The manuscript for my latest book on machine knitting has gone to the publishers, (printers)

The Machine Knitter’s Guide to Partial Knitting; Seamless Pattern, Shape and Form

I wrote this post last July, and thought I would share it with you in retrospect, as the book has now gone to  print.

July 2025

Finally, after a long and fraught 18 months it is done!

I signed the book contract only a few weeks before we moved house. After several false starts with the sale of the house we thought we would be staying for a while and would lose the property we wanted to purchase. However, the way it happened in the end meant that we had to rush into moving in a 3 week window.

Which meant of course that we had to pack what we hadn’t already packed in a hurry, and organize everything else and then move and organize this end when we arrived. Settling in took far longer than anticipated due to unanticipated building work through last summer. It wasn’t until late autumn that I was able to safely unpack a machine and start to knit and write in earnest. Then the arrival of our first grandchild interrupted my flow for a while, the sun shone and the garden needed work done. All in all, let’s say life got in the way!

The last month has been full-on working on the book, so it was wonderful to finally send it off. Of course they will be editorial suggestions and corrections to do, and then a final check once it is laid out for printing, so it’s not finished yet.

May 2026

If you have persevered and read to this point, you might like to know what the book is about. This book, my third about machine knitting focuses on short rows, or partial knitting. It is suitable for any machine with holding position, single bed, double bed, plastic or metal bed, and any gauge. I particularly wanted to include the popular plastic bed, mid-gauge machines like the LK150. Rather than struggle to emulate the punchcard machines with repeating patterns, short row pattern and shaping can be as easily done on either type of machine.

A quick peak at my latest book

‘The Machine Knitter’s Guide to Partial Knitting: Seamless Pattern, Shape and Form’, is available to pre-order in the UK from Crowood Books, and online retailers. In the US it can be ordered from Blackwells.

Learn how to control short rows and create fab effects with this fascinating technique.

I’ve always been fascinated by short rows, or partial knitting as this technique is also called, so when the opportunity came to write a whole book about the technique I was super excited. The book opens with some interesting information about short rows to whet the appetite, the first chapter is about the absolute basics, so is ideal for people who have not worked with short rows before. The chapters progress through the different ways of using short rows; shown with examples, diagrams and written instructions. Some also have half scale sample patterns for practising the techniques which include more advanced uses, such as 3d shaping.. There are step-by-step instructions and each chapter builds on the knowledge of the previous chapter. The book ends with a chapter of patterns exemplifying the techniques covered throughout the book.

I so look forward to receiving my first copy!

Seeing up at Craft 4 Crafter’s show -updated

It’s been a busy day today setting up the Taunton Machine Knitting Club stand at Craft 4 Crafter’s exhibition in Exeter. The Club is pleased to have recently become a branch of The Knitting and Crochet Guild, making us part of the wider UK knitting community.

The display features work by most club members including lace, intarsia, knitweave and double jacquard. Throughout the three day exhibition members will be demonstrating different techniques such as cables, bobbles,  shaping and short row knitting.

The display is finally ready, and I am not  climbing a stepladder again today!

I will be giving a talk on Friday about my books, ‘The Knitting Book’, ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’ and ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’.

The table will have to be large enough to fit four copies once my latest book, ‘The Machine Knitter’s Guide to Partial Knitting’ is published later this year.

Update

The show went really well. There was lots of interest in the club,  machine knitting in general and the Knitting and Crochet Guild.

The machines were a great draw
Yarn winding for those who bought yarn in hanks
image of fruit with colour chips extracted from image

Talking to Techknitters Machine Knitting Club

On Monday I had the pleasure of talking to Techknitters Machine Knitting Club in Chicago about my book ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Although this was published in 2024 the UK, it was not published in the USA until 2025 and I was due to talk to the group in December of that year. Moving house and having a lot of building work in progress meant that I couldn’t manage an online talk at that time, so we rescheduled. The new date came around quickly, doesn’t time fly?

Although several members indicated that they already have the book, I decided to discuss the overall content of book for those who do not yet have a copy. During this I explained my thinking behind the plan of the book and the main intention behind my writing. Following on to this, I concentrated on snippets from each chapter.

One of the reviews of the book mentioned that it is unusual to find design development and process included in a knitting book, so I took this comment as the focus of the rest of my talk working with material from the chapters, ‘Designing with Colour’ and ‘Finding Inspiration and Designing Pattern’.

This section of the talk started by looking at extracting colour inspiration from one of the images used in the book, and then reviewing a sample from the book that had been designed using these colours to work stripes. The practical part of the talk was about selecting yarns, designing another stripe, and revising and developing the design. Each step was shown and design rationales discussed. The sample was knitted and a finished and steamed version was reviewed to which the group gave feedback on how it might be improved/adapted. All in all it was an enjoyable experience.

I will be talking to the group again in August about my latest book, ‘The Machine Knitter’s Guide to Partial Knitting; Seamless Patter, Shape and Form’ which is due to be published in Spring 2026 by Crowood Press.

Cover of Singel and Double Bed Machine Knitting: the Designer's Guide

How to meet my readers…?

