I don't know a thing about knitting machines (or knitting), but a new craft "toy" always sounds exciting. You probably feel the same way I did when I got my new rug hooking frame. Although my frame doesn't have its own room. ;-) Have fun!!

Ooh, so jealous! A knitting machine has been on my wish list forever. Have fun and be sure to post pix of your creations.

That's great!

What brand of knitting machine are you getting? I have wanted one for years.

Does it use the regular yarn (like knitted worsted) of the smaller yarn. Go to youtube and input the brand and model of your machine and you can learn everything you want to know... I loved mine - I had the Brother knitter that used the regular (chunky) yarn and it was so much fun!

Rose, it is a Toyota KS610 knitting machine.

Grandma bonnie, the lady I bought it from said it really didn't knit well with lighter weight yarns, but was fabulous with heavier weights. I am assuming that anything lighter than a #3 weight I'll have to experiment with, but it should do 4 and 5 weights just fine.

I have poured over the instruction book, but I haven't set it up to try anything yet. I have a few crochet projects, a pair of cowboy boot slippers and a sweater, to finish first. I should have them both done by tonight. I thought I would pick up some yarn tomorrow when I go to town, experiment over the weekend with it.

and I had one that sat in a closet for 30 years, sigh..i had just started taking lessons thru the county rec program, and we moved! no more lessons, so there it sat...finally this year donated it...

it really helps to take lessons...enjoy your new craft room!

susan, I would love to take lessons, but to do so would mean I would have to travel either to Lethbridge, or to Calgary, both about two hours away.

I have family in Lethbridge, so I may have to inquire at the knitting shop there, see what they have for lessons. If I could do it in one or two days in a row, it would be worth it to go. I could stay with my aunts. If they only have classes once a week, it would be out of the question for me.

Ooooh, this topic hits me on the right spot.
Welcome to the world of machine knitting!
Warning: it is an addictive hobby.

Machine knitting is my current main hobby which I've been doing ir for a few years now.

Looks like you have a bulky machine which takes medium to heavy weight yarns. It's a plain, no pattern maker machine. However, you still can create many beautiful patterns by hand-manipulate technique (more on this later).

The 1st thing you'd need to do is check and replace the sponge bar (aka: retainer bar). Do not use it without replacing this bar first. Otherwise, you can ruin the machine.

There are quite a few information on machine knitting, models, forums and tutorials online these days. I'm going to leave you some information but don't let this overwhelm you. Machine knitting should be taken in 1 step at a time. Not necessarily slowly but like everything else, you should understand the basics first. This is a hobby that takes alot of practice. Be patience and soon you will enjoy it as you create wonderful knitwears.

Some info on your Toyota KS610: http://www.aboutknittingmachines.com/TOYOTAKnittingMachines.html

Forums that will help you, all are free registration:
http://www.knittingparadise.com/s-20-1.html
https://www.ravelry.com/account/login (love this one most because the topics are categorized and easy to search).
There are a few Yahoo groups as well. Be awared that there are machine knitters all over the world. You will often see many from England, Europe and Australia in these forums. They will use different terms sometime (eg: wool in UK & AU = yarn in US) and they will come online at different hours than us in the US. Yet, they're full of experience and ready to share with us.

Among one of the name that you will hear often is "Diana Sullivan". She has many years of experience as a machine knitter. She also created many tutorials available for free on YouTube for beginners to intermediate machine knitters. She also sells these lessons inexpensively if you rather not using YouTube.
Here's her blog with beginner lessons: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/links-to-beginner-lessons.html. Explore more on her blog to even learn further.

The next teacher, also one of my favorite, is Susan Guagliumi. She's brilliant! She wrote a few machine knitting books. A great one for the beginner is her recent released "Hand Knits by Machine", I highly recommend it. It is available on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Knits-Machine-Ultimate-Knitters/dp/1503065758/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421376766&sr=1-1&keywords=hand+knits+by+machine

Susan Guagliumi also wrote 2 books on using hand manipulating technique for machine knitters. Later on, when you're more familiar with your machine and the basic techniques, you can get both of these books. They're available on her website or on Amazon.com.
The books: "Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters" and "More Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters".
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_09?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=susan+guagliumi&sprefix=susan+gua%2Caps%2C271

S. Guagliumi's website: http://www.guagliumi.com/

Some other useful websites:
http://knittsings.com/
http://www.yarn-store.com/
http://machineknittingetc.com/

Patterns for machine knitting (all free downloads):
http://machineknittingetc.com/brother-knitking/patterns-and-magazines.html
http://machineknittingetc.com/silver-reed/patterns-and-magazines.html
Although, many patterns are made for specific model, you can still use them for your Toyota model machine. You just need to use ones that were designed for 'bulky' or 'chunky' (machine gauge) knitting machines.

There are many suppliers on eBay. I often use Lenneco, an eBay seller located in NY, USA:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/leanneco/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=10&_rdc=1
List for other suppliers in the US:
http://machineknittingetc.com/dealersales.html

Well, these should be plenty for you right now. Best wishes with your new hobby!

This post was edited by ntt_hou on Thu, Jan 15, 15 at 22:22