Knitting Machines

YouCantBuyThisMovement · 10-21-2006, 10:02 AM

Ok I was thinking about getting The ultimate sweater machine. To make bigger things I dont have alot of time for and doing all the delicate nice stuff by hand. I also would like to get one to sell to local stores and do custom jobs for people because there is no one in my area (4 towns lol) that does anything like this. Knitting is not popular here infact I had to teach my BFF Kendall so I would have somone to knit with. I think this would be a good small business for me. In a few years I want to have kids and stay at home and this is what I would love to do.

But there is a problem I have no idea how good these things do or what I can do with them exactly. What is the best kind? I picked the Ultimate Sweater Machine because I can find it in a store an hour away which is how far I have to drive for wool yarn.

So if anyone has anything to say please help also any tips on how to use the darn thing or patterns and I will love you soooo much.

Thanks Savannah Hope Spiers

xxx

knit-errant · 10-21-2006, 04:12 PM

My husband got me one for Christmas last year, when I was just learning to knit.

Now I prefer hand knitting, unless I'm doing something with lots of tedious stockinette. (The USM only does stitch patterns with a right (knit) side and a wrong side by default; anything else and you'll have to use a crochet hook or latch tool to manually change the stitch.) Still, the USM is nice for last minute gifts and stuff -- I can crank out double sided, 6-foot scarves in about 2 hours.

I guess the biggest thing is just practice -- it took me a while to get the hang of it without dropping every other stitch... or even worse, missing an entire row and dropping my whole piece off!

Anyhoo, here are a couple of the better USM links I've found:
http://www.stephthornton.co.uk/knitt...d/bondpatt.htm
http://www.clearwaterknits.com/freepats/freepats.html
http://www.stephthornton.co.uk/knitt...t/listhint.htm
http://www.bond-america.com/projects...ect_index.html

YouCantBuyThisMovement · 10-22-2006, 03:10 PM

Thank you so much. I do love to hand knit but I have ALOT of problems with my hands CTS. a cyst on my wrist and tennis elbow. If you can beleive all that. I am only 20 but it runs in my family really bad and I have been doing all sorts of crafts since I was born.

I think it will be worth it to do last minute things like you said.

Thank you again soooo much.

kisses

Sara · 10-22-2006, 03:40 PM

I have never used one, but I have seen the finished product. Apparently, my male coworker found it easy to teach himself to use and it was very quick. The sweater he made looked like it was store-bought.

Also, one of the knitting magazines is for machine knitters, but I can't remember which. Can anyone else come up with it?

knit-errant · 10-22-2006, 04:14 PM

I think it was InKnitters, before it became InKnitters... uh, I think it was Machine Knitters Source? InKnitters still has knitting machine patterns, but it isn't exclusively machine knitting now.

I think there's a UK magazine called Machine Knitters Monthly, but I can't find it consistently.

I'm sure there are more, too, but I don't know what they're called.