Crochet retreat in London

So if it wasn't already obvious from the dearth of posts here, I've been in a bit of a mental funk craft-wise this year. It's not that I've gone OFF crafts, but that I can't seem to stick on something I want to work through to completion. This has been compounded by the fact we've had rolling heatwaves since July - in fact, yesterday broke all records for the hottest UK day ever. Working on a large pile of something yarny in one's lap, or doing a major upper body workout on a knitting machine in an overheated room, just isn't attractive when the temperatures are hovering around the high twenties. 

Anyway, I've been part of the Knitting and Crochet Guild for some time, and rejoined after a brief absence when the Guild of Machine Knitters folded and combined with them, so I sometimes get emails regarding interesting events. There's a very active club (East London Crochet Group) who often share amazing things in the quarterly guild newsletter, and they happened to have a few spare places on their annual retreat. I think they meet over Zoom now, but have been running for many years and used to meet in person. They also do a certificate in double filet which looks very hard - you make two colour squares with various designs, which can be reversible. I'm not great at fine details, so maybe that's not for me. After some prevarication - full time working comes with limited time off - I decided to take the plunge and book it. I am so glad I did! I'm also glad I took the afternoon off to get down there in the car. Leaving at 4pm would have been pushing it for time, especially as the last bit was 20mph and seemed to take forever.

The venue was a religious retreat near Richmond park, and all meals were included. Alas, no air-con in my simple room, but I was lucky enough to have a room that was in full shade all day, which helped (and there were fans available). The venue had lovely grounds to walk around in, complete with labyrinth and summer house. No TV or bar either, but I always overpack with pastimes because of my intermittent insomnia. It turns out I'm a terrible packer - I took lots of clothing suitable for ordinary UK weather but ended up mostly living in the one dress I'd taken. Also two pairs of woolly socks, but not the shoes they would go with! 

We started the first evening with a show and tell  - for which I did finally finish a crochet jacket, way too hot to wear though! One attendee brought a beautiful beaded shawl, and another a gorgeous blanket crocheted out of 4ply squares. 

The week (actually 2 full days, and two half days) is usually based around a theme, and various attendees  prepare a workshop loosely based on that theme, with a handout, for a small project or technique. We all had a large table each in the main hall, where we could spread out. The event was well organised by Nic and Rose, and I'm glad that Nic said not to try and finish everything, because that definitely would NOT be possible, even for the fastest crocheter. They also very kindly shared folders of previous years handouts, which were fascinating. I wish I'd had time to do more than browse through them. 

The workshops included making a wind spinner, starting the base of a tightly-crocheted Mexican-style rucksack, making a mini shawl in an interlocking technique, having a go at circular tunisian six-sided star which I could NOT get started correctly, and ended up making a cute cat keyring. Mine has a bit of a squint and needs the keychain adding, but is otherwise finished. There was also a bit of braid making (like inkle weaving, but thinner and we tied ourselves to things for tension). Tricia kindly did us a trunk show of some guild items of unknown provenance. Everyone was very friendly, the location had lovely grounds to walk around in, and we had the added bonus of a partial eclipse on Wednesday night. One attendee's partner brought over a home-made pinhole camera, and a lemon squeezer, and another attendee had brought eclipse viewing glasses, so we had an enjoyable time viewing the eclipse, as we had an almost completely cloudless sky, whilst finishing off crochet projects on the patio. 

The food was good and the staff were very friendly. I really didn't want to leave, not least because the car said it was 33 degrees and its air con really wasn't designed for heatwaves. But mostly because it was a lot of fun, even though it bent my brain a few times trying to count things. There will be photos, but right now it's all heaped in a bag as I was too shattered to do much when I got home last night. Thanks to all for making it such a welcoming retreat, and I might even risk public transport next year if the country isn't baking alive!

Current mood: enthralled

Getting started in machine knitting

Machine knitting can be quite daunting to the uninitiated, and it can give us "old hands" a run for our money at times too. I thought it was high time I wrote a post for those thinking about dipping their toes into this most interesting of crafts.

