The best advice I got regarding the ribber was to learn to use the main bed properly first, and then start with the ribber. It was good advice, even for someone who loves to jump in, head first, and start with something big. Also, the ribber is there to be used. It's a wonderful tool, not only for ribbing but beautiful brioche among other things. Don't be afraid of it! It's not dangerous 😀 and after all, its only yarn we use, or waste. It's not the end of the world. Go for it! 🐑
I am on the same path that you are on with knitting machines, down to the same machines! There is an easier way to “tink” rows back without having to use a tool. Making sure that the stitches are in the hooks first, you can lift straight up on a stitch and it will release, allowing the previous stitch to slide onto the hook. You will want to hold onto the the back of the needles so that they don’t slide backwards. Practice on a sample first, but I promise, it’s quicker and easier!
You’re doing exactly what I wanted my machines for. It’s fun to watch you go through your learning experience and it’s even more fun to just hand knit the fun parts and fly through all the stockinette (if you’re like me and lose interest in a project at that point).
Love the video! I got a knitting machine and ribber with the idea of making socks. I couldn’t believe it when I found out you could! So much cheaper than the circular knitting machines and so fast! I use my own hand spun fingering weight yarn
Just found your channel. Love your spirit. People talk about machine knitting and scoff but they are ignorant. It find it takes as much skill just a different kind to produce anything. We all want our work beautiful and flawless. It takes skill to get that. Plus we also want it in a timely manner otherwise we end up with a bunch of partially done projects. Beautiful work. Subscribed
Thank you so much!! I appreciate your comment. I’m still learning and getting head wrapped around machine knitting but loving all of it. I definitely have more machine knitting videos I want to make next year!
So lovely to see you using a knitting machine, warms my heart! I have been a machine knitter for over 20 years and always love see to people use them. Thank you for doing a video on machine knitting. For ribbing I do it by hand on the machine by reforming stitches, I do have ribbers but I hate them!
This is what I love about my new knitting machine. I can just do the interesting parts by hand and do the stockinette on the machine. It's fantastic because I love knitting short and sweet projects but I only ever want full garments. Now I can have both.
I bought a knitting machine 20+ years ago when I was still a novice knitter. I got frustrated with it and stored it away. I am now a very experienced knitter and decided to pull this machine out about 6 months ago and see if I would have any better luck. It is a very basic Big Phil without any of the fancy punch cards etc. What I have found is that knowing how to knit really helps with figuring out how to use the machine. I have also found that some things work very well on the machine and other things just aren’t worth the effort. It is great for intarsia and plain stockinette but I always doing the ribbing by hand. I also find that the machine knitting is something fun to do every now and then but my relaxation and love is still hand knitting.
Unpicking on a knitting machine is super simple and much easer than unpicking hand knitting. After moving the carriage out of the way pull on the yarn that was in the carriage. You will need to manipulate the yarn in a back-and-forth motion so that it pulls the previous stitch back up and onto the needle. You don’t need any extra tools to do this with just your hands. Once you get the previous stitch back on the needle you just keep moving down the bed until you have stitches back in place. Once you get the motion down it’s really just zipping right down the bad, going from needle to needle in a quick motion.
I enjoy your videos! Just thought I'd throw it out there that I played around with a knitting machine and what I found is it worked best with smooth, high quality yarn. This meant I had to practice with expensive yarn because more economical yarn would snag easily. As a yarn dyer, you have lots of nice yarn at your fingertips making it easier to practice. I have a CSM and it works great for me. I found the knitting machine to be much more diffecult and finicky to use. Just a thought before someone jumps into buying a machine. Thanks for sharing your journey.
Really appreciate to see you going through all the learning process and going progressively. I’m going to ask Santa (read I’m buying) for a simple knitting machine so that I can mix crochet with knitting on garments
I have a VERY old Empisal medium gauge but so far have only messed around with it, doing cute arty things. I tried to set up the ribber but oh dear god what a palaver.... But I do want to do something serious with it this winter, make an actual sweater! It's a scary piece of equipment, but persistence pays off. I love your tees!
This is so inspiring. I do have a brothers knitting machine, but I haven’t tried it yet. I do appreciate your talking about how to incorporate the use of both hand knitting and the machine. I saw the finished sweater and it’s beautiful! Hope you have a great day! ❤
It’s so interesting to hear about your journey with thr knitting machine. Definitely sounds like similar learning curve to the CSM. I envision using it the way you are in this tee, thr more basic portions- or perhaps the center of a Hap Shaw and hand knitting the lace border.
