This month our focus was the technique of plating. In this, two yarns are used, one appears on the knit side and one on the purl side. Using patterning such as tuck stitch both in single bed fabric and ribbed fabric, the yarns can appear on the opposite side. This makes an interesting textured fabric and also sovles some problems such as itchy wool yarn which can be backed but a silky acrylic yarn. It is also suggested that yarns which have a tendency to produce a slight bias can be knitted with a yarn which doesn’t although some small experiments suggest this is not always the case.
To start the meeting, we had a show and tell. Barbara brought a stripy child’s top, Anthea showed a V neck jumper, April brought a paisley patterned throw/blanket.
Childs top
V neck jumper with interesting lacy pattern
We also watched a video on some laptops to see how plating works.
Concentrating on the Video of Plating
Watch the Plating Video
After this, Frances gave us an excellent demonstration of plating on a Brother machine.
Frances demonstrating plating
A Brother plating yarn feeder which replaces the regular part on the machine
Ribber pattern showing results
Tuck pattern and plating
Lacy pattern and plating
Ribbed and hand tooled plating
We also looked at various samples and garments brought by members using the plating technique.
Rabbits everywhere – Gill led a workshop to use a pre-knitted square created mainly by Margaret, to make a little bunny rabbit – it could be used for a child’s toy (not suitable for babies) or on a mobile or an Easter decoration. One was made into a glove puppet.
It was a fairly simple process – from a pattern found on the internet. Sewing a couple of lines of running stitch, gathering these up and using some stuffing to make the head. Then sewing up the body stuffing it again, finally finishing off with optional pom pom tail and some embroidered eyes, nose and mouth.
Everyone joined in and a whole warren of rabbits was made by the end of the evening.
The show and tell was an edge to edge cardigan made by Barbara which was widely admired. And Angie brought some sweet little baby’s socks she’d made. Margaret had an asymmettrical scarf that she made up from a Ravelry pattern. It was similar to a scarf that April had made.
There were notices about UNRAVEL in February and the Sandown Park craft show in January.
This month we have Angie show us all the background to her amazing final show pieces for the Morley College Textile course.
She took her inspiration from rusty metals – the texture and colours.
These circular saw blades sparked her imagination.
Angie talked about the course and showed us 3 huge folders that contained her samples, notes and ideas. She then mentioned there were several more of these folders at home and that all the students were initially given a single folder to record their ideas. She was so enthusiastic about the work that she spent vast amounts of time working on her samples and ideas to fill all these books. She explained the structure of the course and the various elements including dyeing, embroidery sewing and knitting as well as drawing.
Several club members went to the course final show held, unusually, at South Bank University, not Morley College due to renovation work in progress.
The focus of her work was knitting with wire using the colourse and texture derived from her inspiration of the rusty metal surfaces.
A last minute change of programme meant that Frances and Margaret stepped up to give demonstrations we hadn’t seen before.
Notices
Reminder about the Xmas knitting challenge – see last month’s notices.
The Slipknot magazine from the Guild gives a list of events – the nearest one is a wool show in Hitchin
There is a Quilting show in Banstead, in St Anne’s church hall, Brighton Road. 1-2 November 10am-4:30pm. There is a small charge of £3
Show and Tell
Lyn showed an Aran weight, blue hat she had made on her Addi king size circular machine.
April had a hand knitted cardigan in blue for a small boy.
Demos
Congratulations to all who put together this programme aat the last minute, they did a brilliant job.
Frances showed us how to make a raglan sleeve seam much more interesting using an adjustable 7 prong transfer tool. The first had a row of eyelet holes several stitches in from the edge, the second had a delicate patterning by transferring 7 then 6 then 5 down to 2 stitches every 2-4 rows. This is then repeated until the raglan decreasing shaping is done.
Margaret found an interesting technique on Youtube, first making a strangely shaped fabric with large holes, then threading the fabric to make a braid like appearance. She assured us it was straight forward once you got into the rhythm.
The following notices were announced by the chair:
Hounslow club is having a speaker in November, it is Fiona Morris. If anyone wishes to attend from Bookham they will be welcome, They will need to know numbers, the cost is £10 per person. It starts at 1:30 on the same day as our November Meeting.
The squares blanket has been sewn together by Gill and now needs an edging, Anthea volunteered to crochet around it.
It was decided that this club will not be a branch of the Guild of Knitting and Crochet but remain a Machine knitting club as before.
Members are remined that any electrocal equipment brought to club must be PAT tested and this should be a done within the past year.
Subscriptions for the next half year are due in October – by cash, cheque or bank transfer.
Christmas Challenge:
By Christmas, members were asked to machine knit something for a “show and tell” – it can be any type of item, not specifically a Christmas theme. All items should be new, not seen before at a club meeting.
This is not a competition but you will be expected to talk about yout item.
