#1 YARN MATTERS!!!!
So….there are these things called “dropped” stitches and “tucked” stitches. These are the bain of the machine knitter’s life. There are tips and tricks for avoiding and correcting these issues that I share lower down but the BEST way to avoid them is to use yarn that works well with your machine. If the yarn is too thick or not stretchy at all, it might get too tight on your machine and cause it to grind or stop. DO NOT force it! If you gotta, just cut your losses…maybe literally. I had to cut yarn off the machine once because it got tight and I was not willing to even risk breaking my new toy!
Pro Tips:
- Stick to worsted (medium to light) weight yarns.
- Look for a little bit of elasticity.
- Cotton Yarn takes extra care.
- Keep a Yarn Journal. If it does not work in your machine, make note and use it for hand knitting or crochet.
- So far “I Love This Yarn” has worked beautifully for me.
There are some tips and tricks for dealing with stubborn yarn.
- Use dryer sheets to smooth out yarn as it feeds into the machine. This one is good because most of us already have some dryer sheets in our homes.
- Use silicon earplugs to do the same. This one is great because you can just stick on the machine under where it feeds to smooth out the yarn.
#2 Casting On & Waste Yarn
This became one of those IYKYK kind of things. If you are struggling with the directions, watch a video and slow it down if you need to. It is important to figure out for sure what YOU are going to call your first pin. It is a good idea to use a sharpie to mark the teeth on either side of your first pin so that you can see it coming. For ONE ROW ONLY you weave the yarn between the pins catching under the hook of every other pin. Then you place your yarn in the feeder and just go! Well…you just go if you are making a beanie or a pumpkin or a toy that you plan to cinch up tight…BUT if you want an open tube or a flat edge…you are gonna need waste yarn.
DON’T THROW AWAY THAT YARN! JK…I know you don’t throw away yarn. You have at least one bag of various length scraps somewhere. Well, now it your time to use it! Cast on with “waste yarn” and then knit 5-10 rows. Start with your working yarn on your first pin. If you have a counter, reset it now. Then, knit as planned! You may want to end your project with more waste yarn, but more on that later.
Pro Tip: Choose a waste yarn with a contrasting color to your working yarn. You will thank me later.
#3 Tension Matters
Tension! I don’t mean the knots forming in your shoulders. On the Sentro Machines, like the Sentro 48, there is a tensioner attached to the machine right in front of the feeder.
Let the tensioner provide the tension. This means that it is critical to:
- Find the center pull of your skein of yarn.
- Place the skein in a position to where there is no tension provided by the yarn or the skein.
- If you cannot find the center pull or the skein in sticky, you really may want to consider winding it.
- If all else fails, just pull out some yarn and make sure it is loose and easily available to the machine.
If you knitting seems like it is getting tight (you can tell because loops don’t fall when they are supposed to and the machine even becomes a little tougher to turn) you can move your thread to a larger hole. Most of the time the center hole works great but this is a yarn-by-yarn decision. You will get the feel of it.
Another thing to keep note of is when your tube gets long enough that it hits the table. This can reduce the tension on the pins as the previous rows are not pulling down anymore. When this happens, just roll up your tube into a little donut and keep going. If you find that loops are coming off the pins even before your tube reaches the table, you may need to use weights to pull it down in the beginning as well. Machine knitting has been around for a while. These claw weights are used to hook onto your knitting and provide a gentle downward force to keep loops from falling off of pins.
#4 Take your time!
Ok, I will admit it. I was SUPER excited to be able to make knit projects quickly. Luckily I started with I Love This Yarn and got away with it. I was even able to use the drill attachment that I got for my Sentro 40! Then I tried some Crafter’s Secret yarn and had a much different experience. I did not have the color I needed in an another brand so I had to make it work. (Note: I have only tried 2 colors of the Crafter’s Secret. I got them to work but I had to go slow.) I have also struggled with the Red Heart Super Saver, so I just use it in other crafts.
If you know what you are looking for, you can avoid having to deal with “dropped” stitches and “tucked” stitches, you can avoid dealing with them altogether. Picking a good yarn or using the silicon earplugs and watching the stitches as they come around to make sure they do what they are supposed to will make for less time having to fix oopsies later.
#5 Casting Off
Casting off. The EASIEST way to cast off is by using waste yarn. After you have fully knit your last row, add in your waste yarn and then knit like 5-10 more rows. Take your yarn out of the feeder and crank it around 2 more complet times. Your work should just fall off! Then you can finish off your tube as an open tube or you can close it off so that it is a flat panel of double thickness (great for blankets).
This time, if you want to cinch it shut, do not use waste yarn. Instead you have to remove each loop from the machine one at a time using a tapestry needle onto your tail. Once again, it is best to watch these in videos. There are helpful tips and tricks that each person gives so I recommend watching a number of different videos.
Coming Soon!
Oopsies - How they happen, how to avoid them, and what to do when they happen anyway!
Double headed crochet hooks! <—If you have a dropped stitch that you gotta save, these are they way to go!
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Thanks so much!!!
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