MK Challenge : Gadget experiments

Seeing as it's a long weekend and freezing cold outside I've decided to tackle using some of the MK gadgets I have accumulated in past years and (shamefully) never used.

RT1 Rib Transfer Carriage

It's a bit like the (IMHO awful) Brother linker in operation, but this is supposed to transfer rib stitches to the main bed. My first attempt was a total disaster, only 3 sts transferred. My second attempt went much better, it only dropped a few. Seems you have to run this thing reeeeeaaaaaallly slowly to get it to work. It's almost just as fast doing it by hand, really. More practice required!

AW1 weaving arm

This is an improvement on the built-in weaving that comes with the main carriage - I seem to remember you have to keep re-threading the main carriage every row or something similar - very time-consuming. Of course, it would have gone a lot better had I remembered to (a) set the carriage to weave and (b) plugged the carriage into the computer, but once I spotted that, it went ok. Well, it didn't weave very well in the middle, but I put that down to the work being weighted for the ribber and not having enough weight in the centre.

Shadow-lace transfer tool aka "Jaws"

This little gadget does the same thing as the RT1, but just a few stitches at a time, and it can also transfer to the ribber bed. Took a little getting used to, but I think I prefer it to the RT1 - if I drop a stitch it's down to my clumsiness and not the weird behaviour of some sharp pointy thing!

AG24 Intarsia carriage

Disaster struck on the first row as the carriage wasn't correctly engaged and one of the front "fins" was slightly bent (they are rather thin metal). Went quite well after I gave up on the dropped part. Very similar in operation to the equivalent Brother carriages, and quite relaxing to use.

Garter bar

Used to reverse a large amount of stitches; to create garter stitch, multiple decreases/increases across the bed, and to turn the knitting. Ignore the instructions that came with it; they are wrong. Start with the notch facing you, then return with the bump uppermost. Got a few split/dropped stitches to start with, but it got better.

That's all for today. Will tackle the KR7 knitleader tomorrow.