Archive of Thread: HI I’m Nik Back

4 years ago

Hi, I’m Nik
Wanted to share my experience of starting out on my machine knitting journey in the hope it might help other new people.

I have knitted by hand and crocheted for decades so, fancy myself as understanding yarn, gauge etc.
Came across an Sk155 bulky and ribber cheap on eBay and thought I’d give it a go. I was lucky, the machine is great. On the back of that bought an sk280 standard gauge and ribber because it was a real bargain and also works fine. In for a penny / in for a pound.

Found knit it now and off I go!

My first jumper (sweater) came out ok but I knitted in an inexpensive yarn that I would never wear. Trying to save on cost in case of disaster. Gifting it to my daughter.

Since then I have experienced one frustration after another. Dropping stitches, and everything falling off, hours of knitting/ video watching for poor results.

I have recently completed two successful projects......So happy.

What was the trick?

TAKE IT SLOW!
FORGET THE RIBBER FOR A BIT.

New to the machine it’s so much faster than knitting by hand but taking a little extra time saves a lot of time. Machine knitting is becoming so rewarding but without Sue and knit it now I wouldn’t have got off the ground.
Thank you

4 years ago
Potential idea:  You may have already learned about the  "sponge bars" or "retention bars"  that go under the needles in both the main bed machines and the ribbers.  If these are worn down (flattened) you'll have all kinds of problems with stitches falling off, etc.  It might be worth it to check the condition of these sponge bars out.

4 years ago
Yes Sandee. I replaced my sponge bars a while ago but the old ones didn’t seem too bad so I forgot I’d done it. This would help explain my past failures and more recent successes. Thanks.

4 years ago
Hi Nik, thank you for your wisdom. One of my first “mistakes� was also ribber related. When I put it on I didn’t know anything about machine knitting. I left it there permanently. Cables, intarsia, what have you, I was struggling working between the ribber and the main bed to catch dropped stitches, etc. Yes it goes down, but not THAT much. So I was working on the blanket contest this weekend which didn’t need the ribber and I was struggling again, especially because the slant on the main bed slides the yarn more easily behind the open latches (disaster!)... and then DUH EUREKA! I just pulled the ribber off!! I had a totally misguided idea that I had used screwdrivers or that the main bed would crash to the ground if I removed the ribber... omg it’s as easy as pie. What a dork!

Now that I know this (which I’m sure everyone knew already), I’m so much happier. 

4 years ago
Haha, I struggled for ages with the exact same thing before I realised how easy it is to take the darned thing off !

4 years ago
[QUOTE username=N Pople userid=6999048 postid=1310620676]Haha, I struggled for ages with the exact same thing before I realised how easy it is to take the darned thing off ![/QUOTE]

OH I AM SO RELIEVED... 😅😅. I love this community because you realize you are not alone hahaha

4 years ago
I’m lucky to have purchased ribber covers (plastic).  I used to add my ribber only when needed. Eventually didn’t use because the little extra work of attaching was “too much work/annoyanceâ€? or I was just too lazy.  If you can’t locate ribber covers,, a good substitute is draping a heavy piece of plastic cut to ribber dimensions over the ribber bed. Or a heavy duty plastic table cloth cut to size.  I learned of this from a resourceful instructor many years ago.

4 years ago
You just made me look up "ribber cover", because that's a great idea!

4 years ago
Thanks for the tip Mary. Just found and purchased ribber covers for both my machines on eBay. My lucky day!