Nottinghamshire Knitting Buddy Ann Matthews has been busy for several months now, knitting some beautiful and original designs in Alpaca. Ann knits on Brother standard gauge and chunky machines and she’s been helping a local producer establish the ideal thickness to spin for machine knitting. The Alpaca farm is not far from Ann and it’s not often that we can fly the flag for our hard-working volunteers who offer telephone help and advice. We’ve been slightly reluctant to showcase Ann’s designs, because we’re sure you’ll all want patterns. None are currently available, but we’ll keep you posted.

If you’d like to become one of our Knitting Buddies, get in touch with Anne at the usual address and here are a few details. Our volunteers give help and advice to beginners or those returning to machine knitting after a long break. If travelling distances are not too great, they may even sit with you whilst you develop some basic knitting skills. Knitting Buddies are not trained professionals, so please don’t take advantage of their generosity by overloading them with your queries and remember also not to ask for or expect the impossible! It’s a free service for our readers and we ask you to keep your calls short. If you need comprehensive advice, simply make arrangements to call back at a time that’s convenient.