Squares

Members knitting multi directional squares, amid much laughter!

March Meeting

This month we were lucky to have a visit from Gillian Lamb, who demonstrated multi-directional knitting. Although the evening was mainly about hand knitting, this technique can be adapted for the machine, or hand knitted pieces can be incorporated with machine knitting. Gillian brought a lot of samples to show, and I hope the photos do them justice. A large part of the evening was spent with us trying to hand knit the joined on squares, some of which weren't quite squares! This method of knitting is good to use up yarn oddments, and yarns of different textures, and the results aren't always predictable, but can be stunning. There are a lot of books on this subject which we looked at, and I'm sure it inspired us to greater things! Maybe next

month someone will have tried this technique!

The photos below show some of Gillian's samples and the club members having fun knitting!

A sample of joined squares incorporated with knitting.









This is a sample of multi-directional knitting using different yarns, the ends are used to embellish with surface crochet.

Tuck stitch blanket knitted on LK150 by Kathy

This month's knitting!

Tuck lace scarf knitted by Sheila.

Frilly scarf knitted by Sheila. Pattern in Guild newsletter.

Roll brim hats knitted on LK150 by Kathy, on a mission to use up
oddments of handknitting yarns.

Hairpin lace scarf knitted by Sheila on standard gauge machine.

Machine Knitting Live

Saturday 3rd March was the day for this exhibition. Liz was there helping on the Guild stand, and doing a great job.All our favourite suppliers were there too. Plenty of patterns, yarns and goodies to tempt all to part with their money! Nice to see new ideas too. Even some hand knitting ideas, particularly liked Fiona Morris and her scarves. This is only held once a year at Bournemouth but with dwindling resources for us machine knitters it is nice to be able to support it, and judging from the number of people there, they feel the same.

Thanks to Ann Smith of Machine Knitting Monthly for organising the exhibition, and her helpers, it must involve a lot of hard work, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

March is here already

Gosh, another month gone by! It's time for me to tell you what's happening at our March meeting.

On Tuesday 6th March Gillian Lamb is coming to show us some multidirectional knitting. This is a technique for knitting a garment that often has only 2 ends to sew in when you've finished and very little making up. It is used mainly by hand knitters, but were working hard to translate it into machine knitting. If you're coming along, bring a pair of knitting needles and some yarn with you, so you can have a go. Gillian will be showing us some garments and samples knitted using the technique. The methods works for everything from knitted garments, to accessories, footware and it is also a much more interesting way of working squares for blankets.

I'm looking forward to a really interesting evening.