During our two week caravan holiday we visited Yorkshire and Northumbria. Although we settled on two places to park the caravan, we travelled around from these bases, going as far as Edinburgh to visit family.
At the delightful Ryedale Folk Museum near Pickering in Yorkshire, there were several spinning wheels of different ages and types, plus a warp weighted primitive loom. Alongside one of the wheels was a lace-maker’s glass, a lovely-looking lamp that was used to focus candle light onto the work in progress. Although delightful to look at, I can imagine the lighting was still pretty dim and the lace-makers must have relied heavily on muscle-memory to produce their intricate work in their poorly-lit homes even during the daytime.
A bobbin and flyer wheelAn early spindle wheel, no flyer or bobbin. I would guess it was used for flax, but could also have spun wool.
Lace-maker’s glass lamp. Although i have seen single glass versions, this is the first multiple glass globe one I have seen.
A reproduction of an iron age warp-weighted loom. If you have ever seen an upright rug loom, this will look remarkably similar.
Inspiration was found all around in nature, both on the campsite and on our travels, but the small flowers growing on rugged rocks on Lindisfarne were particularly sure-catching. I’m not a botanist, but apparently some of these are quite rare, so we were fortunate to be able to see them.
Also on Holy Island I was captivated by the sheds made from up-turned former fishing boats. These voluptuous shapes, complimented by coiled and folded ropes, all caught in the watery sunlight gave me good for thought about mixed media and overlays.
The light reflected on low water and behind the billowing clouds was also vying for my attention.
Lindisfarne harbourLindisfarne castle
Our next visit was to Staithes, a picturesque coastal village to the north of Whitby. This village retains it’s charm, possibly because there is no car access to or parking in the village, and visits have to walk down a steep hill from the car park, (and back up of course). Staithes, means something like ‘safe landing place’, and the harbour is sheltered by encircling natural breakwaters. We saw the word ‘staithes’ used in this sense elsewhere in our travels, and could see why this little village would have earned its name when it was a busy fishing port. A small, but fascinating museum shares the history of Staithes and its environs, including not only fishing, but mining and even an artistic community.
Women worked hard in fishing villages, and in Staithes they wore a particular type of head covering which facilitated carrying baskets of fish on their heads whilst protecting their hair and neck. A roll of padding was placed inside the crown to cushion the head, the front flap was stiffened to protect the wearer from wind and rain and a drawstring inside made for a good fit, whilst the bow and long back frill kept water from the back of the neck. This ‘Staithes bonnet’ is no longer worn, the last maker having survived into the 1970s, but examples and many, many photographs and illustrations of this distinctive practical but to me, very attractive head wear are in the museum.
Captain Cook features in the museum, and there were several artefacts displayed from countries he visited that caught my eye for their pattern and firm.
Laura Johnson, (later Dame Laura Knight) lived and painted in Staithes in the early 1900s. The woman in this beautiful painting ‘Grief’ painted in 1901 by her husband, Harold Knight, is wearing a Staithes bonnet. . Only white, lilac and black bonnets were made, and the woman’s black bonnet, worn for mourning, mirrors the title of the painting. My photo is not very good, better reproductions can be found elsewhereLaura Knight ceramics, Staithes Museum
More texture and colour inspiration
Poppies in the dunes south of Bamburgh CastleWhitby AbbeyLobster pots at Staithes harbourStaithes harbour from the riverAmazing curved glass pub front in Berwick on Tweed
We are on holiday in Yorkshire and took the opportunity to visit the Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton le Hole. The museum is a little gem, mostly outdoors it features original local buildings from different periods complete with information about those who lived in them. From the’ Witches Hovel’ to the Manor House, one can take a peak into the life of the people of Ryedale through the centuries.
Pre the Industrial Revolution the village subsisted on small scale farming and at one time a quarter of the population of Hutton le Hole were employed as weavers. It is not explained whether it was cause or effect, but flax was grown in the area in the 1700s and the women would have spun the flax into linen yarn on spinning wheels, examples of which are present in the houses. It is likely that wool was also spun as villagers grazed cattle and sheep on the common land and most households were largely self sufficient.
An early spinning wheel with a spindle which pre-dated the bobbin and flyer. It has a treadle which suggests that this wheel dates from after the latter part of the 1700s. Possibly originally used for flax as this was grown in the area in the 1700s to produce yarn for the village weavers. Ryedale Folk Museum.Another spinning wheel from a later period as it has a bobbin and flyer. The distaff suggests this might also have been used for flax, as wheels were, and still are, used for a range of fibres based on the spinner’s needs and skills.
