Sweater machine patterns

Welcome to machine knitting patterns page. This is where you can find links to many free machine knit patterns. I love hand knitting, but there were times when I would pull out my Bond USM (Ultimate Knitting Machine) and knitted up some quick projects. It comes to handy when you want to knit something fast like a scarf or a last minute gift that look like you spend your whole life knitting it. I often dream about owning one of those fancy knitting machines and knit myself every outfit. My closet will be filled with beautiful knitted tops, skirts, scarfs, shawls and socks. And....who knows what else!

Update: 1/31/20 - Now my dream has came true!  I own a punch card knitting machine!!!  It's not the fanciest but I love it.  It's a Taitexma by a Taiwanese company.  They are making replica of brother knitting machine (legally, of course).  Everything looks just like brother even the manual.  I'm sure I will have a fantastic time with my new machine.

Ravelry.com  Excess to thousand of machine knitting patterns (free and paid patterns)

http://www.hobbyknitter.com/files/patterns/patterns.html Roberta Rose Meads website.  She is one of the best machine knitters.  You can watch her tutorial videos on YouTube.

http://knittsings.com/category/machine-knitting/ - This site is loaded with tons of information about knitting machines,  tutorial videos, patterns and much more.

www3.sympatico.ca 

www.knitting-and.com - Many vintage patterns to explore here.

www.machine-knitting.net - Learn about different types of machine and get free pattern of socks, baby sets and more.

www.machineknittingfun.blogspot.com Fun blog to read and has links to many machine knitting blogs.

www.needlesofsteel.org.uk/  has many links to different types of patterns from different types of machines

www.heidisknittingroom.com

www.diananatters.blogspot.com Dianna is also one of the best machine knitters and teacher on YouTube.  She also sell patterns on her site.  I love her sweet voice.

www.angelfire.com

https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/

alessandrina.com » Machine knitting

https://www.jessica-tromp.nl/basic_machine-knitting_patterns_free_knittingmachine_patterns.htm  So much information and patterns of hand knit and machine knit.

https://marzipanknits.blogspot.com - many creative and beautiful machine knitting patterns for all ages.  

I will continue to add more links and make changes often. So don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feeds (on top left corner) so that you won't miss any update.  See more link you'd like to add?  Please send it to me.

I'm still very new when it comes to machine knit.  I've learn a lot from many great machine knitters on youtube.com this year.   I love my punch card and want to explore and tried many more things.  Below are photos of my works I've done on my standard single bed machine.

Woman Raglan Sweater with front cable panel 

I don't have a pattern for machine but I have hand knit raglan without cable pattern .  This is my second sweater I made on the machine.  I used sweater wizard to help calculate my size to get some idea.  I did some adjustments for arm length, sweater length and add cable front.  

This is my first shawl I made using knit weave technique and a triangle shawl shape pattern from Knititnow.com when during the shawl contest.   I won best use of patterns.   I'm not a subscriber to the site any more.  I did had 3 months free subscription because of the shawl winning.  It's the best place to learn about machine knitting and it has so many great tools, tips and tricks and ton of patterns, community and more.  

Here is a free simple shawl pattern by LD Knitware;

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-machine-knit-shawl-wrap

This is a double brim hat I made using a punch card pattern.  First work 8 inches and then join the brim then add pattern for 4 inches.  Then knit in plain for about 2 more inches.  Then k3tog and then pull yarn thought all loop.  Seamed sides and done.

Here is a link to my inspiration of the pattern; 

I just realized that there is a knitting magazine on the market.  It looks expensive though.  

Leave Machine Knitting Patterns To Knitting Instructions Home Page

Go To Easy Knitting Pattern Page

Like many men, I am predisposed to purchase every gadget, gizmo, device and toy that I can possibly rationalize in my discussions with my wallet, my creditors and my increasingly skeptical significant other. I can't just have one video game console if four (plus a computer and a laptop) will do. I can't have a cellphone that just makes phone calls -- as if those even exist anymore. iPod? Check. Digital camcorder? Check. Wireless internet? Check. HD PVR? Check and double-check.

Knitting is the one place in my life that has been relatively gadget-free. There just aren't that many sexy devices for your average knitter. (Spinners and weavers, on the other hand, are swimming in them.) So it is with a particularly heavy heart that I must admit to all of you that I am the owner of a Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine (As Seen on TV).

