Greybird, well I have good news for you. Whilst I have many Ricki Mundstock patterns, I cannot get near to them without a major upheaval in my room, so rather than keep you waiting I spoke with Anne Smith of Machine Knitting Monthly as she really is a mine of information Bless her she could get at her copies easily and went off to have a look, and yes there are diagrams, she said some were better than others, but you should be able to draw out the shapes following what you see easily enough onto your Knitradar sheet. She also said the Aran type ones are just squares of knitting, and dropped shoulders. I must say I much prefer the clean smarter lines of the set in sleeve although I am guilty of knitting the drop shoulder style in the past - but not any more.
Whilst I was chatting to her (I have spoken to her many, many times, and is always happy to have a chat) I asked her about the needle retaining bar mainly as I think my one - I have a Knitmaster 560 Electronic - may need replacing and she said the Silver place in Northampton is the best place to go.
So I also asked about the needle retaining bar for Brother and also about needles for the Brother, and here is the interesting part for any machine knitters who have a Brother machine. There are no spares of genuine Brother parts anywhere in this country, any parts offered are a poor substitute and are made in China, their steel is not as good as the Japanese Steel. However if you are needing a needle retaining bar, you can apparently use a Silver (Knitmaster) one on some models, only the length of these means that the ends are likely to stick out a little each end, therefore you could not put its lid on. The Chinese type needles do work on the Brother machines, but it is best to keep an eye on them. Apparently many e-bay people are trying to sell spare parts for the Brother machines and there are a lot of dodgy parts - so it is best to try and find a dealer who knows what he is doing with regards to the imported Chinese parts. The last snippet I had about the Brother parts is the needle for the Garter Carriage, these are so difficult to find they are like hen's teeth, so it pays to try and be careful and make sure there are no damaged/bent needles on the main machine.
Another useful snippet of information is that the Bedford Sewing and Knitting place in Bedford have stopped doing knitting machines altogether, and Metropolitan Knitting from Nantwich in Cheshire has also gone.
Right let me get back to patterns, Anne Smith was very friendly with the late Carl Boyd, and before his untimely passing, he gave Anne all his patterns that he had produced for her to use in the magazine, which she has been doing. Carl designed some beautiful patterns, so if you know of him and his patterns, and suddenly think you would have liked that or that, then get in touch with Anne and I am sure she will be able to tell you if the magazine it was published in is still available. Carl was excellent on designing some beautiful but different necklines.
If I can help you any more with regards to patterns or refreshing your knitting skills, please feel free to ask. Back in the day I acquired many, many books on machine knitting, and I still have them. Back then Kathleen Kinder's books were so difficult to get hold of, I bet now there are many on e-bay and the likes, the same goes for Mary Weaver books. I was a member of Chiltern Machine Knitting Club for many years, sadly the club folded a long time ago, but we used to have people come to give us a talk or demonstration. One of these people was Pam Turbett and she was a dressmaker not a knitter, but she got someone else to knit her really long lengths of knitting and then treated this as dressmaking fabric - she used, plain, lace or patterned lengths and the results were excellent, and she published a few books on the techniques she used. You may remember from your days as a demonstrator the technique of Knit Weave, and Knitmaster brought out a special weaving arm or carriage (again I cannot get at mine that easily) - this was to make the process of knit weaving a lot easier. Then a lady in South Africa - Audrey Palmer - produced a few books on Knit Weaving - and they are quite something. As machine knitting seems to have gone out of favour, I bet there are hundreds and hundreds of books on this subject available on the internet and e-bay - I have only mentioned a few, but I have an enormous shelf full of all things machine knitting, so if you are looking for a something specific , I may well have it and can give you the correct title.
Now go and have fun, shall watch with interest as to what you are going to knit.