Casting on on a single-bed knitting machine – 2
A description of the bed, and how the carriage and needles form the stitches.
Tagged: machine knitting
The latch needle
The majority of domestic knitting machines use latch needles, which have a hook and a hinged latch.
Closed latch
Opening latch
Fully open latch
They make stitches as follows:
- The needles are moved forwards by the carriage as it moves laterally across the bed.
- The latch is opened during this movement as it slides forwards through the stitch below that is still on the needle. (There are brushes on the carriage that also open the latches).
- The yarn feeder lays fresh yarn into the open hook.
- As the carriage moves further along the bed it retracts the needles.
- The latch is closed as it slides backwards through the stitch below that is still on the needle.
- As the fresh yarn is pulled through the loop of the stitch below it creates a new stitch and allows the ‘stitch below’ to slide competely off the needle.
Casting on single-bed machine knitting with the ‘e’-wrap method.
- Carriage at right of bed.
- Pull selected needles (40 is a good number), right out towards you as far as they will go (upper working position or UWP).
- Make a slip knot with the end of the yarn and slip it over the end LH needle.
- Hold tail of yarn in your left hand, the main thread in your right hand and take your right hand underneath the needles.
- Bring the yarn up between the next two empty needles, then back over the first one of these two.
- Repeat this movement to the end of the bed, always working with the next two empty needles.
- At the end, wind the yarn around the last needle and thread the yarn through the carriage feeder by opening the ‘gate’ and sliding it to the rear of the feeder. Close the feeder gate.
- Make sure that the yarn from the needles runs in a straight line through feeder and top tension to cone. To achieve this pull any slack back towards the cone.
- Pinching the yarn loosely between your LH index finger and thumb and pulling gently upwards, use your RH to slowly slide the carriage across the needles, allowing the yarn to run through your LH fingers without applying any resistance.
- Stop when the RH side of the carriage is clear of the LH end stitch.
- Holding the stitches against the ‘gate pegs’ with your left hand, use your right hand to pull small groups (4-5 needles at a time) through the stitches and fully out towards you to UWP.
- Repeat step 9 to knit the next row.
- Repeat steps 10-11 until you have enough rows of knitting to hang a weight at each end of the knitting. Now you can knit without bringing the needles to UWP.
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Making ladders and lace holes by transferring stitches using the single eyed transfer tool
Abbreviations used:
Needle pushed right to back of needle bed = non working position (NWP)
Needle brought forward, top of hooks level with the gate pegs = working position (WP)
To transfer a stitch to an adjacent needle and make a lace hole (also called an eyelet).
- Check that the latches of the needles you wish to transfer the stitch from and to are open.
- Put the eye of the tool over the hook of the needle you wish to transfer the stitch from.
- Pull the needle right out, keeping the tool level with the bed of the machine. The stitch will slide down the needle opening the latch as it goes.
- Push the tool away from you, keeping the tool level with the bed so that the closes, the stitch slips onto the tool and the needle slides back into NWP.
- Without changing the position of the tool, bring your hand downwards, swivelling the tool on the edge of the bed so it points upwards.
- Keeping the tool in this position, take the tool OUTSIDE the gate pegs so that the stitch does not catch on them and slip the eye of the tool over the adjacent needle hook.
- Lift your hand swivelling the tool on the hook, so that the tool points down at an angle, and slip the stitch off the tool onto the new needle’s hook.
- Providing the stitch has remained between the hook and the latch, push the needle back into WP.
Tip: If the stitch has slipped behind the latch depending on your next knitting, it may drop off the needle. To prevent this happening either pull the needle fully out towards you, or use the tool to take it off the needle once again and reset it on the same needle so it is between the hook and the latch.
To make a lace hole, return push the needle left empty after the transfer into WP. This row of lace holes is made by transferring every other stitch across a row of knitting.
To make a ladder, after transferring the stitch the needle left empty after the transfer back into NWP. Instead of a lace hole you will get a series of ‘floats’ of yarn across the gap left by the non-working needle.
To return a ladder to knitting, bring the empty needle to WP. To return multiple needle ladders back to knitting, bring needles back to WP one at a time, knitting at least one row before bringing the next one forward.
To knit a series of vertical ladders, transfer alternate needles.
To knit a wide ladder, start by making one ladder and then transfer the edge needles outwards at both sides, knit one or more rows between each double transfer.
This exaample has one stitch ‘travelling’ across a wide ladder. To do this, transfer the stitch at the edge of the ladder one needle to the left every second row of knitting. Remember to push the empty needle to NWP before knitting.
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