Hi Anne
I’ve just had a big shock! I had to take my lace carriage for repair, because it had seized up and wouldn’t transfer stitches any longer. When I went to collect it, I was asked: “How often do you clean your machine?”.
“After every two or three garments, I suppose, or if I’ve used dark yarn and want to knit something light”, I replied.
“Do you oil your machine and knitting carriage?” was the next question.
“Yes, it gets a wipe with an oily rag, when I brush off the fluff”. By now I was getting a bit annoyed, because the problem was my lace carriage – but then came the crunch.
“When did you last clean and oil your lace carriage?”.
Gulp! What a fool I’ve been. I wipe round the rails when I clean the machine and my lace carriage sits on the rails, waiting to slide into action. As it doesn’t actually knit, I’d not touched the carriage, nor had it seen a drop of oil. My advice to every reader is… don’t forget your lace carriage. If any part of your machine moves, oil it! The only problem with my lace carriage was that it was crying out for a clean and drop of oil. First name only please, Anne, to spare my blushes. Best wishes, Fiona
Request granted Fiona and, I suspect this is a wakeup call for many of us!
