Taunton Machine Knitting Club will be demonstrating the wonders of machine knitting at Craft4Crafters this March.
Category: knitting
Holes and blanks: reading a knitting machine punchcard
This is something I used to struggle with when first starting to machine knit, and to be honest, it still sometimes needs a bit of thinking before I get it right.
So I put some information together which I hope will be useful to others who find the holes and blanks a bit confusing. It also has some helpful ways to read what is actually being read by the card-reader, rather than what is visible above it.
Lets start with the fundamentals:
Knitmaster/Silver Reed (KM/SR) machines only knit pattern from the punchcard when the side levers are at the triangle and the pattern cam dial is set to the relevant stitch type; F, S, T etc.
Brother machines only knit pattern from the punchcard when the KC dial is set to KC, KCI or KCII, as appropriate to the machine, and when the relevant pattern cam buttons are pressed, MC, tuck, part etc…
However, on both makes the needle positions are the same
| Pattern cam setting | Punched holes | Needle position | Blanks | Needle position |
| 2-col-in-a-row | knit with 2nd colour | UWP | knit with MC | WP |
| tuck | knit | UWP | tuck | WP |
| slip/part | knit | UWP | slip | WP |
On both Brother and KM/SR machines, the punchard line being selected is hidden inside the machine. Seven lines below on a Brother, and five below on a KM/SR.
Brother machines, both punchcard and electronic, pre-select needles before knitting the row. Therefore, the pattern can be interrogated by looking at the needle selection in conjunction with the needle positions listed above.
KM/SR punchcard machines have a card reader with feelers. These are selected according to the punchcard pattern but the actual feeler action is hidden behind the carriage. The pattern line can be manually interrogated by locking the punchcard.
| KM/SR feelers | punched move up and in | blanks stay down and out |
Download a printable version here.
To read more about how a punchcards, read my post ‘Knitting Machine Punchcards, How do They Work?’
Talking to Techknitters Machine Knitting Club
On Monday I had the pleasure of talking to Techknitters Machine Knitting Club in Chicago about my book ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Although this was published in 2024 the UK, it was not published in the USA until 2025 and I was due to talk to the group in December of that year. Moving house and having a lot of building work in progress meant that I couldn’t manage an online talk at that time, so we rescheduled. The new date came around quickly, doesn’t time fly?
Although several members indicated that they already have the book, I decided to discuss the overall content of book for those who do not yet have a copy. During this I explained my thinking behind the plan of the book and the main intention behind my writing. Following on to this, I concentrated on snippets from each chapter.
One of the reviews of the book mentioned that it is unusual to find design development and process included in a knitting book, so I took this comment as the focus of the rest of my talk working with material from the chapters, ‘Designing with Colour’ and ‘Finding Inspiration and Designing Pattern’.
This section of the talk started by looking at extracting colour inspiration from one of the images used in the book, and then reviewing a sample from the book that had been designed using these colours to work stripes. The practical part of the talk was about selecting yarns, designing another stripe, and revising and developing the design. Each step was shown and design rationales discussed. The sample was knitted and a finished and steamed version was reviewed to which the group gave feedback on how it might be improved/adapted. All in all it was an enjoyable experience.
I will be talking to the group again in August about my latest book, ‘The Machine Knitter’s Guide to Partial Knitting; Seamless Patter, Shape and Form’ which is due to be published in Spring 2026 by Crowood Press.
Final sample for my latest book about machine knitting
I think this might be the final sample for my latest book. The manuscript went into the publishers a week or so ago and I’m just working in a few outstanding samples and photos.
Of course machine knitters, well knitters in general, will know that ‘sorting out a sample’ is a shorthand for:
knitting several design swatches
knitting a tension swatch (or three)
working out the garment pattern
knitting it
finding you’ve made a mistake
knitting it again
steaming it
sewing it together
washing it
blocking it
etcetera, etcetera….
So I am just at the first steaming stage and getting ready to assemble the garment. And of course I’ve had to re-knit one piece because the dratted yarn got caught by the brushes irrevocably and it was easier to restart than try and sort that out. More haste, less speed is so very true in machine knitting. Nice and steady is always the best way.
