# My Bargain



## Juney66 (Apr 11, 2011)

I went into a charity shop, looking for a bird cage but to my surprise there was a knitting machine,and table, and everything for it for £5, I could not leave it, but as I had not touched a machine in 20yrs, I thought I would give it a go, it was very dirty as it had been in some ones loft, I have changed some of the needles and bought a new tension mast, hence I had to hurry home as the lady in the shop was bringing it to the house when she finished in the shop, in England you can not even get a packet of ciggies for a £5, I belong to a knitting group we knit for charity. I hope I can get some help and advice from this site. I look forwards to learning.


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## clogden21 (Jan 25, 2011)

I do not know what £5 is but it sound big bargain. what kind of machine is it? There is a site for free manuals if you need it. I will locate it and post it.

Located it

http://knittsings.com/knitting-machine-manuals/
this is one of them I will keep looking


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## Sine (Jun 12, 2011)

clogden21 said:


> I do not know what £5 is but it sound big bargain.


£5 is about US $8. I'd say she found a treasure.


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## Juney66 (Apr 11, 2011)

It is a knitmaster 321, it came with instruction book, so I will just have to learn fast.


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## Janet.Sar (Jun 29, 2011)

Juney66 said:


> I went into a charity shop, looking for a bird cage but to my surprise there was a knitting machine,and table, and everything for it for £5, I could not leave it, but as I had not touched a machine in 20yrs, I thought I would give it a go, it was very dirty as it had been in some ones loft, I have changed some of the needles and bought a new tension mast, hence I had to hurry home as the lady in the shop was bringing it to the house when she finished in the shop, in England you can not even get a packet of ciggies for a £5, I belong to a knitting group we knit for charity. I hope I can get some help and advice from this site. I look forwards to learning.


I had a knitting machine 40 years ago when my children were small and I needed to earn some money at home. I had a great time with it, and kept us financially afloat at the same time. My mother took my finished garments to her place of work - and took orders for more. I ended up working 16 hours a day and sewing up during the night! I had to give it up eventually, it got too much! But I did used to enjoy it.


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## KateWood (Apr 30, 2011)

Good FOR YOU))))Is the model SK321?
If so, then this is a Studio knitting machine and I do think you'll be able to get a good supplier for your needed parts and accessories online. 
Does your KM have a metal 200 needle bed and 24 sts punch card reader? 
You're very fortunate and yours came with its manual. When I got mine a year ago I did not get a manual and I could not figure out why the thing would not knit after lubing and cleaning. The www is wonderful as I found sites like the knitting closet where the gent offered helpful information, and sold me my machine oil and sponge bars... You can email; theknittingcloset.com they're located in Florida USA.
I certainly hope you'll have great success at getting it knitting smoothly in no time. Great to have another knitter on our site.

Have a wonderful day,

Kate


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## ceegee (May 22, 2011)

Congratulations on a fabulous find! There are some wonderful Yahoo groups for machine knitting - I belong to a couple of them and have always found the help and advice I needed when I hit a snag or just had a question! There are also quite a few charity knitters in the group, so just like here, kindred spirits.....


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## collingwoodcollection (May 22, 2011)

What an amazing find! The first thing you have to do is clean and oil the machine and change the sponge bar.
There are instructions online for replacing sponge bars yourself or you can order new ones from knitting machine suppliers which you can just google.
No machine will knit properly without a good sponge bar. They are also called needle retaining bars.
Karen


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## lortuc (Jul 26, 2011)

what a find.it was only last week i was looking at auction sites to see if i could buy one at a reasonable price.i had 3 at one time but got rid of them. now i fancy taking it up again.to buy them new they cost an arm and a leg lol


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## KateWood (Apr 30, 2011)

lortuc said:


> what a find.it was only last week i was looking at auction sites to see if i could buy one at a reasonable price.i had 3 at one time but got rid of them. now i fancy taking it up again.to buy them new they cost an arm and a leg lol[/q
> 
> That's a bonus as you'll need less yarn for your one armed sweaters))))


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## maryanne (Feb 20, 2011)

KateWood said:


> Good FOR YOU))))Is the model SK321?
> If so, then this is a Studio knitting machine and I do think you'll be able to get a good supplier for your needed parts and accessories online.
> Does your KM have a metal 200 needle bed and 24 sts punch card reader?
> You're very fortunate and yours came with its manual. When I got mine a year ago I did not get a manual and I could not figure out why the thing would not knit after lubing and cleaning. The www is wonderful as I found sites like the knitting closet where the gent offered helpful information, and sold me my machine oil and sponge bars... You can email; theknittingcloset.com they're located in Florida USA.
> ...


Glad you found them. They are always so helpful and very knowledgeable. Their customer service is also great.


