I have the machine, ribber and LC2

I have the new machine, ribber and lace carriage.  There was a bit of a hiccup with ebay and paypal because the seller couldn't get the invoice adjusted to take out the shipping charges but we got it resolved, met with the lady and paid her cash and got a receipt.

AND......drumroll here.......the original pattern sets and punchcards were with it and the pattern sets have never been used.  I am ecstatic, I have been looking for those since I got my other machine over a year ago.

There may be a problem with the Lace carriage because several pieces of metal fell out of it.  They do not appear to be the moving parts, more like the casing.  I am hoping it will still operate.  It is complete with punch cards and weights.

The machine is in excellent condition, haven't tried it yet but everything looks OK and it came with all the accessories except the left latch guide.  I have both with my other machine.  I am not sure what they do, I have never had to use them yet on my original machine so they must be for something more advanced than I do.


It also has the original punch card set, all 20 of them.  It has all three original manuals too.  My original machine only came with two and I had to print up the Pattern manual which I found on the internet.

My other machine also only came with 10 of the original punchcards.  I had found what I thought were photos of the original set and punched up the ones that were missing but some of them were different to the original set.  I will punch up the different ones for my original machine then both machines will have a full set and I will have some different ones also.

Now to the ribber, it is a SRP60, not the SRP60N as I originally thought.

I spent quite a bit of time going through all the equipment and checking it all out.

I  decided that I would finish the baby jacket on my original equipment before trying the new machine, ribber and LC2.

I was still having problems ribbing though and after a couple of bad days using it, yesterday, I decided to set up the new ribber on my original machine.

I am in heaven.  It works perfectly.  First time it did a perfect zig zag and cast on and no dropped stitches and tightness. I did a lot of practice pieces on it and they were all perfect and the YC5 colour changer works perfectly with it and no loops!

Cosmetically, it isn't as nice as my original ribber, the metal on the back is tarnished a little and there was a little rust on the runner.  I cleaned it all up and oiled it.  It has a couple of gate pegs that had rusted too.  I cleaned them the best I could.  But it works beautifully and I am so, so happy with it.  Bonus, it come with ribber covers too and the original manual. My original ribber was missing the manual and I had to buy one for it in pdf form and print it up and it never did have the covers.

It sits much further away from the knitter than my original ribber so I think that is the problem.  When I have time, I will try and adjust the original one so it sits the same as the new one.  For now the new one is staying on my original machine and I am going to enjoy being able to rib without problems.

So to summise, Being able to rib properly and having the original punchcards, pattern sets, manuals and ribber covers is worth the $265 I paid.

The machine will work fine I am sure, it needs a new sponge bar before I can try it and hopefully the LC2 will work too.   If the LC2 doesn't work I will be disappointed but I won't feel cheated.

I think I got a heck of a bargain.

Pictures will follow.

In addition to the above there are several instruction manuals, an extra yarn feeder and mast, a puncher and a wide weight comb.

I bought another knitting machine! It is an investment, could this be the start of something big lol?

I had been looking on ebay recently and saw a machine the same as mine for sale, it is a Singer  model 700 complete with SRP60N ribber and LC2 lace carriage. ( I have been wanting the lace carriage forever but they are $380 new and the only used ones I have seen haven't had the accessories with them.)  It has all the manuals and accessories.  Not sure about the punchcards and pattern set though as I couldn't see them on the photographs.  I did ask but the seller didn't know much about it.

She  said she had never used the ribber and had only made a couple of dishcloths on the machine.

So I don't know if she bought it all used (second hand) and had never really got into it or had bought it all new and never got into it.  There is a puncher included so punchcards must have figured in it somewhere along the line in it's history.

IT looks in excellent condition with no discolouration

The starting price was $250 with $200 shipping.  The seller lives only 50 miles away so I had asked if we could just pick it up if we bid on it and won and she said that was OK.  So I had an advantage as the $200 shipping costs was a big put off I imagine.

I watched it all week and no one bid on it till Saturday.  (it ended Sunday at 3pm).  There was one bidder at $250 until Sunday noon when someone came in at $255.

I waited right until the last minute (literally, there was 60 seconds left) when I put in a bid for $260 but as one of the previous bidders had put in the same amount as her max bid, then she had priority, so I had been out bid.

It was panic time as time was ticking down.  I put in $265 with a max bid of $306.99 and pressed the bid button with just four seconds to go and I won it at $265. You can have no idea how stressful it is to me to bid on ebay.  My heart was a pounding away lol.  I wasn't even sure if I had won it or not at first but I had. Phew!!!!

I haven't paid for it yet as I am waiting for them to adjust the invoice and take off the shipping costs.

When I get it I will check it all out, test it etc.  I will try the new ribber with my original machine and the original ribber with the new machine and the new ribber with the new machine.  Whatever I feel is the best fit for me I will keep then sell whichever machine and ribber I don't want.

I have been looking on ebay a lot at machines for sale so have a good idea how to present them to their best advantage to get the best price.

