Destashing with the Knitmaster 155

I found some odd yarn that had been in my stash for at least 20 years - Patons Stripes - I thought it was cotton, but no, it was acrylic and heavily textured with a double knitting weight, hence the reason for the chunky. However being the lazy so and so I am, I decided to use the Knitmaster Knit Radar. After having a search around this place I found the rules in a whisky bottle container along with the patterns - the knit radar was elsewhere. No wonder I take so long to produce.

The knitradar patterns are a bit old fashioned but I simply wanted a set in sleeve jersey and I had enough yarn to produce this. Of course it would have been too much to ask that the damn thing worked first time but no, it needed a strip and release of the gummed up grease, but it was a fairly simple task. So onward and upward!

I knitted the test square and selected the rules (reading the instruction manual of course) having so many machines and gadgets, its nigh on impossible to keep track of them all. Well that my excuse anyway!

However, once its set up - its all systems go, it knitted this tricky yarn easily but on a low tension. Took no time at all to knit the back and front, then using the back as a gauge to help me see the sleeve length, I altered the pattern and recalculated the increases accordingly then at the top of the sleeve I went back onto the knit radar to finish.

For the hem, I decided to use a picot, and for the sleeves I used the ribber - now the neckband I hung the jersey on the machine and attached the ribber . I then set the stitches in a one by one format and off I went - knitted about 10 rows then cast off loosely. That was it - job done and my old machine had another work out.

I sewed it up with a slippery yarn and I had my jersey - so called striper yarn - it produces an interesting pattern. Very happy with it. The Knitmaster 155 is a seriously smooth running machine - its only downside I suppose is the fact it has a 12 stitch punchcard. Its such a workhorse you would have thought that this "professional" model would have at least offered a 24 stitch punchcard.