Frustrations

I do wonder how come I ever got this far with machine knittting. I mean, I've been doing this on and off for 21 years and yet it still blindsides me from time to time. I fished out a lost tool from the Brother KH950i and then put it away on Saturday, with big plans to start swatching a lace tunic with the SK840. The Silver handles lace differently to the Brother - it uses a one-action lace carriage, as opposed to a knitting carriage and lace carriage used together, so in theory it should be quicker. I picked up the SK840 as a bundle with ribber, lace carriage and colour changer from a local lady who was giving up due to ill health. You would assume that they worked together. Indeed, I know I've swatched lace with the lace carriage (LC560) because I even got it tuned to fit the bed by Andeeknits. One thing I failed to notice is, it doesn't trip the mechanical row counter - and there's a later 580 carriage that presumably does. It's more than £400, so I'm a bit dischuffed. That, and I cannot get DAK to make it do lace - the pattern appears to advance ok, but no lace is happening. Alas I sold my PC10 and EC1 on, so I don't even have a fallback position. After a frustrating hour of nothing happening, I gave up. Our tv finally started cutting out every ten minutes (it's over 10 years old and has been getting worse for a while), so Saturday afternoon turned into a "play silly beggars with a badly-coded website and go pick up a new TV". The Cog was far more excited than I over it, and immediately complained he wished he'd bought the next size up when we got home! Sheesh! 43" is enough and certainly much better than peering at a spare computer monitor. 

It shows how much I've progressed recently with the Passap, as I ended up casting on a simple 2x2 scarf on it, which will be 100% successful even if it IS 800 rows of tedium. 

I've had some useful responses on Ravelry - apparently this is a flaw of DAK, one must program a "piece" even if swatching, and then delete any transfers that fall on the end stitches. Annoying when I'm only at the swatching stage. But the row counter is more tricky - one needs to know where one is when knitting, because there are often interruptions from telephones and well-meaning partners to contend with. I am rather stumped as to know how to proceed! 

Current mood: annoyed