purests, you might shun

3 Sep 2008 at 18:36
10 comments

Knitting. I love the authenticity of clacking away, and seeing my hard work transform yarn into something beautiful. There's something elemental, and faithful about making stuff.

My pregnancies are marked by two things; Heartburn and knitting. My babies, and my friends babies wore garments imbued with love and hope.

When my mum was first in hospital, a lovely friend sent me a cardigan she owned. An item I had frequently admired. The letter accompanying it suggested I wear it when I needed comfort. I wear it now and think of the love and kindness of my lovely lasses

I want to make my mum a cashmere shawl to keep her warm when the warfarin, inactivity and sadness creep into her bones.

I want to make my boys, and my friends babies, hats to keep their noggins warm. Scarves that my lasses can wrap around themselves when the booze and kebabs only partially heat their safe journey home.

Like flying carpets, technicoloured dreamcoats, and sorting hats, I imagine that my affection and adoration are stitched within my higgledy tension and botched finish, making them magical.

I simply don't have the time anymore. The babies are bigger, so their hats take more stitches, my lads take, well, just more. I now have counselling work, and coursework and all that other stuff involving cleaning and cooking. Yet, I still want to make.

So, here I am, facing the labour saving knitting machine. Should I buy one?

Knitters, what say you?

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I know NOTHING about knitting machines at all but I imagine them to be a bit of a faff, but I reiterate the knowing absolutely nothing bit here, however I do find that hand knitting can be picked up for 5 minutes here and there whereas I don't think machine knitting can be. BUT just because you have a knitting machine doeesn't mean that you can no longer hand knit. You may find that you can do loads of things for the boys on your machine and then spend your other time doing a hand-knit for your mum.

I love that answer x

A knitting machine is a time saving device when you have to knit long swatches (either flat or tubes). I've heard that there are ones that you can set up to do seed stitch or whatever, but I've only seen a really old one that just knit stockinette. That being said, if you're making a lot of garments that have straight bits of knitting without many increases, decreases, stitch patterns, or colorwork, a knitting machine could save you a lot of time.

My gut instinct is that a knitting machine isn't going to be any help at all on hats (since they're all shaping, give or take) and that baby sized things up until grade school or so aren't going to benefit much from a knitting machine. If you're leaning towards scarves and afgans, though, it might be worth the plunge.

awesome, thanks x

I have a vague memory that there might have been one knocking around when I was very, very small but I don't remember my mum using it. I'd say go for it, because really, who ever wants do that second sleeve?

If you have the money - go for it! I like to bake, but I don't have the time so I have a bread maker instead. A bit of a compromise, but we still have (reasonably) fresh bread with no nasties in it. And when I have time I can still bake by hand.

Same with a knitting machine. You can always do main bits on the machine, and any extra bits 'n pieces by hand. Just my opinion!

One more thing that I totally left out in my previous comment: the reason that a knitting machine isn't going to save you a lot of time on small garments, etc.(!) Maybe you know it already, but setting up a knitting machine is not quite as tedious* and involved as warping a loom. That's why in smaller garments, any time you'd gain from using the machine is lost by the additional set up time. (I think... like I said, my first-hand experience is extremely limited).

All that being said, if you find setting up the knitting machine to be more fun than casting on and or knitting a long, plain swatch, then it's a win-win situation! (It just might not save you any time.)

* I admit bias. I'm totally a process knitter. Finishing stuff is never my objective, even though it seems to happen from time to time.

I know bugger-all about this, but I do approve very much of knitted stuff made for me by someone who cares.

Erm... not much help was I?

I've used one - but only a couple of times - and found it to be more than a bit of a faff, to be honest minkster - and a little bit soulless. Also, you were quite limited on yarn weights and types - you couldn't really use anything thick, or slubbed, or fragile. It was a while ago, though, so the technology might well have improved

Why don't you ask for a demo/have a go yourself in-store? I might be well out of date ....

I don't knit, and I don't know much about knitting machines, but I've been crocheting for about a year now (I have a 2 1/2 yr old son) and to just be able to sit down and work on my project for just 5 minutes out of the day knowing I'm making it for either my son, my husband, one of my sisters, my nieces, my mommy, friends, whatever, it calms me down enough to finish up my chores, play with my son for a little, etc. I think you should just try and pick up your needles and do it on your own again, even if it's at night after your babes go to bed.

purests, you might shun

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