The Singer Magic Memory Knitting Machine
- Maggi Bloice
- May 29
- 2 min read
My third machine to check over is the Singer Magic Memory.
would describe it as a lovely pink colour and one of the prettiest machines ever. Again it’s a one off in its operation and when I wrested it down off the shelf after its long layoff it needed a deep clean and oil.
Setting it up is easy and the books that come with the machine are pretty good. It’s a standard gauge machine with a 12 stitch punchcard facility that operates with a set of one and half volt batteries. You must remove these batteries from the compartment after laying it past.
Its been a while since I used it but it still operated very easily and has a lace carriage to boot. Casting on is simple, and most of it is as per most standard gauges, it has a superb toolbox and tension arm, and knits most of the normal pattern ranges. The 12 stitch punchards name the technique on the top of the card and can have up to 4 different stitch patterns on the one card.
How it operates is fun though, you have to insert a large pink handled spanner at the corner of the machine, which I have to admit is not the best place to have as its easily damaged when going past and it is fragile like all the plastics on this machine. It must have been innovative in its day and its a fun machine machine to play around with. You set up your punch card which at the bottom of a window tells you which buttons to push, then you pull the handle and it moves up a row then you knit – so handle pulled, knit one row and so on. You do get into a rhythm and the funny part is that when either there is something to change or the finish of a pattern it rings a bell. I thought the batteries were a gimic to be honest and tried it without but no joy – it needs those batteries to operate.
This is another fine wee vintage machine that actually does the job of knitting easily again when you know how, and I am sure that if one has this as there main machine it would be fun to operate however again, if you like it, look for a second for spares as the plastic on the accessories is extremely fragile.
