In the name of research https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19e3sfzCwk/
Playing on my mind is the fact that I need to research more of my machine-knitting equipment for my book. The morning before, the Knitmaster Yarn Twister had strangely popped into my mind. I had a thought that I should really get the thing out & investigate it further, for the sake of research at least. I delved deep into my drawers to find the gadget that might be of interest to fellow knitters & readers on the subject of machine knitting. I knew I still had the twister in my possession somewhere.
Found
It was still in its original box. I think I had used it for the grand total of….now, let me see……once. I knew I still had it somewhere in my studio! Now, I love a good gadget, don’t get me wrong; particularly if it’s related to machine knitting, any form of the fibre arts or textiles in general. However, if I remember correctly, the yarn twister didn’t seem to have many virtues in making the life of a machine knitter any easier at first impression, at the time of buying it & seemed quite fiddly to work with as well. It was therefore swiftly cast into the “Keep it, it may come in handy one day” drawer & was promptly forgotten about for a couple of decades.
Dusted off
I fastened the twister to my work table with renewed enthusiasm. I finally fathomed out how the strange concoction of pulleys, spools, tension units & winding handle all came together as a ‘yarn-making device’. After consulting the rather scant assembly instruction sheet which came with it. The sheet was found after some time was spent wrestling with various seemingly disparate pieces of plastic & metal items of the twister.
Hooked
Eventually, the yarn was duly prepared onto two spools, which were then positioned in such a way that they both twisted around a main ‘core’ yarn by attaching the rubber pulley in a certain position & by winding the handle at the other end of the twister, the most amazing tri-colour marled yarn spewed out. Hopelessly twist-lively, but it attracted me so much that I had to try it in the ultimate test- the knitted swatch!
I managed to knit the newly made beautiful ‘candy cane’ of a marl yarn into a knitweave design on my trusty Brother KH965 & here it is, photographed in one of the Stitch World patterns that are pre-programmed into the machine. The backing yarn is extra fine merino, knitted at tension 6 & the marl yarn is 3 ends of 4 ply cotton, which I had on my yarn shelves. The marl weaving yarn did not go through the tension mast; rather, I hand-fed it straight from the yarn twister.
Now, completely captivated by this strange little device, I tried twisting chenille, mohair & tape to see the textures I could make-wow! What about marls twisted with marls? How would that work? What about adjusting the frequency of the twist? This is possible by altering two dials on the rotating arms that hold the spools. What happens if I use slub yarns? And eventually, twist the rubber pulley to make a ‘z’ twist instead of the ‘S’ twist. How does that look?
What’s next?
My mind, ticking away in ‘designer mode’, is now thinking of how else I can use this twister. Cords for bag handles, drawstrings, or yarns for hand knitting, perhaps? The possibilities are endless, so it seems!