Hands On Machine Knitting Workshop

Hands On Machine Knitting Workshop

May 6, 2017 - 10am - 2pm - Musquodoboit Regional Library

Bring along an easy to carry knitting machine (no ribber required), A brown bag lunch (or there is a bakery and convenience store next door for sandwiches and drinks), and the yarn required for the project you choose.

Choice of two projects, each one can be completed in the time allotted (3 1/2 hrs). Both patterns will be given out at the workshop

Project #1 – Windmill Bag - Skill Level - Beginner Plus - a knitted or felted bag done in four sections (seam as you go) with an i-cord handle (skills learned - cast on, cast off, seam as you go, i-cord, and attached i-cord) 

Materials needed - approximately 60 grams in four colours or 120 grams of two coloured yarn if knitting on the bulky. Possibly 50 grams if using a finer yarn and not felting. Approximately 30 grams for the handles. If you plan to felt the bag then you will need to use pure, untreated (not super wash) wool.

Project #2 - Dragon Tail scarf - Skill Level - Beginner - a knitted scarf with "slots" to hold the tail and keep it in place (skills learned - cast on, cast off, decrease, hold, partial knitting).

Materials needed - approximately 100 grams of a soft yarn (eg 2 balls of Patons Classic or 1 Caron Cake).

Taxed

Hopefully I don't look like Jack Nicholson just yet.  I did want to pop in, however, and let you know that I haven't been abducted by aliens or anything.   I plan to resume work on the hoodie after May 1, so in the meantime if you were feeling behind, don't, this is your opportunity to catch up.  By all means give us your comments and feedback any time on any of the topics covered so far, or any that we haven't but that you might like covered.  And if you're following along just for fun and not actually doing the hoodie, that's great too - say hi!

One thing I'd like to leave you with for now is something that I've been reading about lately that I find quite fascinating, and that is the new Kniterate digital knitting machine.  I have no affiliation, I'm just very interested in where knitting machine technology will go in the future, and concerned that for many of us the machines we know and love are no longer being manufactured.  If you're also interested, Kniterate has a few videos up on this YouTube channel.  Have a look.  The machine reminds me of a miniature CNC machine, similar to our current machines but with some very key differences.  Those of you with machinists or metal fabricators in your lives will probably have at least a passing familiarity with what a CNC machine is, or you can google it.  The conceptual difference between a CNC machine and a knitting machine is that CNC machines cut things out, whereas knitting machines (and 3D printers) build things up.  

Which brings me to another point I find clever, and that is that more recent marketing material for the machine is "branding" it as a 3D printer for knitwear.  Which, for that matter, we could think of our current machines as being.  So this of course led me to google "3D printed knitwear" (go ahead, try it!), and I found this very interesting Ted Talk.   I don't think I'm ready to embrace whatever type of material that is that she's using in her garments just yet, but I do love seeing what innovative things are happening outside my own little corner of the universe, and in case you are also of the curious sort I thought I would share.  These are the internet rabbit holes in which I often find myself, being of such an inquisitive nature!

I don't believe the Kniterate machine is ready for market just yet, and I expect it will be very expensive when it is.  But in some of the marketing material I've seen it is being recommended for "maker spaces" where people can share time on the machine.  And maker spaces are becoming very popular (or maybe they have been for a while and I'm just tuning into their existence?).  

So if you have any thoughts on the future of machine knitting, or any of the technologies or innovations I've described and linked to above, or more that you think would be of interest, leave a comment!  I'd love to see us start a discussion on where machine knitting is headed in the future.

One more thing - Lynne will be giving an update soon on the May 6 get together so watch for that.  And I will disappear once again into the tax abyss, but I'll be back in a couple of weeks!

Nancy