Be a Joiner

It's difficult to describe how great it is to belong to a machine knitting club.  Our club, Knit Natters, met yesterday, and we had a dozen women.  We're planning a seminar for next month ($30 for two days, about 8 classes (the ones our members wanted the most), four teachers, lots of door prizes, good food, and fun is assured).

Knitters are very nice people, at almost every club beginners are welcome, and between inspiring each other with great projects, having demonstrations, and talking about our knitting, we are all constantly learning.  If you have a MK guild near you, go ahead and join up, even if you think you're not a "joiner."  You may find that hangin' out with knitters is a joy, as I do.

Speaking of joining, there are some fantastic resources on the internet for people who want to learn machine knitting.  Here are some of my favorite Yahoo Groups:

Knitting Machines - huge group, super helpful people, great discussions.  All machines welcome.

Knitting For Sale - one of the best places ever to buy and sell machine knitting items.

Design-A-Knit Link - If you have this software, you need this group.

For Our Troops - Join up and help us knit for the soldiers.

Knit Natters - Knitters in Central Texas

Passap Knits - Passap knitting machines are different, and I love the discussion on this big group. 

MK-70 - A group for folks who own this unusual folding Studio machine.

Incredible Sweater Machine Club - for Bond users.

Brother Knitting Machine List - for Brother discussion.

Sock Knitting Machine Friends - Very cheerful and chatty CSM group, plenty of info on the NZAK.

Sock Knitting Machines - Oriented more toward antique CSMs, also a great group.

LK-150 - For users of the Studio LK 150.

There are lots more groups - I have just listed some of the ones that I like or are fairly high-volume.  If you go to groups.yahoo.com and search for your make and model of machine or your specific interest, you will probably find it, and find help.  A lot of local clubs have Yahoo groups, so look for your area.

Please bear in mind that each group makes its own rules.  Some groups do not allow selling or announcements, while some encourage that sort of thing.  Some groups don't allow off-topic chat.  Read the rules before you dive in and you'll be a good neighbor. 

This is not to even mention Facebook or Ravelry.  Maybe another day...

UPDATE - I got a note from the DFW group, and they've switched to a Ravelry Group.  Here's her note:

Hi Diana,

S.D. here, I'm the new President of the Dallas Hand knitters Guild 2011/2012. We are no longer using Yahoo Groups and have moved on to using the Ravelry Forums only. We will be using Mailchip as our new form of mass email communications. If you would like to be added to our email list, please let me know and I will add you, in the mean time, please feel free to join our Ravelry Group to keep up to date with our goings on!