Brands other than Brother – Page 3

Large eyelet lace, hand transferred (or not)

This is a lace sample created on a dubied industrial knitting machine

I became curious as to how to duplicate it and decided to use needle selection to help track the transfers rather than counting needles by hand. The repeat is a small one, suitable for both electronics and punchcards. Below is its configuration on my 910, punchcard knitters may want to flip the repeat to match the directions for knitting as written.

the sample’s knit side

its purl side

yarn: 2/8wool

end needle selection (KCII here) must be used any time there are needles out of work in the pattern

transfers are always made toward the carriage

single empty needled are put OOW after transfers across row

pairs of empty needles after they are created are returned to work before the next row of knitting to create side-by-side loops

in my case, odd rows transfers were —>, even <—

single rows are knit after each set of transfers

1.KCII <—, transfer selected needles <—, move empty needles OOW

2. select row 2 as carriage knits —>, transfer selected needles —>, there will be two empty needles, side by side; bring all needles in work across the row

3. knit <—here there will be 2 loops side by side on adjoining emptied needles; check that no loops have dropped off, rehang and adjust tension if needed; transfer selected needles toward the carriage _ move single now emptied needles OOW

as this row and the next row are knit and transferred, side-by-side loops will become stitches, and another 2-loop set will be created

4. knit —>, transfer selected needles —> onto the adjoining loop, there will be 2 empty needles side by side, bring all/pairs needles in work across the row

repeat steps 3 and 4 for the remainder of the fabric

my previous posts on large eyelet lace were created using the lace carriage
large eyelets, and diagonal large eyelets

a cousin of sorts may be achieved by using the following punchcard lace repeat; the lace carriage selects and transfers for 4 passes, the knit carriage follows with 2 rows of knitting throughout; stitches are transferred, doubled up, and transferred again, so yarn choice, weight, and tension may need a lot of editing.

the resulting fabric

There is an added post on automating such large meshes published in July 2020

Studio mylar use on brother machines 2

In a previous post I addressed some of the issues involved in using the studio mylars in Brother KMs. I have an enormous store of them from back in the day when it was only possible to have single patterns occupy a fixed number of rows, while the remaining surface for those rows was unusable. This fact changed when the company produced the EC1. I revisited this topic after a forum question on the subject. It would be convenient to produce consistent results with the Studio brand, and be able to use my stash of them as well.
It is interesting when one is trying to figure something out how sometimes the obvious may be missed. Instinctively this time, I simply lined up the bottom design row of both mylars before drawing the set line, disregarding the difference in length between the 2 mylars below it. This bypasses the 3-row difference in programming rows suggested in my previous post completely, while the shorter distance below the set line to the reader did not prove to be a problem I had tested template markers on Brother mylars when ink pens were discontinued and I had no luck with permanent markers, found they shed a bit and pencils tips broke easily, while I could not be as neat in rendering small markings as simply by going the route of using a number 2 pencil on the mylar’s back ( I prefer the Mirado Warrior HB 2). Drawing with enough density “within the lines” on mylars is rendered far easier with one of these templates, at one point made available from Brother. Similar ones may sometimes be found in stationary or art/ drafting supply stores. The images below show my first “new” tests: on the left, I drew with the template marker over previous pencil markings, the squares repeat over # 36 was made with multiple layers of a sharpie (which smeared even after what would seem like adequate drying time), the ones over #42 are made with the template marker. The sharpie did not get scanned properly by the reader, all other marks did. There is a guiding pencil line placed where the set line familiar to Brother users would be. In the first narrow column to the right, the pencil marking corresponds to the first visible row (design row 1 in reader). The column on the far right (absent from Brother) could be used for additional cues in knitting ie. color changes, knit rows between lace transfers, etc.

the template markers are easily available here in the US, for a little over $ 4 now; frequently they are found in quilting departments of fabric stores. I am not certain which specific brand mine is, but this is what it looks like

the “pencil” that appeared to work when used on the back of both mylars is the Pentech rubberwriter, which seems to no longer be available (rubber coating is on pencil exterior; results were random on Studio mylar)

When used on the respective brand machines, the Brother reader scans 13 rows below eye level outside the machine, while Studio scans 10 rows below This explains why the columns intended for memos extend up and beyond the last row which can have cells marked for pattern in each brand.

2021_ some FB knitters have mentioned having success with using whiteboard markers to make readable and removable if needed marks on Brother mylars

I had some erratic results as seen in the last post. Here a small success led to a bigger trial (template marker over motif previously drawn with studio electronic pencil) and I ran into a different problem: bands of rows on the mylar did not select; this may be seen in the image below (testing repeats for any stitch in FI makes drawing or punching errors easier to visualize), and recurred in a different area of the card, while at its very top nothing got read ->needles selected

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a couple of times over the decades of my knitting with Brother mylars I ran into this specific problem for no apparent reason, so I tested a different Studio mylar sheet, toward the top, and both the template marker and the rubber writer got to read/knit correctly

“going bigger” again, the pencil did not get read, while the template marker did

playing with a slip stitch on another part of the sheet (marker)

the “patterning errors ” in the image above (extra brown stitches third white stripe from the bottom of the swatch) were actually due to a bit of eraser left after its use on the mylar in the blank area of the card.