Introduction

Most knitting machines ceased manufacture in the 1980s and 90s, with the exception of Silver, Creative and Artisan brands, but that does mean you can pick up something second hand of decent quality on Ebay or Facebook. Buyer beware: very vintage machines (before 1970) can be hard to get spares for. Anything from the 80s onwards is a good bet, and Brother were the most prolific sellers in the UK. Useful reading about on buying a second hand machine. Try and buy the machine in person if possible (and ask to see it working is even better). They don't travel well in the post, and unfortunately not everyone online can be trusted to sell you a working machine. Your local guild or club (if you have one) are often excellent sources of preloved machines. 

Choosing your machine

Buy the machine for the yarn you most wish to use, and don't try forcing too-thick yarn through a machine - you'll only end up frustrated, and possibly damage plenty of needles in the process. In this case, the machines are approximately grouped as follows (ideal is knitting plain stocking stitch):

• Fine gauge - 3.6mm pitch, up to a 4ply (ideal yarn is 3ply weight)
• Standard gauge - 4.5/5mm pitch, up to a light DK (ideal yarn is 4ply weight)
• Midgauge - 6-7mm pitch, up to aran (ideal yarn is DK weight)
• Chunky gauge - 9-11mm pitch, up to chunky (ideal yarn is aran weight)

Obviously there's wiggle room either side of the "ideal" yarn weight, and yarn weights are notoriously vague. For more on this, see this useful article. 

Yarn

Whichever machine you decide to pick, the yarn MUST be prepared in a format that feeds easily to the machine, because these babies use yarn FAST. So pulling it directly off balled yarn, either from the outside or the centre, just will not do. Invest in a ball winder - they're inexpensive, and will save you tears and frustration. If you are only using small balls of yarn, popping them in a mug or other heavy container can stop them dancing around the legs of your machine and getting into mischief. 

Machine maintenance

It's a common misperception that any machine that was stored in working condition many years ago, should continue to work right out of the box. Piffle - you wouldn't expect a car to work if it had been standing idle for over a year! The main culprit for many new users is a flat sponge bar aka needle retainer bar - this is a sneaky piece of foam, usually mounted on a metal strip, which is designed to keep the needles down against the bed. Once they start to ride up, you'll have trouble knitting anything. Take a look at the end of your needle bed, and you'll often see a plastic tab sticking out - this is the end of your needle retainer bar. Its main use is to hold the needles down, and its secondary use is to slide out to allow you to replace any damaged needles. So before commencing any knitting, check if the sponge is still doing its job. Foam has a tendency to perish. Expect to have to replace a bar on a machine that hasn't been used in a while. You can still buy them online - I like the covered ones sold by Smartco, but any machine knitting shop should sell something that will work. Despite their cheapness, I don't favour "refurbishment" kits (where you just get a strip of foam and some glue), especially for beginners - the foam tends not to be stiff enough, and anyway if you are just starting, you don't know what you're aiming for. So always buy a complete bar if possible. Note to Passap owners: You do not have a sponge bar, more a needle retaining bar (thin metal rod) and a needle retainer spring, which is very easily damaged. 

Whilst we're on the subject of maintenance, it's worth vacuuming the needle bed slots and carefully brushing the underside of the carriage to remove any fluff and dust bunnies. Then a few drops of oil on any pivot points will help no end. Most of the cams on the carriage should move symmetrically in pairs, so check to see if any aren't behaving. Occasionally springs can pop off, or a slightly deeper clean is required. If disassembly is required, look up the comprehensive "Ask Jack" videos on Youtube. 

Let's start knitting already...

It's worth not running before you can walk - start by knitting something fairly simple, such as a hat, using just the main bed. This gets you learning about casting on, decreasing, and casting off. You can learn about mock ribbed hems, picot hems, different cast ons, cast offs, increasing etc. When you've mastered the basics, you can start playing with the patterning / punchcards and the various pattern settings (tuck, slip, lace, fairisle etc). When you are confident with those, it's time to add the ribber and try a few of the different ribs. The manuals are pretty good in this case, and if you didn't get a manual with your machine, most can be found here in PDF format. If you can curb your enthusiasm, it's worth working a small swatch of all the methods in the manual, and maybe keeping them in a file - it'll be time well spent.

Mistakes, mistakes...

