DesignaKnit 8
DesignaKnit 8 Pro (upgrade)
A trial run of DesignaKnit Pro 9 - what a fantastic piece of software.
Or try designing yourself – enter in a shape from a magazine so you can refer even adding the tension stated then draft the shape, I chose trousers as they are quite complex and I came across some strange bits but I love the stitch layout feature – its superb – you can simply select one stitch and move it right or left or select a bundle using the select tool – its so intuitive. Problem I had with the slacks was my inability to set the central point on my piece and it took forever, eventually I looked at the instructions – and even with facebook folk trying to help no avail but a quick glance at the PDF instructions which are pretty fabulous gave me the answer, I had to turn on the numbered points and saw immediately that I did not have a point in the centre, this was quickly remedied by adding one then I used the origin ruler to set a new central origin. so happy to have done this at last….
Initial Trial Run
Getting into DesignaKnit 8 Pro – initial trial run, and I have entered a shape from a Knitking magazine for pants/slacks. This was a difficult shape to enter as it has differing sides so I decided to roughly draft the shape to start with as an oblong with the correct rows and stitches (after entering the tensions as per the magazine). Then I used the fantastic stitch outline and stitch handles setting to actually do the shaping. It took a while but eventually I had the shape then checked it with the print feature using the actual pattern to ensure the shaping was as is and it was correct. It was tedious to start with as I did it stitch by stitch, then I discovered that I could draw a box round the edge stitches to make it faster to increase or decrease - seriously a piece of cake (when you know how).
I then duplicated the piece and copied and pasted it to give me another front of the pattern then used the alter button to flip it and that was the 2 front pieces done, I then did exactly the same with the back pieces – this gave me my 4 bits – and to my mind if you can do this then the sky’s the limit. I added the pockets next and I was ready to go. I had been looking at a stitch pattern before I embarked on this project and when I pressed the picture of the little patterned jumper at the top of the screen it integrated the pattern onto the active piece.
Save - Save and Save again!
One thing that you must do when drafting like this is to keep saving each movement constantly and if you want to experiment then save the design under another name ie slax – slacks 1 – slacks 2 etc etc. I note I am able to put in far better descriptions of my work now along with a thumbnail and that’s an added blessing.
Brother 940 and Passap E6000 Pattern Download
I thought I would try my hand at downloading the check pattern that I had integrated to do a test square, my yarn stock is anything but normal here, it is mostly industrials and I suppose I have so much I could sell the stuff, however the downside is getting yarn that looks good, so I knitted my test square on both my Passap E6000 and my Brother 940 – Jacquard for the E6000 (183) and Fairisle for my Brother – I had to save the pattern in both formats and again used differing names for the same stitch pattern which I had coloured to my liking. The yarns chosen were a very fine
natural linen and a navy yarn – not too sure what it was – could be cotton or wool but it is industrial and fine again. I used tension 3 on the Passap ie full needle rib and tension 5 on the Brother – fairisle. I am experimenting using fine yarns a bit more now, as I seriously like the texture produced. Whether or not I can actually knit something with it is another ball game – but the samples were gorgeous.
Hassle free cables
It was very easy and intuitive to download to the E6000 once I had set the cables up, I have knit to screen cables with the original serial to usb adapter ie the blue one, once plugged it – it took about 2 minutes to check the knit from screen plugin and to download to the consul – the Brother was also very easy to do, I simply unplug the USB and try not to muck about too much with the knitting machine connections.
Superb online PDF Instruction Manual
By the way, if you are lucky enough to own DK8 take a look at the wonderful online PDF instructions – they really are a boon, as per usual with me – I muck about for hours before looking at the simple way of doing things ie looking at the manual.
Designaknit 7 Pro
I have to confess although I had DK7 – I am useless at designing my own stuff and was never able to do this without a great deal of hassle, as I have no dressmaking experience. Most of the terminology had me baffled. I love the ability to enter superb designs that are now freely available on the web and then use my industrial yarn stash to come up with what the Passap etc does the best – different textures and patterns.
Finally, I had to learn how to take a screen shot from DK8 to illustrate this bit of my blog, and may I add - I am eternally grateful to my Facebook machine knitting forums for the help received on the way. Watch this space for more to come.
