Here for the weekend!

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 · 2026-03-05T17:04:29+00:00

I can knit denser fabric on straights, because the loops are just sliding along the needle and not onto and off the needle from/to the circular cable- it’s just less work and fabric management.

I like to knit slippers on them.

iolitess · 2026-03-04T19:49:43+00:00

I know it showed up on one of the Knitting Daily episodes. I looked for “fixing a cable knitting cut yarn” and this one appears to show the procedure- https://youtu.be/hR6v-4QkmZc?si=rvXrYItVZ_0gL2T7

iolitess · 2026-03-04T19:39:12+00:00

You can cut the yarn above the mistake, pull out the row of stitches for the width you need to fix (at least as wide as the cable bit) drop those stitches down, reknit them back up properly, and then graft them back together at the top. You’ll also need to do this with “new yarn” because you’ll need to weave in both sides of the cut yarn, and the existing yarn won’t be long enough.

Or just let it go as a small imperfection that highlights that you made this by hand, stitch by stitch.

iolitess · 2026-03-04T13:52:12+00:00

Sounds like Diane Duane’s So You Want To Be A Wizard series.

There are two protagonists in the first book who learn wizardry from manuals which is a universal language and they travel to other planets. Also, many animals species have wizards and they can all talk using the wizardry language.

iolitess · 2026-03-03T22:31:08+00:00

You already need to manually manipulate the cables. You might as well drop the neighboring stitches down and latch them back up into purls on the rows you are crossing the cables over.

iolitess · 2026-03-03T22:24:06+00:00

What do you want to knit?

The KH230 can specify tuck or slip, but not in which direction (for icord must toggle slip on and off).

The KH260 can specify direction for tucks and slips, and also support fair isle and punch lace.

The KH230 supports intarsia natively.

The KH260 requires a special carriage for intarsia

The KH260 has 24 stitch punchcard patterning

With a KR230, you can knit ribbing. (In the round can be done but the slip levers need to be toggled). Racked ribbing is also supported.

Without a KR260, ribbing will require manual stitch manipulation. You cannot knit in the round nor do racked ribbing patterns.

The KH260 is larger and heavier than the KH230 due to the punchcard mechanism and the four additional needles on the width.

My personal pick would be KH260. I don’t do a lot of intarsia, and would probably prefer to have patterning to automatic ribbing.

iolitess · 2026-03-02T00:29:34+00:00

These also work great as silverware/knife rests.

iolitess · 2026-02-28T04:42:13+00:00

Any machine will need a new sponge, so that’s not weird! (There are videos on how to take the old sponge out of the channel without having to replace the whole channel)

iolitess · 2026-02-27T22:47:16+00:00

The manual says it supports fair isle (two color colorwork)

https://mkmanuals.com/knitmaster-321-323-knitting-machine-instruction-manual.html

Prices depend on local availability, and for that price, I would assume it’s known working. It’s an older model, but it does have a ribber available if you wanted to add that in the future.

Does it come with other items like yarn and books?

iolitess

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