I often tell my handknitting friends, that knitting machines just allow us to go wrong a LOT faster, and that's true whether you've been using them for ten years or ten minutes. If the yarn's not quite where it should be in the carriage, the whole lot is on your feet in less than a second. Take heart, dear knitter - we've all been there! It's worth learning how to "tink" back a stitch at a time - it's a kind of zigzag movement that you'll get quite good at after a few goes. Misery loves company - there's a thriving machine knitting community on Ravelry, and many machine knitting groups on Facebook, so take a look and find your kindred online. You'll often find that something that has you stumped has happened to somebody else, and they'll know how to get you out of it.

And finally...

Remember, any new skill takes time and patience to grasp, so don't throw in the towel too early. We all had to start somewhere, and once mastered, machine knitting is an absorbing and creative craft. If nothing else, it teaches persistance - I'm determined to master my machines. It comes with lots of cool gadgets, and at the end of it, you (hopefully) get a sweater! How cool is that?

Further reading:

Want to learn machine knitting?

Beginner course - main bed techniques

Beginner course - ribber techniques

Some FOs and pictures from my travels

Cute crochet cactus, a birthday gift.

Single sock knitted flat, striped with two ends of sock yarn. A test knit for possible fair isle socks in the future. Yes, Second Sock Syndrome in action, it has no mate!

Belated picture - crochet and knitted hearts for Coventry hospital's palliative care unit

CSM socks made at the MKC retreat day and grafted the following weekend.

Proof that it's working, a repeating bird pattern centred on a "sleeve" sample - I'm instructing someone how to use her Passap E6000 with DesignAKnit at the weekend, and had to figure out how to use the integrated, interactive knitting feature with the Passap. Long story short, I'd downloaded a pattern to that machine with the old W10 laptop, but hadn't got it working with W11 (but it's been working with the Brother and Silver machines). It turns out that (a) my curly cord needs repairing AGAIN (repeated error 200) and (b) the Passap only wishes to communicate with the right hand USB port and not the left one. Nope, I've no idea why either! Ignore the wonky edges, I was being lazy and not fully fashioning them as I usually would. 

It appears that you first have to apply the pattern, position it, and "integrate" it into the garment piece. Then you download the stitch pattern using "integrated download" not "download" - somehow I missed that the first time. Then when you start knitting the piece, select "integrated" not "shape only". It makes perfect sense now, but my poor old brain was struggling with it last weekend. At some point in this process, the Passap will tell you if it's not happy with the design - for example, you've used a two colour double-bed technique, but selected a 3 colour single-bed technique. I've never had issues before BUT so far I've only knitted straight pieces where the pattern alignment wasn't a concern. So it was a nice learning experience for me, and as part of that I discovered there are tutorial videos on the Softbyte website that I'll be working through. 

I won't bore you with too many holiday snaps - in April, we had a short break in Hathersage, famously the last resting place of Little John (of Robin Hood's merry men), and diverted to Chesterfield on the way home. In May we did a week in Venlo, Cologne and a night in Amsterdam. As you can see, it's been a dull, damp, chilly spring! 

View from Stanage Edge. The five mile hike from Hathersage was hard work!

None of my workmates believe me when I tell them this place exists in the Peak district.

Famous twisted spire at Chesterfield, the photo doesn't do it justice. Apparently it's the weight of lead applied to a medieval wooden spire (but there are lots of legends involving the Devil as to why it's like this). 

Cologne cathedral is HUGE. Yes, the weather was as grim as it looks alas!

A visit to the Lindt chocolate museum. Worth it just for the shop (which sells other brands too! Love it!).

Current mood: impressed

Machine knitting retreat, June 2026

Post-dating this, because 6/6/26 is my blogiversary!

Well, the two day machine knitting "retreat" mentioned in the previous post went very well - hard to know whether to call it the May or the June retreat, seeing as it fell in both months. Anyway, we took over the Alexandra Arts in Rugby for two days and generated gentle, knitty chaos, fueled by lots of lovely coffee/tea and snacks. There were a few LK150s (manual machines) going through their paces, a few electronic and mechanical flatbeds being kept very busy, and at one point, four CSMs also being worked on. I managed to demonstrate DBJ after two separate attempts - day 1 producing the dreaded stripes, day 2 being much more successful. I also managed to complete a pair of tubular socks, which is 100% more than I've ever managed on previous days. 

A group shot, taken for the one lady who injured herself before the event and couldn't come. Hope to see you next year!

Beautiful hand-manipulated lace done on the LK150 - this is just a swatch!

