5 Lessons from Knitting Stranded Colourwork on a Knitting Machine / Singer SK-360 /Stoodley Jumper

[@gail101242]

I am so glad that you have realised that the fault was with your first machine and not with your skill set! I did think, when you described the problem in a previous episode that there was a machine fault, but it looked so pristine, I did not realise that it was pre-loved. I am sure that someone will know why that machine is not working on the F setting. I thought that it might be faulty drums on the carriage, but as you have tried a different carriage I am at a loss. Nic Corrigan is doing a fantastic job helping new and experienced machine knitters to learn and develop and I would strongly recommend that your viewers consider signing up for membership if they would like to learn more about machine knitting. Thank you so much for sharing your learning and thank you for your regular contribution to youtube.

[@gayanderson2242]

This will probably save more than a few people from making mistakes on their first machine colorwork adventure. Great video!

[@lauriekilborn]

Love the color and design of the sweater you are wearing. And glad you are explaining how to do the yoke of the sweater.

[@yarn_dragon]

Thank you for sharing your experience with your knitting machines…it is so helpful to us new machine knitting users.

[@jillosiecki3049]

Really comprehensive description of learning by experience! (And mistakes). Yes, I have had some similar experiences on my Brother and my LK150. Guess what? Even my sewing machine messes up sometimes. Just shows that there is a lot of creativity and troubleshooting to do high end crafting.

[@joanalden8767]

Hiya. You have worked really hard so far on your project. Good for you. Ive got a knitting machine and working on small projects. The tips ive got so far are : get some machine knitting books as reference Write everything down in a notebook. Make sure that the yarns are compatible to your machine. Some will not feed through. Look at youtube, find a machine knitting shop. They are really helpful. Book yourself into knitting classes. Take you time and enjoy the process. Xx

[@Thepaintedtiger]

If you plan to do a lot of things where you'll be increasing or decreasing across rows, a garter bar set would be a good investment. You want the old kind that has the rounded prongs (generally sold in a red box), there's some newer ones being made that are just straight and they will slip right out of the stitches. I also find the short bit of my garter bar helpful when knitting socks in the round, I can knit my ribbing using both beds, transfer to the main, then use the garter bar to move half back onto the ribber for circular knitting. It's still faster than knitting the ribbing by hand later, or reforming the stitches later. Just came across this video by Diana Sullivan, you may find it handy for your ribbing if you are doing it on the machine, it's a nice way to do a sewn cast off that looks just like the cast on selvedge for ribbing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnKYipypgMpkd8U

[@anavelaeshomestead]

Good timing, I'm just venturing down the rabbit hole of fair isle yokes on my knitting machines. Just check the patterns are 24st repeats, my bulky KM is a 12st repeat. Your old machine could have issues with the drums on the carriage, or it could be the punchcard reader is sticking. I've had to change the old drums on my Singer 324. I've been doing machine knitting for 6 years and still learning, thank heavens for YT. LOL Amazing people who are sharing their experiences and knowledge, helps the wider community. That's how I learned to use KM. 4 different KMs in the stable now. LOL Each one has its own quirks. Happy knitting, I enjoy your channel Thx.

[@joanneyoung1081]

Wonderful narrative and explanation. Looking to get one . Thank you

[@karlsmith2052]

So great to hear about all your trials, tribulations, and triumphs with knitting color work on the knitting machine. I'd love to give yoke sweater a try. I like traditional Fair Isle patterns that have subtle shading in either (or both) the motif color and the background color. There is a snag to doing this on a knitting machine though in that the color changes usually happen after an odd number of rows which means that when you drop a color and then need to use it again 3, 5 or 7 rows later, it is on the wrong side of the bed, This results in so many yarn ends to deal with in the finishing process that it's a nightmare. Knitting machine manufacturers got round this problem by making punch cards that changed colors only after an even number of rows, but the effect Is not quite the same. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a certain symmetry that often has one very light or very dark two right in the centre of the motif. You can get round this by doing two rows instead of just one, but it doesn't look as good. Right now I'm knitting a traditional Fair Isle gansey and using only two colors.. I am spit-splicing the yarn as I add each new ball so I am hoping to end up with very ends to darn in. Authentic Shetland wool knits up beautifully on a knitting machine and is one those yarns that is completely transformed by wet blocking.

[@allisondennis7016]

This was a great video Felicia, took all the mystery of combining yokes on a flat bed. Also of showing folks that making something new is a learning process -- constantly, but such a joy when thee penny drops. Thanks too for the shout outs to Nic Corrigan and the machine knit community. That’s where I found a link to you. Way to go Sweet Georgia!

