My New Brother

No, my 64 year-old mother did not adopt a child late in life. Can you imagine? So, who’s my new brother. Actually, the question should be, what’s my new Brother? I bit the bullet and invested in a knitting machine - a Brother KH260. Why a knitting machine, you ask?

In the middle of winter, while working on relentless rows of stockinette, trying to complete a sweater for myself (which is still incomplete, might I add), I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a machine that could do this?” As a mother of two boys (ages 2 and 5), I find myself pressed for time. Gone are the days of spending an entire weekend leisurely finishing a project. I’m lucky if my kids don’t unravel skeins of yarn and pull out knitting needles of active projects. A machine would certainly speed up production, wouldn’t it?

This led to hours of internet reading and watching YouTube videos about knitting machines.  My internet search was both fruitful and overwhelming.  The videos sparked my desire for a machine. After hours of researching, I finally realized that I needed to ask people who actually machine knit. Huh! What a concept!  After all, I had never seen an actual knitting machine live in action before.

Angelika of Angelika’s Yarn Store suggested locating a local dealer who offers knitting lessons and contacting a local machine knitting club. A quick google search led me to the president of our local machine knitting club: the Knit Nutters. I also contacted my husband’s Aunt Marg, who I learned is an avid machine knitter.  hanks to Facebook, we messaged back and forth and she was a goldmine of useful information. Although she has five different machines, she highly recommended the Silver Reed LK 150 - her first and favourite machine.  It turns out that Silver Reed is the only company that is actively making knitting machines. Although very popular at one time, all other companies have stopped producing knitting machines.   

So off I set to find myself an LK 150. This proved to be tricky as my options were limited. I could order one online from the US for $400. This was unappealing for a number of reasons:

• it would be difficult to get any live support
• our exchange rate is disastrously low at the moment
• exchanging or returning it would be problematic

Just when I was about to give up, I got a phone call from Elaine Dendy, the vice president of the Knit Nutters Club and she had a used LK 150 for sale. What luck!  During our phone call, Elaine mentioned that she wanted to show me the Brother KH260 as well. She said that it was more expensive but it had more capabilities. It turns out that she is a dealer of used knitting machines.

I was set to purchase the LK 150. I decided that I would look at the Brother to humour the seller. I was resolved! That is, until I tried using the Brother KH260 - after the first swish of the carriage, the dye was cast. I knew I had to have it.

That is the benefit of purchasing from a dealer. Elaine had the machines set up in her studio and allowed me to try the machines. She showed me samples of works that she created and sells. She demonstrated how to use the punch card and how to do fair isle on the machine. Best of all, she said that I could call her for help and that she would include a yearlong membership to the Knit Nutters Club. She even included a proper machine knitting table.  

If I had purchase a used machine off of Craigslist who knows if all of the parts would be there. I certainly wouldn’t have. Caveat Emptor!

I am still learning to use the machine and I love it! It was a great purchase. Have I given up hand knitting? No way! In fact, many of the items I’ve created on my knitting machine are a combination of both hand and machine knitting. Did I mention that I’ve got a hand knit sweater still on the go?

Have you ever considered purchasing a knitting machine? Which machine(s) did you consider? I’d love to hear from you.