Tag: machine knitter

Accessories, Knitting Machines

The EEW Cone Winder- Unboxing and Initial Thoughts

elyknits

If you’re familiar with the Electric Eel Spinning Wheel, you might know that Maurice Ribble of Dreaming Robots, the mind behind the magic, recently released an electric cone winder! 

I backed the project on Kickstarter in 2022. I have only backed three or four Kickstarter projects, but I have to say, Dreaming Robots was great about keeping backers in the know about the state of the project and allowing input. I forgot to fill out the address form when it came out, so my winder arrived in December, but that’s all on me! (Facepalm) I paid the Kickstarter backer price of $189 plus shipping. The cone winder now retails at $259 and is in stock as of the time of writing.

each block is ~1 inch for size reference

The winder was packaged securely and nothing was damaged in shipping. I opted for 10 cones with my winder.

The manual is straightforward and comes with a template to show you how to lay out the tension unit and winder unit. I love that. I’m not great at eyeing measurements, and even though my blocking board lays things out by square inches, I can still measure things incorrectly. It’s a skill.

The cones are 27 grams according to my scale, and I like that they come in different colors. It’s fun. They look pretty cool on the inside once they hold yarn, too.

Assembly was straightforward and well laid out in the manual. There are excellent videos and written instructions on how to use the EEW Cone Winder on the Kickstarter page and FAQs on the product page. I avoided watching anything or reading anything but the initial Kickstarter campaign and the user manual before testing the winder for this post.

Initial Test-Winding Yarn from a Hank

I decided to cone up some of my friend Suzy’s yarn, Woolyboogers Felts. She works out of a studio next door to Get Stitchin’ and exclusively sells at craft shows and Get Stitchin’, so she’s just another great reason to stop by if you’re in the Tulsa area.
(You can sign up for one of my classes while you’re there! Standing classes the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays and Saturdays of the month!)

I used knitting machine clamps and the included tension unit clamp to hold the units in place on my counter, and I initially had my yarn swift (this thing) on the counter next to the winder. That meant the yarn was coming down from the swift to the counter level tension unit.

Using speeds 1 and 2 with the loosest, straight tension setting, I wound the 438 yards of sparkly goodness onto the cone. Well, the winder did all of the work. I supervised.

“professional” placement! haha

On the lowest settings and loosest tension, it took a few minutes to wind, but I wanted to be cautious learning the winder. I had a couple of issues with feeding into the tension unit from the swift when I had it sitting so much higher than the tension unit intake. It worked much better when I moved the swift to sit on a chair and the yarn intake was more level with the tension unit as it fed yarn in. The yarn winder had plenty of power to wind from the swift, but I found on the lowest tension it had to work a bit harder if the hank on the swift was held too tightly or the yarn was caught underneath itself.

After the slow speed test run with Woolyboogers, I decided to cone up four skeins of Berroco Modern Cotton DK. (I’ll be reviewing it soon, so be on the lookout for that post in the future!) 

warm light | cool light

I wound each skein at a higher speed than the last, with the final at speed setting #5. I was catching a breeze from the swift at that point! I used the higher tension winding setup as shown in the manual for this yarn. 

It looks great coned up! The cone has two small holes at the top for you to attach the yarn label and then store in the center of the cone.

I prefer a more tightly wound cone of yarn, especially for fibers like cotton. The looser tension setting is probably more ideal for delicate yarns. I didn’t experience any yarn breakage, and I did “jam” the winder a couple times. More on that in a bit.

Turn up your audio to hear what the EEW Cone Winder sounds like at speed #5 in my Instagram video below. My pictured setup isn’t ideal, but what I had worked just fine!

I wouldn’t say the cone winder is loud, but it definitely isn’t silent. You can hear it working rhythmically, but I didn’t find it unpleasant. 

If you’ve wound a lot of yarn into cakes before, you’ll appreciate the electric cone winder doing the hard work for you. Your arms can get tired after a thousand yards, but with the winder, you’re just turning a dial after a little yarn threading. Easy peasy!

Experimenting and User Error

Ah, the aforementioned jam.

The only issues I ran into using the electric cone winder stemmed from user error and experimentation with yarn swift placement for intake through the tension unit.

At one point, I was pulling additional yarn lengths from the swift because the winder seemed to struggle with pulling directly from the swift.

I shouldn’t have been pulling additional yarn out. The winder didn’t need my help. It operated fine, albeit slowly, when I stopped feeding it yarn myself at low settings as well as after I increased the speed dial setting.

While I was pulling that additional yarn from the swift, knots and loops developed in the yarn and happened to hook themselves around the metal guide spiral. The winder kept going for a tiny bit (of course, it is set to ON and rotating) BUT then it stopped.

When I read the FAQs on the product page, I found the motor stopping is by design, and I appreciate that it stopped and didn’t break my yarn!

This is by design. It is bad for the motor to continue trying to spin when it is not spinning. At low power this can happen when it’s trying to spin slowly but there isn’t enough motor to actually spin the drum. In this case the motor will turn itself off until it sees no attempts to spin for 3 seconds. To work around this turn the speed dial to off and then wait three seconds and it will resume normal operations.

from the FAQs at https://www.dreamingrobots.com/eew-cone-winder/

This is one of the reasons why you don’t set the winder and leave it. If something happens, that delay gives you time to fix things.

I’ll say it again: winder does have enough power to be able to pull yarn off of a swift through the tensioner unit, but at low speed settings with looser tension it seemed more likely to knot up or loop around the metal guide spirals on the tension unit, especially if the yarn wasn’t feeding in quite even with the tension unit (that pesky user messing with it…). It may seem counterintuitive, but I didn’t experience the same looping when I upped the tension and the winder speed (and left well enough alone). Pulling extra yarn from the swift to feed into the tension unit just gave the yarn opportunities to form knots and loops and catch on the tensioner.

