Bits n'pieces
I gave my Brother 940 and Knitmaster 580 another clean and workout. These machines are both standard gauge but oh so different. The Brothers excel in lace making and to my mind have the most wonderful lace carriages, which are usually included with the machines. Funny thing is you start out thinking about a complete lace jersey then you think well if I use that fashion lace its gonna take a lot of time. Some of the Brother fashion laces take many passes of the lace carriage, but I suppose the end result is well worth while. If I really want to impress someone with what a knitting machine can do, I drag out my long lace sample to show - (samples are my speciality after all). That said and done, the Knitmasters/Silver Reeds have their own specialities, for instance pile knitting, just love this, especially if done with a variety of yarns, what can be better than your own design of a fur coat (if only I had the patience). I really love the Knitmaster rib transfer carriage, its a pleasure to operate and the same can be said for their linker, both good designs. I do not get on well with the Brother linker though, it takes the patience of a saint. When it comes to lace on the Knitmaster, well you have to buy a separate carriage, and with one pass lace, its reasonably simple ie it transfers and knits all in one pass (that is for simple lace) however fashion lace has the dreaded technique of having to remove the yarn from the carriage whilst you transfer it and its extremely tedious. Although I am a confirmed Passap fanatic, I still enjoy experimenting on my many machines, they all have their own special techniques, Toyota with its fantastic Simulknit facility and great lace carriages, Singers ie the old standard gauges are very smooth running and lets not forget the wonderful Superba machines ie the european Singers, they have a very unusual feature of a double bed spacing mechanism that can adjust to accommodate a great variety of yarns. All totally fascinating machines and all providing us with the maximum pleasure whilst providing us with that ultimate pleasure of being able to provide you and your family, friends with a made to measure garment in a yarn of your choice.