I’m hoping this garment will be nice enough to go on the cover, but we will see.
Meanwhile let me tell you a little bit about the book. The title is still to be finalised, but it is all about short rows and partial knitting on a machine. There is a lot in there for beginners, for example the first chapter is all about the principles of short rows and how you knit them and there is a whole basic techniques appendix at the back for additional support. Chapters 2 to 5 offer loads of information, samples, examples and exercises for more experienced knitters to really come to grips for short rows, and to understand how and when to use them for different results.
Chapter 6 has patterns that use short rows as they’ve been described in the earlier chapters, but applied to an item. So from these patterns you actually get to use short rows purposefully to create shape and form combined with colour and surface pattern.
So once it’s published I will obviously be shouting about it, but keep an eye out and do pop back here for updates.
Andee Knits are so helpful
I have just been to collect a knitting machine part from Andee Knits, my local machine knitting supplier. Andrea is very helpful and knowledgeable. Highly recommended.
Sock mending this evening
It’s a howling gale outside tonight, so the place to be is by the fire doing a bit of mending. The subject is a pair of socks machine knitted from my hand spun yarn. These sticks are like , ‘Trigger’s broom’ from Only Fools and Horses.
I plied the yarn from singles of Alpaca and Texel fibre, but did not include any nylon. Consequently, but after a reasonable amount of wear they have begun to thin and finally the stitches have burst. First of all the big toes went, and now the heels.
I had a little of the yarn left, but now it’s onto improvised and colourful mending…
I used one of those little mending looms for the toe repair, but the heels have been done ‘freehand’ using a technique from a 1970s mending book. I bought this useful book secondhand when a penniless student in the 80s, well before ‘slow textiles’ and ‘visible mending’ became a thing. Since then, useful book has helped me extend the life of many items for reasons of economy and necessity rather than fashion. Now my mending is on trend and it’s good to see the skill encouraged by a plethora of modern books on the subject.
Back in action
After a year of false starts, partial-packing and living in limbo, we finally had a sale agreed so that we could move house. Of course this meant we had to move in a real rush and had only three weeks to get fully packed and moved. Consequently, today is my first serious effort at getting back to knitting work and writing my new book on machine knitting.
My new study has a glorious view of the garden which inspires me!
Reforming ribs on a knitting machine
Reformin, or ‘latching-up’ single bed stitches into a rib structure is sometimes seen as far too time-consuming for a ‘fast’ activity like machine knitting. However, I quite enjoy the process and have written about it and made a ‘workshop’ video of working a 2×2 reformed rib here. I hope you find it of interest and useful.
How to meet my readers…?
Hello there. I am keen to know my readers, and meet people who own a copy of either of my knitting books, ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’ or ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Obviously meeting people in person might be tricky, so I have been wracking my brains about how to do this and settled on trying to set up an image gallery of people who own a copy of one of both of these books.
It would be wonderful if you could post a photo of yourself holding your copy, and with your knitting machine as well if it works for you. If you prefer not to be in the photo yourself, a photo of your copy of the book sitting on top of your knitting machine would be lovely, and a piece of your knitting as well maybe? Please also add a brief review if you have time, its always useful to get an insight into how readers see what I have written and feedback helps me develop my approach for future books.
I can only think of Facebook or Instagram, but I’m sure you will have other favourite places to post. It would be good if you could add the hashtags shown below so that I can find your posts. I will start the ball rolling on Instagram.
Hashtags #vikkihaffenden, #TBHMK, #SDBMK, #vikkiknit, #crowoodpress, #machineknitting
When you post a photo, do feel free to leave me a message pointing to it on this page.
What a lovely review of ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’
November’s edition of Machine Knitting Monthly has a great review of ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Amongst other nice things, they mention the broad scope of the book’s contents. I deliberately wrote so that it is suitable for any machine owner from Brother to Passap with lots of hints and tips to work on different types of machines. Thank you Machine Knitting Monthly!
Read excerpts from the review here.
Vikki Haffenden 