Yarn placement is important, and getting it right makes your experience with the cone winder much smoother.

Why Buy a Cone Winder

As someone with hand and arm issues, I am so excited to have a way to wind that doesn’t depend on my arms functioning well that day. And, since cones are the most ideal yarn put-up for machine knitting, I can say goodbye to my awkward cake yarn winder. It served me well, but I’m happy to move on, and I won’t miss the occasional loops across the top and bottom that sent my yarn rolling.

At $259, the electric eel cone winder is not cheap. That’s a chunk of change for anyone, but if you want to use hand knitting yarns by machine and your ball winder isn’t cutting it, I think it’s worth the investment, especially if you have years of knitting in front of you, or if you are like me and have issues with your hands, wrists, and arms in general. Cutting out the winding motion lets me use my body’s limited energy to work on actual knitting.

All opinions are honest and my own. Purchases are made with my own money. Links may be affiliate links. If you choose to purchase something using my Amazon affiliate link, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. If you don’t have somewhere local to purchase your machine knitting needs, please consider using my links to support the site! 

Thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey! How do you prepare your yarn for machine knitting? Will you invest in a cone winder? Let me know in the comments! 

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Book Review, Knitting Machines

Machine Knitting Techniques: Texture and 3D Effects

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If you have a little bit of Christmas Cash and you feel like investing in yourself for the New Year, pick up the newly-released Texture and 3D Effects Machine Knitting Techniques book. Amber Hards teaches texture and playfulness in her essential addition to the series.

“[Hards] encourages you to explore and experiment with confidence to produce exciting, tactile knitwear.”

publisher’s blurb

Find it here on Amazon.

The Details

Published: January 1, 2024 (US/NA)Publisher: The Crowood Press
Format: PaperbackPages: 144
MSRP: $24.99Canada: $32.99

Chapters

Materials and StripesManual Tucks
PunchcardsWeaving
I-cords, Strips of Knit, & 3D EmbellishmentPartial Knit: Frills, Bobbles, Loops, 3D Scales
Lace Holes & LaddersPattern Collection

Overview

Amber Hards is a UK-based knitwear designer and maker who has been teaching machine knitting since 2016. Her website showcases years of her work, and I encourage you to give it a look. I especially recommend viewing her “Loving Love” show. You can see why those behind the Machine Knitting Techniques series enlisted her aid with tactile knitting!

The Crowood Press set a high standard for photographic instruction with their Machine Knitting Techniques series, and Hards meets that here. Instructions are clear with illustrative photos. Hards uses color contrast strategically to illustrate steps and movement of textures, but the generally monochromatic palette helps you visualize the textures of the stitches.

The “Pattern Collection” at the end of the book is a bit underwhelming with only two patterns, but remember that this is a technique book. The focus is, as it should be, on technique instruction.

Practicality

“When I show students more textured skills, they often express feeling overwhelmed by the process. As different techniques are often presented as all-over swatches where the stitch or technique is packed together throughout the swatch, many of these textured effects often feel too “runway” or high fashion for a beginner or casual machine knitter. “Where on earth would you actually wear that?” is a common question.

You don’t have to use these techniques all over! A large shawl completely done in one technique can be stunning, but remember that small, pinpointed uses of these details can add to an otherwise simple garment.

This partial knitting shawl I made in 2019 looks like a myriad of connected i-cords or winding snakes of stockinette stitch. It was created by moving groups of needles in and out of work.

Designer Linda Jensen uses the same technique for the bodice of this Ripple Top. Confining it to one part of a garment doesn’t diminish the visual interest this stitch generates. It just refines it.

Pintucks in the shoulder area add interest to an otherwise simple October Cardigan by Jesie Ostermiller. Using them over an entire cardigan could be interesting, but confining the texture to one area created a way to draw the eye upwards.

This October Cardigan was knitted on my Passap Bulky Eight and was one of the first machine knitted projects I created.

It’s not perfect, but I learned so much making it!

Why don’t you try choosing a technique from Texture and 3D Effects and place it in a similar location as the pintucks in this cardigan?

Buy or Bypass?

Of the Machine Knitting Technique books released so far, I suppose you could skip this one, but I think that would be a mistake. Developing skills like these can help you in your other works. Paying attention to how textured stitches are weighted while you knit them, for example, helps you become more aware of your work as it sits on the machine.

Texture and 3D Effects might feel like it is written more for the aspiring designer than your everyday machine knitter, but let’s face it- if you are a machine knitter, you need to learn to be comfortable being the designer yourself because of the lack of available patterns.

Hards encourages playfulness in machine knitting, and I applaud that.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I hope you’ll explore your creativity on the knitting machine even more this year and realize that you might just already be a designer.

Happy 2024!

Thank you for joining me on this machine knitting journey! What texture technique from the book will you try first? Let me know in the comments!

Disclaimer: Links on this site may be Amazon Affiliate links. If you choose to purchase an item using my affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

If you don’t have a local shop to support, please consider using my link and supporting the site!

I purchased this book with my own money. All opinions are honest and my own.

If you would like to submit a book, yarn, accessory, or other idea for review, please contact me through my contact form.

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organization

The Craft Cart

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It’s not technically a knitting machine accessory, but it sure does make life easier! If you don’t use one already, consider getting a craft cart to help organize your machine knitting tools and accessories.

I use a three tiered craft cart to keep my weights, carriages, and accessories organized and contained while I work.

I’m a bit scatterbrained on the best of days, so having a system where everything has its place really helps me stick to a task without distractions. I’m much less likely to lose things when I have a system.

This cart used to be organized with one tier for each gauge and a miscellaneous hand knitting tier when I started machine knitting with just a Brother KH890 and a Passap Bulky Eight, but my collections have a tendency to grow, so I plan on setting up one cart per machine gauge–standard, mid, and bulky.

