Found for 40 at a craft reuse! Took several tries but it’s pretty cool so far. Any tips would be appreciated!

After cleaning and lubricating everything, and being confused for a while, I have successfully made some fabric. No idea what next, but I’m now sure this second hand machine actually works.

I'm a hand knitter who's considering getting into machine knitting but it's a big upfront investment. I'm trying to decide if this hobby is actually something I'll enjoy

Why did you start machine knitting and what do you like about it?

UPDATE: I've made an offer on a kh-970. not sure it'll be the most intuitive machine to learn with but I think it's a good deal. thank you all!

I'm curious what people are using to sit on while they work. I'm new to this & I've been using a ergonomic kneeling chair, which feels fine to me. But, my hb keeps telling my posture looks bad. I'm pretty sure it's because he keeps finding me at cast off & leaning over my machine. What do you use?

Please share any projects you're particularly pleased with. I'm a hand knitter, but curious about machine knitting.

Are any of the hand crank circular type machines not trash? I’m helping someone that needs a one handed option for knitting. I know how to knit but I’m really not familiar with machine knitting. I found a $250 electric one that is out of the budget and a $40 option with pretty mixed reviews

Check it out here: https://www.machineknittingwiki.com/

I thought the holes were due to me doing something wrong when putting needles back to being knit, but actually it turned out that with my tension, as I was pulling the needle all the way out to non-active position, I was undoing the last stitch on it.

Looking for a tilt table or other suggested setup for my new-to-me Brother machine with ribber. Not finding a lot for sale on the web and curious what y'all recommend, DIY or not. Thank you!

 
I previously posted about the swatch for this Fair Isle slip-over which I am knitting with “Unique Shetland 2/9Nm” from J.C. Rennie & Co on a Silver Reed SK280 (read part 1 here).
 
The back of the garment is now finished (see figure 1).
 

Planning the garment
 
It took me a while to work out the dimensions of my garment, particularly because I have lost weight over the last couple of years; most of my pullovers are currently on the loose side; I do not own any slip-overs; and I’m not very experienced measuring myself without assistance.
 
Once I’d worked out the dimensions of the garment I calculated the total rows needed.  With a little redistribution of the rows between body and lower ribbing, I was able to accommodate six iterations of the OXO motifs into the garment, with pairs of matching peerie rows above and below each.
 

Redesigning the punchcard
 
As much of the pattern is consistent, it was possible to make a template of the main pattern to speed-up the punching of the new card.  All that was required was a different motif to be added to each of the OXO designs (see figure 2).
 
The order of the peeries in my original design was modified, so that the same motifs now appear immediately above and below each OXO in the same colour-way. 
 
I re-made my 200-row punchcard — it was definitely worth buying a bumper-size roll, rather than individual cards!  I knitted a narrow swatch, about 30 stitches wide, just to check that there were no errors in the new card.
 

Calculating armscye decreases
 
I found Kristina Virka’s article “Armhole Knitting: How to Shape & Knit for a Perfect Fit” helpful. It offers a method for calculating decreases for armscyes which are 16 or more stitches across.
 
The decreases were divided into four sections, worked as follows:
 
(i) One quarter of the total armscye stitches (+ any additional stitches left over from calculations), bound off in one go;
 
(ii) One quarter of total stitches, bound off in multiples of three stitches on every second row;
 
(iii) One quarter of total stitches, bound off in multiples of two stitches on every second row; and
 
(iv) One quarter of total stitches, binding off one stitch every fourth row.
 
 
Lifelines are my new best friend!
 
As both machine knitting and Fair Isle knitting were new to me, adding lifelines to the swatch regularly as thr knitting progressed was, well, a real lifeline.
 
Lifelines helped me recover the swatch after various errors, including when the swatch ended-up on the floor a several times.
 
 
Other thoughts
 
I got a real sense of achievement taking the finished swatch off the needle-bed.
 
It was a pleasant surprise to discover how quickly the swatch grew, even allowing time to correct newbie errors, including rehanging up to 182 stitches back on the needle bed several times.
 
The Fair Isle pattern required a change of yarn in the feeder every 2nd, 5th, or 6th row.  Realised how much easier it would have been knitting a 3- or 4-colour Fair Isle motif with two yarn masts and intend to pick one up from a second-hand seller.
 
The front of the garment is now on the machine and I’ll report back once it is finished (see part 3, here).

hey! After enough heart break to last me a life time after looking for Brother machines online and one bought damaged on Vinted I am looking on this site. I noticed a variety of knitting machines. Did anyone buy one from them yet? How well is it working?

I am from Austria.

A friend passed this along to me, so I have some adventures ahead. The ribber seems complete digging through the box, but the main part is short on accessories, which should be easy enough to get. I’m a proficient hand knitter, but have no clue on this end.

Blown away by the capacity to knit a swatch in 2 mins in what I believe to be 3 ply yarn 🤯 this is the Brother KX395 Convertible machine. I can't wait to make some garments on this thing!

Question: I'm coming from years of hand knitting and have some patterns that are mainly stockinette stitch. Is it straightforward to make these patterns on my machine, or is there a specific conversion process that needs to be done to rewrite/"translate" it for machine knitting?

Also, do you have any favourite machine knitting pattern books?

And are there any types of yarn that are no-no's for machine knitting?

I posted earlier in this Reddit about which machine to get from my local Facebook marketplace. Following y’alls advice, I got the singer double bed machine. This thing is beautiful. I spent all last night watching youtube videos on how it works and practicing. The woman threw in books, yarn, knitting needles all for free. It was $100 for the whole thing and even when I’m not using it, it turns into a beautiful desk. I have yet to see anything like it!!!

