A wonderfully creative stress buster: MACHINE KNITTING.
My first machine was the Bond ISM purchased by my husband as a Christmas gift in 1997. The ISM creates knitted items that look hand knitted in much less time. The ISM can be used with all the hand knitting yarns. I often call these items hand crafted because a lot of personal work is involved. I never just follow a pattern. I'm usually inspired by someone else's work. Then I sketch out my own interpretation, select my yarn, determine my guage and then rough out my pattern instructions. I allow myself lee-way to change instructions. I figure it's my knitting, my time and my money. So I should do what I like.
In 1998 dh found a Brother KH551. This is an older 4.5 (standard guage), machine. Mine was complete including the out-of-print manual.I've scanned this manual and emailed it several times. So this machine is still being used. It has 4 buttons for some patterning. But primarily I used it like the ISM except I'm able to use the knitting machine yarns. Note you can use the knitting machine yarns on the BOND by double- or triple-stranding.
Dh to the rescue again, found a Brother KH260 in 1999. This machine was missing some minor parts but the price was verrrrrrrrrrrry reasonable. I think he heard me saying to many bad things when I'd loose my place in patterning. The KH260 is a 24 stitch punch machine. Punch the pattern, push the buttons and slide that carriage back and forth. Wonderful invention. I can keep my patterning straight without losing the connectedness I feel with a manual machine.
