Cleverly shaped garment using holding position and ribbing.


















An attractive pattern using a tuck and rib stitch.
















More tuck and ribbing.

















This pattern is reminiscent of a spiders web, all done using holding position to achieve the shape.

May Meeting

Tonight we had a very special, and interesting guest speaker, Bill King, who is a knitwear fabric designer. Bill doesn't design the garments, just the fabric and patterns which will be used in production. His samples are taken to the fashion houses and shows and hopefully bought and eventually end up as garments in our shops! He explained that to show these fabrics at their best he has to knit his samples as mini garments, consisting of the front and maybe one sleeve, with relevant edges and trims. He does not work from charts or patterns, just straight from ideas in his head! On average Bill will produce at least two samples a day.

We all found Bill to be an entertaining speaker, full of ideas which he was willing to share, and he was more than willing to sit at his machine and show us some of the techniques he uses! It was a bit like a magic show to watch as the intricate patterns appeared, sometimes using the most simple of techniques! We do not realise what wonders our little machines are capable of producing. If only we had the time to sit and play and explore all the possibilities, but for now I for one, am quite happy to admire Bill's creations!

This was one evening to remember, and if anyone has the chance to see Bill in action, it is well worth it!

May meeting with Bill King

OK this post is very late, my excuse is I've been away for a few days and didn't have time to do it before I went.

However I do hope you find this in time to come to our meeting tonight. Bill King is coming to speak to us, all the way from Derbyshire. You may have heard of him. He has been writing recently for Machine Knitting Monthly.

I've also spoken to some members of the Guild of Machine Knitters that have attended one of his workshops. They have all thoroughly enjoyed the day, learnt lots and come away with heads full of different things to do on their machines.

I am really looking forward to hearing Bill speak. Visitors are welcome. We will be starting at 8 pm as usual.

April Meeting

This month we had a return visit from the ladies of the Woodley Knitting club. We visited them earlier this year, taking some of our knitting to show, so it was time for them to bring their knitting to us!






This selection of photos shows some of the lovely ladies, and the beautiful knitting they brought with them.







Each lady showed her garments, and explained how it was done, using any special techniques. There were examples of cut and sew too!







And one lady even brought her hand knitting to show us!

We had a fun, lively evening, and think we might all have learnt something. It is so amazing how friendly and willing to share machine knitters are.
Thank you to the ladies from Woodley!

Show and Tell

Two baby cardigans knitted by Sandra.














Two baby jackets machine knitted by Sue.















A jumper machine knitted by Sandra.
















No shawls from Chris this month, instead this beautiful hand knitted top.

April Meeting

This month Woodley Knitting Club are coming to visit us and tell us about what they get up to and what they have been knitting. (We visited them in February). You'd think that there wouldn't be much to tell about what you do at a club, but every club is different. People like different things, use different yarns and work in different ways. And most knitters like to see what other people have made. So these exchange meetings are usually very interesting and a good way to pick up a tip or two.

I look forward to a good turn our of our club members to help make the members of Woodley Machine Knitting Club welcome. As usual visitors are welcome to come and join us as well.

March Meeting

Tonight we had a lively meeting with lots of practical demonstrations. Our speaker was Clair Crowston, a long time machine knitter and designer.

Two machines were set up, a Brother and a Knitmaster, so the techniques could be shown on both as we all have different machines. Liz manned the Brother, and Clair the Knitmaster. All the techniques are used in Clair's patterns.

We were shown a weaving pattern with pick up, magic fairisle, godets as worked in a skirt, and the latch tool cast on. One example of the magic fairisle used a lurex yarn and the resulting diamond pattern looked as if diamantes had been sewn on the garment, very fashionable at the moment!

A selection of Clair's patterns. All may be obtained through her website (link in previous post).

We all had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and either learnt something new or had our memories refreshed!

Show and Tell

These little Easter treats have been hand knitted by Pauline for charity. Each contains a small egg.

Close up of baby girl complete with dummy in her mouth!

More of Chris's beautiful handknitted shawls and wraps, showing the stitch pattern details. Some of these are in very fine yarns.

Here's Sandra's top made with one of Clair's patterns!

March meeting

This Month Clair Crowston is our Speaker. She is coming down from her home in Scunthorpe for the Machine Knitting Live show in Bournemouth on March 7th and stopping off for a few days with us first. It's not very often we get the chance to hear and see Clair demonstrating as she lives so far away. Clair will be showing us some of the techniques she uses on the garments she designs. There is a link to her website http://www.machineknittingdesigns-by-clair.co.uk, so if you have time do take a look. I am sure she will have a selection of her patterns available for us to buy.

