How To Use the Knit Leader

In the early days of machine knitting before software programs such as Design-A-Knit and Garment Designer were developed, the knit leader was used as the pattern to knit garments. So it's no wonder that some of the members of the Sophisticated Stitches club were unfamiliar with this accessory.

Cathy Bausman, showed the club members how to work this accessory. The advange of using a knit leader instead of a software program is that is doesn't require electronics. That's a nice way to say, it's a low tech accessory that will last forever, or just about forever.

So if you were curious about the knit leader and what it can do for you as a machine knitter then this video is for you.

The video can also be seen on our YouTube channel: Knit1997.

As I mentioned previously, the Sophisticated Stitches club hopes to make available more machine knitting videos in the not to distant future.

One last comment, if you are experiencing difficulty viewing the video, you may want to ensure you have the latest version of "flash player." I'm told an updated flash player may be the difference between viewing or not viewing a video.

Regards,

Donna
donnmstreets@gmail.com

Pottstown Knit Out and Crochet Too

Member Uyvonne Bigham with attendees.

Member Donna Streets working on her knitting.

Member Jackie Willard at the knitting machine while an attendee and Tammy Noble look on.

Members Jackie Willard, Deb Rogers, and Tammy Noble.

Members Donna Streets, Tammy Noble and Eileen Ferrero.

Saturday the 21st, despite the snow, the Sophisticated Stitches club held it’s January 2012 meeting at the 8th Annual Pottstown Knit Out and Crochet Too event held at the Brookside Country Club in Pottstown, PA. http://www.pottstownknitout.com/ Yes it did snowed 1 to 5 inches depending on where in the Delaware Valley you lived. About half our membership attended. That’s impressive, especially on a snowy day.

For the past several years, the event has sold out and had a waiting list. The two hour delay must have inspired approximately 140 of the 200 people who signed up, to show up despite the weather. The knitters and crocheters who attend this event are very dedicated.

Holding the meeting at the event provided advantageous for the Club. The attendees were interested in Jackie Willard’s modular knitting demonstration on the bulky machine. Tammy Noble had a table and sold various knitting items. A former member, Uyvonne Bigham rejoined the club and a current member, Deb Rogers, renewed her membership.

The event featured various knitting and crochet classes, a fashion show, door prizes, free massages, a silent auction, a complimentary breakfast, a buffet lunch plus of course the camaraderie of fellow knitters and crocheters. Three of our members won a book door prize. One of the members who won was me!

Above are some of the photos I took at the event. Enjoy.

The next meeting of the Sophisticated Stitches Club will be February 25, 2012 from 10:00 AM to noon. We will be holding our annual winter party at the meeting. If you are interested in attending one of our meeting, just contact me below.

February 25, 2012
March 24th, 2012
April 28th, 2012
May 19th, 2012
June 23rd, 2012 July 28th, 2012 (Place to be determined)
August 29th, 2012 (Place to be determined)
September 29th 2012

The First United Church of Christ
145 Chestnut St.
Spring City, PA 19475
(Parking in the back.)

Regards,
Donna
donnmstreets@gmail.com

Garter Carriage Demonstration with Deb Rogers

At the November 2011 Sophisticated Stitches meeting, Deb Rogers gave a demonstration of the Brother Garter-Carriage. She did an excellent job of explaining how the carriage works on the Brother electronic standard gauge knitting machine.

I hope everyone who views this blog will take a moment and view the video. It's the first video I made after taking lessons with our local educational center. Over the years I have done a lot of video recordings of the demonstrations by the Sophisticated Stitches Club members. But until this past November, I had no real training on how to edit those videos.

The quality of this video is in question because I had difficulty uploading it. If you want to see a full screen version of this video, check out our channel "Knit1997" on YouTube.

Hope to upload more videos and share them with other machine knitters in the near future.

Regards,

Donna
donnmarie@gmail.com

Hand to Machine Knit Stitch Patterns

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2011

On Saturday, November 19th, 2011 the Sophisticated Stitches club held their monthly meeting. As is our custom at the beginning of our club year we discuss what we would workshops and demonstrations members would like to see and who will do them. The top four items on the list were cut and sew, converting a hand knit pattern to a machine knit pattern, children’s clothing and double bed jacquard.

Our club decided to do a cut and sew workshop over several months. The workshop will be broken down into parts so that members can work on their skill set. But more about that next time. The most interesting discussion centered the second choice: Converting a hand knit pattern to a machine knit pattern.

What was most interesting is that when an inexperienced machine knitter or an inexperienced hand knitter see a hand knit pattern they tend to think it is possible to directly translate a hand knit pattern to a machine knit pattern. More experienced hand machine knitters know that not every hand knit pattern can be directly translated to a machine knit pattern.