As a long time machine knitter, I can tell you that you can do the partial knitting in the stocking stitch part of the garment and then knit the rib straight. It will be much easier than partial knitting in rib (although that is possible too) and will not make a difference to the final shape of the sweater. If you can knit tuck and slip stitch with the machine then you should be able to knit FI. Remove the carriage from the bed and turn it over, make sure that al, the metal parts are lubricated and that when you move the pattern dial from one setting to the other that all the cams and flippers move.
I have 2 knitting machines that were given to me. I’m taking a beginner’s class in a couple weeks. I’m so nervous and overwhelmed about getting them out of the box and digging into it. But it will be a good winter activity during the rainy days.
This inspired me, I managed to do the fairisle on my machine by painstakingly selecting the needles by hand for each row. I have an old machine not punchcard. I’ve completed the back, now to start the front. Thanks again for the inspiration
Thank you for sharing and inspiring. I have been machine knitting since 1978 and think I have tried it all. I love translating hand knit patterns to machine knit because the hand knitting world is more innovative these days. It has not always been so! Keep up the good work.
'Unpicking' is much easier if you pull the yarn tight in the needle and then (holding on to the fabric underneath)just flick your wrist to 'pull up' (rather than unpick) the stitch. Rereading this doesn't make it seam too clear, but put about 20 needles on and knit a few inches on to your machine with waste yarn and try it. Move the carriage out of the way, tighten the working yarn while pinching the fabric underneath and gently pull to raise the lower stitch into the needle. 🤷 It works for me.
I totally agree! Diana Sullivan has a video showing how to what you describe, good for those who likes a visual. It saves so much time! Also, I knit more since I learnt that technique b/c unraveling isn't a big hurdle anymore.
It might be worth having a go at doing the 1x1 rib by reforming stitches. I find it a lot less daunting than using the ribber personally, but still quicker than hand knitting
If you find knitting 1x1 ribbing on the ribber "daunting", you're doing something wrong. It's super easy and super quick. Maybe find some videos here on RU-vid to help you through.🙂
@@molahi5779 You don't have to be doing something wrong for a new piece of equipment to be daunting. Sometimes people struggle to learn new techniques and sometimes people would rather take a more familiar option. It is perfectly valid to reform stitches instead of using a ribber if that works for you.
Hi Felicia, I am a longtime machine knitter, even longer hand knitter. With regard to unpicking stitches, there are a couple of techniques you might like to know about. First of all, if your yarn is string enough (most are) you can rip back by hand in the following fashion: make sure all stitches are in the hook, and none behind the hook. Grasp your yarn very firmly, near the stitches, and pull at a slight angle to the bed of the machine. This will pull a number of needles (like 6-8) out slightly, and bring all of the stitches in the next row near to the end of the hook. Now pull your yarn, in little bursts, at a slightly more scute angle to the needle bed, and you should start to see the previous stitches begin to ‘pop’ into the hooks. As with everything in machine knitting, this is something you have to do over and over in order to gain the muscle memory of how hard to pull, and at what angle. It’s very akin to pulling out the stitches in a seam by pulling the bobbin thread tight and then out, bit-by-bit. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oK71uwIUTcg.html You can do this same process much more quickly with the use of a needle stopper, which is part of the garter bar kit. Diana Sullivan has a great demonstration of this in her garter bar course on RU-vid. There is also a gadget called a De-Knit, which helps to do the process. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4rxL3WCB1_s.html
HI I'm so glad you are showing knitting Machine work, I just bought an LK50 and have been experimenting I knit a Cedar point by Espace Tricot idid the body and sleves on the machine and the. yoke by hand. it was fun I just need to work on matching my tension, lots more experimenting to come I think.
YES!!!! I have been trying to find this machine for the last month....could not find it anywhere. PLEASE! tell where I can get one. I was getting frustrated that I could not find it. You are so definitely my creative bff for even showing me that they still exist. LOVE! you.🥰
Such a coincidence your video came up today! Just this afternoon I knit the sleeves on my second Navelli on my machine and put the stitches on waste yarn and I will be sewing them up this evening. I knit the interesting parts of a pattern (colourwork, lace etc) by hand and do stocking stitch (boring!) on one of my machines. Unfortunately I don't have a ribber so that is also by hand. I use waste yarn a lot, such as at the top of the Navelli, then pick up the stitches with the needle rather than putting them straight onto the needle from the machine as I find it quicker. Your video has got me wondering about trying colourwork on my ancient machine. I used to do it a lot but haven't tried it since I retrieved the machine from my loft after a 20+ year hiatus.