We have invited members of other knitting clubs to join us for the evening, so we expect a good turnout. Visitors are always welcome at our Club.

Looking forward to seeing lots of you on Tuesday 3rd March. 8 pm prompt please.

If you would like details of the Machine Knitting Live show at Bournemouth, please visit the Machine Knitting Monthly website: http://www.machineknittingmonthly.net/

visit to Woodley Club

Last week some of the members of Fleet Knitting Club visited Woodley Machine Knitting Club to tell them a bit about our club and to show them some of the things we had knitted.

They listened very closely to the things we told them and afterwards had a chance to inspect the garments and other things we'd taken along. We also took along some folders that we had of the printouts of pages of the blogspot.

We were made very welcome and had a lovely evening. Woodley are coming to visit us in April.

Febrary meeting cancelled

Due to the adverse weather conditions it has been decided to cancel the February meeting.

Although the main roads have been gritted and a thaw has begun, many back roads and pavements are still very icy. It is also set to freeze again tonight.

See you on 3rd March when Clair Crowston is coming to speak to us. Clair is stopping off on her way to Machine Knitting Live in Bournemouth (7th March). She comes from Scunthorpe and normally only travels about 70 miles to speak at a club, so this is a rare opportunity to hear her. Her website address is http://www.machineknittingdesigns-by-clair.co.uk/

February meeting

Our February meeting will be on Tuesday 3rd February. 8pm as usual and weather permitting. If the forecast snow settles and the freezing weather continues then do check that the meeting is going ahead as there is little point in putting lives at risk driving to a club meeting. I will put a message up as soon as the decision to cancel is made - no message and the meeting will go ahead.


The plan for the evening is to learn to crochet an edging (crab stitch). Lots of you were asking how I did the crochet edge on the blue/grey jacket with the zip (see October meeting blog) and this is your chance to learn. Bring a tension swatch and some yarn with you, and a crochet hook if you have one. Don't worry if you don't as I will have plenty with me.

I also have exciting news. I have now booked two speakers, one for our March meeting and the other for the May meeting. Clair Crowston is coming in March and Bill King is coming in June.
Both speakers are coming a long distance to talk to us, and it isn't often that they come down this way, so I am really looking forward to those meetings. Don't just pencil it in your diary, put it in in pen and underline it. You don't get the chance to see either of these speakers very often.

Hopefully the meeting on Tuesday will go ahead, and if you can make it, don't forget to bring the things you have made to show everyone.

December Meeting 2008

As normal our December meeting was a social occassion with coffee and mince pies. All our members were again very generous with their donations to our charity, The Friends of The Royal Marsden Hospital. All donated items are sold to raise money for patient amenities at the Sutton branch of the hospital. Members knitted a lot of the items themselves. These items are always extremely popular and sell well. The photos show some of these items.

We wish all our members and friends a Happy Christmas and New Year, hope you all keep knitting in 2009.

Show and Tell December

A garte stitch jumper from Nina.

Three more hand knitted shawls from Chris.

A cute pair of felted toddlers slippers from Liz.

Just a little bit of fun, Chris brought in her mega knitting needles, and Sandra had a go with them!

December already

It's December already and I haven't posted anything about what we did at the November meeting. I must admit to being busy with other things especially looking after the lovely Ruby, my granddaughter, who is now 9 1/2 months old and very inquisitive.

So November meeting first. Kathy couldn't make it, and I hadn't taken my camera, so no photographs this month. As usual Christine has been busy knitting and showed us some more of her lovely work. Apparently she does not bring everything she knits every month. Some of it has been handed over to the lucky recipient before she can bring it to our meeting. I had been knitting as well. By hand this time. I brought along a pair of socks I had knitted for Ruby. I took a photograph of them before she took them home. You can't really tell from the photograph how small they are, but if you think you'd like to have a go at knitting socks, try baby ones first. They don't take long to do, and the techniques are just the same as bigger ones.

Frances had been invited back to speak to us again. This time she went through the basics of double jacquard techniques. She showed us how to set the machine up with the double bed colour changer attached and went through all the important stages that are vital if we are to knit this fabric successfully. She also told us about shaping when knitting double jacquard fabric. All very useful information. We even decided that it would be possible to knit a double jacquard fabric by hand, but that should best be left for the experienced knitter.

