Knitting machines – the real pleasure or not?

General information about knitting machines:
The biggest advantage of machine knitting over hand knitting is that you can create larger or more complex patterns quickly and easily, regardless of whether you like knitting or not. When you hand knit, you always knit in the right shape straight away, because each additional stitch increases the working time. But when you knit with a machine, you can use the "cut and sew" method. This method involves cutting a knitted fabric and sewing it back together. You can watch detailed videos on YouTube about how this process works.

However, because of the speed of machine work, you shouldn't think that you can just sit down, thread a piece of yarn and the long skirt will be made at the touch of a button. In fact, working with a machine requires patience and practice. You have to knit row by row by moving the so-called knitting carriage back and forth. Since the whole thing is of course quicker than by hand, you still have to decrease and increase, cast on and cast off stitches if you are following a pattern shape. If you use a knitting machine, you can now also use very fine yarn. Or you have a so-called fine knitter, a knitting machine with a needle spacing of 4.5 or 5 mm and usually 180 to 200 needles.

A good knitting machine stitches perfect work without mistakes, and you just have to pay close attention to the yarn flow, to make sure that all the pattern needles are knitted and that the patterns are set correctly when changing patterns or colors. Working by hand is enormously different from working with a machine like this; someone who can knit by hand cannot use a knitting machine as quickly or as well - and vice versa. In other words: practice makes perfect.