Recently I've fallen into a rabbit hole of machine knitting videos on my social media. I think it started with this artist I follow on Instagram, called @tangledforest, who makes unique sweaters with patterns of frogs, leaves, butterflies, and other woodland elements. I watched a video where she demonstrates her process of designing patterns on a punch card, weaving pieces of knitwork on her knitting machine, then hand-sews the pieces into a completed sweater.
I was mesmerised. I never knew knitting machines existed on a domestic level - by that I mean anyone would just set one up in their home, and the entire setup only takes up as much space as a piano keyboard on a stand.
So after some more digging and research, I decided to acquire an affordable knitting machine. Luckily, I found out that someone in my town was getting rid of their mother's old knitting things, so I got in touch. For £100, I managed to get an Empisal Knitmaster 300 and extra accessories including an intarsia carriage, a colour changer, a card puncher, a folding table for the knitting machine, a ribber bed and a huge bag of unused vintage yarn! Some odd bits and bobs were missing, such as the ribber connecting arm, cast-on comb, a table clamp, and ribber clamps, etc. But I could do without them, I only needed to make sure that the main machine was functional first, and then I could find the extra pieces on eBay if I wanted to explore the full potential of a double-bed knitting machine.
As many people recommended for first-time machine-knitters, I ordered a sponger bar replacement before starting to use the machine. Not to my surprise, the sponge bar inside the machine had practically been eroded away. I had a little hiccup when I had to iron on the adhesive fabric onto the new sponge strip, only to find that I did not own an iron; however I worked out that I could heat a pan over the stove, and use it like a iron. Once the new sponge bar was installed, the carriage was moving across the knitting bed like butter on toast.
To start, I watched many video tutorials on various methods of 'casting on' yarn. As I did not have a cast-on comb, I learnt to use the e-wrap method (which is more laborious, but also quite therapeutic), and later on I bought a cast-on comb, which much more simplified the process. I also watched many videos of methods of casting-off a finished piece of knitting, which is in my opinion the most demanding part of machine-knitting.
As my sister-in-law's birthday was just around the corner, I decided to make a custom pouch for her, with a bespoke pattern of penguins which is her favourite animal. I ordered a pack of empty punch cards, and designed the following pattern:
Punch card design of snowflakes and penguins on snowy ground, on a 24-stitch punch card.
Luckily, I have experience with creating pixel art and seamless repeating textures from work, so this was very straight forward for me. In the future I would create a 24px by 60px image on my computer beforehand, so I can plan out and preview the pattern, instead of having to rely on my imagination and risk making a mistake when punching the card.
I started with the pouch by making a 1x1 mock rib - which also perfectly serves as a pocket to later thread a ribbon drawstring through. I then proceeded to knit the fabric using the punch card design. Because the use of punch card meant there would be a lot of yarn floats on the back of the knitwork, I decided to sew in a lining using some spare faux linen fabric that I have.
The back of the pouch knitwork before being cast-off. I used waste-yarn cast-on, then made a mock rib, then knitted in the punch card designs up-side-down.
This is what the knitwork looks like from the front:
The mock rib part looks very loose (too elastic), because I had not known to reduce the tension setting when knitting it.
And this is what the pouch looks like, after I've sewn the sides together, and threaded a ribbon through the inside of the mock rib:
I think this was a successful attempt to create a knitted pouch with a bespoke pattern design.
For next time, I think I would knit an extra length of the fabric to create a separate tunnel for the drawstring to thread through instead of the mock rib, and I would create an opening on the opposite side of the pouch, so that the pouch will look more like a stereotypical drawstring pouch.
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