Our Christmas Fuddle

Our December meeting is when we normally hold our Christmas 'fuddle'. Everyone takes a little something to eat (and share), and a small gift (usually unwrapped, but not always). Then we draw everyone's name out of the hat, and go up in turn to select our 'gift'. It's a very informal meeting, with plenty of food, drink and chatter.

What's happening in November 2019?

At the club...

This month, we're having a very informal meeting. Members have asked for the opportunity to see specific pieces of equipment: a charting device and a single-bed colour changer. These will both be there (both for Brother machines, but the principles apply across the board) and the club machines will also be available to give people the chance to try out something or to ask a specific question.

Nottingham Yarn Expo

The Nottingham Yarn Expo is taking place at the Nottingham Conference Centre at Nottingham Trent University (Goldsmith Street entrance in the city centre) on 17 November 2019.

Alison will be there on the Knitting and Crochet Guild stand (with her knitting machine).

For more information, see the website (opens in new window): https://www.nottinghamyarnexpo.com/https://www.nottinghamyarnexpo.com/

Sue Booth demonstrated machine knitted socks

Sue demonstrated two methods of knitting socks, and talked us through a third (lack of time meant she couldn't show all three).

The first required a ribber as the bulk of the knitting was done on both beds. The rib at the top of the sock needed to be seamed, and the toe grafted -  but the rest was seamless. Sue cast on using both beds and knitted a rib, which was taken off onto waste yarn. The rib was then rehung on both beds, with the edges (left and right) of the knitting being put onto the two centre needles on the main bed. The rest of the stitches were rehung with 50% on the main bed and 50% on the ribber. The 'leg' part of the sock was knitted circular, then short-row shaping used (on the main bed) to shape the heel. Finally, the foot was knitted circular, and fully fashioned decreases for the toes. The sock was taken off onto waste yarn for grafting the toe.

The second style was knitting on the main bed only - ideal if you don't have a ribber. A mock-rib top was followed by the leg being knitted flat - the final sock has a seam down the inside of the leg, and the socks are made as either a right-sock or a left-sock. The heel shaping is on one side of the needle bed only.

The third style was also knitted on the main bed only, but this time after knitting the leg portion, the top of the foot was knitted, the toe shaped, and then the sole knitted. The sole was grafted to the heel section. This style resulted in more seams - one up the centre back of the leg portion, and one either side of the foot.

Thank you very much to Sue for her patient demonstration - we learned a lot, and I know what my next project is going to be. :-)

What's happening in October?

Sue Booth will be showing us how to knit socks on the knitting machine, and Andrew Matthews has kindly offered to bring his camera and projector so we can all see what is happening.

Sue's demonstrations are always very good, and I'm really looking forward to the evening. Hopefully we'll see you there!

What's happening at the meeting in September 2019?

For the September meeting, we are having one of our ‘round tables’ evenings of handicrafts that complement machine knitting (or hand-knitting/crochet, for that matter).
Members will be demonstrating:

• Button-making: Dorset buttons and Chinese button balls
• Making-up techniques: grafting (also known as ‘Kitchener stitch’), mattress stitch and Bickford stitch
• Inkle loom weaving

As always, this will be a social evening and members are encouraged to bring along projects they‘ve recently completed or are working on to share during the show-and-tell part of the evening.

We look forward to seeing you there!

May Meeting - Knit and Natter plus Planning

Monday 13th May at 6.45pm
Killisick Community Centre

Our next meeting will not be on the first Monday of the month as that is Early May Bank holiday.  So we will be meeting on the following Monday 13th May.

As we have not had a Knit and Natter for a while we thought we would have one for our April meeting. So please bring your hand yarncraft work in progress for a relaxed meeting.  As usual we will also have our 'Show and Tell' as we all love to see what different people have recently made.
We expect to have the new (to us) knitting machine cabinet delivered and set up with the club knitting machine so we can also spend time with individual knitting queries and concerns.
Finally we would like to do a little planning and consultation for our programme for the rest of the year, so please put your thinking caps on and maybe come with a few ideas.

Nottingham Machine Knitting Show - 14th April 2019

Not a meeting, but a reminder that the Nottingham Machine Knitting Show is taking place at West Park Leisure Centre, Wilsthorpe Road, Long Eaton, NG10 5AA. We will be having a stand at the show, and hope to see you there.

For more information and directions click this link  or paste https://machineknittingmonthly.net/news/nottingham-knitting-show-2018/ into your web browser.

March meeting - decorating your knitting

Sue Booth gave another extremely interesting talk on embellishments for our knitting. She covered:

• Fake cardigan bands - knit a jumper and add a band to the front to give the appearance of a cardigan. Basically, these are 'hems', and one of the techniques Sue showed us incorporated a small stocking stitch 'roll' that hid the sewing line.
• Knitting in small bobbles.
• Adding small strips - splashes of colour over 7 or so needles (and as a bonus, no ends to sew in!).
• Knitting cording in various ways to apply to surface of the knitting.
• Various 'painting' methods, including using permanent markers.
• Adding 'foil' by gluing it to the fabric.

We covered a lot in a short space of time, and as always, Sue brought a large number of samples with her - both of garments that used the various techniques and of small swatches.

February Meeting - Knitting with Beads

The February Meeting is next Monday February 4th, 2019.Usual time, usual place. Killisick Community Centre, Arnold, NG5 8DB 6.30 - 9.00p.m.
Alison will be giving us a presentation about how to incorporate beads into your machine knitting. So new ideas a plenty to set off another new knitting year. There will be plenty going on and also news to absorb. Hope many can make it if the weather is not too severe.