silverreed – ELY Knits

Yarn Plating and the SilverReed LK150

April 7, 2023 elyknits

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 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!

Accessories, Knitting Machines

Silver Reed SRP 60N Ribber Attachment Unboxing and Assembly

February 4, 2022 elyknits

Last time, we unboxed and assembled the Silver Reed SK 840 standard gauge 4.5mm knitting machine. Now it’s time to learn what comes standard with the Silver Reed SRP60N 4.5mm ribbing attachment, often referred to as a ribber bed or simply a ribber.

Let’s see just how adding a second needle bed expands your machine knitting repertoire!

Compatibility

The Silver Reed SK 840 standard 4.5mm gauge knitting machine is the only current model the SRP60N bed fits. The SRP60N will not knit on its own and must be used with a main bed.

This attachment also fits older, discontinued models SK 210, SK 500, SK 580, SK 700, and SK 740. These could be labeled with Singer, Studio, Knitmaster, or Empisal brands, which were also produced by Silver Reed. This bed works with both punchcard and electronic machines.

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Unboxing

Just like the main bed, the SRP60N ribbing attachment is securely packed in a shipping box and another box contains the actual ribber bed unit. The attachment and its accessories weigh in at around 30 pounds.

The accessories come in a long, specially molded styrofoam block that slides in over the needle bed.

The styrofoam holds ribber-specific cast-on combs, a needle pusher, punch cards, a handle, a plating guide, and weights.

Instead of claw weights, the weights are cylindrical with a hook at the top. The smaller weigh about half a pound, and the larger weigh about a pound.

Mind your feet with these weights! It does NOT feel good if one falls on your bare feet!
(Learn from me and wear shoes when you machine knit.)

The ends of the needle bed are held up with the help of two more molded styrofoam pieces and a flat spacer. These keep the back of the ribber bed safe during shipping and storage.

Each back side of the bed hosts a joiner point where the ribber slides into the main bed. These can be easily bent and damaged if the ribber bed rests on them, so the bed is packed needle-side down.

The ribber is not built into its own carrying case like the main bed and needs to be stored in a way that does not damage the attachment plates on the back, so I strongly recommend keeping the box and foam it came in.

If you uninstall the ribber from the main bed for transport or storage, put it back in the box with its special foam pieces, even if it’s temporary. Otherwise, gently place it needle side down in an out of the way place, or needle side up on a chair and allow the attachment points to hang down without touching anything.

Important note: the SRP60N comes with two “auxiliary pieces” that screw into the main bed on each side front that are required to attach to the main bed. The ribber will not fit properly unless you install these, so don’t lose them!

What does adding a ribber let you do?

Ribbed Stitches

As you’ve probably guessed by its name, the SRP60N ribber bed allows you to knit rib stitch patterns without manually reforming the stitches with a latch hook tool. If you knit ribbed edgings often, this attachment will save you a lot of time.

The main bed (the SK 840, sold separately) creates knit stitches while the ribber bed (the SRP60N) creates purls. You can use needles from each bed in combination to create simple rib stitch patterns like 1×1 or 2×2 ribbing, but that’s just the beginning.

Using punch cards or design software like Design A Knit 9, you can create special stitch combinations for endless fabric design opportunities. New combinations include tuck stitch ribbing and fisherman’s rib (think brioche, hand knitters! That’s actually a type of tuck stitch), as well as lace, cables with defining purl stitch patterns, and a special type of colorwork called double bed jacquard.

Circular Knitting

One bed means everything is made flat, but two beds means a tube!

Because the SRP60N has 200 needles just like the main bed, circular knitting with up to 400 stitches is possible simply by adding a ribber.

One round of knitting will take two passes of the carriage—one pass for the main bed and one pass for the ribber bed.

I love being able to knit in the round on my flatbed machines. Socks are my current circular knitted favorite, but you’re not limited to small items like you are with circular sock knitting machines that generally have around 70 stitches. Remember, you have 400 needles now!

Assembly

“Read the manual!” sounds like a cop-out on an unboxing and assembly post, but the manual should always be your first stop, especially if you are installing the ribber on a different model than the SK 840 I’m using.

There are diagrams, instructions, part names, and troubleshooting sections.

