# Knitting Machine Knitting



## Lauren_m_d (Sep 22, 2013)

Hi, i am new to this forum and also new to knitting on a knitting machine. i have been hand knitting for a few years and have been knitting and selling teddies. i am looking to see if anyone knows how to convert hand knitting patterns into machine knitting patterns as i am having a little bit of trouble trying to increase in the middle of rows. i forgot to say that my machine is a hand opperated machine and not an electronic one. please let me knowif anyone has any solutions.


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## chickkie (Oct 26, 2011)

increasing in the middle of the row means a lot of hand manipulation to move the stitches. If you have a garter bar you can do it more easily than just moving them all one at a time. A 7 prong tool will move 7 at once too but if you are doing a lot of increasing in the middle of your rows you will find it too time consuming.


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## boots (Jan 24, 2011)

I agree with Chickkie. A garter bar is easier than moving all the stitches by prong tool. If nothing else, take the stitching off with waste yarn. Be sure to use a very loose tension on the 1st row of the waste yarn. 
Diane Sullivan has excellent videos that may help guide you.


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## Lauren_m_d (Sep 22, 2013)

thank you i think ill have to change my patern its an awful lot of increasing from 15 to 29 in one row so i think that will just be too time consuming and i bought the machine to speed me up aha


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## Jacaranda (Feb 20, 2013)

Hi Lauren
As everyone else has said a garter bar is the only solution. Have a look at Dianna Sullivan's youtube video's on how to use the garter bar as it will speed things up for you after a some of practice. 
You can buy one from Country Knitting of Maine they sell different gauges also short and long ones depending on your needs - well worth the money.
Margaret


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## ACR1 (Oct 3, 2012)

Have you thought of knitting it sideways?


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## susieknitter (Jul 14, 2011)

Welcome to the forum. You have said that your machine is hand operated not electronic but electronic machines are hand operated also. Electronic refers to the patterns in the machine you still have to use the carriage the same.
If you only have to increase the once from 15-29 needles I would do it this way. 
Knit a few rows of waste yarn (old different colour yarn that you don't want) on the row before the increase...take the knitting off the machine with one run of the carriage across the needles with no yarn threaded in it....pick up the 15st and put them back on the needles with a gap of one needle between each stitch....undo the waste yarn and carry on knitting.
You could use a fine/thin knitting needle and take the stitches off onto that and then do the same regarding putting them back. It should be very easy to do seeing that you only have 15st and you only need to go to 29.

By the way love the little teddies.


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## shan (Jul 29, 2012)

I`ve done what your trying to do with no problems. I found the easiest way was to take it off on waste yarn, then rehang it, leaving an empty needle where you need the increase. Good luck, don`t give up!


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## showperson (Mar 7, 2012)

If you don't have a garter bar, you can also take the stitches off onto a circular needle. Then put the needles you will not need out of work, and rehang the stitches, doubling up on stitches as needed to do the decrease. While hand manipulating a few rows seems like it is taking a lot of time, you save so much more time when you do the plain rows on the machine.


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## KateWood (Apr 30, 2011)

showperson said:


> If you don't have a garter bar, you can also take the stitches off onto a circular needle. Then put the needles you will not need out of work, and rehang the stitches, doubling up on stitches as needed to do the decrease. While hand manipulating a few rows seems like it is taking a lot of time, you save so much more time when you do the plain rows on the machine.


I like using circular needles often find them faster and less fiddly than waste yarn.


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## Lauren_m_d (Sep 22, 2013)

thank you thats a great idea i will be trying tht tonight and letting my sister know as well as she was having the same problem. thank you they are lovely but were taking me a week to knit all of the different pieces by hand then sew it together xxx


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## ednavee (Jan 23, 2013)

It is impossible to increase from 15 to 29 in one row as your work would have to double in width.
An alternative is to knit the teddies 'up-side-down' so you would be decreasing instead of increasing; this should work unless the pattern tells you to do a lot of decreases in one row later on; these would then be increases and you would be back to square one.
However,it is possible to split the pattern into 2 and start with waste yarn in the middle of the teddy, then you would be decreasing on each half. Cast off each piece and graft together.
Hope this helps.


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## charliesrose (Dec 6, 2012)

KateWood said:


> I like using circular needles often find them faster and less fiddly than waste yarn.


Katewood...how do you put the stitches back on the machine...is it hard to get them into the hooks?


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## chickkie (Oct 26, 2011)

I do find using a knitting needle is fiddly, I would rather use waste yarn. But everyone has a way of doing things, and it is nice to hear all the ideas.


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## marvma (Mar 13, 2011)

Did anyone suggest knitting from the bottom up, it's much easier to decrease than increase this way.


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## Galina Lukin (Oct 16, 2017)

I am also knitting toys for kids, and wanted to buy a machine to speed things up, got stuck at the same question. Does somebody know, In my patterns, I have to do mid-row increases only until row 10, after that it is straight knitting and decreases on the sides. Can I do first 10 rows by hand, and then continue on my machine?


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## Reba1 (Feb 5, 2012)

Lauren, I prefer the waste yarn method too. Not knowing your pattern it is hard to tell you how to do the increase. Is it going from 15 stitches to 29, evenly spaced across the row? If so, it may be hard (but now impossible) to do it in one row - what would be nearly impossible is picking up the heel of the neighboring stitch to hand on the empty needles in between, as there wouldn't be enough give in the yarn. Maybe knitting the last two rows at a larger stitch size before the increase would give you enough slack.

If on the other hand, you are knitting the legs and then going into the body, You could knit the two legs, take each off on waste yarn, then rehang one on the left, ewrap the 14 needles in the middle, then rehang the next leg and begin knitting up.

There are a lot of teddy patterns for machine knitting. Some very simple, some more complex like your little bears. Take a look! For starters, The Machine Knitters Treasure Chest has several linked. http://www.needlesofsteel.org.uk/FreePatterns.html


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## Reba1 (Feb 5, 2012)

Galina - many knitters combine hand and machine knitting. Your plan is a good one. You just need to swatch to find what tension setting will match your hand gauge, or come very, very close.


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## dialknit (Oct 17, 2012)

ednavee said:


> It is impossible to increase from 15 to 29 in one row as your work would have to double in width.
> An alternative is to knit the teddies 'up-side-down' so you would be decreasing instead of increasing; this should work unless the pattern tells you to do a lot of decreases in one row later on; these would then be increases and you would be back to square one.
> However,it is possible to split the pattern into 2 and start with waste yarn in the middle of the teddy, then you would be decreasing on each half. Cast off each piece and graft together.
> Hope this helps.


 :sm24: :sm24: :sm24: You beat me to it


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