Passap Automatic

Passap Automatic and Ribber

The Passap Automatic arrived in a soft box but this one is slightly battered, but the good news is, it has a ribber and this fits the Passap 201 –– so I start out by setting up this machine and I must say its in excellent condition, considering the sales cards ect state its from the 1950’s – having used the 201 I am familiar with how operate this machine but not the ribber and its some task – first of all the actual ribber is quite difficult to set properly (these machine do not screw onto the table and have rubber feet, so they can move around ).

Tensioning Straps

The ribber also has tensioning straps - quite an odd thing but it works. The ribber itself was quite difficult to cast on as it has fixed ribber needles that are operated by a sort of crank system ie to cast on – one position – to release the stitches then position 2 and finally to reset the needles to accept the yarn, position 3 – the trick is to remember where you are or your knitting lands at your feet. You have this sequence to carry out every row. However, I expect it was innovative in its day and you can get into a rhythm. It’s a sturdy beast of a thing, another thing I should have mentioned is that you have to actually remove the needles for say 1/1 rib ect using a special tool and again its quite simple to operate, the other thing I should mention is the fantastic row counter – you know its odd, you have Singer Superba row counters today and they are terrible gadgets, a problem to get back to zero etc etc then you have this wonderful smooth operator – similar to the Passaps today.

Built to last

Another point to mention is the Passap Automatic has a fine upper tensioning system unlike the Turmix I tested. Overall it’s a good machine, certainly built to last and again you need some backup machine for spares, and the good news is that these Passap models are easily obtainable at this time, and for very little money and again a machine that provides a soft hand knit type of finish.

You can see from the picture below that the carriage has a lovely gold hue - the tool boxes for these machines were pretty comprehensive.

Definitely a vintage machine that does actually knit easily!