Texture for Days
I truly admire beautiful colorwork in sweater knits, but my main interest has always been developing texture. So after my initial adventure with jacquards on the Kniterate, I was excited to see what textures I could produce.
My first challenge was to adapt a tuck rib pattern for knitting on the Kniterate. I use the word “challenge” because right away I wanted to face one of the machine’s limitations. As it clearly states on the Kniterate website, “Tuck function is limited and the machine can’t combine tuck and knit operations within the same traverse movement.” It should be added here that the limitation is only when combining these operations within the same traverse on the same bed. In other words, a cardigan stitch is available; cross tuck jersey in the standard method is not. [Edited to add 16 Oct 2024 — This issue has been mostly eliminated with the “Tuck to knit” command added in late 2023.]
Limitations are not a problem. Designers must always consider the machine, yarn, and budget limitations. Working around limitations makes one more creative.
I’ve seen some interesting workarounds. In certain situations, tucks can be created on the bed opposite to the one that’s knitting with the tucks transferring to the first bed on the next traverse. Another option takes the first workaround a little further and expands the pattern row into several carriage passes (kickbacks) so that a tuck and knit won’t be knitted on the same bed in the same traverse even if the design calls for it. After one uniform segment of the pattern row (all knits or all tucks) is knitted, the carriage is returned to the start position and the next segment knitted. I have yet to try either of these workarounds, though I’ve seen photos of swatches from knitters who’ve knitted each of these methods successfully.
Knitting the Swatches
My goal, however, was to reproduce a stitch pattern previously knitted on another knitting machine. I was using a different yarn, and for my purposes, the stitches didn’t need to be an exact match. Something similar and easy to knit would do.
The result above in butterscotch wool was knitted on the Kniterate (7gg). The original stitch pattern in grey cotton was knitted on a Stoll (10gg). I simply substituted my knit and tuck sequences with half cardigan.
Washington Square (below) is a wool rib and ripple sweater knit I’ve sold in my online shop for years and it’s a straightforward knit on the Kniterate. No adaptations were needed. I’d even had enough practice with the machine to get both the roll distance and stitch size right for my test swatch.
For my racked swatch trial pictured above, I went with a variation of a stitch pattern that appears in the Passap, and I later learned, the Dubied stitch pattern books. Both books show a 4-pitch rack. And I tried. I got close. But when stitch size and roll distance weren’t correct after a few attempts, I switched to racking three needles with the rest of the setup the same. It knitted the first time. I’m sure racking four needles is possible, but I’m saving further adjustments to settings for another day. Maybe.
O!
As a Kniterate ambassador I’d be happy to give you a virtual tour of the machine. If you’re a Kniterate owner, you may be interested in my prerecorded Designing with Kniterate classes.