In this post, I will discuss how to machine knit using the wrapping stitch technique. This is a fascinating way to create interesting texture in your knits.
Machine Knitting lesson- Hand-wrapped inlays on a basic Japanese knitting machine
In this blog, I will look at the topic of hand wrapping yarn on basic knitting machines. Even the most basic of knitting machines can be used for this technique. You don’t need a punch card or weaving brushes, or a fancy electronic machine to knit these types of stitches. Hand-wrapped inlays are manual, can usually be performed anywhere or at any time in the knitted piece, from borders to all over, to central panels, diagonals, random inlays, in different yarns & colours. The possibilities are as vast as your mind’s eye can see. It is quite exciting to see how far you can push such things as the thickness of the yarn used to how many times you can wrap a yarn around a needle & also how you actually wrap the yarns bears a difference on the look of a swatch.
Let’s dive a little deeper into this highly creative machine knitting technique.
Some things to consider before you start wrapping swatches. General maintenance is crucial for any trouble-free knitted swatches & garments, so let’s have a little spot check of the knitting machine you intend to use. Clean any dust, lint & fibre from the needle bed using the brush provided in your machine’s toolbox that came with your knitting machine. Clean off any old, darkened oil from the needle bed, needles & machine knitting carriage. Replace with new oil specially formulated for knitting machines. Next, check all machine knitting needles in the needle bed. To do this, pull forward all the needles in the bed (or at least all the ones you intend to knit on for your wrapped swatches. Check that there are no bent needles, stiff latches or otherwise damaged needles. Change out any damaged needles. Check your knitting machine’s instruction manual for more information on how to service & change a knitting needle.
Okay, now we are ready to start!
Choosing your yarns
All wrapped swatches will need a base yarn to knit plain stockinette in the background, whilst we are hand wrapping the inlay yarns. This backing yarn can be quite fine, plain & smooth. Depending on what type of look you want your knitted swatches to look like, you can choose a yarn which is darker than the yarn you intend to wrap with. This will help the depth of the fabric appear greater, as if the base yarn is more in shadow or darker in tone. In contrast, the yarn you intend to wrap with can be lighter in colour, brighter & more textured. It’s the wrap yarn that is doing all the aesthetics in the swatch, so you can get a bit more flamboyant here with your yarn choice for the wrapping yarn. Consider textured yarns, such as bouclé yarns, chenille, slubs or chainette tape yarns, which would really make your swatch pop & command more interest.
Once you have gathered your yarns together, it is now time to put the yarns through their paces.
Let’s start swatching
Cast on using a number of needles using your yarn that you intend to use as a base for the wrapped swatch fabric. Play around with the tension & generally start to get to know your chosen base yarn. Try out a few different tensions & make a note. Generally speaking, the base fabric can be knitted slacker than normal as the yarn you intend to wrap with will be thicker & take up more space between the stitches. Erring on the side of caution, I would knit slacker than intended until the definitive handle of the fabric is achieved. This saves getting in a jam & possibly damaging needles & carriage in the process. You can always tighten up the tension for optimum swatch handle later, but it is soul-destroying to keep knitting & jamming the machine several times by knitting the fabric on too tight a tension.
Now we are ready to start patterning & designing. Pull forward to the furthest forward position that the needles can go on the needle bed. This may be position “D” or “E” on the needle bed (see your manual for further information on needle positions). Also, make sure your knitting machine carriage is not set at the “Hold” position (again, see your own knitting machine’s manual for information on this cam setting on the carriage). We need the needles to return to the normal knitting position after the wrapping is performed around the chosen needles when the carriage passes over them. To start, bring forward single needles & leave a gap of at least two needles between the ones that you intend to wrap on. Have the yarn at your feet in front of the knitting machine; it does not go through the second tension setting on the mast.
It doesn’t matter which side the carriage is when you start the swatch; however, if you are right-handed, it may feel easier to start the carriage going from left to right initially.
Anchor the end of the wrapping yarn to the left-hand clamp that holds the knitting machine to the table. Wrap the yarn in an ‘e’ wrap method (the same as you would use for an ‘e’ wrap cast on) around the first protruding needle on the left. Proceed along in the same way on all of the needles that are set forward. Hold the wrapping yarn gently on the right-hand side as you knit across with the base yarn in the carriage. The stitches & wraps should knit off smoothly without getting caught around the needles or dropping or even jamming. If you continue to have issues with the wrapping yarn or the base yarn, then do change the tension to a looser tension or hang an extra claw weight or try wrapping more loosely. You could also try knitting slower across the working needles. If all adjustments do not work, then it might be advisable to change the wrapping yarn for something finer, perhaps. There are no hard & fast rules with this technique, so do try a few different things before you give up on a certain yarn.
When you have mastered this basic wrap technique, you can try to push the boat out further with different needle set outs, bring more needles out to wrap around & also try wrapping multiple times around one needle. The bulky/chunky weight machines can handle quite thick yarns, so if you have one of these types of machines, you can go to town with yarns & the number of times you can wrap around groups of needles.
The beauty of this technique is that you can see the results of your work instantly as you work on the knitting machine.