So many ends! Intarsia on the LK150. This lady is so brave!

A hive of industry in the garden room - my CSM is in the foreground

More pictures here.

It was lovely to see old and new friends again, bond over our shared obsession for all things machine knitting, and enjoy a meal at a local restaurant on the Sunday night. I'll be running a one day event in October this year, and probably running the two day event next year with some minor tweaks. I'll drop the competition, seeing as there weren't many entries, and maybe we'll do a "show and tell" instead, because I think we'd all benefit more from that. 

Current mood:  inspired

A new obsession...

TLDR: loving my new guitar and a minor crochet irritation

I treated myself to a new toy late last year - a gorgeous Ibanez bass guitar in candy apple red. I've long wanted to get back to learning to play bass. An ex-boyfriend made me one in the early 1990s but it had "tons of mistakes" (his words when I showed it to him a few years ago) - I had it assessed recently, and it either needs a longer truss rod, a completely new neck or some major repositioning of the bridge. All of these are probably expensive repairs to what is a sentimental guitar-shaped object - though I might still consult a local luthier about whether it's possible to repair it without too much cosmetic damage. I'm sure my ex would do it for me but he's up in Scotland. Currently the intonation is wrong on the lowest string (it gradually gets too sharp as you move up the frets) and the action is very high, so it's hard work to play. Nevertheless, I did get some lessons on it in the 90s but can't remember much about them, though they came to an abrupt end when I accidentally bumped into my bass teacher on the bus, on the way home from town. He stunk of weed and was possibly drunk and got a little too familiar with me so that was a red flag (luckily my stop was before his, plonker)! Not long after that, my boyfriend and I split up and we moved apart and by then I was into my final year at uni, so learning to play took a back seat. I haven't touched the poor instrument since, except to dust it (and it's now safely stored in the back of the wardrobe in a case). 

Anyroad, I finally got myself into gear late last month and signed up to an online training course with Bassbuzz - I had watched some of the tutor's free videos and liked his teaching style, and now I am obsessed / addicted to finishing the course. The music theory is a bit boring (for me) because I'm a classically trained but very out of practise violinist, but learning the bass clef is good. Alongside that, I'm already eyeing up 5 string basses, and wanting to buy myself yet more t-shirts and stuff to show off my new obsession. The course (lifetime access! Yay!) comes with 100 songs with tab / bass tracks, and there's a 50 song challenge running for those of us confident enough to having a go. I've already nailed Gnarls Barkeley's "Crazy", though it turns out that bassline is a sample from an old spaghetti western. I'm trying to learn AC/DC's "Highway to hell", though it's a little too fast for me at the moment, and this week I pretty much nailed the first song on the list which is Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", which was a firm favourite when it went to number one many moons ago (and I later became a big Floyd fan anyway). Turns out the bass plays it in drop D tuning (lowest string down one tone) and then it's really easy. The Cog has decided he must learn the guitar solo and says it's very challenging. He's been trying to get me to learn the Beatle's "Back in the USSR" but I'm not fast enough to match Paul McCartney yet! 

So... that's what's been inspiring me to get out of bed lately (that and the job, pah!). Don't worry, normal textile crafts are still ongoing, as I'm running the annual two-day MK event next weekend. My crochet has stalled though, as I've got to the sleeve and the designer has really not done a great job of handling the shape vs pattern repeats structure, so I'll probably have to grab a calculator and pen/paper and chart it. The pattern repeat is roughly a one inch square in size, which doesn't really work with the shape a sleeve needs to be - plus there are no total stitch counts given for each row.  I don't like crocheting patterns where the pattern alignment jogs about - I'm not THAT OCD, but it won't match the body pieces which are already done. So I either re-chart it - I'll probably do plain blocks either side of the centre to keep it in pattern - or I just do it in rows of trebles and double crochets and hope the gauge stays close enough to the rest of it. Decisions, decisions... maybe I'll just put it away and get the guitar out again! 😁👌🎸

Ha, I just noticed that the guitar emoji above is a Fender Strat. Shame on you Fender, for the terrible PR mess you're currently embroiled in. I happen to own a Fender acoustic (a gift from years ago), and I'm currently using a Fender headphone amp that I bought for the Cog last Christmas, but I certainly won't be giving them any more money...

