15th January 2014 - Machine knitting 1

15th January 2014 - Machine knitting 1

Today was my first time back at the knitting machine since my first year, so probably in at least 4 months!!! The original manipulation knitting, which is the focus of this project, was created right towards the beginning of the first year, so I thought I would have some time to experiment and get back into the knitting, just creating a few small knitted piece that I could perhaps experiment with through felting.

I don't think I gave myself an easy task though. I used wool I have brought which was 100% sheep's wool. This was a great deal thicker than the acrylic wool that I had used to original play with on the knitting machine. I was told that this would not be a problem and if I went on a normal gauge knitting machine, it should work fine.

I just about managed to remember how to set it up and begin knitting, but as I began to knit the wool, it kept coming off the needles. This was very frustrating as I just couldn't work out what was going wrong. I spoke to one of the workshop tutors and he suggested adjusting the tension of the knitting. this was when I then realised that I had the knitting machine on the tightest tension it could go on!!! I thought that '1' was the loosest, but it was in fact the tightest!

However, after adjusting the tension, the machine knitting worked amazingly!

MUST REMEMBER TO FELT THE KNITTING I HAVE CREATED TODAY TO EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT MANIPULATIONS.