If you lose your manual, you can download a PDF copy at Machine Knitting Etc.

Table or Stand

Whatever you use to set up your machine needs to be able to withstand some torque. I prefer using a metal tilt/A-frame stand when I work with two machine beds since I don’t have a sturdy table that fits the clamps.

The first step in installing your ribber is to take down the main bed.

Take the tension unit out and set it aside.

The ribber needs to sit at a specific angle on the table/stand for the beds to knit properly, so taller, angled clamps are included with the attachment.

Remove the main bed’s original clamps and install the clamps that came with the ribber. Make sure the clamp slides to the smaller side of the hole and securely tighten it. Reattach the main bed to your table/stand.

Screw the auxiliary pieces (pictured earlier in the unboxing and seen in use below right) into the main bed and then insert the ribber attachment points into the slot of the auxiliary pieces. Secure the ribber to the table/stand with the main bed’s clamps.

left: angled clamp securing main bed
right: original main bed clamp securing ribber bed

Stand users: Your stand may have come with a part that sits around and under the tall clamps (as seen above on the left). This piece did not come with the ribber. I personally haven’t noticed a difference in stability between using it and leaving it out, so don’t worry too much if your stand doesn’t have one.

In addition to four clamps, the needle beds are further stabilized with ribber join supports. You simply flip the pieces up so they touch the main bed.

The centers of the main bed and ribber bed are each marked with a zero. The alignment of the beds is adjustable depending on which type of knitting you want to do, but when you’re setting things up, you generally want the zeroes to align and then adjust from there according to the manual.

The ribber can be lowered so you can knit using only the main bed without uninstalling the ribber, but it must be fully raised to perform its functions.

The ribber has its own carriage that slides across the needle bed and has a special attachment for the main carriage called the ribber arm. You must use the ribber arm in the main carriage for ribber functions.

To install the ribber arm, remove the main carriage sinker plate by unscrewing the knobs and sliding it out. Put it away in the main bed’s lid. Slide the ribber arm in place where the sinker plate was, and tighten the knobs.

Do not over-tighten. You could strip the knobs. Hand tight is enough to securely hold the ribber plate.

The ribber carriage slides on to the tube-like railing at the bottom of the ribber needle bed. It leans toward you when you install it, but it must be flush with the ribber bed to use. Simply push it toward the needle bed to achieve this.

The main carriage and ribber carriage work in tandem and must be attached to properly function. The ribber carriage will click into place under the main carriage as you slide it along the bed. The two carriages can now move as a unit to knit.

The final step is replacing the tension unit. The tension rod has a bend at the bottom that bends away for use with the main bed alone but needs to bend towards you when the ribber is attached. This puts the rest of the tension unit pieces backwards, so you need to flip them around on the rod.

And there you have it! The Silver Reed SK 840 with the SRP 60N attachment, all set up and waiting for yarn!

If you’re interested in purchasing current Silver Reed knitting machines or accessories, please contact me. I sell Silver Reed knitting machines through Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re happy to custom order current Silver Reed machines and parts for you, and we keep the Silver Reed LK 150 plastic hobby machine in stock. Please be aware that we are experiencing some delays in delivery due to supply chain issues like everyone else, but we will keep you informed each step of the way.

And stay tuned! More accessory unboxings and demos are coming to help you learn what each machine can do and what add-ons you might want or need for your favorite stitches.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this look at everything that comes standard with the Silver Reed SRP60N ribbing attachment that fits the SK 840 standard gauge metal bed knitting machine.

Did I miss anything? What would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below!

Knitting Machines

Silver Reed SK 840 Knitting Machine Unboxing and Assembly

January 21, 2022 elyknits

If you’re wondering what comes with the Silver Reed SK 840 standard gauge electronic knitting machine right out of the box, this is the post for you!

Unboxing

Unboxing this machine feels a bit like a Christmas box-in-a-box prank at first, but with good reason. The SK 840 is manufactured in China and has to make its way to you safely, after all. The machine ships in a long box that contains the actual box that contains the machine in its built-in case.