The Name is Bond

For those of you unacquainted with it, the Bond is a relatively inexpensive plastic bulky-weight hand knitting machine designed for hobbyists, occasional users and for those of us who are prone to Knitting Emergencies. It costs a few hundred dollars if you shop around, which stands in stark comparison to the $1,000+ you'd pay for a more sophisticated punch card or electronic machine. If you browse around the internet, you'll find the machine has a small but loyal fan base who are eager to share their tips and tricks on getting the most (and the most knitting) out of your new purchase.

Let me be the first to say that, as an entry-level knitting machine, the Bond works exactly the way it's supposed to, and does exactly what the company says it does. However, there are some significant differences between knitting by hand and knitting by machine, and there is a definite unavoidable learning curve. (Some people say that it's actually easier to knit with a machine if you've never hand-knitted before.) Bond's promotional materials are correct when they tell you that you can knit an entire sweater with their knitting machine in less than three days. What you'll discover for yourself, though, is that those three days will probably arrive quite some time after you first set it up.

The Bionic Knitter

Let's be honest: with the holidays hurtling toward us like a fast-moving train, which knitter among us has not lain awake at night -- particularly in the latter half of November -- wondering if a knitting machine would help us speed through the many gifts we are racing to complete?

Wonder no more -- the answer is a qualified "yes". With practice, you can knit 600 to 1,200 stitches per minute (uh huh, you read right) and about 20 inches of knitted fabric, 100 stiches wide, in about five minutes -- but before you run screaming into the street to buy one, you might want to take a few moments to find out what this process entails.

The standard garden-variety knitting machine consists of a bed of latch hooks that function as needles, and a carriage that you pass back and forth along the needles to supply them with yarn to create the fabric. The hooks grab the yarn as the carriage passes, and then pull it through the loops that were previously created. The old loops drop down and then the carriage passes again, prompting the hooks to grab the yarn -- and the process repeats. This ends up feeling much more like weaving than knitting. If you enjoy working a loom (or if you enjoy ironing), you'll feel right at home.

Each machine uses a different method to simulate the needle size and gauge that we associate with hand knitting; in the case of the Bond, plastic keyplates are inserted into the carriage to create longer or shorter paths for the needles to travel -- the longer the path, the larger the stitch.

The bottom edge of the work is weighted with a detachable hem so that the fabric pulls cleanly and evenly off the machine and a consistent tension is maintained. The result is row upon row of eerily perfect stockinette stitch.

I Sense a 'But' Coming.

You're right, there's a 'but'. Several of them, actually. Let's take a few minutes to check out some 'but's (because that's just the kind of guy I am).

When looking at the pros and cons of machine knitting, let's face it: row upon row of eerily perfect stockinette stitch is quite a pro. But. As we all know, there's much more to knitting than stockinette -- and every other stitch combination is something of a challenge to achieve on a knitting machine. Many machines have a variety of attachments and devices available for techniques like ribbing, intarsia, fair isle, cables, garter stitch (yes, garter stitch), circular knitting and so on. But. They all come off as complicated solutions to situations that hand knitters would normally consider to be relatively straightforward.

The Bond is among the simplest and least sophisticated of knitting machines, so in many cases you need to manipulate the stitches by hand (usually by unhooking and rehooking stitches) in order to achieve whatever effects you want. This can be absorbing, interesting instructive and enjoyable. But. It can also be time-consuming, frustrating and tedious -- and sometimes even slower than if you had just whipped out the old pointy sticks in the first place.

It's also worth noting that your machine knitting is limited in width to the number of latch-hooks across the width of your machine. Most needle beds look quite wide. But. They are deceptive -- the maximum number of stitches on the Bond without an extension is about 100 stittches. If you need more stitches for your pattern (say, for an afghan), you need to add more hooks through an extension to your needle bed, or you need to divide your pattern into sections and seam them together after.

Given that the latch-hooks on the needle bed are a fixed width apart from each other, and the different gauges are standardized through keyplates or carriage adjustments, you'd think that machine knitting would be something of an exact science. But. It's not. A scarf knit 40 stitches wide for 650 rows on a pair of regular knitting needles will be neither the same length nor the same width as a similar scarf knit on a knitting machine set at the same needle size and gauge. Seriously, you can't imagine how different they will be. So here's one thing you'll be doing a lot of: swatching. In fact it's safe to say that you cannot knit anything on a machine with any serious expectation of its length or width unless you swatch first. And not just swatch -- you have to wash and block as well. This is not an option. In my experience, knitted fabric fresh off the machine is often tighter and shorter than my hand knitting, even when I move up one or two needle sizes to compensate. Thankfully, you can knit up a very large swatch on a knitting machine very quickly -- no more of this 'four inch by four inch' nonsense -- and consequently make more accurate adjustments to whatever pattern you're working on.