[@offplumbnan]

OMG - I haven't even bought my CSM yet and already I am seeing you can do stranded colorwork on the large knitting machine!!!!This could be a VERY expensive channel! =:-]]]]

[@amandawright928]

I love this video, Nic’s Stoodley Jumper was the second jumper and my first fairisle jumper knit on my Singer 321 knitting machine. I love to hand knit but I’m falling more in love with my machines everyday with the opportunities for more creativity. Thanks again for a very informative video.

[@sabinamauri7423]

I love this video, it is so clear and useful!!!

[@marjoriemcroberts9721]

Wait until you get the hang of using a garter bar for decreases! You can get away from the waste yarn and tedious rehanging. Yes, it will take practice before you want to use it on a real project. It is a bit tricky, but I find it very satisfying.

[@ClaudiaArnold]

A knit skirt for a little girl is a good practice project for this.

[@JoanneSag]

Gosh, I have been knitting for 44 years on and off on a knitting machine and never had these problems. I think when I began I had good teaching and help. Thank you I just love this video, I thought of one more thing. You need to consider using a garter bar to transfer your stitches. You can take all of your stitches off on one and taking your knitting off the machine that way can prevent a gauge difference in your stitch size if your scrap yarn is slightly off in gauge. This way you will not have a noticeable difference in stitch size when you put your yarn back on the machine and unravel the waste yarn. Even different colors of the same yarn can have a different gauge. So taking off the knitting on waste yarn is always a risk even with the same yarn in a different color. Thought to share these thoughts with you.

[@sweetgeorgia]

Oh fascinating! I had not heard of waste yarn causing differences in gauge... but that totally makes sense. I feel like garter bars were hard to get in recent years, so I'll keep looking out for one! Thanks for watching!

[@JoanneSag]

@@sweetgeorgia Oh and you can transfer your stitches (multiple saves time) that way too.

[@thenewalex]

Silver Reeds select needles directly through the mechanism in the carriage, you may check whether any of the cams are stuck or the drums dirty or not working correcly. Remove the plastic cover and check again

[@rainieraine1192]

Don’t forget that you don’t have to knit a fully fashioned garment on a knitting machine as you can create a fabric of colour work and cut your pattern out of it. Using a knitting machine tests all your skills and patience. Looking forward to your finished project.

[@michaeld1541]

this has stumped me for a while. Have you tried this with DAK?

[@ameliaarcher]

Great to see and hear about your knitting machine adventures!

[@jorobinson9548]

I'm so lucky to live near nic and have taken one of her in person workshops 😀

[@roxannetarjan1411]

Bravo! Amazing journey; so much to learn. Your perseverance is a lesson to all of us. All the best to you and your team in 2023!

[@sweetgeorgia]

Thank you so much Roxanne!

[@everleayarn]

So many good tips! Good for you for persevering. I can't wait to see your finished sweater.

[@rebbiejaye]

Good work puzzling through this. My mom acquired two double-bed passap machines which she serviced and got working, and one day I hope to get one of them! She can't get the fair isle to work on them, but I've used them to make sweaters and socks.

[@lafrileuse4459]

Does your mother have Passap duomatics or does she have two Passap E6000's? For the duomatic, she needs the Deco to be able to do fair isle.

[@isi98ani7]

That's so cool! I never thought of doing decreases like that. I'm so excited about the possibilities. For the punchcard issues, you might consider taking some time to figure out the offset of the lines. So on my machine I know that last line I can see above the punchcard reader is 7 lines before the line about to be read. All my punchcards came with the machine and they have a line across the card at the starting position so if you add that to your punchcards with a pen or marker it might save you some frustration.

[@robinhuselton8488]

I have had a simple LK 150 for about 10 years and have found it very useful for knitting the bodies of Fair Isle sweaters, and then hand knitting the actual color work. I recently bought a 1980's Brother KH-930. It has electric system for patterns, and I have been amazed at how well it works! Still working on getting the ribber going. It is pretty amazing how sophisticated these machines are!

[@wendyk4183]

Thanks for this video. I couldn't figure out what was going wrong with my edges. I was apparently decreasing on the stitches I was slipping😅 yeah that doesn't work, obviously. You inspired me to try the stoodly jumper. I love learning new techniques.

[@sweetgeorgia]

Glad to hear you will try the Stoodley Jumper!!

[@LilCindyLouWho]

Ahhh adventures in machine knitting 😂. My first machine challenged me for hours on end before I threw it in the corner for about 2 months 😂. I got it out again, and watching a video very closely, made a baby bootie. It was so ugly, full of mistakes, but I was so proud lol!. Id finally got my machine to do something right! Don't give up, people. You can do this. I did.😅

[@sweetgeorgia]

💯!! It’s basically learning a new craft altogether. Glad you got it back up and running 👍

[@Stitchamajig]

You could try using a garter bar to transfer needles on decrease row rather than waste yarn

[@suemills2323]

Singer 360 punch card needs to be on line 5. I'm a Newby as well and making plenty of mistakes!