I think I can recoup what I paid by selling a machine and a ribber so I will have gotten the lace carriage out of the deal.


I am excited!

Two steps forward and one step back

I decided to stop practicing with the machine, ribber and colour changer and go for making something.

I got some nice pastel coloured yarns and decided on what I was going to make for my nephew and his lady's baby due in November.

I decided to make a jacked using the pattern I used to make the hooded jacket last year but in the smallest size and no hood. It isn't for a newborn, more like a year to eighteen months but I figure all newborns get plenty of things so it will be something for when she is toddling.

I did my swatch and ascertained the settings for the knit radar and which ruler insert to use.  I am going to put a band of patterning like I used in the first little sweater I made but this time just on the body part, not on the sleeves so the baby wont get her fingers caught in the sleeve and just stocking stitch for the rest.  No tuck stitch this time.

I am also going to put a couple of stripes in the rib using the colour changer.  Nothing too complicated.

So now I had a plan and yesterday I sat down to knit the back.

It went perfectly without any user error or ribber or colour changer hiccups.

I was on cloud nine!

Bursting with confidence today, I went up today to knit a front.

First attempt, the ribbing and colour changing executed immaculately, I transferred the stitches to main bed and proceeded to do the patterning........one small mistake......I forgot to do six rows in just the main colour.  Oh well, not too much to undo and rewind.

Second attempt, I forgot to change the the tension on the carriages to 5 after casting on, did five rows before I realised. I changed it to the correct tension and proceeded but after I had transferred the stitches to the main carriage and dropped the ribber bed I could see it was very noticeable.  Oh well,  again, not too much to undo and rewind.

Third and fourth attempts more user errors, can't remember what but they were definitely me!

Fifth and six attempts were ribber related, so I have given up for the day lol.  Nascar race starting soon anyway.

Going to give some serious consideration to Phil's idea of doing the correspondence courses.

Advice needed

I have had problems with my ribber from the offset.  I have a Studio SK700 and a SRP50 ribber.  I know that the SRP60N will also work with my machine.

Is there a difference between the two and if so, what is it?

I know that the YC5 has to be used with the SRP50 and the YC6 has to be used with the SRP60N.  Why are they not interchangeable?

I have tried using the YC5  but I go large loops on the side that the color changes?  Any ideas anyone?

I am thinking of changing the ribber to an SRP60N, is it a better ribber?

I am getting pretty frustrated with the ribber problems I encounter.

Would I be wasting my money to change ribbers and color changers?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Yeah! I found a four colour yarn tension mast

Yeah! I have been looking for one of these for months to go with the YC5 colour changer I bought. 

I have been agonising all weekend because it is quite expensive.  The item was 29.99 pounds and the shipping costs 21.00 pounds.making a total of 51 pounds and that seems an awful lot considering sometimes you can pick up a whole knitting machine for not much more. It equates to about $79 total at today's exchange rate.

But, I thought it through and this Monday morning decided to go ahead and buy it.  My logic being that I really want it and need it for the YC5 to work properly and it is coming an awfully long way (from Scotland) so the shipping and handling really isn't that bad plus I might never stumble across one again. The other bonus was it was 'Buy it now'.  I get too jittery when I am bidding for an item.

The seller on ebay is either very clever or a little over greedy.  What she is doing is splitting up everything and selling them as individual items. She has a YC6 colour changer listed but now I have purchased the four colour tension mast will someone buy the YC6?

She also has an LC2 lace carriage listed at a reasonable price but it only includes the carriage and sinker plate.  She is selling the lace cards separately and I couldn't see the weights listed, so is it a good buy?

Aside from the fact that I have spent my knitting budget for the month I have to be more prolific with my knitting to justify spending any more money. So, no lace carriage today.

But, today I am going to knit.  I will start on a baby cardigan for my nephew and his girlfriend's baby girl who is expected in November.  They live in Canada where it is cold in the winter and they will need cardigans.

When the tension mast arrives I will make them a baby blanket using rib in multi colours.  I saw one Alex had done which I liked a lot.  His was all one colour but he used different rib patterns to make an overall pattern.

A few chores to do then off I jolly well go to the knitting room!

Hope the ribber is on good form today, it was going OK the last time I used it but hey, that's not a guarantee, it's a finickity beastie!!!

KR6 and KR7 patterns

Does anyone know if you can use KR6 patterns in a KR7 knit radar?

I have a Studio 700 with built in knit radar which takes the KR7 patterns.  I have the chance to purchase a full set of KR6 patterns but don't know if I can use them.

I have been a little absent of late, my husband was in the hospital for two weeks quite ill.  He is home now.  He has an auto immune neuro muscular disease and went into a crisis.  He is feeling a lot better than he was so I should get knitting again.

Plus it is so hot here in MO.  (105F as I write this at 5.36pm) so there's not much else to do so I should be knitting up a storm.

There is a new baby on the horizon so I have the incentive now to just give myself a kick up the butt and get going!