Stitches

Advice about buying a Knitting Machine?

I'm a long time hand knitter who's frustrated by the insane amount of time it takes to make anything, especially garments. I've been thinking about a knitting machine for awhile. I wondered if there are any machine knitters out there who can give me a little advice about what machine, what things to look for in a machine, pretty much anything you can think of, because I'm a little clueless here. Here's the catch: I'm NOT paying over $200 for a machine, and would like to go WAY under that if possible. So far the only machine I've found in this price range is the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine, which has really mixed reviews. If you have a Bond, I'd especially like to hear anything you have to say about it. Thanks everybody!

Public Comments

1. about.com is a great place to start http://knitting.about.com/od/bon2/ the 4th link down offerinfo and the 3rd has free patterns I use the Bond ISM and love it. http://knitting.about.com/od/machineknitting1/
2. If you're not paying over $200, the Bond USM is pretty much your only choice unless you buy something used. However that might pose its own problems. 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. 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. 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. But there are many on-line machine knitting groups and one in particular that you can learn a lot from: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/incrediblesweatermachineclub/ 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