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.
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.
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.
Today I finally completed a top-down jumper I started last December! I bought the main 100% wool yarn in Hereford, and the stripes are worked in two odd balls, one Noro and the other Icelandic. I’m looking forward to hearing it next winter.
Today met James McIntosh and Dr Thomas Ernst, inventors of the term ‘knititation’ and authors of Knit and Nibble. They had been invited to speak at the University of Brighton School of Art’s Centre for Arts and Wellbeing event, Knitting and Wellness.
When we first met, James told me that he had found The Knitting Book really helpful when he was teaching himself to knit – which was truly gratifying feedback. It’s nice to find out how people use and value my contribution to sharing knowledge.
James was first to speak, and he described his personal journey through depression and how knitting mindfully enabled his recovery and brought colour back into his life. Thomas discussed the science behind mindfulness and it’s aptness to knitting.
Nina Dodds, author of Invisible Jumpers, and I provided yarn and needles so that everyone who wanted to could knit during the event. We were gratified that everyone took up the opportunity!
It was a great talk, entertaining and interesting. James and Thomas kindly gave me a copy of their book which I am reading this weekend.
At the end Thomas led a short mindfulness session, which was a new expressive for some of the audience. Hopefully we all left feeling refreshed.
Like James, and so many others, I find hand knitting keeps me calm; it’s repetitive movements bringing my attention back in a rythmic cycle. So now I’ve written this it’s time to take up my needles for a soothing session.
Today I had a lovely day with Long Buckby Machine Knitting Club. They had asked me to come and talk about my book Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting and gave me a wonderfully friendly welcome. This meant talking about my experiences as a machine knitter was like sharing with friends.
I met so many interesting people who have interests in common and was pleased to see some younger faces on the audience.
Janet Collins, Chair of the Knitting and Crochet Guild was there and spoke to the meeting about the recent amalgamation of the Knitting and Crochet Guild and the Guild of Machine Knitters. She also gave an impassioned plea for members to encourage younger people to become members. She told me that if the Guild is not offering what young knitters want, the way forward is to find out what they do want and make this an aim, otherwise the Guild will dwindle. As there are 1,500 members this would be a real shame.
I’m now on my way home feeling a warm glow from the kind words and the opportunity to meet genie machine knitters with so many skills.
Today I ran a workshop that introduced members of Brighton Textile Art Group to machine knitting. To give a wider experience both a Knitmaster and a Brother machine were used, one standard and one chunky gauge. The chunky was particularly popular once it was found that it can knit handspun yarns.
Techniques explored included shaping, fair isle, single motif fair isle, knitwear (again great for hand spun), holding and short rows and simple, manual lace transfer.
I took along a little circular machine to demonstrate the difference between the two machine types, but the real interest was in the flat bed Japanese machines.
After the workshop response were really positive; people who had thought they would hate it had great fun, and those with machines were enthused to go home and get them out. Unfortunately the workshop clashed with the East Sussex Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers meeting, so another workshop had been requested in the Spring or Summer of 2020.
I found this when clearing out my studio. Was this really in 1988? How time flies…
Whilst demonstrating as a member of a local textile group, Woolly Umbrella, at the Wild Chalk festival, I kept a drop-spindle of my own going with singles that I Andean plied at the end as part of the demo.
I don’t think repeatedly putting it down and restarting helped me get an even twist, or it may have been the plying, or a mixture of both, but the yarn isn’t balanced. I knitted a lace pattern with it, and the bias isn’t so pronounced as in stocking stitch, but I can see it.
For fun I added the knitted sample to a purple dye bath I had prepared to dye some other yarn, and here is the result.
Hand spun yarn dyed with purple acid dye.
‘Hi, I’m Barbara from Italy and want to thank you for writing “Translating between hand and machine knitting”. It’s just great, I can now understand the differences between silver reed and brother. I have one of both but got frustrated trying to use the silver reed, so just stopped working with both… now I have the chance‘
Thank you Barbara, its great to hear your feedback.
Vikki Haffenden 