Machines

Hi Jade

Sorry to hear you are having problems. When you put the draught excluder on the bar did you tape round the ends to keep it in place? This is very important to stop it peeling off inside the machine. Now that you have this new sponge in place are the needles held down at the front of the machine or are they raised slightly? They should be held down by the sponge. (I find the brown draught excluder works best as it has a smooth finish and the white stuff is too dense.)
Next make sure the carriage is seated properly on the machine. Take off the sinker plate and remove the carriage. Then slide it on from one end making sure that the back slides under the lip at the back of the machine and the front slides under the lip at the front. You should not be able to lift the carriage at all unless you use the orange lever. You can check by bringing out a few needles and running the carriage over them with no yarn. You will be able to see if they are moving properly. Then fit the sinker plate making sure it seats properly on the lugs on the carriage.
When you have re-threaded the carriage bring out alternate needles and using a low tension number knit across and you should have a loop on every needle. Hang the cast on comb. Change the tension to one suitable for the yarn you are using and knit back. You should have alternate loops and stitches. You should be able to continue knitting.
I do hope you get your machine to work properly.
Kind regards
Sue.

Hi Jade

Sorry to hear you are having problems. When you put the draught excluder on the bar did you tape round the ends to keep it in place? This is very important to stop it peeling off inside the machine. Now that you have this new sponge in place are the needles held down at the front of the machine or are they raised slightly? They should be held down by the sponge. (I find the brown draught excluder works best as it has a smooth finish and the white stuff is too dense.)
Next make sure the carriage is seated properly on the machine. Take off the sinker plate and remove the carriage. Then slide it on from one end making sure that the back slides under the lip at the back of the machine and the front slides under the lip at the front. You should not be able to lift the carriage at all unless you use the orange lever. You can check by bringing out a few needles and running the carriage over them with no yarn. You will be able to see if they are moving properly. Then fit the sinker plate making sure it seats properly on the lugs on the carriage.
When you have re-threaded the carriage bring out alternate needles and using a low tension number knit across and you should have a loop on every needle. Hang the cast on comb. Change the tension to one suitable for the yarn you are using and knit back. You should have alternate loops and stitches. You should be able to continue knitting.
I do hope you get your machine to work properly.
Kind regards
Sue.

Hi
I have found the following patterns in back issues of Machine Knitting Monthly:
Woman’s Hooded tunic p.30 January 2010
Child’s Hooded Jacket p.24 November 2012
Young Child’s Hooded Jacket and Sweater p.30 March 2012
Baby’s Hooded Jacket p.18 February 2012
According to the latest issue of the magazine all the 2012 magazines are still available but the January 2010 issue is sold out. You might be able to find one on ebay.
There are also sites on the Internet that have free patterns; try a search on ‘Google’.
Hoping this is what you are looking for.
Regards
Sue.

Thank you very much Sue – I’ll get on ebay and start looking for the Jan 2010 issue.
Regards Magsie

Hi
I have found the following patterns in back issues of Machine Knitting Monthly:
Woman’s Hooded tunic p.30 January 2010
Child’s Hooded Jacket p.24 November 2012
Young Child’s Hooded Jacket and Sweater p.30 March 2012
Baby’s Hooded Jacket p.18 February 2012
According to the latest issue of the magazine all the 2012 magazines are still available but the January 2010 issue is sold out. You might be able to find one on ebay.
There are also sites on the Internet that have free patterns; try a search on ‘Google’.
Hoping this is what you are looking for.
Regards
Sue.

Thank you very much Sue – I’ll get on ebay and start looking for the Jan 2010 issue.
Regards Magsie

Hi Annie

When you get to the point where you need to divide the work for the ‘V’ neck it is probably easiest to remove the lefthand stitches on waste yarn and remove any weights that you have on that side of the knitting. You can then knit the first side of the ‘V’ without worrying about the other stitches. Then place the stitches back on to the needles and knit the second side.
An easy band for a ‘V’ neck is to knit straight pieces of ribbing one for one side of the ‘V’ and one to go across the back neck and along the other side of the ‘V’. If you knit the required depth of ribbing then transfer the stitches from the ribber to the main bed and knit one row at main tension it gives a neat edge against the garment. Then you can pick up the stitches from the garment with the wrong side facing you knit one row at main tension and one row at tension 10 and latch off the stitches. To finish just overlap the front ends of the rib and stitch down along the line of the ‘V’.
I have knitted this many times and it always gives a neat finish.
I hope this helps
regards Sue.