Current mood: enthralled

One foot in front of the other...

Well, I'm still here. There's not been much crafting to report, because I've rather lost my mojo of late. My FIL passed away late February after a short spell in UHCW and round-the-clock feeding by the four sons both there and when he returned home - using a dessertspoon takes forever. The funeral  was the day after my birthday, and two days after what would have been his 91st birthday, so things were very low key this year, though we did have a small family buffet on the following weekend, which was nice. Keeping the house running whilst the Cog dealt with the family stuff every single evening really took it out of me - dozing off in front of the TV became our "hobby" for a time. 

I also managed to wash the second Agnes cardigan (purple merino) wrong - it turns out "delicate" means spin the bejesus out of things to my washing machine -  and the extra yarn it mysteriously needed to complete it suddenly resurfaced, leaving me with a cardigan for a giant. Yeah, as it was my second attempt at that cardigan I guess I'm cursed to never own it - I'm not entirely sure round yoked cardigans fit my frame anyway but it was such a pretty pattern! I am part way through frogging it. I think if I reuse the yarn it will be in a crochet pattern - I'm fed up of investing so much time in handknits that then have to be frogged!

However, all is not lost. I've been knitting and crocheting little hearts for UHCW's palliative care team - apparently they give them to patients and relatives - and I'm also crocheting a cactus amigurumi kit that was a birthday present. Finally we may have an unkillable plant in our NW facing living room. I've also been doing a bit of beading. Youtube is such an amazing resource, but I do wish I could find some books on the subject, because short little videos are kind of irritating to use as reference materials. I do love a reference book! Talking of which, I finally caved and bought "Structural Stitches" by Victoria Salmon, which is very inspiring - kind of the book Bill King would write, if he compiled all of his MKM articles. 

So, I'm in a bit of a weird mood - I want to be creative but I don't seem to want to finish anything already in progress. Maybe delayed start-itis? Who knows? 

Current mood: indescribable

Bling, socks and more yarn!

Well, it's been an interesting time lately. Mojo has been lacking - partly because the weather has been ick and also because of other issues which I won't go into here. I've tried to make myself available to support my partner, and when that hasn't been required, I've been distracting myself with various social events, so there's not been much crafting time. The tumble dryer started shrieking and had to be replaced - the original manufacturer conned me into practically paying for a new one over twelve months (it and the washing machine are 8). When G returned from his snowboarding trip, we cancelled it and decided to go in for a new "heat pump" one. The old one actually destroyed several shirts when we first got it, and the sensor never sensed anything, so was costing a fortune to run and doubling as heating on laundry days. Some evil git scratched and dented my car and drove off, on a week when it could have happened in quite a few places (it still being dark fairly early), so that's another bill I could have done without. The less said about trying to get rid of our old sofa before the new one arrives, the better. It's been a trying year! 

Anyway, this weekend was the annual Kegworth "Going round in circles" event. Owing to a complete oversight on my part, I'd already bought tickets for myself, Mum and sil to attend the "Sewing for Pleasure" show at the NEC on the Sunday, and they don't do refunds alas, so I could only attend Kegworth on the Saturday. It was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends and make new ones. As I was teaching a class, I didn't get time to knit anything myself, and then I packed away quite early and wished I hadn't. Anne ran a cool class on how to make mini socks, and I'm hoping I made decent enough notes to be able to make some more of these. 

Aren't they cute?! Because of the dinky size, they are knitted as flat web and then grafted and sewn up one side. She even has a method for knitting the loop for adding to a keyring. I stayed for the evening meal, which was very nice, and then hot-footed it back home to bed. Yes, I did pick up some sock yarn, and no, I'll not bore you with the pictures. 

The NEC show was also fun - this one mostly focuses on sewers (sewists?) but there are a few yarn stalls dotted about, alongside beads, printmaking, marbling, card-making / scrapbooking, and the usual oddities - a cheese stall, olives, rum, moonshine, garden furniture and clothes/handbags. Ironically I only picked up a few findings and beads, and two pairs of "harem pants" which are great for lounging around the house in. They'll also be great for holidays, should I ever be lucky enough to go on another beach holiday. 

Some bling I picked up from the Southampton Bead Shop. It was all I could do not to buy more! So much lovely stuff! 

Current mood: awake