As the members perused the current issue of Vogue Knitting magazine, the discussion naturally drifted toward pattern selection. That is looking at photos and deciding if the garment featured was worth trying to machine knit. Members quickly realized some of the hand knit stitch patterns were just too intricate to attempt to machine knit. Other hand knit stitch patterns could be machine knitted, but the amount of time needed to machine knit the garment would make it impracticable to machine knit. After all the primary reason most machine knitters buy a machine is to speed up the actual knitting process. While many machine knitters like or tolerate hand manipulation, most machine knitters want to limit that task.

The one-for-one translation process brought up the issue of what design elements of a hand knitted pattern could be incorporated into a machine knit garment as embellishments. For example, I-cord can be used as mock cabling and sewn onto a garment; bobbles can be sewn on the garment rather than knitted in. Another modification example is to use a find a stock punchcard or electronic stitch pattern that closely approximates the hand knitted pattern used in the garment instead of trying to translate K1, P1, YO, K1, P1, M1 (knit 1, purl 1, yarn over, knit 1, purl 1, make 1) etc. into a machine knit pattern.

Tricia Shafer’s book Translating Hand Knit to Machine Knit is a good reference book on this topic. It gives practical guidance on how machine knitters can adapt or not a hand knit for the knitting machine. Most useful in the book is the list of common hand knit abbreviations, and the explanations of transling stitch designs and stitch symbols from hand to machine.

After the discussion I realized the hand to machine knit topic deserves a more indepth discussion. Hopefully the Sophisticated Stitches club will do just that during the upcoming club year.

Below is the upcoming schedule for the Sophisticated Stitches club and our location. The time is from 10:00 AM to noon. All are welcomed to attend a meeting without joining. Hope the readers of this blog will take us up on this offer.

December 17th, 2011, Demonstration with Donna Streets
January 21st, 2012, (Pottstown Knit Out, Snow date January 28th, 2012)
February 25, 2012
March 24th, 2012
April 28th, 2012
May 19th, 2012
June 23rd, 2012
July 28th, 2012 (Place to be determined)
August 29th, 2012 (Place to be determined)
September 29th 2012

The First United Church of Christ
145 Chestnut St.
Spring City, PA 19475
(Parking in the back.)

Regards,

Donna
donmarie@fast.net

Club schedule, Oct 2011 to September 2012

October 22, 2011 marked the 9th anniversary of the Sophisticated Stitches Club. It seems like yesterday that the club meet at Tammy Noble’s store, Knit and Sew, Spring City, PA, 610-792-1202. So much has changed, yet remain the same. Back then we started with 12 members. Today we have 12 members. The difference is they are not the same 12 members we started with. Yes some members who joined the club in its first year are still with us. But only three of the club’s original members that met back in October 2002 remain. We are grateful to all of our members for supporting the club.

When the club first met members had a variety of skill sets and owned different machines. One of the major differences between now and then is that in the beginning Tammy did all of the club’s demonstrations. At yesterday's meeting, we discussed the idea of having demonstrations and workshops led by non-club members. However, we quickly realized, we didn't need them. Many of our members have the confidence to do demonstrations and workshops. This is a testiment to their improved skill set and their ability to pass on their knowledge to others. Bottom-line is those who have stayed with us and supported the club are now “leaders” as opposed to “followers”, “teachers” rather than “students”. Yes, we all can learn more but having in-house talent is a huge plus for our club.

When the club was founded our visitor policy was three free visits per club year. Now it’s one. Our dues were $15 per year. Now they are $25. We pay to meet at the First United Church of Christ. But thanks to Tammy’s years of generosity we were able to “save” the dues money and can afford to pay for a meeting place.

The First United Church of Christ
145 Chestnut St.
Spring City, PA 19475
(Parking in the back.)

We welcome owners of all machines brands (Passap E6000, Duomatic 80, Brother, Studio, Singer, Toyota, Artisan) and gauges (fine gauge 3.5mm to bulky 9.0mm). Need assistance with Design-A-Knit or Garment Designer? We can assit.

The Sophisticated Stitches Club’s upcoming meeting schedule is listed below. Our meeting day is Saturday and we meet from 10AM to noon.

December 17th, 2011
January 21st, 2012, (Pottstown Knit Out, Snow date January 28th, 2012)
February 25, 2012
March 24th, 2012
April 28th, 2012
May 19th, 2012
June 23rd, 2012
July 28th, 2012
August 29th, 2012
September 29th 2012

Hope those in the Philadelphia area will consider us when looking for machine knitting support.

Regards,

Donna
donmarie@fast.net

Machine Knitting Support

While surfing the web I found the website for the Knitting School.
The Knitting School

The Knitting School is located in Seattle, WA. The class descriptions cited on the cite seemed like great classes. But for me to “go” to Seattle, WA to attend the school, well it’s just not happening as I live in Philadelphia, PA. I need a “school” located on the east coast. But maybe I don’t. After all I am a member of the Sophisticated Stitches club.

