February 2017 - Demonstration of no-roll edges

It was a bitterly cold evening, so it was lovely to see a good turn-out, and to catch up after the Christmas break. There was a lively discussion about current works-in-progress and the items brought along for show-and-tell. There was a small charity table, and the usual tea and biscuits. Liz provided a demonstration of a couple of techniques on the knitting machine to produce interesting no-roll edges.

News and Upcoming events

Unravel at The Maltings in Farnham. Running from  Friday 17th to Sunday 19th February.

Make It 2017 at FIVE in Farnborough. Running from Friday 24th to Saturday 25th February. There will be lots of stalls and demonstrations, including the Guild of Machine Knitters stand with demonstrations and advice available all day.

Machine Knitting Live Show at Bournemouth on Saturday 4th March at from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm at Bournemouth School for Girls, Castle Gate Close, Castle Lane West, Bournemouth BH8 9UJ. There will be lots of Machine Knitting designers and suppliers, including the Guild of Machine Knitters stand with demonstrations and advice available all day. This may be the last time Machine Knitting Monthly magazine hosts the show, due to decreasing attendance over the years. You are encouraged to attend, if you would like the event to keep going in the future.

The Guild of Machine Knitters newsletter had changed to a new format, and an external company is being used to mail out the newsletters. For technical reasons, the renewal reminder will no longer be bright yellow, so keep an eye out and please don't throw away the inserts without reading them first!

The annual Innocent Big Knit knitted hats need to be submitted by July, due to the huge numbers they now receive. Please bring any hats you make along to the club, and Julia has volunteered to collect the hats together and submit them all in one go to save on postage. Liz printed some patterns for machine knitters and hand knitters. Patterns are available from:

http://www.thebigknit.devonartist.co.uk/patterns.html

http://www.thebigknit.co.uk/

Show and Tell

Julia has crocheted two blankets for the Sixty Million Trebles project. The pattern is Mystical Lanterns by Janie Crow.

A jumper knit on a Passap using 2 strands of 2/30 using a double-bed tuck stitch. It felt very stretchy, and there were discussions about the tension.

A purple DK hand-knit jumper was very soft and chunky, with a double-over feature neckline. The pattern looks like vertical wavy lines on the front, and basket weave on the reverse.

Sandra knit a green-based multi-colour V-neck jumper in Denys Brunton Designer Yarns Magicolour. The yarn is no longer produced, and Sandra discussed the creative solutions she used to finish the neckline when the main yarn ran out.

There were 2 yellow baby cardigans, and a pink adult cardigan in sable crepe.

This was followed by a plethora of  beautiful crochets blankets that have been made to give to residential care home in Fleet.

Liz hand-knit a white sideways-knit wingspan scarf.

Demonstration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztMJV4ERBo Machine Knitted Decorative No-Roll Edge by Diana Sullivan

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUojfszGgIY  No Roll Edge by Roberta Rose Kelley

February - our first meeting of the year!

Seems hard to believe, but February is here already and it is our first meeting of the year on Tuesday (7^th February).

As usual, because of the uncertainty with the weather, we will be having a “catch-up” and knit and natter meeting.  I’ll bring a machine along and demonstrate a couple of edgings that are supposed to stop the knitting curling.  I found them on You-tube and they look to be easy; at least I’m hoping so as I haven’t had time to practice them yet!  Bring along your completed projects to show, and also your work in progress.  I’m sure there will be time to sort out any other knitting or crochet problems you may have too.

Looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday. 8pm.