Trimac Knitting Loom
The TRIMAC device is the ONLY item of clothing with patented locking needles SPECIALLY designed for HAND KNITTING!
Note the above is highlighted at the end of the manual, their words, not mine. There were so many inventions to try to speed up handknitting and I must admit this one of the most unusual.
It gives diagrams on knitting socks and states that to do the rib, one must tighten the tension at the top, well what can I say.
Its taken me around 5 days to get this working and its fascinating - I have never come across a more unusual machine and one that must have cost a small fortune to manufacture, and well I have never heard of it however that is nothing unusual as there are so many knitting machines that were produced from the 1950’s onward. The needles on this comb are thin needles with a sheaf of steel that slides upwards to close on the hooks. Bear in mind that latches on modern needles fall downwards to close the hooks, took me some time to sort of figure this out as I assumed wrongly that once the latches are closed I could slide the stitches down, wrong - once I tried this the stitches fell of the hooks.
The machine is green and the comb that one knits with has stainless steel knitting needles with odd latches that are closed by pushing 2 black knobs on the comb. To knit it has a clutch that you press to lift the pins that take the yarn - the “cursor” as its called in the manual is similar to most looms, this slides across and catches the yarn in the needle hooks which are open at this point. You then tilt the comb up so that the stitches are firmly in the hooks and once this is done you close the latches, you then pull or brush the knitting down and once it is over the needles you then open the latches - tilt the comb and again pull the knitting down behind the comb so that the stitches are in position for the next row. You then push the clutch to allow the pins to raise ready for the next row. This machine operates from both left and right and the comb never turns eg the latches on the needles are always facing upward. It is cast on by ewrapping. The stitch size is altered by 2 screws at each end of the machine that move the space between the comb and the machine. I used heavy double knit and it knitted fairly easily.
Its the old story, its easy when you know how! A quick demo would have sufficed. My those ladies who bought these machines must have been the modicoms of patience. A lot of the machine I buy were actually used to knit for the family and this one was no different, her daughter was delighted that someone who was interested in knitting machines bought this.
Really interesting article. Thank you.