I keep my most frequently used bits in the top drawer of the cart and use small makeup pouches or pencil cases to keep things like scrap yarn, ravel cord, and safety pin style stitch markers separate.

The middle tier holds plating and ribber accessories …

… and so does the bottom tier. If those ribber weights are on a tabletop somewhere, I can guarantee you they’ll find their way to landing on my foot, so those things get corralled!

My cart doesn’t always look this organized. Of course I cleaned it up for pictures! I often use clip boards or binders to keep my patterns and notes contained, so they float between tiers. Post-It notes with ideas and pattern modifications get scribbled and stuck to the nearest surface so I can continue working with fewer distractions.

I use a metal tilt stand for my standard gauge machine, and it has a shelf for the lid that I use to store the cast-on combs. My LK150 sits on a table or a counter, so I’m looking at a cart with a pegboard-style organization system that hangs down the side.

I’m currently using a lop-sided trash can that was slightly crushed in our move to keep my mid-gauge accessories in one place, so whatever system you decide to use, I’m definitely not going to be judging it.

It’s just important to have one!

How do you organize your knitting machine accessories? Do you have any suggestions for my system? Let me know in the comments below or contact me!

Thanks for reading and joining me on my machine knitting journey!

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Book Review

Machine Knitting Techniques: Cables

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The Crowood Press has released quite the handful of machine knitting books recently, and you won’t want to miss them. Bill King, someone you might recognize from his regular contributions to Machine Knitting Monthly, shares his wealth of knowledge in this Cables edition of Machine Knitting Techniques.

Once a few basic techniques have been mastered, the number of cable designs available is virtually endless.

The Crowood Press

The Details

Published: 2023Publisher: The Crowood Press
Format: PaperbackPages: 112
MSRP: $21.99Canada: $28.99

Chapters

The Basics of Cable Knitting on the MachinePress Off Relief
One Tool Cables on the Single BedSuper-sized Grafted Cables
Racked Cables on the RibberCables and Fisherman’s Rib
Deflected or Moved Ribs3×1 Mock Rib Cables
Partial Knit CablesCable Miscellany
Pattern Collection

Overview

Bill King is a freelance knitwear designer and technician who has worked extensively for the knitwear industry in the UK and overseas. His designs have sold to Calvin Klein, DKNY, Anthropology, amongst others. With 40 years of knitting experience, Bill holds regular knit workshops and seminars in the UK and has written the Masterclass feature in Machine Knitting Monthly for the past ten years.

Vogue Knitting Live

Machine Knitting Techniques: Cables is a skill book and focuses on instruction rather than patterns, though it does offer four patterns with instruction for three sizes each at the end of the book.

Examples are shown on a standard 4.5mm gauge machine, and most use a ribber bed, so you will need a ribber bed to get the most out of the book.

Instead of schematics, it has needle layout diagrams. If you are new to this type of diagram, it might take you a bit to get used it, but they are straightforward. Over a grid where each square represents one needle, a “|” symbol denotes a needle in work while an “o” denotes a needle out of work. You might sometimes encounter this type of diagram without the grid, as well.

Each new skill has an accompanying exercise with step-by-step instructions so you can practice. From intarsia to plating to tuck stitches, almost every type of cable combination you can think of is in this book.

☼ Project Idea! Keep your exercise swatches and make a patchwork sweater! ☼

Bill King Has Me Thinking More Like a Machine Knitter

The vast majority of my yarn friends are hand knitters or crocheters, and Ravelry is still my go-to for pattern browsing and inspiration. I’ve hand knitted so many cabled things and designed a few of my own, so I’d say I’m at least an intermediate cable knitter. Well, hand knitter.

I never thought about things like Press Off Relief or Mock Ribs. I didn’t need to think of things like that in hand knitting since I could simply knit a few stitches a little bit looser or perform a purl stitch to make a rib. The confines of my hand knitting didn’t need that sort of experimentation or modification. If I wanted to experiment with cables and crossing stitches, I just picked up my needles and started knitting.

Bill King doesn’t shy away from the limitations of the knitting machine. I feel like he leans into them. By making sure the reader understands what things that don’t work well, he reminds the knitter that there are possibilities in the workarounds. Because I spent a decade hand knitting before approaching machine knitting, I found myself thinking “that just doesn’t work well on the machine, so I’ll do it by hand.” King has not only proved that notion wrong, but has inspired me to experiment more with what is actually possible on the machine.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I appreciate the years of industry knowledge King shares in the Cables technique book. If you’re looking for an extensive look into cabling on the knitting machine, you need to pick up a copy.

Where to Buy

If you don’t have a local shop to support, please consider using my amazon affiliate link to purchase your book. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you, and it helps support the site.

Thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey! Do you have Machine Knitting Techniques: Cables by Bill King? What is your favorite new cable technique? Let me know in the comments!

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yarn review

CONE Yarn Review: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport

elyknits

It’s fall, y’all! …well, it is autumn according to the calendar.

Sweater weather hasn’t fully arrived yet in Northeast Oklahoma, but I am here for you with a seasonally appropriate review of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport 100% wool yarn ON CONES!

Before we get into my knitting experience, here are

The Details

Fiber Content100% Wool
Yardage/Meters1682 yards / 1598 m
Ounces/Grams16 oz / (1 lb) / 452 g
Yarn Weight/SizeCYC 2 / Sport
Made InMitchell, NE, USA
AvailabilityBrownSheep.com, Brick-and-Mortar Local Yarn Shops
Construction3 plies
Put UpCone
Hand WashYes
Machine WashNO
Flat DryYes
Machine DryNO
MSRP$55.80
Price Per Yard$0.03

Additional Info
•This yarn will felt if you do not follow proper care instructions.
•NatureSpun is treated with a moth proofing agent at the time of dyeing that makes the wool “unpalatable to the wool moth larvae.” (See their FAQ page for more details.)
•The main wool breeds used are Corriedale, Rambouillet, and Columbian.
•This construction is available in fingering, sport, worsted, and chunky yarn weights.
•Sport and Fingering are the only options that come in cones.

mid-work on a standard gauge knitting machine

Machine compatibility

4.5mm StandardYes
6.5mm Mid-GaugeYes
8mm / 9mm BulkyYes

Mid to high tensions felt best on a standard gauge machine. Low-mid tensions felt appropriate for the mid-gauge machine. Low tensions are appropriate on a bulky machine unless you plan on using specific techniques that require looser gauge.

