"So you don't just press a button?"

One of the advantages of procrastination is inevitable reflection. It is now several weeks since the very satisfactory MKAV Seminar, and time has worked to the surface my stand out memory, The Human Knitting Machine,seen by the lucky crowd on Friday evening.

Can I divert for a moment to note that our President, Angela, gets my vote in the category, Geniuses I have Known? The sheer number of ideas, and speed with which she moves on to the next thought might sometimes obscure the brilliance of her efforts, but the Friday night demonstration demands preservation.

This was machine knitting stripped back so far that even the machine was gone. This was machine knitting at its clearest - one needle, one stitch. You want more stitches? Have as many as you like as long as you can find a needle for each stitch. What can each needle do? It can either knit or not knit. If it doesn't knit, the yarn can pass over the top or underneath the stitch. And that's all. Everything else, the push buttons, the punchcards, the electronic controls, they are just means of telling each needle to knit or to not knit without the effort of hand selection.

I'll leave it to some subsequent video recorded performance to explain exactly what was done. For now you can just admire the knitted results.



Della wearing the knitted piece




A closer look at the knitting

At the other extreme, I caught part of a Barbara Fletcher workshop on hidden techniques in the Passap E6000, the most sophisticated domestic knitting machine available to us. What an extraordinary range of knitting interests covered! From the very simplest to the most complex machine any domestic machine knitter is likely to meet.

What is a critical mass of machine knitters?

I had a bunch of good reasons why the Biennial Victorian two and a bit day conference dedicated to the now rather retro art of machine knitting on domestic machines should be allowed to lapse quietly in favour of less ambitious events more suited to current customs and lifestyles.

But now I am not so sure. It is so good to see machine knitters from interstate and New Zealand swapping ideas and experiences over numerous cups of tea and too much food. I was particularly pleased that three first time participants really enjoyed the experience and got a lot out of it.

It is so encouraging to have demonstrators and other participants show such generosity with their skills and techniques. Recently I have come across instances where machine knitters have tried to protect their patch by refusing to pass along the craft to new recruits. It may be hard for craftspersons to make a living from low volume production in the world we live in, but without a viable machine knitting community, the craft is doomed. We need to share ideas, but we also need to be a market for machines, parts, services, yarns on cones. We also need to show the public a range and quantity of machine knitted products to build appreciation for the things we make. A restauranteur once explained to me how it was much better to be in a street full of other restaurants rather than be the only one on the block. That way you get plenty of passing trade, as well as folk who set out just for your place.

I smile when I see how thoroughly Tony Bennett, of Dormani Yarns, http://www.dormani-yarns.com/ has taken to heart the concept that community is the key to survival. He is so generous with his time and ideas, so helpful to anyone who asks. Also a dazzling beacon of inspired simplicity, always ready with a faster, more modern and saleable solution to share for every knitting challenge

I failed picture gathering completely, but with a bit of luck someone will have some images to share



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Why should I go to the MKAV Seminar?

This question was put to me by one of the new wave of machine knitters. Why would I spend quite a bit of money to spend a weekend listening to presenters I have never heard of, demonstrating projects of unknown merit, on machines different from the one I own?

For a start, it is a pleasant way to spend a weekend. The Hemisphere Conference Centre http://www.hemisphere.com.au/?gclid=CKarzqCPk6cCFUeApAodSjUzfg is a part of Holmesglen TAFE, with lots of good lunch and morning and afternoon teas (special dietary requirements catered for with notice) included in the deal. Friday and Saturday night dinners optional extras.

There is an hotel within the centre where many of the local as well as the interstate knitters stay. It too is a model establishment. Book early if you hope to stay.

It is the biggest gathering of machine knitters you are likely to find. And all of them thrilled to explain just how to do that technique in that ...pullover, baby blanket, cactus sculpture or whatever.

There will be traders of all things machine knitting. Even Reynolds, the last(?) new machine dealer in Australia, is expected. Tony Bennett, from WA will have a trading stand as well as being a star presenter. There is no arrangement for checking out the traders without signing on for the Seminar. If you are desperate, but able to afford one of the optional dinners, you could maybe come as a guest and hope that the traders have time to trade as well as eat.

Then there is the ' Think not what your Country can do for you' element. The machine knitting community is too small to have separate and exclusive groups. The community needs the new knitters to bring new ideas and new ways of doing things into an organisation formed in a previous era.

And there is always the possibility that you will get something out of the presentations. Don't worry that most of the presenters use Brothers and you use a Singer. the differences don't count. And some things are not machine dependent at all. Tony Bennett, who has made a living from all things machine knitting for years now, has a mantra, 'It's not a mistake, it's a design feature' And his loyal followers shout out the coda, 'And you can charge extra for that!'


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