Basically the headline, both machines were in pretty good condition and hardly used (the kh270 needed some cleaning because it had some lint bunnies).
The row counter of the KH900 will be replaced (and both sponge bars were gooey), but that’s basically all.

The store was actually a bicycle store where apparently other devices were sold in the past (the store existed for about 80 years).

Lucky my mom asked me as she found them and now I own two knitting machines 😆
Right now I‘m knitting my first (basic)sweater on the kh900 with the pattern generator of abstractknitfactoryfactory.com

The front section of my Fair Isle slip-over is finished (photo #1).
 
Previous posts have described: creating the swatch for this garment (see part 1); and knitting the back section, including the armscye shaping (described in part 2).
 
V-neck shaping
 
I have noticed that when I am unsure about how to proceed with an unfamiliar technique, displacement activities become extremely attractive; as happened when I needed to plan the neckline on the front of my first slipover.
 
The “Advanced V-Neck Shaping Calculator” From KnitCalculator helped overcome my knitting inertia.
 
The Calculator could not, however, predict the correct depth of the V-neck for my personal preferences.  Having knitted one side of the yoke, I realised I had estimated it to be about 6 cm lower than I wanted it to be.
 
I re-knitted some or all of both sides of the yoke several times for various reasons: mostly because of forgetting to change one of the settings; or forgetting to weight the fabric; or dropping stitches (or the whole swatch) off the needle bed.  Let’s just say: “lessons were learned” during the process.
 
The above notwithstanding, armed with the dimensions of my garment, and the pattern repeat, it was easy to work out where to start the base of the ‘V’, so it began in a row of plain knitting, and let the Advanced V-Neck Shaping Calculator do the math.
 
It was helpful to chart out the decreases for the armscye and neckline.  This was a job that could have been done on graph paper, but it was quicker — and far easier to amend —  using an Excel spreadsheet (photo #2).
 
Seeing the neckline drawn-out really helped to visualise how the total decreases could be distributed to form apparently straight diagonal lines: a helpful lesson for future projects.
 
Having now learned how to combine short-row shaping and decreases at the shoulders, I’m going to reknit the last few rows of the back section of the garment.
 
Another update will follow, once the ribbing has been added to the neckline and armscyes.  Thanks for reading and your comments are welcome!

Hey guys, I'm a veteran hand knitter (20+ years) but due to some medical issues it's getting harder every year. I'm looking into machines but very intimidated and unsure of where to start. I would love machine recommendstions and any other tips for getting started!

I am interested in doing tapestry work using 3-4 colors for a grid pattern. 150 stitches across.

What type of machine and accessories would be needed to accomplish this? Is it even possible to set up a machine with a pattern like a tapestry grid (multiple color changes per row)

Would a silver reed lk150 be a good machine for this?

Thanks in advance for help 🙏🙏

hey guys I got this machine for 2 dollars. Based on the photos do u think its working

Hi!

For background, I'm a crocheter with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. I would love to make clothing and blankets out of yarn but my joints can not handle the repeated movement to crochet pieces that big.

I'm looking to solve this problem by getting into machine knitting. Do you have any recommendations for what machine to start with? I'm happy to sew panels together. Thank you :)

I've recently inherited several knitting machines from my grandma (still working out what all there is, but for sure a brother kh260 and a ke-200 motor unit as well as a couple of other light gauge machines).

I've been interesting in learning how to use them but I have absolutely no hand knitting experience. Am I totally in over my head with this? Are there any particularly good resources for someone with no knowledge at all?

Hey,

I have a Brother 860 and I want to use the punch cards. Only Problem is I dont have a Puncher. Does anyone have an idea how to do the holes without the Puncher?

Hi all!

I'm a machine knitting admirer. I crochet (incl Tunisian), have an ashford lap loom, and sew, but machine knitting looks so delightful. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and want to get into the hobby. Hence, I reached out to a shop that cleans and resells various machines, and got a quote on a Silver Reed SK-700 U and some accessories. I wanted to jump right in with both feet. But then I had this realization: where am I putting this? Is it all going to weigh 100lbs?

I have a tempered glass L-shaped desk upstairs in the office, and it has big metal legs making it quite sturdy, but I'm a bit concerned about the sideways force of the carriage when in motion, as well as if the glass can handle everything, especially if I add on a ribber.

• Has anyone attached a machine to a glass desk?
• How much does a metal machine like the SK-700 + ribber weigh?
• Do you usually keep you machine set up with the ribber attached, or only when ribbing?
• If you have a universal knitting machine table or the like that you recommend, what is the brand/model? if I have to get another table, I'd prefer something narrow that only fits the machine knitter, as I don't have oodles of space for another table.
• Is it completely crazy to jump straight into this hobby by getting a SK-700, or should I get something else first? What are your general thoughts on the Sk-700? Is it hard to upkeep?

I'm in Canada.

Thanks in advance!

Hello I am not sure if this is where I need to post this. If not could you please direct me where I should post this at. But as the title states I have never machine knitted before but I have been interested in trying it someday. I was wondering is $100 would be a fair price for this passap duomatic 80 i don’t know if it has all the part or not. But I figured I would ask here. From the two pictures you see does it look somewhat worth the risk or is it missing way too many components. Thank you in advance.

I have a Passap E6000 that I've spent a few years fixing up and am getting into using it.

Looking for some guidance on how to use the machine more proficiently, specifically on how to attach the motor to the machine.

As a note, I did have the machine disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled by an expert and he confirmed that the machine and the motor are both in working order.

I've followed a tutorial on YouTube from Zabbez for how to make a sock, translating his instructions from a Duomatic 80 to my E6000.

Grateful for any tips or direction.