(If you’re wondering, I knitted the pictured sweater at Tension 5/5 for the ribbing and Tension 10 for the colorwork.)

What I’m Looking For

I’ve laid out what I’m looking for in a book in recent reviews, but I haven’t really talked about what I want in a yarn. The completely unhelpful answer is “It depends.”

It’s about purpose.

Am I indulging myself in a luxurious, expensive specialty garment, or am I making a jacket I am going to wear every single day? Is the item for someone who will take the time to properly wash it, or is it for a busy new mom who barely has time to think, let alone check the care label on some knitting she got from Auntie Em?

I want to say I’m a bit of a yarn snob because the yarns I end up choosing for personal projects tend to be hand dyed from indie dyers that are specific wool breeds. I want that handmade, one-of-a-kind element to be there from start to finish.

But I can also appreciate acrylic and will argue that has its place in your stash alongside your finest, rarest fibers.

My considerations boil down to
•Will this work on my machine(s)?
•What is its purpose (everyday workhorse vs luxury) and does it meet it?
•How does it feel on my skin?
•Is it easy to care for as a gift?
•What are the color options?
•Is it sustainable/renewable? (This can be difficult to answer depending on the amount of information available)
•How does it block?
•Does it match the claims it makes? (i.e,. “just like silk!”)
•Is this going to be discontinued just because I like it?

I’m kind of kidding with that last one, but I’ll admit I’ve started to stay away from brands that are always introducing new yarns and then discontinuing them after a year. If it’s gone by the time I get to knit with it and I can’t find more, why bother even trying it? That’s a major yarn peeve!

Speaking of yarn peeves, you may not mind these things, but I sure do!

•Knots in low yardage skeins
•Knots in general
•Donut put-up
•Quickly discontinued
•Splitty construction
•Loose/easily lost labels (especially those wrapped but unsecured labels on those dang donuts)

sweater on a wildflower bed of saltmarsh asters

Knitting It Up

I bought this yarn to knit the Sweet and Simple Block Jumper by Kandy Diamond from her new book, Discovering Machine Knitting. (Check out my review here!)

Nature Spun has a great selection of colors. The two colors I used, Autumn Leaves, an olivey chartreuse, and Pomegranate, an autumn red, had very nice depth of color due to a tiny bit of added black. It really made the colors pop.

With more than eighty vibrant colors spun in four different weights, the possibilities are unlimited for creating something beautiful with Nature Spun.

BrownSheep.com

When I think of 100% wool yarns, I think “scratchy,” but that isn’t the case with Nature Spun. It is a bit more textured than a chemically treated superwash wool yarn version, but that is normal.

Nature Spun is pleasantly soft and squishy with a bit of a size bloom in the twist as it comes off of the cone. Brown Sheep Company classifies Nature Spun Sport as a CYC 2 yarn weight, but I wouldn’t call you wrong if you said it was a light DK or CYC 3 weight, as it is on the heavier end of “fingering” weight yarns.

in bright sunlight, true to color
colorwork and ribbing stitch definition

This yarn flowed very nicely through my machines. I didn’t encounter any breakage or splitting, and when I needed to un-knit a few rows due to a punch card mispatterning, it didn’t cling to itself or create fiber halos around the strand of yarn as I unraveled it. It did shed a slight bit of fuzz as it went through the knit carriage, but others wools I have worked with shed the same amount.

having a soak



I lightly steam blocked the sweater pieces before putting the sweater together. After a bath in some Eucalan, I wet blocked the finished sweater.

The yarn bloomed a tiny bit more after a steam and a soak, but the stitch definition is still nice and clear.

This wool is WARM. Much too warm for Oklahoma in general, but I had to try it on even if it was 82F outside when I finished. If you’re at higher latitudes, this should keep you very warm in the winter.

If you’re picky about your yarn’s sourcing, Brown Sheep Company says it sources its wool from local growers, and the entire process save wool scouring, carding, and combing is done at their Nebraska location. Plus, they are family owned.

Final Thoughts

This yarn is much nicer than I expected it to be, especially as a nonspecific wool blend at $0.03 per yard. Brown Sheep Company’s product listing claims “breathability, resilience, vibrancy, and warmth,” and I haven’t experienced anything to contradict that.

I joked with my husband that we needed to buy a building downtown and open up a yarn shop just so I can get a wholesale account with Brown Sheep Company. I really enjoyed working with this yarn, and I plan to purchase more of it. I personally don’t mind its care requirements, but if you plan to gift an item made from this, make sure your recipient knows how to wash it. It’s basically a one-season/winter only garment yarn in Oklahoma, but I think it’s worth it. I give it a solid

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport on Cones is a workhorse yarn you’ll want to add to your stash.

Thanks for joining me on my machine knitting journey! I hope you’ve enjoyed my review. What factors do you consider when judging yarns? What do you want to see next on the blog? Let me know in the comments or contact me through my site form.

Disclaimer
I purchased this yarn myself. All opinions are honest and my own.
Amazon product links may be affiliate links. As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to use my link. If you don’t have a local place to support, please consider supporting the site and using my link.

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Book Review, colorwork

Confronting Color

elyknits

In case you missed it, I recently reviewed Alison Dupernex’s Creative Machine Knitting.