Hello there. I am keen to know my readers, and meet people who own a copy of either of my knitting books, ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’ or ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Obviously meeting people in person might be tricky, so I have been wracking my brains about how to do this and settled on trying to set up an image gallery of people who own a copy of one of both of these books.

It would be wonderful if you could post a photo of yourself holding your copy, and with your knitting machine as well if it works for you. If you prefer not to be in the photo yourself, a photo of your copy of the book sitting on top of your knitting machine would be lovely, and a piece of your knitting as well maybe? Please also add a brief review if you have time, its always useful to get an insight into how readers see what I have written and feedback helps me develop my approach for future books.

I can only think of Facebook or Instagram, but I’m sure you will have other favourite places to post. It would be good if you could add the hashtags shown below so that I can find your posts. I will start the ball rolling on Instagram.

Hashtags   #vikkihaffenden, #TBHMK, #SDBMK, #vikkiknit, #crowoodpress, #machineknitting

When you post a photo, do feel free to leave me a message pointing to it on this page.

What a lovely review of ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’

November’s edition of Machine Knitting Monthly has a great review of ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Amongst other nice things, they mention the broad scope of the book’s contents. I deliberately wrote so that it is suitable for any machine owner from Brother to Passap with lots of hints and tips to work on different types of machines. Thank you Machine Knitting Monthly!

Read excerpts from the review here.

A ‘wow’ review of ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’

I found this review on Facebook ‘Machine Knitting’ group, and have to share it. I was so thrilled that this reviewer ‘got’ the book so thoroughly.

Book Review:
Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting by Vikki Haffenden
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 10:10
“This book ought to be mandatory reading for every new machine knitter!” -me
“This book needs to be on every machine knitter’s manuals shelf, in pride of place, no matter if you use Silver Reed or Brother!” -me
“Where was this book when I was desperately trying to learn how to design lace/translate lace cards between Brother and Silver Reed?!?!” -me

This book is absolutely essential equipment as far as I am concerned! It starts out covering and comparing materials and equipment for knitting, both hand and machine versions. The pictures will blow you away and they only get better. Please, at this point, re-read the title. It does not state ‘pattern’ in the title.
Next it goes into stitch construction and compares hand and machine and final product of each. This book give equal time to both! It goes into yarn fiber types, yarn construction(spinning), yarn types (boucle vrs worsted). The details are absolutely in depth and extremely easy to understand with stupendously clear focused pin-pointed and highlighted photography and exemplary diagrams that compare every aspect of stitches, fabric, mechanics, of hand and machine knitting. It breaks down differences between brands when there are differences, and does not favor either. There are some references to Toyota and Passap, but the main info concerns Silver Reed and Brother. This covers every type of cast-on and cast-off that I could remember!! It isn’t a how-to… it compares them and shows some GREAT visuals of them on and off the needles. Refer to your manual for specifics on how-to cast-on and cast-off. Basically, this book compiled most of the answers to questions I have asked in the past, questions I have hunted down answers to, and questions that I hadn’t even thought to ask. It is utterly fantastic. Only the very last chapter goes into translating PATTERNS between hand and machine…

Buy it! Buy it NOW!
I can not say enough how much you need this book! How much I needed this book… now if I can just convince her to write one on Passap…
No! I have no affiliation with the author… I wish I could say I know her.

Since reading it I have replied, so let’s hope we can converse about knitting I the future.

‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’

The advance copy of my new book arrived today, and you can see some pages from the book here.

Meanwhile here is a quick look at the book.

I have made a more in depth video introduction to the book, and if you would like to watch this, please keep on scrolling down the page.

Seamless machine knit socks

Slow and steady is best when demonstrating live!

This was taken at Traditions in the Making, a Heritage Craft event at Stanmer Park, Brighton. With lots of volunteers from local community textile group Woolly Umbrella, alongside the CSM there were demonstrations of flax processing, lace making, weaving, inkle looms, wool fibre preparation (hand and drum carding), embroidery and wool and flax spinning.

The CSM is an Imperia with an 84 slot cylinder and gm here I am knitting a sock in traditional 3ply sock wool; no nylon. This was the nearest we could get that was most like the wool probably used originally on the machine. Although I have knitted on it with hand spun I felt that demonstrating required enough concentration without the worry of irregular yarn!

Two types of socks in the 3 ply yarn, fake rib and true rib.

In a brave, but foolish, moment I decided to try a toe-up sock at one point. It wasn’t too bad at all, and I am quite pleased with the result.

Toe up sock, still waiting to be hand finished

Proofreading ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’

I am now part way through proofreading my latest book. It’s a lot knottier checking double bed as well as single bed instructions!

The book covers, without stating the obvious, single and double bed machine knitting techniques and design. Brother,  Silver reed/Knitmaster are the main machines, but Passap machines are also included in some sections.

Step by step instructions are illustrated as well as explained in the text and at the end of each chapter there is a Design Studio exploring how to develop the techniques discussed in the first part of the chapter.

It’s got to be done before Christmas, so early mornings and late nights are the order of the day. I’m baking mince pies when taking a rest from the screen.

If you enjoyed Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting, or are looking for the definitive book on machine knitting I think to will want this book.  You will be able to pre-order soon so keep an eye out.

‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting’; The Designer’s Guide‘ will be published in Spring 2023. Yippee.