This was a club night and we welcomed a visitor from New Zealand – Aileen – who is an enthusiastic knitter and a member of a club there.
We started with a show and tell – various interesting garments were displayed, Margaret had made a chunky blue cardigan and also sideways knitted jacket from a pattern in a recent Machine Knitting Monthly, this was an interesting striped pattern which used up plenty of yarn from her stash. April had knitted a cream cardigan from a knobbly yarn, which she was hoping to get sewn up during the meeting. Frances talked about her “disaster” which happened when her charter got knocked into double length mode and she didn’t notice until the front of her jumper was twice the length it should have been!
The meeting had two themes:
The first part was a demonstration of the separate and complementary machine, the linker.
These machines neatly, quickly and simply sew up the knitting with either the same or a matching yarn smooth. The result is a neat chain stitch seam.
Our chairman April brought a Hague linker – a hand machine where you simply turn a handle to make a needle move backwards and forwards through the stitches. The pieces that are to be sewn together are placed, right sides together over a ring of prongs- each stitch on a separate prong – like the gatepegs on your machine. This done, the yarn is threaded and the needle lined up with the left-hand edge of the seam – then simply turn the handle and a chain stitch is formed along the edge of the garment.
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The Hague machines are still in production and both hand and electric models are available.
Anu brought along her 1980’s vintage Knitmaster electric linker – this worked in a similar way but has a foot pedal to operate it more like a sewing machine. The design is slightly different but the principle is the same and the garment placed over a ring of prongs in the same way as on the Hague.
Members of the club had the opportunity to try out the machines. April even managed to get some of her cardigan sewn up!
After coffee and a chat, we had our raffle and the opportunity to look through some old pattern books that were given away if people wanted them.
The second part of the evening was about bag making, it started with several members showing bags they had made:
April had a couple of crocheted bags demonstrating the effect of lining and interlining to give a bag body, she also had a fabric bag with a zip to hold a hat in a manner that was mothproof. Frances had a gold lame lined lace dolly bag Anu had a small pencil case style bag and a large padded bag which was a work in progress so she could show us how it was constructed.
Margaret brought a number of lovely bags including a masa bag knitted on the knitting machine and finished with a crochet edge and handle, a lace bag with devoré velvet lining and finished with crochet embellishments, a bag made from many tension squares and then lined and several others both crocheted and machine knitted.
Lyn brought a “string” shopping bag made from purple cotton this was knitted using circular knitting and dropping every other stitch to create an open texture.
There were also various items that make can be used to stiffen the bag, attach handles and make fasteners. Several members had saved items from old bags to reuse.
April issued a Chairman’s Challenge to design a mixed media clutch bag, more details later.
