Hi Devonshire Dumpling,
What a lovely name!
I have a Brother 260 and have found that the patterns Anne has published in the magazine recently are very suitable for this machine. Although many of them are written for mid gauge machines they can be knitted on the chunky as they use DK yarn.
The important thing is to knit a tension swatch in a suitable tension for the yarn you will use. Your stitches and rows may not exactly match the tension given in the pattern but once you know how many you have to 10 cm you can do a simple calculation to find out how many stitches you need to cast on for the size you want to knit and how many rows you need for the length you require. Divide your figures by 10 to get the number of stitches and rows to 1 cm, then multiply by the width/length you require. Checking along the first row of instructions will often show a figure close to the one you have calculated so use that as your guide and mark the pattern accordingly. Do the same for the rows. Usually the shaping can be knitted as written in the pattern.
Anne has also published many patterns recently for chunky machines and these will knit on any chunky machine. You will still have to do a tension swatch and what I have written above will also apply.
There are lots of patterns available on the Internet so try a search to find what you are looking for.
I hope this helps,
Regards,
Sue.

Hi
I've just read your post and I have one of these machines too - a 260 chunky with ribber. Look on eBay because they have a lot of original magazines, books and instruction books for sale on the site. Also there are loads of patterns on CD which can easily be adapted for today and I hope this helps.
Best wishes, Cathy