And boy can I say I was excited but also nervous when I noticed she replied to my Instagram post about the review.

…I threw all my designs in and my ‘colour madness’ to encourage and inspire knitters to go and make for themselves.

Alison Dupernex

Click on the post to view the entire comment.

Her color stories are sometimes very “out there” to me, as in “there’s no way I’d personally choose that,” but her comment on my review got me thinking. 

I decided to pick up Designing with Colour, another book Dupernex wrote in 2020. (I’ll fully review that one soon, but it’s another nice one).

Somehow her color choices didn’t feel as wild to me as they did in Creative Machine Knitting, the most recently published one, but Dupernex’s design theory and point of view remain consistent.

I’ve changed. 

I started to ruminate on how I use color in my own work. 

My default want is to add texture. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Texture is lovely. But I ran into the thought

… am I afraid of color work? 

I adore hand dyed yarns from indie dyers. I love to let the yarn do the work for me color-wise. I like to see how the colors pool, stripe, or blend together. I know what I’m working with, but I don’t know exactly how the garment will turn out, and each skein is unique. 

Does letting the yarn do the work for me make me a lazy knitter? I don’t think so. 

Does that make me a lazy designer? Not necessarily…

But I think it does make me a bit complacent.

It’s easy to rely on beautiful hand dyes to catch eyes and bring people to your work. 

It’s not at all a bad thing to use the gorgeous colors others have curated in your work. 

But I’m not really growing or building skills as a knitter or designer that way. 

Starting Out Small

I initially felt drawn to Dupernex’s color blocked designs the most. I decided to start with her Blocked Sweater from Creative Machine Knitting that featured textured striping on the sleeves and borders of the garment since texture is my favorite thing in knitting.

The design features nine colors. 

Until recently, I didn’t even own nine colors in the same yarn. I think six is my maximum, and that’s if you count Silk City Fibers Cotton Bamboo and Lion Brand CoBoo as the same yarn in different put-ups. 

I found some new old stock vintage Millor Trenzado Industrial cone yarn through a Facebook post (read some tips on finding cone yarn in this post), so I finally have enough colors in the same weight of yarn to experiment.

Sorting through this was overwhelming

After looking through the cones, I had no clue where to start choosing colors. I googled “color palettes” and ended up at Coolers.co narrowing down their existing color palettes to those with nine colors. From there, I tried to see which ones 1) I liked and 2) actually existed in my new cone stash. 

I landed me with this one. I took a screenshot, but I’ve been unable to locate it again. I’ll update with a direct link if I find it.

This palette gives me a southwestern US vibe, and I like that. Holding vacation thoughts in my head, I matched the colors as best as I could from the existing pile and buckled down to knit. 

This photo is rather heavily filtered to make the yarn as close to in-person color as possible.

Actually Knitting

Trenzado Industrial is probably a little bit large for this project, but I decided to continue with the fabric at the pattern’s prescribed tension because it knit well on my Brother KH890 and blocked out nicely. 

After knitting the back right, I quickly realized I needed to dig out a color changer so I could avoid having to get up every few rows to change colors. Just a note: If you decide to get a color changer, there is a difference in models for Brother machines at least, and some will not work with the ribber bed attached while others will. 

The garment itself wasn’t difficult to knit, but I made it a bit harder on myself by reversing the shaping on one front while I was listening to a podcast. 

I didn’t realize until I went to pin the piece onto my dress form, so I had to rehang the stitches and unravel a few inches so I could fix the neck and shoulders. It wasn’t a big deal, but I felt a bit silly. 

I’ve always admitted to being a lazy knitter, so I didn’t enjoy knitting the sleeves. Changing yarns so often was annoying, and I didn’t feel like I could get in the groove with so many quick sections and color changes alongside the decreases. That’s on me, but it is harder to knit something when you don’t enjoy the process.

I do like the overall color palette that the coolers app presented, but in addition to being a lazy knitter by nature, I think I must be a second-guesser, especially since I opted for some tans instead of oranges due to supply. 

I questioned my color choices the entire time I was knitting. Is this orange too bright for the southwest feel? Why did I think this needed a green? That’s too minty, why did I think it was a light sage? 

I had to keep telling myself to trust the process. 

Trust the process. Trust the process…

What do you think? 

It looks pretty okay, right? I’ve been telling myself, “Look here, overthinking second-guesser. It turned out great and now you have a color palette ready for the next one!”

But let me overthink some more…

Since I already liked color blocked items, just doing one with striped sleeves and calling it a day doesn’t really mean I’ve done much “Confronting Color,” now, does it?

Here’s to the next one with less anxiety over the color palette and even more use of color!

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Tips and Tricks

Finding Cone Yarn

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Knitting machines can use a range of yarn from all kinds of put-ups like we saw in my last post, but the easiest and best put-up for machine knitting is cone yarn. Cones don’t need extra preparation before use, have more yardage in general, and often feature unique textures or colors that you might not find in hand knitting yarns.

If cone yarn is so great, why is it harder to find? 

In the USA, machine knitting isn’t as common as it once was. While the hobby is growing again, it’s kind of seen as a niche within a much more popular one or even as “cheating” at hand knitting. Yarns made and wound on cones specifically for machine knitting aren’t really a thing here anymore. 

On the retail side, cones are larger and more difficult to display compared to other put-ups. Most shops don’t have the shelf space to dedicate to a few 1-2lb cones that would otherwise be filled with 10-15 skeins or hanks. Many hand knitting or crochet projects don’t need the thousands of yards that can come on a cone. Additionally, shipping cones generally costs more for the number of products you get than other, smaller put-ups. 

The downsides of retail shouldn’t keep you from using cone yarn in your machine knitting.

