Push Button Machines update
- Maggi Bloice
- 55 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Jones 588
Excellent machine of the push button variety and as per usual in good condition. It is fully packed with lace carriage and tools. The instruction manuals are self explanatory once you get used to the charts.
The serial number of this one is 4046878. It has weaving brushes so it is capable of the weaving brush cast on. It is one of the best of the push buttons in my humble opinion and built to last. The needle retainers are a fine sponge and the foam doorstop rolls that were available from B and Q usually do the job for me as a light user of my machines.
Just donated this week yet another push button machine the Brother Knit Super L and it was in pristine condition although it needed a wee bit of TLC re the push buttons. Once cleaned and oiled again the machine worked as though it had been bought yesterday. The lace carriages on these wee machines are beyond reproach, they are seriously up to the job. This lace carriage looked as though it had never seen the light of day and on its first run behaved superbly. Perhaps it may have been pertinent for Brother or Jones to mention that you can move the lace carriage from one side to the other after transfer, instead of just ignoring the fact. I makes it so much easier than taking the carriage off the bed inbetween each transfer if it requires it to come from the opposite end of the bed.
As an aside, I attended a wonderful demo of the Brother lace carriage by a lady from Aberfeldy (Betty) who was a whiz when it came to this gadget, she knitted fabulous baby shawls on the Brother push buttons and knitted the lace at a rate of knots, so fascinating to watch. So thank you to the kind gentleman who donated this interesting machine to join the museum collection. When it comes to push button machines they come in all shapes and sizes and from the unusual to the downright hard to understand variety. I have 2 Pine Star Machines which work in a different way but I will not bore you with the details as I have already written about this model.
A more sophisticated machine is the Toyota 787 – this has push buttons, zig-zag facilities and punch cards. A fabulous machine if you can get it in good condition, it also has a lace carriage included.
The Vogue machine, does not have push buttons but works in a similar way to spanner machines but the works are all integrated into the machine, this counts as an odd machine when it comes to operating it – a fussy tension system and the needles drop into the bed when not in use. It would take the patience of a saint to knit with it and I now have three thanks to another donation from the gentleman mentioned above. They must have cost a fortune to build – the books mention how folk paid for machines in those days ie by knitting garments that had to be just so - not a job for the faint hearted in the case of the Vogue.
One of the things I love getting machines that are donated are the number of interesting books and literature than accompanying these machines and in the case of the Vogue, I received a large booklet outlining teaching procedures for this machine. They invited would be buyers to sell them on commission – which was 4 pounds 14 shillings, not a bad amount for that day and age. They could be bought for the princely sum of 44 pounds and 2 shillings, so less a deposit of 14 guineas (14 pound and 14 shillings) that left 29 pounds and 8 shillings, plus hiring charges of 3 pounds and 19 shillings, - that came to 33 pounds and 7 shillings – total HP 48 pounds and 1 shilling = 12 payments of 2 pounds and 15 shillings and seven pence – it then went on to offer other variations with smaller deposits. Very very interesting document that outlined a lot of form filling etc etc and also payment via knitting garments. Obviously this book was meant for “instructresses” as they say – it even invited them to keep a small receipt book for the 2 hour training sessions. I would absolutely have loved to be a fly on the wall during these sessions (based on my experience of operating this machine) backed up by a few of the letters I have from the company re problems encountered.
As well as the above, some older machines have a mix of spanner and or button type operations and they include unusual ways of working, among these are the following machines, Jones 800 (very heavy machine) Toyota 787, Toyota 747, Knitmasters 302, 305, Vistamatic, 250, and the Singer Magic Memory. They incorporate a mix of pattern cards, punchcards and/or buttons and spanners plus racking facilities to allow a variety of patterns.
Below, a few examples of the aforementioned machines in order
Pine Star, Knitmaster 302, Toyota 767,Jones 800, Knitmaster 302 and finally the Vogue.
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