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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