Hi Annie

When you get to the point where you need to divide the work for the ‘V’ neck it is probably easiest to remove the lefthand stitches on waste yarn and remove any weights that you have on that side of the knitting. You can then knit the first side of the ‘V’ without worrying about the other stitches. Then place the stitches back on to the needles and knit the second side.
An easy band for a ‘V’ neck is to knit straight pieces of ribbing one for one side of the ‘V’ and one to go across the back neck and along the other side of the ‘V’. If you knit the required depth of ribbing then transfer the stitches from the ribber to the main bed and knit one row at main tension it gives a neat edge against the garment. Then you can pick up the stitches from the garment with the wrong side facing you knit one row at main tension and one row at tension 10 and latch off the stitches. To finish just overlap the front ends of the rib and stitch down along the line of the ‘V’.
I have knitted this many times and it always gives a neat finish.
I hope this helps
regards Sue.

Hi Alan
Yes it is possible. ‘A Machine Knitter’s Guide’ by Lewis and Weissman explains how.
You need to punch a card with the colours separated one colour per row starting with the backing colour as for double jacquard.
The card feed has to be set to the back position so that the card will only rotate every other row.
Set the main carriage to slip in both directions and the ribber carriage to slip to the right and knit to the left.
RC1 the foundation row is knitted from right to left; the ribber needles will knit and the patterning needles on the main bed will be set.
RC2 knit from left to right; only background needles on main bed will knit.
Now push all needles on main bed back to ‘B’ so that they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
RC3 knit design colour on ribber bed and select needles for design colour on main bed.
RC4 knit design stitches on main bed.
Push all needles on main bed to ‘B’ so they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
These four rows form one complete row of pattern.
To compensate for there being more rows knitted on the ribber you need a smaller stitch size and extra weights.
This will produce a very firm fabric of one row stripes on the ribber suitable for soles of socks or palms of gloves and mittens.
There are other combination of stitches shown in the book but I will not give details here as it will confuse matters.
I have not tried this out myself yet but it has possibilities!
Hope you succed regards Sue.

Hi

There are several points you could check:

Is the tension on the yarn mast correct? If it is too loose you will get loops at the edges which make the stitches larger.

Don’t take the carriages too far past the knitting as that can also cause loops.

Whilst knitting circular have the beds set at P so that the needles are opposite each other; this closes the gap between the end stitches on each bed.
However if you change to ribbing make sure you set the beds on H again so that the needles do not hit into each other.

One other thing you might find that you need the tension on the ribber dial set to 4.2 as ribbers usually knit a bit tighter than the main bed.

Hope this helps
Sue.

Hi
Thanks for the advice I hadn’t put the needles directly opposite each other the tubular knitting is working perfectly now. Is it possible to include punchcard patterns on these machines with tubular? I understand that the ribber has no pattern facility but thought maybe it is possible to do patterning on the main bed so that I get a tube with patterning on one side. Trouble is I seem to have tried every combination of the cam set levers on the main bed but always the knitting reverts to a single knitted piece. Am I missing something or is it not possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Very kind regards Alan

Hi Alan
Yes it is possible. ‘A Machine Knitter’s Guide’ by Lewis and Weissman explains how.
You need to punch a card with the colours separated one colour per row starting with the backing colour as for double jacquard.
The card feed has to be set to the back position so that the card will only rotate every other row.
Set the main carriage to slip in both directions and the ribber carriage to slip to the right and knit to the left.
RC1 the foundation row is knitted from right to left; the ribber needles will knit and the patterning needles on the main bed will be set.
RC2 knit from left to right; only background needles on main bed will knit.
Now push all needles on main bed back to ‘B’ so that they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
RC3 knit design colour on ribber bed and select needles for design colour on main bed.
RC4 knit design stitches on main bed.
Push all needles on main bed to ‘B’ so they will not knit on the next row.
Change yarn.
These four rows form one complete row of pattern.
To compensate for there being more rows knitted on the ribber you need a smaller stitch size and extra weights.
This will produce a very firm fabric of one row stripes on the ribber suitable for soles of socks or palms of gloves and mittens.
There are other combination of stitches shown in the book but I will not give details here as it will confuse matters.
I have not tried this out myself yet but it has possibilities!
Hope you succed regards Sue.

Hi

There are several points you could check:

Is the tension on the yarn mast correct? If it is too loose you will get loops at the edges which make the stitches larger.

Don’t take the carriages too far past the knitting as that can also cause loops.

Whilst knitting circular have the beds set at P so that the needles are opposite each other; this closes the gap between the end stitches on each bed.
However if you change to ribbing make sure you set the beds on H again so that the needles do not hit into each other.

One other thing you might find that you need the tension on the ribber dial set to 4.2 as ribbers usually knit a bit tighter than the main bed.

Hope this helps
Sue.