Let me butter you up a bit, reader. If you’re a machine knitter, you already work harder to find your materials, parts, and resources than other yarncrafters have to because of that niche! A little work to find cone yarn is nothing to you, right?

Finding Cones Locally

I’m a big believer in shopping at local small businesses whenever possible.

So please, 

Check Your Local Yarn Shop

Maybe they have cone yarn and you missed it! It’s easy to get distracted among the beautiful colors and textures in a yarn haven. Trust me, I understand. 

If your local yarn shop doesn’t stock cone yarn, ask them about it!

Most shops are happy to accept special orders.
**Please keep in mind that many distributors have a minimum dollar amount to place an order for new accounts, so it may take your LYS time to reach that amount depending on their size. Pay up front and work with your local shop so you both benefit! Convert your yarn friends so more of you need cones! (No downsides to that one, right?)

Get Stitchin’, the shop where I teach lessons, recently became an Ashford dealer. Now they have 0.5lb Ashford cotton yarn cones alongside their Ashford spinning wheels and looms! Those gorgeous yarns work wonderfully on 4.5mm standard knitting machines. The owner is happy to order other yarns in, too. I just have to ask!

Oh, speaking of looms,

Ask the Weavers!

Ask your weaving friends or your region’s weaving guild where they source their coned yarns. Many of them will use hand yarns, but those who work with finer yarns will often use cones. (If you don’t have any weaving friends yet, try to make some! Weavers are fun!)

Chat with the Regulars

I live in rural Oklahoma. Most people probably think of Native Americans and buffalo when they think of the state. They definitely don’t think of yarn.

That doesn’t mean hand or machine knitting doesn’t exist here, it just means I had to look a little harder than someone in a big coastal city or European town might’ve had to. 

As some of you know, I used to work at a yarn shop in the suburbs that focused on hand knitting and crochet. When my hands started to deteriorate (I talked about it in this post), I had to start looking for other yarn craft options.

I saw Addi circular machines online, but I had never heard of a flat bed knitting machine. I mentioned my machine research once at the old yarn shop with the other regulars, and wouldn’t you know, one told me about the Fiber Christmas In July festival, a wonderful local fiber festival, and a vendor there who specializes in machine knitting!

Who knows how long it would’ve taken me to figure things out if I hadn’t stuck around and chatted with the yarn shop regulars?!

My teacher and mentor Pamela Carrico is the fiber artist specializing in machine knitting that customer told me about. Her shop has both hand knitting yarns and machine knitting cone yarns! She has new old stock vintage yarns as well as quality acrylic 2/24 yarns that she sells by the pound, which is really helpful if you want to do a colorwork project but you don’t want to pay for pounds of yarn colors you may only use once. 

Asking around helped me find an instructor and materials in one place!

Things worked out wonderfully for me, but what if you don’t have a local yarn shop or yarn community? Making your own is always an option, as is joining an online one.

If you don’t have a local yarn shop, please consider finding a small business online and supporting it before you turn to a big box store. You’re more likely to find someone who can really help you find what you need at a small specialty shop, too!

Call (Yes, Call) Other Yarn Shops 

I have the Millenial Aversion to Phone Calls. If you’re not a close friend or family, I much prefer text or email, so I understand there can be some discomfort in this tip.

But remember, many machine knitting shops have been in business for decades, meaning they have operated without texts and emails for a long time, so a phone call is going to be your best option, especially as they take care of things in store. Don’t forget to leave a message if you need to. Save the shop’s contact information so you know they aren’t spam when they call you back. (Yes, you’ll have to answer the phone, too!) 

At the bottom of this post, you’ll find a list of shops that I know stock machine knitting cone yarn in the USA. If you know of more, let me know in the comments!

Some of these shops don’t have cone yarn listed on their websites but can tell you what they have when you call and ask. Many have “dead stock,” or discontinued cone yarns that are still perfect for knitting. They just aren’t made anymore.

Online Marketplace Listings

If you weren’t able to find anything with info from your LYS or yarn friends, try using Google, Craigslist, and Facebook searches for “<your location> cone yarn” or “<your location> machine knitting.” Don’t forget to check Facebook Groups that may meet locally or regionally, either! 

Cone yarn is often listed in large lots from estate or garage sales. Since it takes up so much room, many people are happy to meet you somewhere and give you the yarn for an extremely low price or even free. I’ve found yarn like this several times. It’s worth checking regularly.

Set a search alert using machine knitting and cone yarn terms so you’ll know when something near you pops up. When you pick up your yarn, ask the seller about their source or where they learned about machine knitting and cone yarn. 

If your local search doesn’t pan out, try some of these smaller businesses online:

Cone Yarn Stockists

Carrico’s Creative Cornerhttps://www.cmodesignerknits.com/Cone Yarn by the Lb, old stock, and more!
Knitcrafthttps://knitcraft.com/SilverReed Importer
The Knit Knack Shophttps://knitknackshop.com/ Tamm Yarns
Peter Patchis Yarnshttp://peterpatchisyarns.com/Email list of Specials
The Yarn Depothttps://yarndepot.orderpromos.com/LARGE cones
Rocking Horse Farmhttps://www.rockinghorsefarmknitshop.com/Machine Knitting Camp
Get Stitchin’https://getstitchin.com/ Ashford Dealer
Ashford Yarnshttps://www.ashford.co.nz/Find local dealer!
WEBS Yarn Storehttps://www.yarn.com/Valley Cone Yarns
YARN ITALYhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/YARNITALYGreat Variety
Silk City Fibershttps://www.silkcityfibers.com/“Wholesale” price
Paradise Fibershttps://paradisefibers.com/collections/coned-yarnFree Shipping after $150 Lower 48
The Wooleryhttps://woolery.com/Weaving Yarns

Have you tried machine knitting with cone yarn yet? Were you able to source it locally? What are you planning to make? Let me know below in the comments!

