Stitches

I'm looking into getting a knitting machine. What do I look for?

I want to get a knitting machine. It will be my first, and I dont know what to look for exactly... Any help is good.

Public Comments

1. A knitting machine is not as portable as hand knitting. A knitting machine is clamped to a table which means you are confined to one location. With entry level machines, stockinette works up very (very) quickly, but anything with mixed knit & purl stitches on the right side, like ribbing, garter stitch, seed stitch, moss stitch, etc., requires manual manipulation. There are many on-line machine knitting groups and a few that I frequent on a regular basis are: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knittingmachines/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LK-150/ Also take a look at this site that explains what you can expect from a knitting machine. http://www.yarn-store.com/hand-and-machine-knitting-the-differences-and-similarities.html I used and owned a Bond ISM (the version before the USM) and it is an okay, basic, mid-weight machine. It requires more manual manipulation than other higher priced machines, but it knits stockinette very quickly and with some manual intervention you can knit cables, fair isle, intarsia, and other stitch patterns. It's a good machine to get started with because with it you'll see if you actually like using a knitting machine. I upgraded to a Silver Reed LK-150 and knitting with it is much easier and faster to knit with than the Bond.