I've just put my chunky machine away and put my mid-gauge SK860 back up, so now it's time to properly get to grips with this machine and to refresh my brain with all things Knitmaster. There have been some discussions on Ravelry about how to cast on with a Knitmaster - the fine gauge instructions in particular aren't all that great, and I do remember scratching my head at the Knitmaster preference for tables. They actually work quite well, but you do have to follow them closely. To that end, I've drawn up a cheat sheet for how to cast on with both Brother and Knitmaster, in a table, side by side, so that people migrating from one machine to another can compare and contrast what is essentially the same operation but with different buttons. Please leave a comment if I've made a mistake, and sorry the sketches aren't a bit tidier! I've left off any buttons or levers that aren't used - so no holding position (Brother) or Russel levers (Knitmaster) appear to confuse you. This won't work for EVERY variant - for example, the SK840 has an additional C cam setting and no side levers, so you HAVE to cast on in the particular method it requires. I think it means that when I add a hand-knitted rib to socks made on that machine, I have to turn the sock inside out to continue the direction it was knitted in. Not that my SK840 likes knitting circular, it much prefers to tuck and then jam! :)
Link to cheat sheet (PDF format)
See also my older post, "Principles of ribbing cast on in machine knitting", for a text-only version. If you haven't already spotted it, have a look at the "Free Patterns etc" tab at the top of this page. I use it to bookmark anything I might want to find again and there's some useful stuff up there, not just patterns!
Happy knitting!
My addiction to anything crafty created with a pointy stick, a needle or a hook.....
3 comments:
Why does the sk840 have troubles knitting cirkular, my old silver did very well. But not the sk840
I don't know, it ought to work but I don't seem to be able to weight mine enough to make it work properly. Luckily I have other machines and other options but that's not really a fix :/
The only reason I can figure out is, that may be that the C on the carriage does not adjust properly. It seems that the needles do not go "far enough" back to knit the stiches. May be at little work by a screwdriver could solve the problem.
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