Oh yes!! Using waste yarn for the top of the stockinette would have been a great idea and way faster than what I was doing. Would love to hear how your colourwork experience is on the machine! I really want to see that happen! Thanks for watching ☺️
Hi I’m a new machine knitter 🎉you can pull the yarn back to in pick stitches it easy but scary lol but give it a shot. Just pull it in the opposite direction.
I have two knitting machines that were found by my in-laws and I plan to start learning this winter so I greatly appreciate your videos. My idea was to do combo the machine knitting and by hand together or just make lots of washcloth squares LOL😂
We are so alike! For that very reason I don't use the ribber on a machine. I don't like machine ribbing, IMO it looks like the sweater is factory made. when knitting parts by hand it is not only enjoyable but looks beautiful with a handmade finish. I don't understand what the issue is with the fairisle, I sometimes have issues when the carriage is not run in the proper order over the selector cams.
This is such a well-timed video! Today I just finished off my first project on my new-to-me vintage standard flatbed machine. It’s a Japanese Brother KH-531, which I think for English is equivalent to KH-551. The manuals are very similar at least. 😅 After doing a bunch of swatches and half a of a plain, blank sweater, I decided I was going to make a sweater with fairisle and intarsia and and manually manipulating the stitches to create the colorwork helped a lot in learning my machine and in general how these machines work! My machine was made before punchcards were an option so there were many hours of me hunched over colorwork charts and counting needles. Ultimately the shaping of my shoulder pieces could’ve been much better, but otherwise I’m thrilled with how it came out! The ribber also scares me so I did the ribbed neck by hand, but I might try that out next project.
Oh fantastic! Congrats on your new sweater! A vintage Brother Profile 585 has come into my life too and it’s a push button machine… that will be a whole other learning curve too 😳 I think doing colourwork manually on a machine is something I’ll need to try if the punchcard doesn’t work…. 😬
@@sweetgeorgia Push buttons are so helpful! Unfortunately I picked charts that don’t benefit much from the buttons, but the few rows I could use them on, it went so much faster 😂 I used Diana Sullivan’s video tutorial on fair isle for non-patterning machines to get the process down and it’s not as intimidating as it seems, there’s just a whole lot of counting. And still much faster than hand knitting.
I’ve never wanted to machine knit- but I find these segments fascinating. Maybe there is a tiny bit of an engineer in me just wanting to figure it all out! Thanks!
@@sweetgeorgia Is why I took to it instantly, I love the mechanics of it to the point of learning to how fix the moving parts when needed :). Fixing a knitting machine to me is just as fun as knitting on them.
So nice to see you excited by a colour changer Felicia! I have been machine knitting for ever, but have only recently dared to try to combine hand knitting with machine knitting - do the plain stuff on the machine and the interesting (colour work) on a circular - also fairly new in my repertoire. I think that their may be a hitch in using the colour changer with the fairisle setting because of the way that the two colours in the fairisle are in feeder one and feeder two. I haven't used my colour changer for a while (it is possible to put up two tension arms so that you can have four colours threaded and just swap them in the carriage - or there are arms that hold four colours) but I think mine took the yarn from feeder one so it could not do that if you have a second yarn in feeder two. Why is your machine not responding to the fairisle setting? It looks new? Get the supplier to fix it at once, it is the best setting on the carriage. Well maybe slip stitch in colours is pretty good too.... And do you have a lace carriage? Now that is fun!! Wecome to the machine knitting community.
Felicia where can I get that tube, that fit the Chiaogoo Interchangeable needles, I’ve been looking for that to help me make larger hand knitted blankets. Thank you for for help, love your channel 👍
I’m so sorry I won’t be home for that. I live in Australia and will be visiting home mid-October. Is there a good Facebook page to find out where the best spots are to go in Vancouver to see fibre work? Love your work.
I knit colour changes with 2 carriages on the Silver reed Lk150 midgauge machine. One carriage has one colour, the other has the second. I have a second carraige as I bought a second machine to elongate the stitch count which is great for knitting cardigans as one piece
Interesting about having to learn to unpick the machine's flubbed stitches.... I've always found knitting harder than crochet because you have to learn how to knit AND unknit each stitch type before you can really 'own' a stitch... in crochet you just need to learn how to make stitches, the unmaking is the same every time (yank). 😁
You mentioned that you could not get the machine to knit fairisle. Do you have the correct punchcards? I had the same problem with a Brother machine. It seemed the wrong punchcrds were with the machine. Something you might want to look into.
