Equipment/Knitting Machine
| Knitting Machine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Model | Brother KH-950 |
| Sub-category | Crafts |
| Status | Good working order |
| Last updated | 19 August 2022 21:58:08 |
| Consumables | Unknown |
| Accessories | Unknown |
| Training requirement | Yes |
| Training link | Unknown |
| ACnode | No |
| Owner | Unknown |
| Origin | Unknown |
| Location | Ground floor, main area |
We have a Brother KH-950 knitting machine with a pile of attachments which we bought through a pledge in July 2011. This is a computerised knitting machine with the capability of "printing" in two colours from user-supplied patterns (currently through punch-cards and paper, although ideally from USB).
The Bits
Our knitting kit consists of:
- Brother KH-950 Knitting Machine
- Brother KR-850 Ribber
- Brother (?) Colour Changer
- Brother KL-116 Knit-Leader
How to use it
The knitter is a surprisingly complex device - talk to someone who knows how to use it before using it (try Solexious, Russ, or Tom Wyatt). Being shown how to set it up and use it will save you at least an hour and will reduce the chance that you'll break it.
Dispense with your hubris, and read the manual. You might think you're able to use any device without a manual, but this will prove you wrong and leave you looking like a fool. The manual is mostly good (if rather terse and formatted in a fetching, patronisingly sexist shade of pink), but you have to follow it well and take it slowly. And sometimes it glosses over the important bits.
Where it Lives
Please keep the knitting equipment in the correct boxes, or everyone will get confused. The parts live in 5 different boxes:
- The KH-950 knitting machine, in its proper white case with a handle. This contains everything you need to use the knitter itself. When you open the box, observe carefully where everything is, because it's a bugger to put back together. (Instructions on how to pack the knitting machine up are in the manual.)
- The ribber, its accessories (plus a couple of large spares for the knitting machine), in a cardboard box. (Some of these accessories might be useful for using the knitter alone but they are not essential for it.)
- A plastic box with the yarn, elastic, and misc additional knitter accessories.
- The "Knit-Leader" and its tube of supplies, loose.
- The Waitrose bag of knitting books, which includes the manuals for all the devices.
Yarns
The KH-950i is a standard gauge domestic 4.5mm (industrial 5.6 gauge). This means it will knit 2 ply, 3 ply (fingering weight), 4 ply (sock/sweater weight), and some double knitting / sport weight yarns. If you're new to the realm of machine knitting it's best to use a 3 or 4 ply yarn that's smooth and consistent all the way along (no thickness variation or fancy bits). The reason for this is if you haven't setup the yarn feeder or tension dial perfectly on either the main bed or ribbing bed then you'll run into more trouble with a complex (thickness varied) or very thin (2 ply) yarn than you would with a simple 3 or 4 ply which are more tolerant of mistakes.
4 ply yarn is the most popular yarn put on cone. At tension 5-7 on the main bed dial with 4 ply yarn it will produce approx 7 stitches and 10 rows to 2.5 cms.
The yarn supplied in the yarn crate is for knitting samples for the purpose of testing. If you want to start a project, please supply your own yarn. And get LOTS, these things are very yarn hungry. If you have leftovers, you could consider donating them to the yarn box ;)
Some inspiration
What can this baby do then?
- Annie Larson’s Colorful Knitwear
- How-To: Hack Your Knitting Machine
- The home of mathematical knitting
Links
- Floppy Drive Emulator
- Brother Accessories Explained
- Knittington, a GUI for the serial interface hack
- Brother Liberation Front more crafting machine hacks
- Knitic a different way to mod a knitting machine