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## i knit (Jan 17, 2011)

i didnt do as well as you but did get a good size bag of baby yarn all colors for $2 & a couple pattern books 25 cents each so that was my excitment for today!


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## itzzbarb (May 21, 2011)

Wow....good for you! Great find!


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## tpmcgoo2 (Mar 7, 2011)

WHAT A FANTASTIC FIND! way to go...now on to the fun!!


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## magaret (Apr 17, 2011)

what a marvellous bargain,i have oops hit wrong key, sorry


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## magaret (Apr 17, 2011)

what a marvellous bargain i have 2 machines and love using them i have had mine for about fourty years and did all my sons knitwear for school, hope you get used to it soon.


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## Dreamweaver (Feb 1, 2011)

Don't you just love a SUPER BARGAIN? 

I can't afford a knitting machine at ANY price. It would knit so quickly, I wouldn't be able to feed it! 

Perfect for charity work though. You can get much needed things turned out even quicker. Good Going.......


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## Shdy990 (Mar 10, 2011)

lucky you could sell it - now everyone thinks you should donate it - I donate quite a bit, but I have less money than the people I'm donating to...something wrong with that picture. I donated blankets that went to Haiti - what part of Haiti is cold enough for blankets....decided to only donate to local places where I have some control that they won't find it laying in the mud.


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## Juney66 (Apr 11, 2011)

Thank you for all your replies, I will put a picture on of my first garment very soon.


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## brenda m (Jun 2, 2011)

when you oil the machine (I have a studio 360) check all needle latches and rub the oil cloth across the butts (the end that sticks up). at one of our meetings, we were told that on the studio we could spray WD40 on a clean cloth (not on the machines itself) and rub the rail and the underside of the carriage.


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## KateWood (Apr 30, 2011)

brenda m said:


> when you oil the machine (I have a studio 360) check all needle latches and rub the oil cloth across the butts (the end that sticks up). at one of our meetings, we were told that on the studio we could spray WD40 on a clean cloth (not on the machines itself) and rub the rail and the underside of the carriage.


I read that WD40 actually ruins the plastic. I'd avoid it. But if you're going to use it use it on a cloth you won't use on any other parts...You can find good knitting machine oil, not sewing machine oil, still on the internet. I've gotten deliveries from the UK even China in only a few days. In the meantime, there is an excellent video on how to whiten the yellowed plastic parts on dianaknits.com...Makes the machine in the video look new


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## brenda m (Jun 2, 2011)

WD40 might ruin plastic, but the studio 321 and 360 are metal, no plastic involved.


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## Isis (Mar 24, 2011)

What a fab find, enjoy


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## Shirley123 (Apr 8, 2011)

I bought a chunky knitting machine in a charity shop for £3 ,but already have a Jones/brother KH830 ,so sold it on ebay for £75.The lady in the shop said that they are not popular any more.Little does she know.Bought some extras for my machine. Shirley,Derbyshire.


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## Juney66 (Apr 11, 2011)

Wow you did better than me, good for you, I am still re-learning,I am sure I will get there one day. June x


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## mebo (May 30, 2011)

That is a great find! I love getting a good deal!


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## maryanne (Feb 20, 2011)

I think that Kate is correct in her advice to you re the WD40. I was told several years ago that using WD40 was indeed very bad for knitting machines, plastic or metal. After a while it builds up and damages the carriage(s) especially. She said they were very hard to repair and only the oil formulated for knitting machines should be used. She was a professional machine knitter who had made her living by knitting and was retired. I think that you might rather want to be safe than sorry in the long run.


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## Juney66 (Apr 11, 2011)

I will have a look on e-bay for some oil, thanks for the hint. Juney


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## tpmcgoo2 (Mar 7, 2011)

maryanne said:


> I think that Kate is correct in her advice to you re the WD40. I was told several years ago that using WD40 was indeed very bad for knitting machines, plastic or metal. After a while it builds up and damages the carriage(s) especially. She said they were very hard to repair and only the oil formulated for knitting machines should be used. She was a professional machine knitter who had made her living by knitting and was retired. I think that you might rather want to be safe than sorry in the long run.


I heard that too and got some oil at a mk seminar...don't know who but it is an extra pure light oil....check with your disturbulator.


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## brenda m (Jun 2, 2011)

our machine knitting group had 2 dealers and a professional knitter who said to never spray anything directly on the machine; that it would cause trouble. I never had any trouble with my machine until I used the oil FOR the machine; it almost quit working. That's when I used the WD40 sprayed on a soft cloth. Out group was also able to do techniques that weren't in the manuals too, but most was from word of mouth. Do any of you make a self fringing triangle shawl on your machines?


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