Sorting Through the Machines

I've had several machines given to me over the past year and they are piling up.  I went for years with only the one given to me and the one I bought.  Then I was fortunate enough to have several given to me.  I was fine with my original set up, but was intrigued with the idea of playing with a garter carriage.  You know what that means?  I have to get a brother machine in addition to a garter carriage.  I was given a Brother 860 and 2 Brother 930s.  I was also given 2 93 garter carriages and one 89.  All in varying degrees of condition.  I was also given 2 disc drives for what I didn't know exactly.  My friend Bonnie was looking for a disc drive for her Brother set up and offered to come over.  She would help me sort out my mess of machines and decide what worked and what I should keep.

We decided the 860 was a punch card and I already have punch card machines.  I later found out through a chart on Daisy Knits that neither garter carriage was compatible with the 860 any ways.  So, good choice deciding to pass that machine along.  We plugged in the 930 I had set up on a stand and it worked!  I still need to clean it up and replace the sponge bar, but I didn't want to put all that work in if the electronics didn't work.

Next Bonnie went to testing the disc drives.  We found out neither worked.  They turn on and try and read the disc, but an error message comes up.  Bonnie had brought her 930 or was it a 960 along with a working disc drive that she wasn't sure she wanted to purchase.  She knew both worked great.  She tested my disc drives with her machine just in case mine wasn't working correctly.  Again error messages.  Then she tested her working disc drive with my 930 and it worked great and added a pattern.

By this time we were getting tired and decided to check out the garter carriages another day.  I'll get the 930 cleaned up by the time it's time to test them out.  Question now is which garter carriage to keep?  One 93 has no box, instructions, power cords and is in pretty rough shape.  One is pretty complete as far as I can tell, but is really dirty.  The 89 is pristine and looks like it was never used or taken out of the box.  I just need to figure out which works.

Sad Day Stripping My Old Friend

My traveling Toyota KS 650 got knocked over at a meeting a year ago.  It was just too twisted and bent to save.  I didn't want to give up on it.  It's been a year and I finally thought it's taking up too much space.  As I got my Studio 155 set up with ribber I realized I had gotten a new sponge bar for the knitting machine, but not for the ribber.  Light bulb!!  Why don't I take the fairly new sponge bar out of the Toyota.  It's time I thought to give up the ghost on that ole machine.  So, I got the sponge bar and finished setting up the Studio 155.  Then I began stripping all usable parts from the Toyota.  I got all the needles, the numbered strip, the tool box, and the carriage.  I asked DH to put the carcass in the trash for me.  Though not heavy any more it was just difficult to get rid of my first machine.

Looking forward to getting acquainted with the new to me machine.  Looks very much like my Toyota the learning curve I hope will be very small.

Wrestling with a Knitting Machine

I didn't win.  I got my Studio 155 back from the repair guy and was anxious to get it set up with it's ribber.  This meant taking down my Toyota 650 and ribber.  It had to be unearthed.  Patterns, yarn, tools and such were all over the place where it sits.  How on earth did I ever work with so much stuff around?  I finally got that place cleaned up and ready for the new machine.  I forget how heavy these machines are let alone the bulky machines.  This is a factor for me, because 17 years ago my neck was injured and lifting heavy items is not recommended.  Sometimes one just has to do what one has to do.

I got my newly refurbished bulky knitting machine on to the stand.  It was a wrestling match.  One side would swing off and I'd swing it back.  Then the other side would swing off and I'd hip check it back into place.  I broke a sweat just trying to get it clamped on.  Why was it giving me so much trouble?  Tightened the ribber clamps and decided that was enough for one day.  Stepped back and admired my "new to me" machine.  Then the whole thing flipped off the stand and on to the floor.

While cussing like a sailor I was trying to figure out how on earth did it come loose.  My hands were still throbbing from tightening the clamps.  Now I'm just mad, because I wasn't sure what damage had been done.  Using a tool and more hip checking and standing right in front of it I got it reclamped to the stand.  Now to access the damage.  I ran the carriage back and forth with many needle configurations and lever configurations and it seemed fine.  I do have 2 gate pegs wildly out of place though.  Frickety Frack!!

Will work on getting ribber on later today.  Wish me luck?  Maybe I need Hulk Hogan or The Rock here to help me.  They are more experienced with wrestling than I am.

Still Here

Though I may not be machine knitting anything I feel is worth sharing I'm still here and keeping busy.  Today I saw this video by "The Answer Lady" and thought what a handy technique for hand winding a center pull ball.  There have been a few times I've been without a ball winder and needed a center pull ball pronto.  I'm going to be practicing this technique.

Estate Sale

One of our beloved machine knitters passed away about a month ago.  She was a very experienced and knowledgeable machine knitter and seamstress.  Her husband was SO wonderful and drove her to the machine knitting meetings even after she had a small stroke and didn't want to come.  He knew once she was there she'd enjoy visiting with the gang.  She seemed to enjoy herself and I know we all really enjoyed her.

It's time now to clear out all the craft items.  Her husband along with the assistance of a few members of the Sacramento Machine Knitter's Guild is putting on an Estate Sale.  Info is below.  If you live in the Sacramento, California area you'll want to stop by and see what he's got.

Estate Sale

April 28^th, 8 A.M.-3 P.M.

4420 Coffee Lane, Sacramento

(Close to Madison Ave., Date Ave. and Hwy. 80)

Items for sale

Knitting Machines (Studio, Brother, Standard, Bulky)

Ribbers (Studio, Brother, Standard, Bulky)

Knitting Machine Accessories (ie. Garter Carriage, Intarsia Carriage, Linker, Color Changer)

Machine Knitting Books

Machine Knitting Magazines

Yarn Winders

Punch Cards

Yarn

Sewing Machines

Sergers

Sewing Machine Parts

Dress Forms

Thread (Spools for Sewing Machines and Sergers)

Furniture

Miscellaneous Household Items and much much more.

Pacific NW Machine Knitting Seminar

Pacific NW Machine Knitting Seminar: Registration OPEN

SIGN-UPS are HERE! Rev up those machines, knitters, the Pacific Northwest Machine Knitting Seminar has opened up registration. Join Angelika as she presents a two full days worth of classes and shopping relevant to machine knitting and DesignaKnit 8. Located in beautiful Vancouver, Washington you'll be sitting on the scenic Columbia near Esther Short Park and just a 20 minute drive from downtown Portland and the home of the Yarn Store. Follow that link for more information and to sign up before the limited time, low-rate ticket sale ends.

SIGN-UPS are HERE! for Lily Chin's Hand Knitting Workshop. Attend this small and cozy gathering with Lily and perfect your skills, and laugh out loud with reversible cables!! Limited space! Find out the details now!

More Machine Knit Bunnies

We all love this machine knit bunny.

This year though I think I'm going to try machine knitting this bunny.

I'll give mine a pom pom tale like the purple bunny.  Can't wait to give this idea a try.  If you'd like to see many examples of this project check them out on Ravelry.  To date there are 362 of them.  They sure do multiply fast.