In some of the clips you appeared to have to really put a lot of energy into moving the carriage. You were using both hands. I've usually seen people use one hand very easily. Was that because there were two strands of yarn "caught" when there should have been only one? Or is the carriage of this particular model more difficult than other machines to move back and forth?
I think a couple of things… this machine is older and so maybe it needs a little more maintenance to get it running smoother. Also, I was knitting off of cakes/centre pull balls as opposed to cones… I feel like knitting off of cakes is less consistent and adds more tension to the knitting, making it harder to knit. Or… it could just be that I’m not very strong 😆 but really, making sure the tension is not super tight makes it easier to move the carriage, I found.
Hi Felicia, thank you for your video, it brought back memories of when I used one about 35 years ago. Do you still have to wax the yarn, this made knitting a lot easier at that time! I have all the attachments and all I can say is practice makes it so much easier.
Oh yes... so when I bought the machine from the previous owner, she gave me a bag full of wax and I still don't really know how to incorporate it into the process... but yes, I think that might be helpful! Thanks for watching!
This is fantastic. There is so little information around about knitting machines. I really appreciated you reviewing the struggles that you have had along the way. Fantastic colour choices on both or your sweaters. Where would I be able to find a knitting machine sk 280 in Canada?
I'm Essene among other things, Buddhist a bit Shintao, needless to say I care about factory workers, I'm passionate about slow fashion and I'm seeking out animal sanctuary wool because I do think wool is better for the Urth than polyester or other plastic fibers but I also care about animal welfare, so most of my clothes over the years have been second hand, although I'm not perfect I've bought some fast fashion new only to have it fall apart, bad Karma is physical, literal not metaphorical, It's just cause and effect. I'm picky about dyes too, what goes down the drain, I'm tired of buying used clothes, I want specific style a certain look, but I can only crochet by hand. Maybe I can master this because I'm looking to make all my own clothes and all my families clothes eventually. I like the process but i want to make a ton of stuff rather quickly. Just practical stuff probably not fancy at first. You think someone who can only crochet can figure it out? The circle ones look simpler but I want to use it to make a ton of stuff for years and I like that this has replacement parts and the hooks are metal not plastic, looks like these machines are meant to last decades. Really amazing! Love it thank you!
I had this same question for about a year! Unfortunately with the 24-st punch card machine, you need a stitch pattern that is a multiple of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12. If you have an 18-st pattern, it won’t work… you either need to alter the pattern to increase the design to a 24-st pattern or I believe you can use an electronic machine and hook it up to design software… so that’s why for this sweater, we knit the pattern by hand and then hung the finished colourwork on the machine to do the stockinette portion…
I’m behind viewing. Just watched this one. You need to check out speed ripping. I see a least one mention in comments on speed ripping. There are RU-vids on it. One old one is by Diana Sullivan. Speed ripping starts at 3.00 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-idp5v5rQAbM.html
I’ve found it really important to use both hands to make sure it’s a smooth and consistent speed across the bed. And it’s more like a workout than I expected too. The feel of the carriage moving across will also depend on the tension of the yarn and the stitch dial too.
Actually, you shouldn’t have to force the carriage across the bed at all. Only time I use both hands is when I’m moving really fast across the bed. If you’re feeling resistance, then either your gauge is too small for the yarn or your yard take up is too tight.
For sure, it's not too much resistance, but I do think I'm pushing this particular machine. I'm on the loosest stitch dial and the loosest tension on the yarn mast, so really, maybe I should just be using a finer yarn on this machine.
Rubbish machine. Need to understand yarn size on the standard gauge knitting machine. Your work is fantastic. Yarn size is really confusing and how do you identify the sizes. Finger weight, lace weight, worsted yarn. What is that on needle size. Aran is a 5mm needle on average, except worsted sports weight, which is 6mm or 6.50mm needle size. Not clear. Standard gauge machine size always a mystery.
There are excellent videos on RU-vid that explain the differences between machines. Worsted and DK weights like the midgauge and/or bulky gauge (which I don't have.) Aran, I believe, is best on a bulky. I bought a plastic midgauge Brother 40 years ago to learn. I still have it and still loves it. I just bought a std. guage punchcard + ribber for finer yarns and more patterning. My plastic Brother, BTW, sells for the same as what I paid for it in 1987 and totally worth it! I agree that she should have knit this on a different gauge machine and that's why she was needing two hands.
