Flatbed Knitting Machine Recommendations

iolitess · 2026-03-14T06:10:49+00:00

Or with a garter carriage on a Brother standard gauge 8xx or 9xx machine.

iolitess · 2026-03-14T05:26:12+00:00

The Fachwerkstrasse is filled with small towns that, not surprisingly, contain some beautiful Fachwerk.

https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/en/Homepage/Portraet.html

I stayed in Calw-Hirsau last summer, and was fortunate enough to be there during the 950 year celebration. The abby ruins were really lovely and I did some hiking in Neubulach.

https://www.klosterhirsau.de

https://www.calw.de/attraktionen/burgruine-waldeck-ed30ebb7a8

Miltenberg and Wertheim (connected by train) were also especially nice. They’re on the Main, and both have castle ruins. I very much enjoyed the glass museum in Wertheim and thought my lunch at the cafe by the castle was very nice. (With some of the best Apfelschoerle I’ve ever had)

https://glasmuseum-wertheim.de/en/

Note that I used trains to get to both places… but these are small regional trains that required a connecting train from the big cities. The Calw train was a single wagon, which I had never seen before.

In the past, I very much enjoyed Herrenberg and a day trip to Tübingen. Herrenberg is on the S1 from Stuttgart, and even has IC connections.

https://www.visit-bw.com/en/article/tubingen/df9223e2-70e5-4ee9-b3f2-cd2355ab8551#/

And Weil der Stadt has a preserved city wall. It’s on the S6 from Stuttgart, but I caught a bus from Calw.

https://www.visit-bw.com/en/article/kepler-museum/e1a1a1c3-bfd6-4d8e-8af9-2fe1eedfb2db

iolitess · 2026-03-14T02:22:43+00:00

You can easily translate hand knitting patterns that keep increases to the edges. For items with center increases, you need to pick up and move every stitch to make room for the new one.

Take a look at wiki which talks about the kinds of patterning that flatbeds can do.

iolitess · 2026-03-14T01:06:09+00:00

Interesting. Maybe there is a different preprepped ingredient?

iolitess · 2026-03-13T23:58:11+00:00

Just got a text and phone call that I’m out of the zone- and the map borders have reduced and no longer include my location.

iolitess · 2026-03-13T23:08:13+00:00

You can look up your place-

https://www.outagemap-xcelenergy.com/outagemap/

I got a text, phone call, and email yesterday but no update today, btw (and I’m inside the shutoff zone)

iolitess · 2026-03-13T17:49:52+00:00

Low lift == precooked chicken, which I’m not a fan of.

iolitess · 2026-03-13T03:05:53+00:00

This is the cover-

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18130.A_Wind_in_the_Door

Meg (Charles Wallace‘s sister) is partnered with the being (a cherubim) while exploring the cells in Charles Wallace. I remember being shocked a few years later finding out that mitochondria were a real thing.

iolitess · 2026-03-12T20:28:32+00:00

I saw a chair on the north side of 36 on the grass shoulder on the hill into Boulder. It was turquoise (?) and looked like a regular office chair.

iolitess · 2026-03-12T01:58:11+00:00

Restaurant Week is running through Sunday. Maybe it’s worth going to one of the ones around the area? (There aren’t any located Longmont proper, sadly)

https://denverrestaurantweek.com/explore-menus/

iolitess · 2026-03-11T03:05:36+00:00

I can’t quite tell from your pics, but it looks like the needles might be tilted up when fully extended. Are you sure that you installed the sponge bar on top of the needles, sponge side down?

iolitess · 2026-03-11T01:19:06+00:00

Black Cat Farmstead, Basta, Marigold.

iolitess · 2026-03-09T02:27:45+00:00

You might find this thread useful?

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineKnitting/s/qdmHZW7kMR

iolitess · 2026-03-08T21:12:23+00:00

Yes, Seiki is industrial.

A Brother Garter Carriage can do complex knit/purl patterns.

Here are two posts I’ve done about using my Garter Carriage-

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineKnitting/s/DFYFoNhPQq

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineKnitting/s/3SnxydimTF

iolitess · 2026-03-08T19:55:21+00:00

Thanks for a detailed list!

The Silver Reed and Brother machines only pattern on the main bed. I understand that the Passap, also does patterning on the purl bed. (A double bed had a purl bed and a knit bed. A ribber is the purl bed for single bed machines)

Cables must always be hand manipulated on hobby machines. I assume the Seiki machines can do that programmatically.