It just so happens the Sophisticated Stitches club has provided many of the educational services offered by the school at a fraction of the cost. Our club leader Tammy Noble, owner of Knit and Sew is an expert machine knitter with many years of garment making experience. Besides Tammy, many of the other club members (including me) have years of machine knitting garment experience. Tammy Noble and our club have the skill set to help anyone who needs assistance.

For example, everything cited in the Knitting School’s Garment Class description, Tammy and our club have provided to many machine knitters.

At our club’s Sweet Pea knit-along held this past August, the following was covered:

· Steps involved in getting the design from the swatch to the finished piece.

· Swatch development.

· Tailoring measurements to your body measurements.

· Understanding how to “read” a machine knit pattern. We even found mistakes in the Sweet Pea pattern. We explained to our members how to deal with publishing mistakes.

· Adapting a pattern to your knitting machine. The Sweet Pea pattern was knitted on a 6.5mm machine and many of our members only have a 4.5mm machine.

· Selecting alternate yarns and tuck patterns to the Sweet Pea pattern.

· Set up a date and time for members to knit garment together.

· Garment assembly.

Above is Mary Stein with Tammy Noble. Mary is wearing the Sweet Pea garment knitted by Tammy Noble for our Knit-Along.

Anyone on the East Coast who (for what ever reasons) needs an alternative to the Knitting School, should consider contacting Tammy Noble, 610-792-1202.

Knit and Sew
44 N. Main Street
Spring City, PA 19475
610-792-1202
email: knitandsew44@yahoo.com

Regards,

Donna
donmarie@fast.net

Briar Rose Alpacas Farm

Mary Stein trying on a garment made by Tammy Noble. The garment was part of our recent Knit-Along.

Some of the alpacas at the Farm.

Today the Sophisticated Stitches club met at the Briar Rose Alpacas Farm in Lincoln University, PA. While it may have been partly cloudy outside, it was sunny inside the shed. Barbara DuVall, the Briar Rose’s owner, really made us feel welcomed.

Tammy Noble, set up her Brother electronic machine and demonstrated with yarn made from the alpacas at raised at Briar Rose. She chose a lace pattern to knit. While Tammy was doing the machine knitting demonstration, I set up my laptop and showed the features of Design-A-Knit, Garment Designer, Wild Ginger’s Boutique and Wild Things software as well as Buzz Tools and MasterWorks II.

In case anyone if you are unfamiliar with Design-A-Knit, it's a great software program that permits a cable connection between the computer and an electronic knitting machine. Design-A-Knit’s garment styler and stitch graphics are great features . The garment styler portion of the software creates a knit garment pattern with a few clicks of the mouse. The stitch graphics portion of the software can create any graphic by generating a downloadable pattern.

My personal machine knitting software favorite is Garment Designer. I like it because it’s really user friendly. The knitting instructions generated by the software is easy to read when compared to Design-A-Knit. Design-A-Knit creates a short hand type instructions, while Garment Designer uses “words”. Anyway I enjoyed the opportunity to show the software’s capability. MasterWorks II and Buzz Tools are embroidery software programs. Any chance I get to play around with these programs is just plain fun for me.

One of our members brought their children to the Farm. The boy got a kick out of watching two alpaca males “wrestle”. It was interesting watching the alpacas fight like cats and dogs.

For refreshments, the Farm offered Alex’s lemonade. The lemonade proceeds are used to fight childhood cancer, which unfortunately took the life of its namesake, Alexandra Scott.

All in all, the members and non-members who met at Briar Rose had a great day at the farm.

Briar Rose Alpacas Farm is open again tomorrow, Sunday, September 25, 2011 from noon to 4:00 PM. Hope you will consider going. It’s great FREE family fun!

Briar Rose Alpacas
575 Kelton Pennock Bridge Road
Lincoln University, PA 19352
Briar Rose Alpacas

The next meeting of the Sophisticated Stitches club will be Saturday, October 22, 2011 from 10:00 AM to noon at the church below. We will have a demonstration on the garter bar hat.

The First United Church of Christ
145 Chestnut St.
Spring City, PA 19475
(Parking in the back.)
One final note. The club members held a knit-along for the Sweet Pea vest by Mary Anne Oger featured in a recent issue of Knit ‘N Style magazine. The photo above shows Mary Stein wearing the vest made by Tammy Noble.

Should anyone need assistance in the Philadelphia, PA area with machine knitting, recommend you contact Tammy Noble. One of the non-member attendees at the meeting today commented that she didn't know Tammy's store, Knit and Sew was in the area and that Tammy could assist her with machine repairs plus provide machine knitting lesson. Tammy is an expert machine knitter on the Passap as well as any Japanese knitting machine. Check out her website, Knit and Sew

Regard,

Donna
donmarie@fast.net