Using Industrial Yarn
Passap E6000 Electronic
Very fine industrial yarns and uses
I have a great deal of industrial yarns of all types, from cotton, acrylic, linen, wool etc and the main problem with these yarns is the time it takes to cone them into as many ends as required for use to knit. They are mainly used on my Passap E6000 and way too often I suppose I just cannot be bothered so I mix them in the hope I get something I like.
Anyway, I aint no designer but I do like taking a shape or pattern from one of the many books available now online. There are dozens of designs and if you take a look at the basics and understand there is no way these yarns are available nowadays you can begin.
I initially draft the shape into DesignaKnit using the tensions given for the garment. In this case the jacket came from one of the Brother magazines and it was in my favourite industrial 2 by one rib. Trouble was that I wanted to knit it on my Passap because I do not need to use weights with this machine. So after drafting in the design, I began mixing the industrial acrylics (I am unfortunately allergic to wool) I tried a mix of ends and eventually landed up with 5 different colours of yarn, to give me the required tension to knit this jacket on the Passap. The original design was knitted on the Brother and it used all 200 needles – so to knit it on the Passap, I needed to go up to a thicker yarn – hence the 5 ends knitted at a relatively high tension for rib on this machine. This produced a very heavy fabric and once I had entered the new tension into DesignaKnit,(please do not forget to save as a new file just in case) I ensured it kept the same measurements and shape and accordingly it decreased the amount of needles to about 180 for the back, which was fine for the Passap 5 mm. I knitted the jacket after using the needle selection to tidy up the decreases and increases etc by using the stitch selection method. I then printed out the pattern and knitted it. It produced a large jacket as it is in rib, the yarn is heavy and has plenty of stretch if required but it bounces back into shape unlike fisherman’s rib. Perhaps I should mention that all the ends come through the one upper tension stand as though a single yarn - by the way a 2 by one rib is 2 needles in work with one in between out of work. (Sometimes it is know as 2 by 2 rib).
Five ends of mixed industrials
The Passap knitted it ever so easy on tension 6 with the motor. To be honest it looks as though it has been knitted on a chunky machine. The collar has a facing that can be stitched back to provide a nice rolled edge. Overall I am happy with it and it will provide yet another jacket (love knitting jackets) to slip over the jeans in winter and it has pockets (a necessity for me). Ok so I perhaps pinks would not be my first choice of yarns but needs must – I have loads of em. I assume they are all acrylic but who knows!