So now the December meeting. It is on Tuesday 2nd December, 8pm as usual. As it is our Christmas Meeting, we will all be bringing something along to give to the Friends of the Royal Marsden Hospital. They have a sales table in the Outpatients Department of the Hospital where they sell items that have been donated and raise funds for patient amenities. We have supported them for a while now and they are always very appreciative of our efforts. We will try to take some photographs and post them here before they are all packed up for delivery to the Hospital.

So if you would like to come and join us for coffee/tea and a mince pie please do so. We might even get a visit from Santa - we did last year!

November meeting

It's been a busy month for me. I've spent four days at Alexandra Palace, plus setting up day. I've been to the Long Buckby Knit and Natter day and we've also had a family christening with visitors for a week as well.

With the sudden change to autum weather it reminded me that October is over and the November meeting is upon us. This month we have Frances Perkins showing us some double jacqard. It's a long while since we covered jacquard, so she's going back to basics. Jacquard is such a big subject it will take more than one evening to cover, so I am sure Frances will be back again to continue the subject.

With all the things going on this month I haven't done any machine knitting, but I have done some hand knitting, so I will bring that to show you. I hope you've got some knitting done and will bring it and show us. We will be meeting at the usual time of 8 pm.

October Meeting

Tonight Liz talked to us about putting zips in knitwear. Advice on various weights of zip, when to use open ended zips, how to use them in raglan sleeves, especially useful for younger children's garments. The differences between metal and nylon zips and when to use each was discussed.And more importantly, how to sew them in by hand if that was your chosen method.
There are many types of zip on the market so it is important to choose the right one.


Here Liz is demonstrating latch tool cast on.








This zip was hand sewn into the garment after a crab stitch crochet edging was done along both edges, it gives a neat finish with some decorative detail.









This zip is put into a placket, which is knitted on the machine, the zip still has to be sewn in, can't escape that one! It does give a very neat placement from both side of the garment so is the choice for jackets using and open ended zip. The placket can be knitted in rib to match the welts and neckband.

Show and Tell

Finished at last, Liz's tuck stitch top, ready for next summer!

















Beautifully knitted cardigan with a garter carriage edging from Sue!















Nina's top, with a crochet type edging!

Two more beautifully hand knitted shawls from Chris, both done in fine yarns!

October meeting

Has another month really gone by? It seems like it was only last week that I was writing about the September meeting.

Well I've put my thinking cap on and done some work on this years programme. It's not all finalised yet but we are getting there. So I'm sure you will all want to know what we will be doing at the meeting this Tuesday (7th October). Putting Zips into knitwear will be the subject. This a topic suitable for both machine and hand knitters, so hopefully we will all learn something. I've got a few samples to show as well.

Don't forget to bring along the things you've made this month. I've finished a short sleeve jumper that I started in April, and I'm planning to bring it to show. Of course, I could forget it, especially if I do my packing before Tuesday. I'm going to be at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace for four days (9th - 12th October) on the stand of the Guild of Machine Knitters. I've got a room booked in a hotel close by, so won't have to travel there and back every day. I'm really looking forward to it, as there is so much to see.

But before that we have our meeting, so I hope to see you there. (Tuesday 7th October 8pm)

September meeting and AGM.

Tonight was our AGM which was fairly well attended for such a function! Business was kept short. Our finances are in good health, the subs remain unchanged and we will continue to support the Friends of the Royal Marsden, Sutton, as our charity. Fiona who has been our treasurer for a number of years has had to resign due to pressure of work and family commitments, so she was thanked for her sterling efforts in keeping the accounts in good order. Nina was also thanked for sorting out the teas and coffees, and everyone who helps with setting up and clearing away.
Liz hasn't managed to find enough speakers to fill the programme for the year, but she's working on it and we will be informed in due course.
This years challenge was announced - something for your hands. It need not be something to wear, like gloves, but something to carry, an item of jewellery such as ring or bracelet. You must not buy anything to make this, but may scrounge from other people. You have until next July to produce something, that seems a long way off, but start thinking now and you won't have that last minute rush!

Tonight our speaker was Janina Dodds from Button Up, and of course, the subject was buttons and their history. How they have been used over the centuries both for decoration and fastenings.










These little black buttons are of the type stitched to Queen Victoria's dresses.








A useful tip for fastening buttons to knitting if you don't want to sew. Thread the button on to a length of fine ribbon, tie a knot, then thread the ribbon through the garment and tie a bow. Your button is now securely fixed and also easily removable for washing or a change of buttons.









Janina also showed how buttons can be used decoratively, as here on a jacket collar, adding interesting detail and colour.

More beautiful hand knits from Chris.
Detail of a red lace shawl.








Detail from a pink lace pashmina.











Corner detail from a white baby shawl.