Knitting Machines galore since one is never enough, photo tutorials, and knits gone wild

Machine Knitters

Amoonsinger knit a mesh cocoon for a newborn.

Needles of Steel talked about being befriended by strangers online and how awkward it can be. I have similar issues when strangers friend me on Ravelry. Are they doing it because they expect me to reciprocate? I friend someone on Ravelry because I either like their work or we appear to share interests. I never expect a “friend back”. I hope they don’t either.

Monique tripled up an e-wrap cast on after first starting with waste yarn to add simple elegance to the bottom of her sweater.

Hand Knitters

Strikker knit a beautiful Hanami Stole for her mum’s birthday. I love how the pattern morphs from structured basketweave lace to scattered YO’s, simulating friendship to cherry blossoms falling. The pattern is by Pink Lemon Twist.

Carnival and Blog Event Thank You’s

All Rileyed Up hosted the Carnival of Family Life – Jan 26th Edition. My post on Knitting Machine Manuals was selected for the Family Crafts and Activities section.

Colloquium hosted the Carnival of Family Life – Jan 12th Edition. My post on Free Stitch Design Software For Hand and Machine Knitting was included in the Family Crafts and Activities section.

Ever wondered what knitted fabric would look like if your machine could knit your voice?

Gelsomina, a voice activated knitting machine, is the brain child of two Berlin art students, Magdalena Kohler and Hanna Wiesener.

They modified a vintage Empisal punch card knitting machine, allowing it to select needles based on the melodies of the human voice. Continue reading…

This has to be seen by a knitter to be truly appreciated.

The Montreal band, Tricot Machine, used 720 separate pieces of intarsia knitting to produce the video for its single, Les Peaux de Lièvres.

Since I don’t speak French, I have no clue what the song is about. It is pretty cool to watch machine knitted fabric in a totally different medium.

[Thanks Knitting Matters Cast On]

Hello. My name is Kathryn, and I’m a blog stat junkie.

It totally makes my day when I find a site that has bravely made its statistics public. What is there not to love about being invited to spy into someone’s private work space. Totally addictive.

Given how great my visitors have been, it only seems fair to let you peek a bit behind my curtain and see some Sitemeter and Statcounter screenshots. Continue reading…

It seems so fitting.

Even the largest industrial knitting machines must still crank out the dreaded swatch.

When these big boys accidentally mangle a complete row of finished fabric, I wonder how many needles and at what teeny tiny gauge some poor operator has to untangle.

Click for flickr

So you found a great buy on a used knitting machine. Only one catch – there’s no manual.

Check out some of these free downloads to see if one will work for your Brother, Passap, Studio, Singer, Silver Reed, Knitmaster, Juki, or Toyota machine. Pick the model number closest to your equipment by the same manufacturer. You should be pleasantly surprised at how much information is useful.

When you’ve got your machine up and running, take a peek at the pattern links at the end of this post. There are over 250 pages of scanned sweater, hat, and sock patterns to inspire you. Continue reading…

In trolling the internet this morning I stumbled upon a Passap Duomatic 80 manual pdf someone uploaded to Scribd.com Continue reading…

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to actually use your Passap knitting machine?

Here is a very simple beginner hat in both newborn and adult sizes. It can be knit on any Passap double bed machine. Since this is a very beginner pattern, I’ll take you step by step through a racking cast on, pattern set up, and crown decreases. I realize this will be overkill for many, but I needed lots of pictures when starting out. Continue reading…