I know there’s more than one of you out there in blogland who couldn’t resist the idea of that JoAnns 50% off coupon (or 40% lately) and spent it on your very own Knitting Machine! Yeah, I did to, and soon was disappointed to discover that it was a stockinette machine, loud and kinda picky. Mine didn’t even come with the ball of example yarn. But anyway, I have used it for some things, only with wool though, because with cotton or Red Heart or something – it’s not quite workable for me.
At Christmas, with another coupon, I also picked up one of those I-cord knitters with the crank, and that one came without the needle that is specially designed to be able to fiddle with the yarn when you get all excited and go too fast and end up jumping ship. I have bad luck with the BOND products, I tell ya. But otherwise, using a Sports weight or DK yarn with this puppy is way cool, I knitted up the example yarn in about 10 minutes and that’s what this thing is for. I love it.
When I was a child, I had that ugly brown Mattel knitting machine that knits tubes, and while it was about as fiddly as the USM, I was a kid and lots of things were hard so I didn’t know any better. Last November, while in Costco, I spotted the latest incarnation, which is all pink and girly and strangely oriented on an angle. I tried using it with Worsted weight yarn, since the example yarn was sort of… crunchy… . It didn’t work. I was told by someone at Stitches West, who had a booth with the thing in it showing off her yarns or something (I was blinded by the machine and the how do you get that darn thing to work, woman?) that you have to use thinner yarns. Cool, I got thinner, I am all about the DK and the Sport.
A few weekends ago, there was an estate sale of a local fiber artist who had passed away. She was a weaver, knitter and spinner. I picked up a few books and was about to leave when something caught my eye. There were two knitting machines, in what appeared to be near-perfect condition, but missing some of their parts. One is a Brother KH-230, and the other a Superba S46, a finer gauge double-bed machine. I am so excited to get it up and running, but have been working on my Knitting Bag Jacket and had some other issues that kept me from knitting at all for a few weeks. I’ve got a few cones of fingering and thinner yarns, and really look forward to trying out the Superba. The Brother is a 9mm, I think, and I don’t really have a use for it right now, and I am not sure it has all it’s parts. The Superba has all of it’s manuals, parts, and even an electronic charting box that uses light and Mylar sheets or something. I haven’t figured that all out yet. I found a great blog with lots of info that will help me get going on it.
I have one more project that I’ve committed myself to do before I get to set up the new toys and try them out.