Archive of Thread: Tuck stitch frustration Back

5 years ago
hi - I am knitting a men’s sleeveless vest in tuck stitch on my Silver Reed machine. I have completed the back successfully and the front up to the V neck shaping, but now the tuck stitch pattern is going haywire as I knit up towards the shoulder. The punchcard looks fine and I have tried a variety of weights but instead of the stitches alternating between a tuck loop and a knitted stitch, the knitting is randomly knitting 2 or 3 knitted stitches then a tuck loop. Any suggestions gratefully received.

5 years ago
I DK if these ideas will be of any use to you, Joan, and I DK what machine you're using, i.e. electronic or punchcard, but 1) did you re-read your mylar or punchcard correctly after getting set-up for the 1st 1/2 V-neck shaping?  2)  If using electronic, did you move your endpoints/N1 cam accordingly for 1/2 shaping?  If this were me, because of the set-up issues with patterning on a V-neck, I probably would do a cut-n-sew neck.  Also, since you're only working on 1/2 of the garment, the weighting in tuck can get tricky.

5 years ago
Had it happen to me recently on my new to me Empisal (similar to silver reed). I was used to a Brother and didn’t know why. Went to search and found in the manual it says clearly to take the machine passed the pattern card touch levers. Page 24 of the instruction manual.
When knitting the right shoulder on my machine 360K, I didn’t go always far enough to the left passed the touch levers, hence the drums don’t get patterned correctly.
on the left shoulder I didn’t have that problem as my punch card facility is to the left of mid-machine.
So, try this, because the drums need to go passed that part of the machine or you get mispatterning.

5 years ago
Thanks Wilma and Sandee for your replies. Wilma - the problem was exactly as you described. I wasn’t taking the carriage far enough over.
The other lesson I learned is to put the stitches that are held while you are doing the first side of the V neck, on waste yarn. I thought I would just put those needles in hold but when I did that, the wool went slightly fuzzy creating an ugly line because of the carriage passing over those stitches so many times.

5 years ago

You’re welcome! We all learn a lot from each other. 

I agree about the work in hold getting fuzzy sometimes, so I also prefer to take it off on waste yarn. Or knit the stitches back with ravel cord.

Good luck and have fun with your machine!

5 years ago
This is my method for putting stitches on waste yarn while you knit the first side of a V neck:  when you get to the start of the shaping, take the main yarn out of the feeder, thread up with waste yarn and knit one row.  Now put half the needles on the side AWAY from the carriage into Holding Position and set the carriage to knit only the WP needles .  Knit a further 5 or 7 rows with the waste yarn over the needles in WP.  Cut the Waste Yarn and without changing the carriage setting, pass the carriage once to drop the waste yarn stitches and re-thread with the main yarn.  Return the empty needles to NWP and return the HP needles to WP.  Unravel the one row of waste yarn and work the shaping rows of the first half.

Always make sure the waste yarn is clearly distinct from the main yarn but also ensure it is not a "hairy" yarn which might leave tiny - but visible - threads in the stitches when you unravel it.

Jenny

5 years ago
What a great idea.  I am relatively new and learn something new everyday from you all and Sue, you are the greatest!