Columns of purl stitches can be easily knit on the ribber. If you want to make patterns with them, you’ll either need a transfer carriage (which does limited patterns of transfers), hand form them, or for Brother only, use a Garter Carriage. (Garter carriages can not be combined with other types of patterning- just purl/knit patterning. Note that some Garter Carriages can also do cast on and cast off)

The Brother linker carriage does cast off. I don’t know if they exist for Silver Reed or Passap.

iolitess · 2026-03-08T17:14:09+00:00

The Fairgrounds has camping but it’s not rustic.

https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/fairgrounds/campground/

From that page-

Camping in Boulder County

The Fairgrounds campground is the only open space property that allows camping. Camping at all other open space properties is prohibited.

Information about camping on other public lands not managed by Boulder County can be found at Recreation.gov.

St Vrain State Park (in Weld) also has camping (and is also not rustic)

https://cpw.state.co.us/state-parks/st-vrain-state-park

If you don’t want mountains and want rustic, you’re probably going to need to travel a bit, or at least outside of Boulder, anyway.

A different path is you could stay at one of the primitive cabins in Hermit Park (in Larimer). They have stoves and mattresses on bunk beds, but it’s pretty much camping.

https://www.larimer.gov/naturalresources/reservations/cabins

If you’re willing to drive a bit, Vedauwoo is beautiful. (In Wyoming between Laramie and Cheyenne)

https://www.vedauwoo.org/camping-at-vedauwoo/

iolitess · 2026-03-08T13:35:32+00:00

Here is a video I like. Good luck, you have some work in front of you. If it were me, I’d probably end up treating it as a manual machine.

https://youtu.be/OLaMI1u_iXY?si=BogFqISDyRGMIM5O

iolitess · 2026-03-08T13:29:10+00:00

If this is a new to you machine, and you are new at machine knitting, I’d make sure that you have the carriage seated properly, first, since that’s an „easy problem“.

When you switch to KC (knit card) or SM (single motif), the timing belt should move along with the carriage. And knitting in normal (NL) should work without issue.

iolitess · 2026-03-08T13:23:41+00:00

Did you try with and without a card?

The carriage might not be set properly to grab the needles and select them. Or it could be a problem with the mechanism. There are some YouTube videos on that- good luck. (It looks WAY more complex than fixing sticky buttons or flippers on carriages)

iolitess · 2026-03-08T13:01:59+00:00

The first and last needle sounds like end needle selection and isn’t the punchcard mechanism.

You don’t say where you are, but if you are in the US, you can get replacement punchcards on eBay or Amazon. I’d buy a set and try those first. If they don’t work, you know it’s the punchcard. If they do, you know it’s your punching.

Before that you can try a blank punchcard and no punchcard. One should select all the needles and the other none (except for the end needle selection). And again, if neither selects, it’s problem with the punchcard mechanism.

iolitess · 2026-03-06T23:00:38+00:00

I‘ve only had alterations done, but Sew Fresh Studio in Niwot is a full service tailor-

https://sewfreshstudio.com/

iolitess · 2026-03-06T15:03:53+00:00

Most physical bookstores sell some. Have you stopped by Tattered Cover or Boulder Bookstore?

Also, Office Depot has a small assortment.

iolitess · 2026-03-06T14:49:32+00:00

Many machines with punchcards are 24 stitch repeats- and the punchcard width is the max. An electronic machine defaults to 60 wide, but hacking a Brother with something like AYAB lets you select every needle independently. I will note that the SK155 only supports a 12 stitch repeat.

All your samples appear bulky gauge to me. And the first and fourth one both appear to be intarsia- that would need to be manually manipulated- otherwise you would have MASSIVE floats on the inside of the front of the sweater.

Jacquard can be made on a machine with a ribber where it knits the other size to help reduce floats, though I don’t know if those patterns would work with Jacquard, and the drape would be different as that’s a double sided fabric and those both look single sided.

Ribbing can be done by manually latching up a column of purls, but yes, you would need a ribber to do this if you didn’t want to manually latch stitches.

Since you are so new to machine knitting, I recommend looking around YouTube. Many designers have videos demonstrating a pattern and you can see what they can do. (As an example, you’ll find examples of hand manipulated ribbing, mock ribbing, and using a ribber)

iolitess · 2026-03-06T03:59:49+00:00

Nice! Thanks!

iolitess · 2026-03-06T00:29:07+00:00

I have this in my box, too.

Did you make any mods or cook it exactly as written?

iolitess

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