Disclosures:

I teach hand and machine knitting classes at Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK. I’m not paid to promote the shop, but things that benefit the shop often benefit me as people may purchase my work from the shop or sign up for one of my classes! 

Carrico’s Creative Corner is my mentor’s shop. I’m not paid to promote her shop, but I happily mention it to support her and her work.  

Shops listed are provided for informational and educational purposes and are not affiliated with me.

Thanks for joining me on my machine knitting journey! I hope you learned something useful today. 

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Tips and Tricks

Your YARN is the Problem — Part One: Hand Knitting Yarn Prep

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You might have encountered one of these problems before: the yarn stopped flowing through the tension unit and the tension wire bent all the way towards the carriage and needle bed, the carriage jammed, an entire row knitted at a much tighter tension than you wanted, the yarn broke. 

If you are experiencing problems when you machine knit with hand knitting yarn, your yarn preparation (or lack of) might be the problem. Here are some things to consider about different yarn put-ups and the ways they can affect your tension while knitting. 

various types of yarn put-ups

Hank
Must be wound into ball or cake before use

Donut
I absolutely hate the donut put-up, so I’m going to rant about it!

It does nothing other than look pretty on a shelf. Hand knitting will cause it to fall apart. Putting it in your bag after purchase will cause it to fall apart. Looking at the outer layer cross-eyed will start it on its slinking, unwinding, collapsing journey!

Unstable put-up
Uneven tension
Needs to be contained
Flops around

Yarn Ball
Can roll away
Needs to be contained in a basket or bucket
Yarn can get caught under the weight of large balls causing uneven tension

Skein
Center pull often results in “yarn barf” and/or collapsing skein
Needs to be contained
Outside pull means flopping/traveling/rolling skein and uneven tension as yarn enters machine
Outside pull means stopping after a row to pull out enough yarn to knit a row every time to avoid flopping

Cake
Manual-recommended put-up for Silver Reed LK150
Flat top and bottom
Should not roll
Most even tension of all put-ups mentioned so far
Require ball winder and swift

Cone
Best put-up for machine knitting
Even tension
Large yardage
Not a commonly used put-up for hand knitting yarn

You aren’t an awful knitter if you don’t knit from yarn cakes or cones! But they are the best put-ups that are least likely to cause issues.

I’ve knitted center pull from a skein before. Everything turned out fine, but I did have to stop and fix a few tension issues as I knitted.

I knit from yarn balls all the time, especially for scrap yarn. Sometimes they jump out of their container when I’m knitting quickly and I have to chase them down. It happens.

Knitting from less than ideal put-ups just means I accept I might encounter problems and have to fix them.

A Note on Yarn Cakes

Ideally, yarn winders should wrap around the sides of the cake and not on top or bottom.

If your yarn winder wraps the yarn around the sides and over the top and bottom, the cake will flop and turn like a yarn ball and add additional tension as it does. This is not an ideal cake for machine knitting, but you can make it work by pulling yarn out periodically so it doesn’t have to flop and roll.

Flopping that happens to an “ideal” cake that isn’t wound over the top/bottom likely means there is not enough lead length of yarn from the cake to the tension unit to the carriage (such as the yarn sitting on the table instead of the floor behind the machine), so be sure to give your yarn ample space as it feeds into the tension unit.

Finding Cone Yarn

There are many places to find cone yarns online, but PLEASE visit your Local Yarn Shop first!

If they don’t have any cones, just ask. Most shops are more than happy to custom order yarns. (Just remember some distributors have minimum orders and it might take a bit to meet that number!) And if you don’t have a yarn ball winder and swift, most LYS will wind the yarn you purchase there into cakes for you.

My Local Yarn Shop, Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK just became an Ashford dealer! I don’t weave or spin much, but do you know what comes on cones? Weaving yarn!

(Disclosure: I teach classes, sell Silver Reed knitting machines, and sell my work at Get Stitchin’, but I’m not paid to promote it. I mention it because I both sell and shop there.)

Carrico’s Creative Corner in Bartlesville, OK, my mentor Pamela Carrico’s shop, has a wonderful array of cone yarns as well as hand knitting yarns. Pamela sells cone yarn by the pound, which is a great option for knitters who don’t want to commit to an entire cone and thousands of yards of one color. She also often has new old stock of discontinued yarns that were made especially for machine knitting.

In the end, the amount of preparation you do when machine knitting with hand knitting yarn is about what you’re willing to put up with. You may be willing to deal with a ball rolling around or unwinding from the outside of a skein before knitting every row, but if you find yourself constantly encountering tension issues and uneven knitting, look to your yarn put-up and preparation first.

Thanks for coming along on my machine knitting journey! How do you prep your yarn? Are you strict about it, or do you knit from whatever you feel like using at the time? Let me know in the comments!

Knitting Machines, tutorial

Yarn Plating and the SilverReed LK150

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Have you heard of plating? Not metal plating- yarn plating on the knitting machine!

Most knitting machines can plate with an attachment or interchangeable carriage piece, but plating is a built-in carriage capability on the Silver Reed LK150 6.5mm mid-gauge machine.

It’s described in the manual as two different yarns knitted together where

one yarn appears on the knit side while the second yarn appears on the purl side of the knitting

SilverReed LK150 Instruction Manual p22

The yarns are usually different weights and fibers with one giving additional support to the construction of the fabric and/or adding special visuals like the swatch below.

(If you really want to dive into the technicalities, check out section 6.8.3 Plating in Knitting Technology by David J. Spencer. I thought it was a fascinating read!)

rainbow rayon thread plated on the knit side over a wool dress yarn purl side

Adding Structure – My AHA! Moment

The swatch above uses a very thin, thread weight rainbow rayon yarn over a wool dress yarn of about fingering weight to create a fabric that couldn’t exist without utilizing plating. But how did I get there?