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In summary: there have been good results in my trials in using the template marker both on top of already rendered electronic pencil drawings or on previously blank sections of Studio mylars and subsequently having them read by my Brother 910, with limited results in having small repeats read when drawn on the back of the mylar in pencil, but not with larger motifs. There have also been some problems that are not immediately explainable.

Studio simple lace punchcards used on Brother

My previous post and a few others addressed some of the issues in knitting lace and the differences between machines. In this instance, I am exploring the use of cards that are designed for transferring and knitting at the same time.
Brother transfer lace is the result of using 2 different carriages.
The studio card used the resulting fabric

To knit using LC for transfers:
cancel end needle selection on knit carriage underside if possible or push end needles back manually if needed to avoid their corresponding stitches being transferred throughout the piece; set up for knitting the pattern as usual, punchcard row 3 (marked in pencil) becomes row 1 of the design when the above card is used in brother machine; the arrows always indicate the direction the lace carriage will move across the knit to make transfers in the direction of that same arrow
begin pattern knitting with COR, card locked, change knob on KC, needles will be selected for transfers moving to the left
release punchcard
LCOR moves to left transferring and is released off the machine (same needle selection appears, but those needles are now emptied of yarn)
COL: KC moves left to right, knitting the single row, all needle hooks are full, and new needle selection occurs
LCOL: makes transfers in the direction of the arrow, and is released
These steps are repeated throughout the knit, with the knit carriage knitting and selecting, the lace carriage following its selection to make the required transfers
If there is no pattern needle selection with the KC pass on any row(s), continue to knit until there is needle selection, and begin the process using lace carriage to transfer in the direction of the arrow now in view above the card reader, and once again releasing it after a single pass
A caution: hesitation and reversal in the movement of carriages in Brother machines advance the card in the reader, and result in mistakes in patterning; if errors are to be corrected or such movements need to be made for any reason, it is worth locking the card, checking row numbers, remembering to release the card before continuing, and visually checking pattern after the next knit row.

Another option is hand transfers:
KCOL: lock the card on the appropriate row, row 3 if using a Studio brand one
The KC is set to knit, with no cam buttons pushed in. As a result, there will be needle selection, but no patterning.
KCOL: make the first selection row left to right, release the card, and set it to advance normally, disregarding arrow markings on the card
KCOR: transfer stitches on preselected needles onto adjacent needles to the left, away from the KC, and knit back to the left
KCOL: transfer preselected stitches to the right and follow with a knit row to the right.
After each selection row hand transfers continue to be made away from the knit carriage, with transfers on odd-numbered design rows toward the left and on even-numbered rows toward the right.
Blank rows on the original design repeat will have no needle selection or hand transfers, the KC continues to advance the card and knit, producing stocking stitch for the necessary number of rows.
Before any knit rows when using tools for hand transfers, check that needles have not been accidentally returned to the A position to avoid ladder formation instead of eyelets or proper patterning.

Using Studio mylar sheets on brother KMs 1

Factory “drawn” Studio mylar sheets ie for 560 model KMs will work on the Brother 910 with some adjustments. Just as when using punchcards, the card reader drum as well as the mylar scanner “see” a different row as row 1 than the alternate brand KM.
The image below is a quick scan of positions of black/white squares on Studio mylar with a superimposed, unmarked one for Brother. The holes for movement of the mylar occur in just about nearly the same location. The first issue at hand is to draw a set line in the proper position for Brother pattern reading (traces of pencil line on the red studio mylar may be seen underneath the blue brother markings). Some machines are fussier than others with the set position, and I found drawing the line by placing the denser studio card over the brother one on a light_box surface made that very easy.
The second issue is that as can be seen above, the first design row on Brother is actually 3 rows below that on Studio, so when programming the repeat 3 rows should be added to the first row of studio repeat, and 3 also added to its top. For example in the studio mylar #1 segment below#4 pattern in Studio programming would begin on row 11, ending on row 14, to program same in Brother beginning row is 14, ending row is 17; stitch locations remain unchanged, but a reminder: Brother sheet is marked in 5X5 blocks of squares, Studio in 6X5.
Hand drawn studio mylars when using the pencil appropriate for them will not read, so sheets need to be marked with any tools you have used for doing so in brother markings in the past. One oddity I encountered is that with the drawn repeat below I had no needle selection until I programmed rows beginning above row 5, using rows # 9-12 as top and bottom of the repeat, not an issue with the factory mylar. I used a sharpie to draw the first pair of squares (has never worked for me), number 2 pencil on the reverse of the sheet for the second (my preferred method), and template marking pencil on the mylar front for the third. Drawing with the latter over hand-drawn studio mylars enabled those markings, in turn, to be read by my 910. One problem with the template pencils is that small pieces of the coating they produce may shed with use. The issue with bottom rows not reading did not repeat when I used a different blank mylar sheet and drew the identical repeat, nor did it occur with factory drawn. Sometimes there are no explanations…