As well, different machines are designed to handle different weights of yarn. A bulky-weight machine may not be able to handle anything lighter than sport yarn, and a finer-weight machine may have trouble knitting worsted. The Bond is a bulky-weight machine, which is great for making sweaters but not so much when it comes to baby clothes. Make sure you know what you're machine can and cannot do before you buy it.

Some other important considerations: hand knitting is quiet, portable, meditative and generally requires very little set-up: just cast on and go. But. Machine knitting is noisy (Say "clack-clack-clack-clack-clack" as fast as you can. Louder. Faster. Louder. Faster. There you go.), it's pretty much fixed to one location, and it can take anywhere from five to twenty minutes to assemble and prepare. And meditative is the last word I would use to describe it. On a good day, it's fabulously productive; on a bad day, it's a terrific way to simulate a third-world sweatshop in your very own home.

In conclusion...

Some of those buts are very big. But. Don't let them dissuade you from giving machine knitting a try. Many of the finer yarn stores, as well as sewing machine stores and some of the larger craft stores, have knitting machines set up and ready for demonstrations. Some of these same stores also give lessons or hold workshops to teach you how to operate and maintain your machine, how to follow patterns written specifically for machine knitting and how to adapt hand knitting patterns so that you can make whatever item you choose.

Also keep in mind that you can easily move machine-knit fabric onto (sometimes long, frequently circular) knitting needles and finish it by hand. This is particularly good for ribbing or for certain increases and decreases. It is, however, incredibly difficult to move hand knitting -- no matter how loose, stretchy or flexible -- onto a knitting machine. Believe me, I've tried.

While I do about 95% of my knitting by hand, I am glad that I have my Bond to fall back on -- and so are a number of my holiday gift recipients, whether or not they realize it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading off to my next challenge: comparing the virtues of the Ashford Joy to those of the Louet S45. Best wishes, and have a Happy 2007!

This awesome book is the perfect companion to the Ultimate Sweater Machine. It features step-by-step instructions for creating sweaters for the whole family with the 3 most commonly fashioned collars; rolled, 1x1 ribbed crew and 2x2 ribbed crew. Also learn easy steps for creating afghans, scarfs, and hats that are anything but basic with all the ease of a simple knit cap and scarf. Learn to cable with your machine, lace, fair isle, drop stitches, transfer your stitching from machine to circular needles, increase and decrease, and how to attached pieces of knitting together in a simple sewing or beautiful braided technique.

• Sweaters: adult (sizes sml, med, & lrg) and child (sizes 2 - 10)
• Scarves: quick knit and cabled
• Hat & Headband
• Shrug
• Baby Blanket (30 x 45 inches)
• Striped Afghan (48 x 60 inches)
• Pillow (14 inches square)
• Fair Isle Purse (7 x 10.5 inches)
• Plaid Throw (28 x 51 inches)