[@sweetgeorgia]

YES. I need to memorize that technical detail 😆 thanks for watching!!

[@sethsharb]

could you do a video (if you haven't already) about all the different types of colorwork (for machines) like I keep hearing fair isle, intarsia, jacquard, stranded, continental, there's all these terms that I don't know what they are or the difference or when to choose one over another. thank you!

[@julesp213]

Good information thank you. I have been machine knitting for a long time but never tried a yoke sweater, going to give it a try.

[@lynnie57]

This is wonderful! It gives me the courage to pull my used Silver-reed machine out of the attic.

[@sweetgeorgia]

Yes!! Have fun with it!

[@orkasuf3146]

I had the same problem with fair isle and lace. A lot of frustration, before I figured that the problem was in the punch card reader, it did not advance properly to the next row. It kind of rotated but not enough, stopped between the rows. There is a part in the reader that looks like a small metal cylinder and sometimes they are too small for the arrangement with other parts (they were manufactured in different sizes for that reason, and whoever was assembling my reader did not check if all the parts were fully compatible), so its diameter was not big enough to propel the other part to properly push the drum forward. Same thing, I got another reader, and all is working now. Thank you for your video!

[@yolandasotolopez]

Wow, that yoke looks so pretty.. I need to find the courage to try one.

[@cmaur811]

Did you fix your machine?

[@lindachampney7480]

Love your channel - just discovered it. I have a few machines, including a Passap E6000. You should look for a used Passap Duomatic (the green one) as you can do color work in the round on it. I love the 6000 a the computerization and kind of wish I had not sold my Duomatic. Will probably pick up another if one comes around at a good price.

[@sweetgeorgia]

I’ve been hunting for a Passap!! Not that I have anymore space at my house 🫣😜 but I’m so curious how they work. They are hard to come by though, it seems.

[@lindachampney7480]

@@sweetgeorgia I am loving my Passap! You should be able to find one at a pretty good price. I think you need a Jac 40 to do fair isle patterning on the back bed. I have an extra one so if you find a duomatic, give me a shout and I’ll send it to you.

[@KellyCasanova]

I just received the book and it's great. I'm looking forward to trying out one of my own designs (I have the blank punchcards and hole punch too) and MAYBE even knitting a finished item! Can't wait to see your finished jumper, it's looking fantastic so far.

[@patriciapoot1180]

Where did you order it from? I can't find anything. Thanks

[@Sheron1956]

Appreciated!!!

[@MagickalUniverse]

About to start this jumper, so was so happy to watch this. Definitely keep us updated with how you go with the rest of the project.

[@sweetgeorgia]

Good luck with it! Thanks for watching! ☺️

[@eKnitter]

❤ Love the yoke. I am curious how the sweater will turn out. I also look forward to knit something like this. Waiting for more to come.

[@dearzuzannah]

I too have a old mashine, a empisal knitmaster 305 automatik, and I too am new to this

[@TarotLadyLissa]

Although it’s not as fancy as yours, I’m picking up my first knitting machine on Sunday! I’m getting a vintage Bond Knitting Machine from Facebook marketplace! It has all of the original parts and even extra weights! I’m excited to start playing with it! I hope it makes some cute things!

[@sweetgeorgia]

Awesome!! That’s so exciting. Congrats! Have fun with it!

[@aliciaherrera6726]

Hi, thank you for your help, I buy this week a Singer 327 memo-matic, I never use a knitting machine and I look videos to help me to understand how it works. Thanks

[@sweetgeorgia]

Thanks for watching Alicia! Let me know what questions you have about knitting machines! I'm working on new videos soon!

[@gregortidholm]

Nice work!

[@DebraDrew-t1k]

I recently purchased a Singer Memomatic 322 KM and your KZbin topic Knitting Fair Isle on a Flatbed Knitting Machine has got me so excited and inspired. I think I will definitely try this one out, what yarn did you use and can I buy it from you

[@السمراءالسورية-ض2ل]

كل الحب والتقدير ❤️❤️❤️🇸🇾🌷🌷

[@out4dinner478]

It would be great if you have any video or cleaning or fixing your machine. Mine needs to be cleaned up, but I'm not sure how to do it. I even think I should replace the needles because they have rust. Also you said something about the sponge bar, Now I will be looking for a sponge bar lol! Thank you for sharing this wonderful video.. Very inspiring.

[@ClaudiaArnold]

There is an excellent channel for this called The Answer Lady Knits. She and her husband John dismantle, clean, service and repair even terminally ill "patients". Their videos helped me to fix the misalignment of my ribber (a problem with the mechanics behind the swing handle) and to remobilize a stuck pattern drum on a lace carriage I bought of eBay.

[@louisebb4183]

I always admired that colour yoke jumpers but knitting it by hand is to much and I couldn’t think of how to do it on machine,thanks to you I am going to try it ,just need time and patience .

