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Thank you Kgee!! It makes me feel justified! ;-D I actually am a beginner ~ I just found these machines on the 8th of March, so that is my first ever interaction with them ~ but I tend to be a bit obsessive & research before buying and then research more afterword, so I was slightly familiar with all of the terms and potential prior to getting these machines. Honestly, however, they are not diificult to use at all. The punchcard machines are wonderful, all you do is feed in the card, and VOILA!, knit to your hearts' content, it will pattern for you! The computer ones are great, lots and LOTS of designs, but they are interesting, it's like going back to using WINdows 95 ~ not really that fun! But they do work well, once you get their odd sequencing down.
The knit tracer is very handy for those folks who like fully fashioned clothing or articles. Myself, since I am a seamstress, prefer to just make up rectangular blanks, trace a pattern on the knitted fabric, zigzag ( or serge & seam) & straight-stitch along the pattern marks, chop off the waste (stuff some pillows with it), and put together as you would any piece of regular fabric clothing. That's called half-fashioned, and it's what big department stores do for their sweaters & such. Perhaps it's laziness on my part, but I just like to wear the darn things, rather than spend forever, adn get all frustrated as to whether I've decreased & increased in the right places.
When I crochet, it seems to come naturally where I might increase or decrease, and it's easy for me to see where & how on making my own patterns, but for knitting, I seem to draw massive blanks ~ so, half-fashioned it is. Plus, transferring stitches all over the place on a knitting machine is annoying & slow, and again, I have this lazy-ish streak. As a result, for me, the knit tracer doesn't make sense, but they sell them all the time on
eBay and lots of people swear by them. Also, I think even though it's for a Toyota, it would work for your machine, as long as they are the same guage. I think they are just to tell you when to increase & decrease ~ as far as I understand, they don't actually hook up to the machine or anything.
And thank you for the comment on my soaps! I caught the soaping bug from the gals on here over in the soaps thread, and I have been making them ever since. My family loves it, and I have actually taught a few classes on soap-making to others now, and sold quite a bit at the Farmer's Market & such. Cool thing about soap is ~ even if you only make a few batches, it makes up enough soap to last you, plus some to give or sell. And the stuff lasts forever. The older it gets, the harder it gets. Which just makes it better soap. ;-D
Let me know when you do decide to get the knitting machine out ~ I would love to help you have fun with it. They really are fun, especially since you can make things SO fast on them. If you are results-driven, you will really love it!
~Red
It is so cool that you dye your own yarn. Do any of your kids share your craft?