Welcome to the Home Page for the Ultimate Sweater Machine

Several days ago I started my Mineral Heather sweater on a knitting machine. I know that some of you have never seen the knitting machine in action, or have been thinking about buying one, or just curios about how it works. I decided to do a mini-guide on making a sweater on a knitting machine. This is not a step-by-step tutorial where I walk you through every stage of the process. It's mostly an overview of what knitting machine is, what it does and how it works, mainly from a hand knitter's point of view. When I was choosing my knitting machine it was the information that was missing - I couldn't find a place where the mechanism of knitting machine would be explained from the point of view of hand knitting. I think this way it is much easier to get the idea of what to expect from the machine. This overview is not going to teach you how to use the knitting machine. If you buy your own machine some day, the manual is the best way to start. There are many helpful YouTube videos and you can always visit Machine Knitting group on Ravelry for any technical question.When I first got an idea to buy a knitting machine, I hardly imagined what it was, how much it cost and how to use it. All I knew is that I loved knitwear and yarn and wanted to experiment with this kind of craft. I did a very thorough research before picking up my first knitting machine. One of the best places to start your knitting machine education is Angelika's Yarn Store website, where she writes reviews of the most popular knitting machines, shares tutorials and other useful information. The best article to start with is What Every Hand Knitter Should Know Before Buying a Knitting Machine where she covers the differences and similarities between machine and hand knitting.In this review I will share my experience and how I make things on my knitting machine. I am definitely not a professional machine knitter, but I think, my point of view as a hand knitter who occasionally does machine knitting, will be useful to those who are just considering the machine knitting or just plainly curious about it.Ok, this is how my process of making Mineral Heather looks like. I am posting black-and-white pictures because I think this way all the details are much clearer. And this way you can't see the rust on my machine :)First of all I decide what kind of garment I want to make. The shape, the fit and so on. Then I do all the numbers and write down instructions for myself to follow. There are machine knitting patterns out there, so you don't have to do it all by yourself. My machine (Silver Reed LK150) is very simple and it can't do the ribbing. You can do the ribbing manually transferring stitches, but it takes more time this way than doing it by hand, at least for me. So, I am knitting my ribbing for the desired length by hand.Then I place the carriage on the needle bed. The carriage is like your hands in hand knitting. It does the work of knitting the stitches.These little knobs are the "heads" of the needles. Each knob is a needle. Here you can also see the row counter. Every time you pass the carriage across the needle bed, the number goes up. It is very useful, as the exact row count is much more important in machine knitting than in hand knitting. When you are hand knitting a piece, you can stop and measure it to see how much is left before the desired length. But on the machine the fabric is really stretched and distorted, so you can never do your measurements while the piece is still on the needles. You can rely only on your raw gauge and follow it exactly.The next step for me is to push forward the necessary amount of needles. For example, according to my calculations I need 82 sts for the back, so I push forward 82 needles.They don't really look like needles, more like long crochet hooks. The next thing I do is to put my knitting off the usual needle on the knitting machine. I put one stitch on one needle, one by one. Wrong side is facing me.Then I push the needles with stitches on back to the working position.The stitches should be secured on the needles, so they don't jump off when I move the carriage across them.Now I am ready to thread the yarn. First I carry it through the yarn feeder - this is basically a place where you "connect" your fabric on a needle bed with the carriage.Then I go through several tension guides. It is almost like threading sewing machine, only much easier, at least for me, I am a hopeless seamstress :)

This is what you get at the end.

Next step is to adjust the stitch dial. Stitch dial is like the needle size in hand knitting. It will determine how many stitches/rows per inch you will get. For this sweater I chose 6.5. This number doesn't correspond to needle size in hand knitting. You have to try several stitch dial adjustments to see how the fabric behaves. The higher the stitch dial, the less stitches per inch you will get. The thickness of yarn also determines the stitch dial number. The thicker the yarn, the higher the number. It is also worth mentioning that your machine can't knit all weights of yarn out there. Your knitting machine is like a set of knitting needles - there are a lot of them, but not an infinite number, which means that some yarns just won't work on the machine. I am using one of the most universal machines - it is mid-gauge and it covers a great range of yarn weights.When I first got my machine I was quiet scared - what did I get myself into?! It didn't look like knitting at all. It is not really a hobby that you can take to your cozy couch and relax. You need to have a special place for the machine, you need to sit straight, move the carriage across the needle bed, watching the tension and making sure that everything is going smoothly. It is a manual work and I am definitely not choosing to work on the knitting machine after a long day at work. I love to do it early in the mornings or at weekends when I am full of energy. But I do enjoy it a lot! It is really fun to watch how the smooth (given that you are watching the yarn tension!!) rows of fabric are growing. It is a domestic knitting machine that has very little to do with mass product knitting machines. There is a lot of hand work involved. I would definitely label the piece knitted on the domestic knitting machine as "handmade".Now the fun part begins - knitting!! I decided to set a timer and let you know in how much time I knit 10 rows, without any shaping involved. Well, ready? 10 rows in 32 seconds!!! Pretty fast, right?Well, I think this is enough information for today. I don't want to give you a headache :) Next week I will show you how I do the shaping - increases, decreases, binding off and so on. Who knows maybe you will consider getting a knitting machine for yourself!

Joining knitting and reading Yarn Along today. I got Mark Twain from the library and can't wait to dive into the collection of his short stories today.

Enjoy your week and stay safe!

How To Make a Sweater on a Knitting Machine Part II