Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Machine Knitting "retreat", Alexandra Arts venue, 2nd - 3rd June

Well, it was a retreat of two halves!

On Sunday the weather was kind to us for once. Everyone arrived a little flustered, because a diversion appeared overnight (and the roadworks themselves were a good 100 yards further along, because I checked them on the Monday!). In the end I ignored the diversion to no ill effect, but of course I know my home town. I started the day by doing a little crash course in the ribber. After lunch (in the sunny rear garden!) I managed to get double-bed jacquard going (after a false start that came out stripy). The building was a hive of activity all day (and I completely lost track of time!). Some of us regrouped after people checked into their hotels for a curry in town (and some did a mini pub crawl beforehand). I fell into bed at home after one glass of white wine!

On Monday, things were a little more chilled out (including the weather, alas). I attempted to make magic cables appear (but the magic escaped me), and we were treated to a demo of Designaknit in the garden room. After lunch, I gave out small prizes for best wearable and best non-wearable item. There were some interesting machine knitting gadgets and literature to buy/donate towards, and we had an garment rail with machine knitted items to have a look at (mostly mine, and somehow I completely failed to photograph those). The ladies in the bar area finally got the Toyota to produce simulknit - the verdict was the manual could be better! The ladies in the LK150 corner seemed to be having fun. Before too long, it was time to pack up and bid farewell. By 6pm I was home with a very loaded-up car. Many thanks to C for all her help with organising the event at her lovely venue (the Alexandra Arts), and thanks to everyone who came along - I hope you had as much fun as I did!

PXL_20240603_134258846

Convincing a Toyota 901 to do what you want

940ec9de-3461-4a6d-b794-99615de87ef2

The LK150 corner

PXL_20240603_111906355

Genius stitch marking on the LK150

65f4c3cf-9552-4a82-9c64-912c39e71346

A crash course in how to use the ribber

c426d2a7-ffc3-48dd-8468-910983a06849

Fun with the electronic Brothers

PXL_20240603_123744465

Competition entries - the cushion and the blue jumper with the white motif got the most votes

PXL_20240603_102100617

I love this CSM stand, a lot sturdier than mine!

Current mood: exhausted but happy

3 comments:

Pip said...

Love it! Looks like you all had a great time. Makes me excited for our knit in weekend here in sydney later in the year.

inc1961 said...

Nice pattern on the blue knitting on the LK150! Is it Bobby pins for marking? Any idea of the pattern used?
Thank you

steel breeze said...

I think Pam was just working simple diagonals.