When I was a machine knitting beginner, my friend gifted me THREE CONES of thread weight rainbow rayon yarn. It’s lovely. I adore the colors.

But…

The yarn is so thin that I found it difficult to work with on a standard 4.5mm gauge knitting machine. It’s just too small, and I had no clue what I could make with it. Perhaps a light shawl, but I didn’t think that would work.

Plus… rayon isn’t known as “the poor man’s silk” for nothing. It has a smooth texture and a lovely drape. But that drape comes with drop sometimes. Rayon knits can stretch in length under their own weight, and that can create some fit issues like armholes dropping or skirts falling to an undesired length.

So rayon isn’t always a good choice for some projects unless you combine it with another fiber and use it in a blended yarn, but I already had yarn that was 100% rayon with no clue what to do with it…

That’s when my teacher and mentor Pamela Carrico of CMO Designer Knits introduced me to plating. She gave me the wool dress yarn and suggested plating my rainbow rayon yarn on top of it.

It’s. Perfect.

The wool yarn grants elasticity and memory to the fabric and gives it structure due to the way wool fiber clings to itself at the microscopic level with tiny scales. That wool yarn basically negated rayon’s inherent issues.

The wool is about fingering weight and was much more manageable than thread for me as a beginner. The fabric it created was still nice and lightweight, so that meant it was still wearable while being wool, which matters in Oklahoma.

A “what the heck” yarn turned into “this works perfectly” in an instant.

Visual Appeal

The wool yarn has a blush pinkish grey appearance that doesn’t photograph well and didn’t stand out much on its own. As someone attracted to color, I would have passed it up if Pamela hadn’t suggested it.

She knew that rayon needed structure, and she knew my particular rayon didn’t need more color.

Adding the rayon to the wool took it from slightly boring to amazing. The wool didn’t really need anything, but the rainbow colors helped it make a complete fabric.

You won’t always have yarn features or issues to work around like I did, but you might find yourself wanting something more from your yarn, and plating offers that, too.

Lurex metallic yarns are easy to find on sites like Etsy, but sparkle isn’t all you can add to your work. Bouclé yarns add both visual interest and texture to your fabric. The possibilities are nearly endless.

So if you find yourself with a yarn that just doesn’t work on its own, try plating with it!

Plating Issues

Perfect plating places the yarn on the correct side every time, but for me on my standard gauge machine, that meant very careful carriage pushing and checking every row after it was knit. Even then, it didn’t always come out as planned.

rayon rainbow thread yarn on fingering wool dress yarn

If you look closely, you can see plenty of rows where the wool came through on the purl side and the rainbow rayon came through on the knit side. I wanted the rainbow on the purl side and the wool on the knit side for this swatch, but that just didn’t happen.

So where does the LK150 come in?

So far I’ve only discussed my experience with plating on a standard 4.5mm machine, but that’s not what the title said this post was about!

In my personal experience, I have not had the issues with yarns visiting the incorrect side of the fabric when I use the LK150 for plating. Instead of using an interchangeable part, the plating feature is built into the carriage, and I believe this is what makes it a more “stable” plating option.

For the smaller “top” yarn, I’ve used the thread rayon yarn, lace weight yarns, and even sock weight yarns on top of fingering and DK weight yarns. I even attempted plating two fingering weight yarns, which worked, but it wasn’t quite as nice of a fabric as the other combinations.

While preparing this post, I tried running the carriage across the needle bed very quickly, and I still did not experience yarns hitting the incorrect side of the work. This may not be universal and my machine’s younger age (about 3-4 years) might matter. I’m not complaining!

Plating takes yarns that might not be suitable on their own for your machine and makes working with them possible.

How to Plate on the LK150

Thread one yarn into slot 1, thread a second yarn into slot 2 and knit the night away!

That’s all it takes, but you should also make sure the yarns are not close to each other where they might twist or static cling to each other as they feed through the tension unit and carriage. Twisting two yarns together can make an interesting fabric, but that is not what we want in plating.

I can never remember which slot places yarn on the knit side and the purl side, so the first row of my swatches is often opposite of what I intended.

I’ve written it all out here so you won’t have the same problem! I’ll refer to the smaller yarn as the plating yarn.

slots 1 and 2 from the top
slots 1 and 2 from the front, angled upward

If you want your plating yarn to show on the purl side, thread it into slot 2 of the carriage.

If you want the plating yarn to show on the knit side, thread it into slot 1 of the carriage.

Once your carriage is set, swatch for tension and knit as usual!

I really do mean “knit as usual.” You can short row, cable, increase, decrease, and transfer stitches as you normally would while yarn plating.

You will want to be careful about where each yarn sits on the needle with any laddering and latching up to form purls for ribbing or texture stitches. The yarns need to stay on their respective sides of the knit fabric.

The same goes for stitch transferring and fixing dropped stitches. Make sure you catch both loops of yarn and re-hang them in the right orientation.

What do you think? Have you tried plating yarn before? Do you think you’ll try it now on the Silver Reed LK150? Let me know in the comments!

As always, thank you for reading and coming along on my machine knitting journey!

Seminar

Spring Seminar Coming Soon! April 1, 2023

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That’s right! It’s nearly time for our next seminar!

Hand and machine knitters, you won’t want to miss this!

We’re learning how to design a custom fit knitted sweater!

Attendees will learn measurement tips and tricks to accommodate various body type needs and draw a body block schematic based off of their own measurements.

We’ll discuss ease—what it is, what it means for fit, and how you may not actually wear the “size” you think you do because of it.

That’s not all! We’ll talk about how material choice affects garment fit and design considerations you should consider when adding elements to your sweater.

Hope to see you there on April 1, 2023 from 10:00AM – 4:00PM at Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, OK.

Visit Get Stitchin’s website to sign up today!

https://www.getstitchin.com/machine-knitting-seminar