New knitting machine, new sample

Thanks to my friend Nancy, who put me on to it, I now have a new-to-me Brother KH-830 knitting machine, purchased from a fellow who repairs knitting machines professionally.  It works much better than the antique I was using.

Of course, the first thing I did upon getting it home was knit up a sample.  (I am not obsessive.  Really I’m not.)  I knitted 600 rows at tension 0, using 70 needles, guessing that this would give me about 9″ of finished sample.  I’m pleased to say that my guess was only 5% off!  I wound up with 9.5″ of woven sample, so with just a minor adjustment, I’m good to go on knitting the “real” blanks.

I also tried for a more even color gradation, painting on the colors smoothly (instead of in blotches, which is what I did earlier).  I like the results:

There is still some striation (adding visual interest) but the overall color gradation is smooth.

So I think I am ready to embark upon weaving the remaining panels!

The one thing I have yet to determine is the color sequence for the dark panels.  I think once I have the brighter panels woven, I’ll experiment with draping the darker colors from those panels against each other, and against the yet-to-be-woven collar, to see what will work.

Off to knit up those blanks!