Tag Archives: Machine Knitting

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12-Stitch Machine Knit Gingham Chart

Hello!

I know that it’s been a while since I posted, but I’m sure you’re all used to that by now… It has been a bit of a whirlwind of activity around here…

I’ve started working 4 days per week for the company that I previously worked for. It’s been good. Part time has been agreeing with me. I do enjoy having 3-day weekends, for sure.

Last weekend we had a severe freeze here and the heater in the pump house couldn’t keep up. The well head froze. Thankfully, we were able to save it, several hours later. We really thought we were going to have to buy a new pump. SOOO glad we didn’t! We had a couple of burst pipes under the house and a couple of our drain pipes froze – 2 burst; thankfully they were just drains and not water pipes. We had the plumber out yesterday to fix them.

I received my “new” knitting machine and have enjoyed playing with it. One of the patterning drums is missing a tooth and the gal I bought the machine from is sending me another carriage that I can cannibalize for parts.

It’s amazing how much faster fair isle knitting is on the machine! I’ve been having a few operator issues when doing colorwork, but I think I’m learning pretty well.

For my kitchen curtains, I want to do a gingham check along the bottom of the panels, so I came up with a punch card pattern to accomplish this task. The rest of the panels will be in a tuck stitch pattern. This will keep the curtains a solid panel, but will give them some interest.

Here is the gingham check punch pattern that I came up with:

12st Gingham Pattern Chart JPG

And here is the PDF

12st Gingham Pattern Chart PDF

Enjoy!

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12-Stitch Argyle Machine Knitting Punch Card Pattern Chart

I will soon be the proud owner of a Studio SK-155 knitting machine. My Bond machine broke a keyplate and it has been unusable since. So, I am investing in a metal machine. I expect to get hours of knitting enjoyment out of my new Studio.

One of the great things about the new machine is that it uses punch cards for patterning. I can’t wait to try some fair isle and punch lace.

I have started designing punch card patterns for the 12-stitch machine – so you can expect to see them here from time to time.

This is my first pattern:

12-Stitch Argyle

PDF:

12st Argyle Pattern Chart

JPG:

12st Argyle Pattern Chart

 

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Humbug!

So, I started making an afghan, on my new sweater machine. I just wanted to get to know it, nothing fancy. Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn in pink and brown. Stripes of different widths… No muss, no fuss. Pure stockinette heaven.

Because I only have one machine, I can only work with 120 needles at one time. No worries. I’d make three strips and sew them together.

I got strip number one finished last evening. It only took me a few hours to machine-knit 300+ rows. I was quite impressed! My back was hurting at the end of it all and I decided to stop for the night.

After a bit of internet surfing, I went in and made some changes to my work space (which had been commandeered from my dresser top) and cleaned things up. I got it all neat and tidy and organized. Just the way I like my work space!

Today I go in and begin on the second afghan strip and wouldn’t you know it… I had problems from the first row. Well, evidently, in the course of attempting to knit, I broke one of my keyplates. The #4 keyplate, which is the smallest plate that works well with worsted-weight yarn. Incidentally, it is also my biggest keyplate. Ugh.

I proceeded to try and do some knitting with the #3 keyplate. I knew better than to try, from my previous test swatches… Well, that didn’t work too well. Why was I surprised??? Dropped stitches all over the place. *sigh*

So, I’m left with a long, brown and pink, unevenly-striped scarf. I guess I’ll just crochet a cute edging on and wear it. Well, it won’t keep me warm on the sofa, but it’ll keep my neck warm when I go outside.

Bah…

UPDATE: Because my ISM is so old (from the 80s) they no longer make keyplates to fit. So, sweetie told me to get the “upgrade” kit! This consists of a new carriage (different design) that comes with keyplates that include half-sizes! So, now I’m going to have a wider variety of yarns I can use! Yay!