In the same room as the wheel shown above, there was a charming lace light. These glass globes amplified the light from the central candle and focused it onto the work of those sitting around the globes. I have not seen a triple globe stool version before, so that was a treat.
Towards the end of the path through the museum is an Iron Age roundhouse. Apparently the structure was built with wattle and daub, just as it would have been in the Iron Age. Inside there is an open fire and amongst other domestic artefacts there is a rough-built warp-weighted loom. Although there is a warp on it, there is no weaving in progress.
At a quick glance the warp-weighted loom doesn’t look that different from a modern upright loom, except for the refinements of a winding-on mechanism and reed.
I am now itching to get home to do some weaving. Luckily I have my spinning wheel with me in the caravan where I am practising spinning flax in to linen yarn.
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.
Hands up who doesn’t like icord? It’s an extremely versatile little tube that has many uses, amongst which is as a trimming or tie cord, or standalone as a thick yarn. Reach back to your childhood memories and you might have used a ‘Knitting Nancy’, or even a cotton reel with nails driven into the top to knit i-cord. You can hand knit i-cord with double pointed needles or even on two straights, with a bit of slipping and reverse knitting.
To my joy you can also knit it on a bed domestic knitting machine. On a double bed machine, or a single bed with a ribber attached, on each bed you cast on half the number of stitches that you wish to have around the i-cord, (for example, two needles on each bed will create a four stitch i-cord), then set one bed to slip and one bed to knit. This creates a tube of circular knitting. When using just a single bed, this is also an easy setting. Cast on four stitches, set your carriage to slip in one direction, and off you go. The slip pulls the yarn around from the last stitch directly back to the first needle and then you knit all four stitches again. After which the yarn goes back to the first needle again, and it makes a very nice little tube.
I have knitted i-cord by hand and on my knitting machine for many years, and at one point I purchased a hand-cranked, four needle circular i-cord machine, (I think it was a Prym?) which meant I could knit yardage very simply without blocking the use of my main knitting machine. I found the design to be quite awkward to use, so a bit later on I purchased another model, (it might have been Clover, but I think it was a French make). This is a much better designed piece of equipment, it fits well in the hand and is far more cheerful to look at because it is bright yellow and purple. The big plus is that any of these machines produce a consistently even i-cord. However, althouigh its faster than hand knitting, it still requires hand cranking.
Apart from these little i-cord machines I also have a plastic, twenty-two needle Addi circular machine. The Addi clearly knits a bigger tube that the little four-needle machines, but it works on the same principle with a revolving cylinder of vertical needles into which the yarn is fed through a statioary feeder. This means that the knitting coming out of the bottom of the machine turns with the cylinder of needles and can (and will) tangle.
The drawback with all these circular knitting machines described so far is that the knitting hangs down in the center of the cylinder and requires considerable weighting to make sure the stitches clear off the needles. Once the weights reaches the floor they stopped doing their job and unless rehung further up towards the cylinder, the stitches will miss-knit. If the knitted tube is turning at the same time as the weights descend, there is clearly far more potential for disaster to happen as the weight swings and the knitting twists. That is why the four needle i-cord machines and the Addi are my least favorite to use.
My pride and joy is a vintage, and very heavy, solid metal, circular sock machine. Although this still requires weights and they are very heavy weights, this knits in a slightly different way, with the feeder revolving around a stationary cylinder of vertical needles. This means that the knitting hangs straight down and does not twist as it is made. The advantage of this is that you only have to keep an eye on the weight, and do not have to untangle the knitted tube every so often.
Whilst working in industry, and at the University where I taught, I worked with what are called ‘strapping’ or ‘cording’ machines. The ones in use were small cylinder circular machines and fine gauge, so had tiny needle hooks and required thin yarns. These operated on the same principle as the CSM, but instead of weights, the cord winds onto a vertical frame which is synchronised to revolve at the pace necessary to keep tension on the cord as it descends towards the frame. This automates the process; the only human interaction is to change yarns and swap full frames out for empty ones. I suspect that the latest models will be almost totally automated with automatic yarn splicing.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post. At last! Because of the problems already discussed I was interested to try out the Caydo Automatic I-cord Machine. On close inspection, Caydo seemed to have addressed the problem of the knitting twisting by adopting the idea of a static needle cylinder and a revolving feeder, and overcome the weighting by laying the machine on its side and adding rotating cogs to tension the completed i-cord. I was intrigued as to whether this machine would prove to be as good as it looked in the adverts.