The interior box is clearly labeled, and at this point, I accidentally ripped one of the sides off in my excitement to get it open. Be a little bit more careful than I was when you’re removing the shipping box. It’s a tight squeeze, so you may need someone else to pull the other end while you ease it out.

This metal bed machine weighs in at around 35 pounds. In its closed case, it’s 44 inches long, about 8 inches deep, and just under 4 inches tall. The long size and weight make it a bit unwieldy to carry.

Once you open the interior box, you’ll be greeted with two manuals and the machine in its closed case. The extra padding on the ends keeps the machine from moving around too much during shipping.

Both manuals contain basic how to instructions, but the green Operation Manual provides more extensive guidance for using the machine with various (separately purchased) accessories.

The SK 840 and its accessories are neatly packed inside its case. Paper strips protect the needle bed and gate pegs from scratches while foam keeps the carriage tension dial in place. The carriage itself is locked to the needle bed with a carriage lock, and the tension dial on the carriage is held in place with a rubber band to prevent the buttons and levers from moving.

The padding in the lid is attached, which is oddly one of the things I was most excited to find out. Sometimes putting the sinker plate and tension mast back in a case for storage is confusing, so I’m very glad the foam is there as a guide. Some machines case lids have plastic pieces with drawings on them to indicate where each piece goes, but those are often lost or damaged over the years.

The tools come in their own box as opposed to the storage drawer some machines (especially punch card machines) have built in to the plastic portion of the needle bed.

It’s nice to see that there are three hot pink nylon ravel cords included. (I think their color may vary.) My cat is constantly making off with my ravel cord bobbins, and I end up needing to use scrap yarn as ravel cord most of the time. (See this post if you’re interested in learning how to use scrap yarn as ravel cord in a pinch.)

The manuals detail which accessories you’ll need for different functions, so be sure to read it. Remember, the manual is your best friend!

Everything you see above is what comes standard with the Silver Reed SK 840. To connect to Design A Knit software, you do need to purchase a separate cable or use a separate pattern control unit.

Assembly

To use your machine, you’ll need to place it on a table or machine stand and secure it with the included clamps. Your tabletop should be relatively shallow and straight-edged. The clamps don’t work well on a beveled edge.

I’ve set up the SK 840 on a metal stand I bought from my mentor.

Ready for more pics?

The carriage lock keeps the carriage from sliding about in transit. You should always use it when you pack your machine away for storage or travel.

I recommend keeping the carriage lock in your accessories box when it’s not in use so you don’t lose it.

After removing the carriage lock, you can attach the sinker plate to the carriage. The plate has guides to help you install it securely. Be careful not to over-tighten and strip the knobs.

The yarn tension guide attaches to the back side of the tension rod. There are high and low placement options on the rod with metal nubs that help keep the tension guide secure.

The tension springs are attached to the back of the auto tension unit but are folded back for storage. They will snap into place when you fold them forward.

The smaller end of the tension rod fits into the bottom of the auto tension unit and is different enough in size that you can’t install it incorrectly or upside down. I’ve done that in the past with a couple of Brother machines and wondered why the yarn clip holders didn’t work very well. I like that this unit saves you from that silly mistake.

You can assemble the entire tension unit (rod, guide, springs, and auto tension piece) before placing the rod into the machine, or you can place the rod in the machine first and add the other pieces from there. I don’t think order matters too much as long as you remember which direction the tension unit pieces should face.

Here it is set up and waiting for yarn. Looks pretty great, doesn’t it?

If you’re interested in purchasing a Silver Reed SK 840 knitting machine, feel free to contact me. I sell Silver Reed knitting machines through Get Stitchin’ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re happy to custom order current Silver Reed machines and parts for you, and we keep the Silver Reed LK 150 plastic hobby machine in stock. Please be aware that we are experiencing some delays in delivery due to supply chain issues like everyone else, but we will keep you informed each step of the way.

Still thinking about it? Don’t worry! Accessory unboxings and demos are coming to help you learn what this machine can do and what add-ons you might want or need for your favorite machine functions.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this look at everything that comes standard with the Silver Reed SK 840 standard gauge metal bed knitting machine. Also, apologies for the late post! It’s 2022 and it looks like I still can’t count days and weeks correctly. Whoops! I’m sure glad those needle beds are numbered….