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

National Alpaca Day - Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, 2011

Recently received an email from a fellow machine knitter asking if our club, Sophisticated Stitches is still active. The answer to that question is YES, we are still active. As a matter of fact, our club will be demonstrating machine knitting at Briar Rose Alpacas farm in honor of National Alpaca Day on Saturday, September 24, 2011 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

The farm's owner, Barbara DuVall, visited our club in August. After meeting us she graciously asked if we wanted to participate in National Alpaca Day. Since this is our first time participating in this event, we don't quite know what to expect. But come what may, I know we will have fun.

Hope those who follow this blog will consider coming out to the event which will be held for two days, Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, 2011.

The event information is below:
Briar Rose Alpacas
575 Kelton Pennock Bridge Road
Lincoln University, PA 19352
Saturday, September 24th from 11 AM to 4 PM
Sunday, September 25th from noon to 4 PM.
http://www.briarrosealpacas.com

See you there.

The Saturday, October 22, 2011 meeting of the Sophisticated Stitches club's will be from 10 AM to noon. All are welcomed. The meeting address is below.

The First United Church of Christ
145 Chestnut St.
Spring City, PA 19475

Regards,

Donna
donmarie@fast.net