Hi
Thanks for the advice I hadn’t put the needles directly opposite each other the tubular knitting is working perfectly now. Is it possible to include punchcard patterns on these machines with tubular? I understand that the ribber has no pattern facility but thought maybe it is possible to do patterning on the main bed so that I get a tube with patterning on one side. Trouble is I seem to have tried every combination of the cam set levers on the main bed but always the knitting reverts to a single knitted piece. Am I missing something or is it not possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Very kind regards Alan

I have had a problem with my PE1 for some time but it turned out to be a problem with my computer.
As the PE 1 is simply a memory you do not need it to knit a pattern from a card. However if you are saving the pattern onto the PE1 for future use then I think you follow the instructions and then remove card so you can knit from PE1. PLease let me know if I am barking up the wrong tree as there sre very few of us Knitmaster/SR knitters left I use the SR 840

My first reaction was: Change the cell batterie in the PE-1 Memory card.

Reading further down in your question I assume that something is wrong with the EC-1 pattern reader – or maybe not. Have you tried to set up the EC-1 without the PE-1? Is there still a problem? Or does the card feed through the reader? If no: Clean the reader with the blue cleaning sheet. And take a soft dry cottoncloth rinse the magnet on the pointcams and the magnet on the back of the carriage. Hope that can get you further on. By the way what kind of machine do you use?

I have had a problem with my PE1 for some time but it turned out to be a problem with my computer.
As the PE 1 is simply a memory you do not need it to knit a pattern from a card. However if you are saving the pattern onto the PE1 for future use then I think you follow the instructions and then remove card so you can knit from PE1. PLease let me know if I am barking up the wrong tree as there sre very few of us Knitmaster/SR knitters left I use the SR 840

My first reaction was: Change the cell batterie in the PE-1 Memory card.

Reading further down in your question I assume that something is wrong with the EC-1 pattern reader – or maybe not. Have you tried to set up the EC-1 without the PE-1? Is there still a problem? Or does the card feed through the reader? If no: Clean the reader with the blue cleaning sheet. And take a soft dry cottoncloth rinse the magnet on the pointcams and the magnet on the back of the carriage. Hope that can get you further on. By the way what kind of machine do you use?

Dear Sue

Thankyou very much for the explanation on ‘TURN’ in Bill Kings pattern all in one ‘Gold Star’.

I must have had a senior moment. When I read your reply everything was crystal clear. I am going to start on it right now.

Thankyou again.

Janice Hill (Maud)

Hi

At the bottom of page 54 where it says TO KNIT it explains what a ‘turn’ is. For this pattern after you cast on you knit 70 rows straight for the sleeve. Then comes the turn.

You need to set your carriage to HOLD. Then you bring a group of three needles to Holding Position at the opposite end to the carriage and knit four rows.

When you have the last group of three still in Working Position knit four rows. Then return the group of needles nearest the carriage from Holding Position to Upper Working Position and knit four rows until all needles are back in Working Position. Knit four rows across all needles.

This constitutes one turn and the picture in the middle at the bottom of page 55 shows what it looks like. The diagonal row of holes runs up the middle of the of the turn and you knit four more complete turns.

To finish the piece you knit 70 rows straight for the other half of the sleeve.

You will be knitting one complete sleeve and side of the garment. If you fold this piece in half along the third row of holes you will need to join the two long edges at the top and the two shorter edges for the underarm seam.

When you have knitted two of these shapes they are sewn together at the back seam to make the completed garment.

I hope this has removed some of the mystery and you are successful with your garment.

Kind regards
Sue.

Dear Sue

Thankyou very much for the explanation on ‘TURN’ in Bill Kings pattern all in one ‘Gold Star’.

I must have had a senior moment. When I read your reply everything was crystal clear. I am going to start on it right now.

Thankyou again.

Janice Hill (Maud)

Hi

At the bottom of page 54 where it says TO KNIT it explains what a ‘turn’ is. For this pattern after you cast on you knit 70 rows straight for the sleeve. Then comes the turn.

You need to set your carriage to HOLD. Then you bring a group of three needles to Holding Position at the opposite end to the carriage and knit four rows.

When you have the last group of three still in Working Position knit four rows. Then return the group of needles nearest the carriage from Holding Position to Upper Working Position and knit four rows until all needles are back in Working Position. Knit four rows across all needles.

This constitutes one turn and the picture in the middle at the bottom of page 55 shows what it looks like. The diagonal row of holes runs up the middle of the of the turn and you knit four more complete turns.

To finish the piece you knit 70 rows straight for the other half of the sleeve.

You will be knitting one complete sleeve and side of the garment. If you fold this piece in half along the third row of holes you will need to join the two long edges at the top and the two shorter edges for the underarm seam.

When you have knitted two of these shapes they are sewn together at the back seam to make the completed garment.

I hope this has removed some of the mystery and you are successful with your garment.

Kind regards
Sue.