How long did it take you to learn machine knitting?
DL asks, “How long did it take you for the machine to start listening to you?” This is a question that a lot of new machine knitters struggle with. Learning how to master your knitting machine can be a daunting task, especially when teaching yourself.
An experienced hand knitter, DL has a Pfaff E6000 with 2 color changer and no motor that she purchased 20 years ago. She tried to use it when she first purchased it and had no luck. She says that for her, it was easier and faster to knit by hand.
Since covid, she decided to try again but is finding it challenging. She knits every day and she is learning slowly, but it is hard. She found inspiration in my blog and reached out for tips and encouragement.
DL, I've thought about your question a bit. People progress at different rates, so how quickly or slowly I progressed is almost irrelevant. I progressed steadily for a couple of years while knitting part time, then I needed to take a couple of years off. When I came back, I had to relearn the things I had forgotten.
As with learning any new craft, you’re going to start as a beginner. And as a beginner, you will make mistakes. The key is learning why mistakes happen. I've often found that in the classes I teach the students that make the most mistakes at the beginning and learn from their mistakes, progress more quickly through the various techniques than students who "get it" right away.
My advice is to embrace your mistakes as learning opportunities. Learn what each button and knob does and how it has an effect on the knitting. Keep an open mind and allow yourself to make mistakes. Analyzing your swatches can be a great way to get a better understanding of which controls are doing what.
Machine knitting patterns aren't helpful if you want to really understand what you're doing. Try designing your own machine knitting pattern! This way you will have a clearer understanding of what the machine is doing. A background in hand knitting is helpful in that you understand fundamentally how knitting works, but hand knitting and machine knitting are very different in many ways. It might be helpful to think of hand knitting and machine knitting as two different crafts, and as you get more comfortable with your knitting machine and its controls and quirks, you’ll begin to approach it with a different mindset.