[@sweetgeorgia]

You can do it! I’m amazed by the whole process.

[@mariabrubaker5060]

I have knitted that round yoke sweater and love it. I would be interested in how to convert a hand knit fair isle pattern (like the one that you are wearing) to a punch card and how to line up the pattern after decreasing.

[@Skytallon84]

These videos are great! I hand knit and was thinking about purchasing a sk280 with a ribber so these are super helpful!

[@chelseakeenan1]

I’m curious about what you do with all your test/mistake swatches? Do you unravel them? Make them into something else? 😊

[@FusionFoodBlog]

How do you fix the problem of long float at the back of fair isle? Any suggestions?

[@julietpage4322]

Awesome. That’s quite a first project to tackle! (But I’m not surprised!) 🌸 Kudos to you. ⭐️ The electronic machines make the row selection /alignment and edge stitch selection so much easier! ❤ Have you thought about using a garter bar for decreases? They’re for 4.5mm machines, so I think they will fit your brand KM too. They can be tough to find though.

[@raycreveling1583]

if you ever come across one, grab a PM-10 "Punch card machine". It's an amazing gadget. You can punch a card accurately in a few minutes. It's an awesome gadget.

[@sweetgeorgia]

Ohhhh that sounds exactly like what I need... thanks for the suggestion!

[@candicearmstrong2437]

Mind blown. I never thought of doing yokes with waste yarn! So clever. I need to buy that pattern now and try it. I like the idea of punchcards, but they seem finicky and perhaps a bit wasteful creating the card for one sweater. I’d probably just do the fair isle selection by hand.

[@flatbedlove]

Never a waste to create a punch card for any purpose. All punch cards can be used again in part or full for any future project.

[@rdelineyt]

So fascinating! It seems like the flat bed machine can't catch floats, so that's a consideration for choosing which colorwork patterns to adopt. I'm also curious about whether the tension is perfectly even, regardless of the pattern. In my own hand knitting, I find it hard to get the tension right for isolated single stitches ('flea bites'), but I bet the machine would have no problem.

[@anavelaeshomestead]

You have to manually catch the long floats over the top of the needles. Pull the needle forward working and lift the float over the back of the needle, to catch the float on the next carriage pass. Say a 5st float every 3rd needle carries the float over the top of the needle, not in the latch. Suggest practice on a swatch first before trying method on your garment. Happy knitting. 😊

[@KMx108]

@@anavelaeshomestead I've been wondering about this! Thank you!

[@marycooper2957]

The nice thing that the knitting is held out to the width, and so the colorwork can't draw in.

[@fridamartextiles]

You are correct that the tension is very even throughout, one of the advantages of machine knitting.

[@sophiewhite674]

Hi, I have recently started machine knitting on a flat bed and saw this video. I have tried to find Nick Corgan but cannot locate her or her website, please may you send a link ?

[@sweetgeorgia]

Absolutely. Nic Corrigan’s website is here www.machineknit.community/ have fun!

[@jewelnelson5597]

Relief you can now do fair isle. I want to get a chunky, but fear I might get an expensive art piece. You have probably done this, so ignore.... Someone had an old VHS uploaded featuring Peter free, and adjustments for several styles of km. I'm adjusting the sinker plate bars that have the brushes on them on mine. The three screws sit in a slot, he said that messes FI up. I heard KZbin deleted out other channel names in comments, but sam meech was loader.

[@Grova]

Gorgeous sweaters in this video! Also, PLEASE tell me where you got that gray yarn on the cone at 7:50, it's gorgeous and I've been looking for yarn on cones for my machine

[@sweetgeorgia]

That yarn is from JC Rennie here www.knitrennie.com/collections/supersoft-2-11-3nm

[@Grova]

@@sweetgeorgia thank you so much!

[@happychick5052]

Can you do this on a lk150? No ribber

[@lynnewillette2654]

You need a separate fairisle carriage FC6 I believe. For each row you hand select needles for the contrast colour then run the FC6 across to knit the needles. For decrease row use the waste yarn and rehang stitches method as Felicia shows. And of course you’d possibly be knitting with a sport weight yarn rather than a fingering. Quite doable.

[@Verrite]

Here’s a good video from the knitting school (now the knitting school online) about how to do the yoke decreases much more quickly with a garter bar. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmquaXl3h7enrNU

[@sweetgeorgia]

Ooh fantastic! Thanks for that!

[@seaweedeater3104]

I am not intendling to offend but to be clear The Stoodly is NOT FAIR ISLE, it’s stranded. As a professional woolworker i would hope you would care about preserving the integrity of our different knitting heritages and as a content creator with a large following and influence i would expect you to feel the importance of using the correct language and use it. I repeat, no offence intended. Thank you for the rest of the content of this video. I would ordinarily add a like but won’t here as I don’t want to enable more people to view content that is misleading.