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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl
2045 Posts
Brenda
Lucas
Ohio
USA
2045 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 23 2009 : 8:06:24 PM
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This weekend the Monroe area machine knitters are hosting a seminar - and I can't wait to go.
If you're not familiar with machine knitting, it is something you should look into.
It is much more productive than hand-knitting, just as relaxing, although in a different way, and requires as much dedication to learning and technical expertise. Not quite as portable but maybe more versatile.
Home knitting machines have been around for a long time. I was introduced to them in the 1970's and have collected quite a few Brother machines, but they go back to the mid-nineteenth century. Knitting machines were actually a predecessor to the modern computer, if you follow punch-tape programming technology to teletypes, the ASCII character set, etc. Brother was probably the most popular manufacturer of knitting machines, but there were others such as Passap, Singer, Silver Reed, and Artisan - even up to the Bond Ultimate Machine. Brother is now out of the knitting machine business, evidently finding computer printers more profitable.
Sweaters knitted on a home knitting machine still require a significant amount of hand-crafting - every increase or decrease is moved by hand from one needle to the other, and special techniques such as cabling also require hand manipulation. But I find that the machine can reduce the amount of time spent on one sweater from 200 hours to maybe 10-20 hours.
If you've never seen a knitting machine, I'd love to share the experience. There are knitting machine clubs in pockets of the country including Indiana, California, New York, Michigan, Minnesota and Maine..and probably more.
Anyone interested in knowing more?
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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I'm off to Monroe!
