Buying and Learning how to use a Flatbed Knitting Machine

Back in October, I bought a used Singer Knitting Machine from Facebook Marketplace and there is a reason why a lot of these machines sat unused under beds, in closets and basements. The learning curve is steep!

Unlike bringing home a ball of yarn and a set of knitting needles, you don’t get to just sit down and start knitting with these machines. It took weeks before I pulled a single finished object off my machine. Weeks! So let me just outline some of the steps I had to accomplish before finally completing a single sock on my flatbed knitting machine.

Knitting Machine Cleaning and Maintenance

When I bought my machine it hadn’t been used in some time. Most of the grease was hardened and dried out, everywhere I touched I got black goo on myself and one the patterning drums in the carriage barely moved. It is one thing to clean and oil a sewing machine, I’ve been using those for years, but this was my first time touching a knitting machine let alone half tearing it apart to get it working. Thankfully there were a couple of videos on YouTube to help me out.

I used this video to guide me through clearing the old grease and oil from the carriage.

And I used this video to clean the rest and to align the ribber with the main bed. It is a very old video, but these machines are pretty old too!

Suitable Yarn

Finding suitable yarn was my next challenge. The machine I bought is a “standard” which means sock yarn is about as thick as it will knit. I live in Canada and I don’t know how it is at Wal-Mart and Michaels in the US, but here there is dismally little to find in finer yarns, and what there is available is usually only available in about 5 colors. Sure there are boutique type knitting stores but I’m way to cheap to try to learn new techniques on expensive yarn. Thankfully I did find some coned yarn in my local Value Village and purchased some more on FB Marketplace.

Lack of Singer Knitting Machine Tutorials

Now I had a woman jump all over me for saying this in a Facebook Machine Knitting group, but most of the how-to videos on YouTube are for Brother knitting machines. The carriage on a Singer knitting machine is different. So at the risk of upsetting anyone who loves their Singer knitting machine, if I were doing it over again I would have looked for a Brother machine and preferably a chunky one so I could still use my Super Saver yarn for learning new techniques or where I want that “throw it in the washing machine” durability.

Learning Techniques

From there I had to learn how to find knitting machine patterns intended for flatbed machines and how to read those patterns. Hand knitting patterns will say cast on 72 stitches, a knitting machine pattern will say cast on needles 36L to 36R. It’s different and I’m old. It took a bit to wrap my head around it.

I had to learn how to cast on, and which cast on method would give me the tidy cast on I was looking for. I had to learn how to transfer stitches from one bed to the other and I had to learn how to undo my mistakes without always needing to completely start over.

There were also details like machine specific setting for certain techniques, short-rowing and well, I finally managed to knit a single sock before the end of 2023. And I share some of the process for knitting the second sock on my YouTube channel.

Have you considered buying a knitting machine? Then check out my post about buying a vintage machine here >>Should You Buy a Vintage Knitting Machine and here>>Should You Buy a Vintage Knitting Machine