Tale of the Pinkie
In late summer, Bill found a vintage Passap Duomatic, or Pinkie, disassembled and dumped in a battered shopping cart at the local St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store.
Being a husband always on the look out for a wifely present, he promptly pushed it to the pricing dock and crammed it into his Honda Civic.
His timing was perfect.
Not a week before I had responded to a Craigslist ad and was generously given a more recent Passap Duomatic 80. It was in great condition. All it needed was a thorough deep cleaning to remove the sticky old oil. I was too nervous to take it apart because I wasn’t convinced I could put it back together.
Then the Pinkie arrived and became our guinea pig.
Bill and I worked together reviving the machine. He disassembled. When we got stuck, I searched the internet for solutions.
It was time consuming. I cleaned and oiled over 1,100 needles, pushers, needle channels, nut, bolts, washers, and various plastic pieces. Towards the end I got smart and made an assembly line so the whole family could spend "quality" time together, rubbing an oil cloth on each metal piece.
Now that the Pinkie is back together, I really should sell it and use the Duomatic 80.
But it’s pink.
And Bill found it all by himself.
And it was born in 1961, a very good year.
Maybe I’ll keep it a little bit longer, just to be sure.
Info
I learned more about a Passap from taking it apart than I ever would have from knitting a beginning pattern. Going through the process gave me the opportunity to see the machine up close on my terms and get over being intimidated by it. It was well worth the time.
We wouldn’t have attempted the project without the Be Your Own Passap Paramedic book by Michael Becker. When we got stuck, the members of Yahoo Groups PassapKnits site were wonderful. A big thanks to Pat at PassapKnits for guiding us through the lock which was rusted shut and out of alignment. We would not have been successful without her.
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2 comments
Hello Kathryn, I am not yet ready to try out miss Pinkie, but looking at it I am puzzled by the one-pole- 4-color yarn tension unit. I have tried to thread it different ways - but none make sense and some totally illogical.
I have not been able to locate any infos on these nor have seen any picture in all Passap related site . Passapknit or Passapclub neither.
So it has a one-metal pole and 4-units at the top with metal hoops and each of the unit has one long antenna - a hole at the tip but no short antennas like a Singer or a Brother nothing on the metal support pole.
Do you know how to thread this weirdo.
I saw your feed on the sponge bar (super) thanks -I will try this. Don’t know why my sponge bars get flat so quick on my Singer and yet I do not oil that part of the bed.
I like your site and your way of showing things. Thanks.
Enka
I looked through my old Passap reference books and I found that the Pinkie over the years had two different 4 color changers.
The older style of the four color changer had an extra thin wire hanging off the back of the tension dial as well as a metal eyelet immediately after the yarn goes through the tension dial. You started threading there. The “newer” style skipped these wires and is suppose to thread just like the Duo 80.
The reference book that has the original threading diagrams is called Basic Course For The Passap by Amanda Van Der Merwe. It is long out of print. You would have to find a used copy.
I wish I could just take step by step pictures for you. My pinkie only came with the original single tension mask with plastic clip to hold the yarn.
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