My verdict is that overall I really like this machine
I love gadgets, and this looked like a great gadget with thoughtful design which suggested to me an improved user experience and a positive practical outcome. Caydo kindly provided me with a machine to test and review, so that is where we are now. My video review is quite long, but I wanted to share the unpacking and assembly, (minimal) as well as explore the knitting process. My verdict is that overall I really like this machine.
It doesn’t like fancy yarns, but thats not uncommon
The machine won’t knit well with fancy yarns, and works with a limited range of yarn weights, but that is true of all domestic knitting machines. I met a lady the other day, and when chatting about the machine she was disappointed that it would not knit with chenille, but I am not sure that is a reasonable expectation as it clearly says in the manual what is and isn’t suitable.
I experimented a little, but as my aim was to review the machine as it stands, these were quite limited. I found that the harsher/firmer the yarn, the less the machine liked it. For example, I tried some crepe yarn and although it worked, the machine was not as happy as with less tightly spun yarn, until I helped by unwinding the yarn from the ball, the machine dropped the occasional stitch. I have had reports from other users that hand knit DK cotton works really well, but have not so far tested this out. The size of the hooks dictate the thickness of the yarn. Aran is listed as the thickest, but if not sure, lay the yarn in the hook and see if it sits there comfortably without being compressed.
Things I found that helped if the machine struggled:
manually wind to begin with and start with slow speed until you are satisfied that all is well
check that the yarn is in the tension disk correctly
watch for the yarn ball flipping over, this will tug on the machine
rewind the yarn onto balls that will pull-off easily, (if the machine has to tug at the yarn it stutters)
waxing as you rewind can help smooth the yarn
manually unwind the yarn before it gets to the machine if it is sticking to itself on the ball
listen to the machine, you can detect problems early by a change in rythmn/note
Be thoughtful when choosing yarns
The machine has weight, so does not shift around in use, and the case seems pretty robust. I am a little concerned about the rather delicate design of on/off/speed lever, as that is your ’emergency stop’ and might need to be turned quite rapidly, but so far it feels strong enough in use. The ‘knit/purl’ dial rotates when the machine is working, and yarn might get caught on this, so keep your work space clear of odd bits of yarn. I obviously don’t know how long the machine is going to last, and my guess is that the mechanism inside is largely plastic, (but I’m not taking it apart to find out). In my experience plastic cogs, such as those in ball winders are susceptible to strain and if worn may start to slip. The needles are metal, unlike the Addi, so should give stalwart service, as long as the latches don’t get bent. The needle ‘tricks’ in which they slide in and out are also plastic, but once again, provided they do not get burred or dented, they should wear smoothly, much as those in the larger, flat, plastic bed machines. If they do get dented with a sharp edge on one side of the indentation, the needle may catch on them as it slides in and out and could cause jams, (that is the voice of experience speaking). Over-thick and fancy yarns will contribute to all these potential problems, so be thoughtful when choosing yarns.
I was provided with a machine so that I could write/film this review, but have tried to be unbiased in my opinion and when describing my experience whilst using it.
‘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.
A couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in Bath in the Somerset with some friends.
On our first day we did the touristy things like visiting the Circle and the beautiful Royal Crescent and had tea in one of the numerous teas shops. Quite by chance, the one we picked happened to have been featured in Bridgerton as the Modiste shop.
Food featured heavily in our weekend, cake being a particular favorite, so the next day we visited the historic Pulteney bridge and the tea shop which is situated on top of this bridge.
We are all knitters, so were pleased to discover there was a yarn shop close to where we were staying in the city centre. So, before leaving on our last day we paid a visit to ‘Wool’. There we found a wide selection of yarns to please all price points, that catered for all types of knitting or crochet work. Yarns included individual spun, Rowan Kid Silk and some very good value Tweedy Superwash Merino wool by King Cole. I am a bit of a sock yarn addict and bought a 100g ball of Lang sock yarn, which I have not tried before, and some 100% wool double knit in pretty pastel colours.
Someone else chose a DK pattern for a simple sweater shape which she intends to knit up in a wool and Alpaca blend yarn. The yarn is being reclaimed from a partially-knitted garment that her mother never completed, I think this is a lovely way to maintain a thread with the memory of her Mother, but to end up with a garment that she will want to wear.
The staff in the shop were particularly helpful over this explaining to my friend how to substitute a yarn in the pattern and helping her decide if she would have enough of the existing yarn. Although I could have helped her with this it would have felt a little like a busman’s holiday to do so ‘on the fly’. However I did of course tell her she could ask me later if she ran into problems.
I will certainly go back to ‘Wool’ next time I’m in Bath.
