Meet Tiffany

Tiffany is a Brother KH881 knitting machine with a KR830 ribbing attachment who became part of my team in 2021. Since then I have embarked on the steep learning curve which is understanding machine knitting - I am beginning to get there!

She has two beds of 200 needles, one for knitting from each side of the fabric (knit and purl stitches). Each stitch requires a needle, rather than two needles being used for every stitch - as in hand knitting.

A carriage is pushed from side to side over the stitches, triggering the latches to move forward, close and allowing the previous row of stitches to slip over the working yarn to form a new row. It's possible to skip needles in order to create more intricate patterns and shaping.

Tiffany also has a punchcard reader, meaning she can make patterns that repeat every 24 stitches. With a little hand manipulation, there are even more possibilities.

All sorts of knitting techniques can be achieved such as fair-isle (two colour knitting) and lace (deliberate holes).

Being middle aged, Tiffany has developed her own personality and likes to make it known when she doesn't like a particular yarn (luminous pink is definitely her least favourite,) by dropping stitches, often at the least convenient time! She also is very particular about her cleaning routine, requiring regular cleaning and maintainance.