Knitting Machine Museum​

Knitmaster (Emp) EF 68

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The Empisal EF 68  is 5 mm gauge-If you are curious, and want to look at the needle size, be careful, I landed up with all the needles sitting in my lap and a couple of hours hassle putting it together again.  The needles are tiny compared to most and spares will be non- existent. 

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I have another similar machine the Knitmaster Instant but they are very different in the way they knit.  As for patterns, well any plain hand knit pattern will suffice as long as you get the tension correct – this machine is a 5mm gauge – same as the Passap and Superba.  It has 12 stitch tensions and I imagine it would knit double knitting reasonably well, if it does not like what you are doing, you will soon know, the carriage refuses to move.  As is normal with these vintage machines, the more you use them the better and easier they knit, providing they are well oiled and clean without rusty needles.  The maximum needles would be 166 if they are all there.

 

I like this model but only as a collection piece, despite researching my old books and adverts as far back as the 60’s I just cannot find any ads for this baby.   Perhaps I will have to take a look at my very old Knitmaster pattern books to see if they included any information on this model.  Update - just found a manual but in German for this machine though its not too clear namewise, however its amazing what can be done manually, quite surprised actually - usual place for manual download is machineknitting etc.com - a fantastic site.