Show and Tell
Margaret brought a sideways knitted garment that she found was too small. So she felted it and it now is a nice warm garment to give to a charity.
Tricia brought along a newrly fininshed raglan cardigan made in an acrylic crepe yarn.
Guild AGM
Margaret gave us a report on the new Guild’s annual AGM meeting held in Warwick. She was very enthusiastic about the quality of the meeting and all the things she had seen and workshops she attended. There was little for machine knitters as yet but this should change over the next few years when the members of the Machine Knitting Guild start to contribute to the AGM. She particularly liked the accomodation (the neeting was held over a weekend) and commented favourably on the welcome games which helped people feel more at home.
Topic
This month’s topic was to take and existing p attern and repurpose it for a different yarn and / or different stitch pattern. The group divided up into 3 and Frances did a demo of using the Brother Knitleader and talked about setting it up for the tension user, with Lyn who for comparison showed two different Knitmaster/silver knit radars and discussed the differences. Tricia demonstrated a mathematical approach and Margaret showed a different numerical approach.
This was the final meeting before the summer break.
To start we had a show and tell and Claire brought some sweet baby clothes for a brand new family member.
Claire’s baby clothes Claire’s hug-me-tight baby top
Angie brought along a very chunky blanket she had crocheted using a size 20 hook and several ends of chunky yarn together. – The colours were glorious.
Angies Crochet Chunky Blanket detail
The topic this time was blankets and shawls – both for babies and adults. Several members brought along things they had made both in the past and recently.
Click through the 20+ images to view all the wonderful items we saw this evening.
Members should bring along a pattern they would like to use and a tension square in the stitch pattern they intend to use e.g. tuck, fairisle, slip, plating, etc.
Anthea's 2nd Iris Bishop pattern shawl
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Finally, there was a short discussion about what to expect in September – we are revisiting the topic of using a different yarn and/or stitch pattern to the one given in the original pattern. Many of us have a stash of vintage knitting patterns and magazines but the yarns stated in the pattern are no longer available. Also, some people are sensitive to wool and need to use acrylic or cotton, or simply use up some of the huge stash of yarns people own.
What a fabulous evening we had with our speaker Mariangela Bruna, who gave us a talk about her new collection of mainly machine knitted garments with hand finishing in crochet and hand knitting. The finishing was not simply an edging but much more original and an integral part such as a crocheted stand-up collar and matching long cuffs or even the whole yoke.
Originally from Italy, Mariangela has made the UK her home for some years now. Discovering that her hobby could be turned into a business she took various courses in London to enhance her existing skills taking them from a hobby to a business.
The ideas for her work come from a strong ethical approach and inspiration from the natural world. All garments are made in organic natural undyed yarn sourced from the Shetlands.
Although this was the first club talk that Mariangela had given, it will certainly not be her last. She had the full attention of members who were impressed with all the originality in the designs and followed her journey from initial inspiration through various samples to her finished garments. There were also photos of what had inspired her and she showed us many samples from her college work and how that had become her final piece. The ideas were truly original and I guess some club members may be trying to emulate the effects on their next garments. However, these are quite time-consuming to achieve.
The first Maribru collection is mainly tops and scarfs in various shades of browns, creams and greys skillfully blended together with inspired features. Website – https://maribru.co.uk/
She also had a stalls at the recent craft fairs at the Landmark Centre in Teddington. Others in the pipeline so watch out for her in the future.
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Cardigan made from Rectangles of Machine Knitting
Crocheted Neck line
Crocheted Yoke on Machine Knitted Garment
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Degree final piece – sideways knitted yoke
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Crocheted end of a Scarf
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Hand Knitted jumper with rushed effect at hem
Detail of Machine Knitted Scarf with Loops
Detail of ruched sleeve
Club business
June meeting the topic will be the work of designer Susan Guagliumi.
July meeting – baby blankets and shawls for adults and babies.
Show and Tell
Toddler’s dress
Anthea – baby dresses for the twins.
Teddy has a new felted cardigan
Gill made a jacket for her teddy bear who first made an appearance at the last meeting
Detail of Swedish inspired circular yoke jumper
Sheila – hand knitted Swedish yolked sweater following a trip to Sweden
Frances – crocheted fingerless gloves – no photo, sorry.
Margaret’s scarf
Margaret – scarf with yarn sources on holiday in Chile
This month was the AGM and this took up the first half of the meeting, after re-electing the current committee, there was a discussion about finances and it was agreed to increase visitors fees. Prospective members get their first visit free, a subsequent visit is £5 after which they must decide to join or not. Visitors are £8 if we have a speaker and £5 otherwise.
After that, we had a yarn and book sale in aid of charity as last month. Leftover items were to be given to charity.
There was the usual show and tell after that with several members bringing items (photos to follow).