This is something I used to struggle with when first starting to machine knit, and to be honest, it still sometimes needs a bit of thinking before I get it right.
So I put some information together which I hope will be useful to others who find the holes and blanks a bit confusing. It also has some helpful ways to read what is actually being read by the card-reader, rather than what is visible above it.
Lets start with the fundamentals:
Knitmaster/Silver Reed (KM/SR) machines only knit pattern from the punchcard when the side levers are at the triangle and the pattern cam dial is set to the relevant stitch type; F, S, T etc.
Brother machines only knit pattern from the punchcard when the KC dial is set to KC, KCI or KCII, as appropriate to the machine, and when the relevant pattern cam buttons are pressed, MC, tuck, part etc…
However, on both makes the needle positions are the same
Pattern cam setting
Punched holes
Needle position
Blanks
Needle position
2-col-in-a-row
knit with 2nd colour
UWP
knit with MC
WP
tuck
knit
UWP
tuck
WP
slip/part
knit
UWP
slip
WP
On both Brother and KM/SR machines, the punchard line being selected is hidden inside the machine. Seven lines below on a Brother, and five below on a KM/SR.
Brother machines, both punchcard and electronic, pre-select needles before knitting the row. Therefore, the pattern can be interrogated by looking at the needle selection in conjunction with the needle positions listed above.
KM/SRpunchcard machines have a card reader with feelers. These are selected according to the punchcard pattern but the actual feeler action is hidden behind the carriage. The pattern line can be manually interrogated by locking the punchcard.
I posted recently about solar dying wool with mulberries and I thought I’d now have a go dying some commercially spun cotton that I have already, and conveniently, put up into hanks. There are six 50g hanks, so I am hoping for 300g of lovely coloured cotton to play with.
I don’t dye cotton often, but I do know that it requires tannin as a mordant. Well, being a bit disorganized, if I’ve got any commercial tannin mordant I can’t find, so it was a relief when after a quick look in Jenny Dean’s Colours from Nature, I found that bramble leaves and twigs contain tannin. A bit more research on the internet suggests that mulberry leaves also contain tannin. It looks like this is going to be a multi-day effort.
DAY 1
One thing we have in plenty in the garden and surrounding fields is brambles and of course we have a mulberry tree, so I went on a little foraging trip. I collected a basket full of mulberry leaves and brambles which I chopped up and boiled for an hour as instructed in the book.
DAY 2
I left these to soak overnight and have just strained the liquor off into a pan and slightly reheated this.
I’ve just submerged the damp cotton hanks in the tannin liquid, and will leave this for 24 hours for the cotton to absorb the tannin. According to Jenny Dean there is a likelihood this will stain my white cotton and is bleached white slightly yellow, so we will see.
Hanks of cotton soaking in the home made tannin solution
Hopefully the mulberry dye will accommodate this and give me a nice color.
DAY 3
The cotton yarn after being soaked in tannin solution, a slight cream cast
After the tannin soak the cotton had taken on a slight creamy colour, not too bad at all. Maybe it didn’t take the tannin?
Straining the cooked and soaked mulberries to release the dye colour
I had prepared 1.5kg of mushy mulberries that weren’t really edible by cooking them up in some water and leaving them to soak and give up their colour overnight. I thought I was ready to get in with the dyeing, but luckily at this point I went back to Jenny’s book. Only then did I realised that the cotton needed to be soaked in an alum mordant after the tannin. How did I miss this before?
The recommended amount is 4 tsp alum and 1.5 tsp of washing soda per 100g of fibre. Dissolve the alum and soda in enough water to cover the fibre, and bring to a simmer. Then leave it to soak and cool for 12-24 hours.
DAY 4
NOW I can put the hanks in the dye..
This afternoon I took the yarn out and rinsed it. Then strained the mulberry liqour and put it in the old slow cooker I use for dyeing. I added some salt (not sure why but seemed to remember it helps the dye take) and then added enough water so that the liquid would cover the fibre. After that I immersed the yarn in the dye.
Fingers crossed it will work.
First dipped hank… Now it needs to sit in the dye overnight…but we all know it’s probably going to wash out…
Well, the hanks came out looking lovely, but as predicted, the colour mostly washed out. It’s not a bad colour, it’s very a pale, lilacy grey, just not the pink I hoped for.
After a year of false starts, partial-packing and living in limbo, we finally had a sale agreed so that we could move house. Of course this meant we had to move in a real rush and had only three weeks to get fully packed and moved. Consequently, today is my first serious effort at getting back to knitting work and writing my new book on machine knitting.
My new study has a glorious view of the garden which inspires me!
Vikki Haffenden 