Fifty Years Ago

This weekend should have seen a Grand Reunion in Swansea.  It is 50 years since I graduated, and 100 years since the founding of the University (a university college in the university of Wales back then).  Due to Covid-19, it has, of course, been cancelled, and I am so disappointed.  The chappie who got in touch with me through the magic of Facebook I knew through the student newspaper, 1967/8 - I was the editor, he was  more on the publishing and press side, and a master of puns.  You could never, ever, outdo him.  During my time at the newspaper the printers changed from lino-type to web offset, which was a wonderful education - no more galley proofs with a couple of extra lines lying in the  bottom margin!  No more counting of words down to the last one, and measuring stuff with a "points" ruler to see if a headline would fit.

I don't think I was knitting much in those days.  I can remember making curtains for a new flat and other items for a home, I expect knitting was in there somewhere if I wanted something to wear.  Oh, and our parties - cooking up absolutely tons of pasta and different sauces, then wondering where to put the expanding stuff!

Swansea weather was wet - we always felt damp, and couldn't get washing dry outside.  But I would so like to have visited again.

Assessing the machine

After a full week of playing with it, my conclusions are that it is a little on the delicate side, fine for tubes, too much of a faff for heel turn and thus socks.  The latter is because the needles dip before rising and if the yarn is not under the hook, they drop off.  So every individual held and/or wrapped stitch has to be picked up and re- placed before it enters this area, which starts about 8 needles away from the knitting point.  This does not happen on stationary cylinder machines.   Advised not for the under-14's either, so that is a big disappointment as well for showing in the museum.

"Tubes" - by which I mean scarves, snakes, glove puppets, handwarmers, armwarmers, leggings, Celtic knot cushions, Comfort Dolls, gnomes, owls, bags, mittens ..... there is an endless list of things that CAN be made.

3D printing is probably the way froward, but some alterations need to be made, not least of all the fixing clamps.

Ashcroft 3D printed circular knitting machine

My new machine arrived on 30th June.  Even in the packaging, it weighs less than 3kg.  I am glad I bought it before the price leapt up 33%.

The positive points are that it's light, it doesn't cost much, it runs clean without oil.

The cylinder revolves, rather than the camshell, but that took surprisingly little time to get used to.  The dilemma is trying to make a fair assessment of this machine without comparing it with antique metal machines (specifically, my 84-slot Cymbal).  Also one does need a fair amount of knowledge of the antique machines to be able to try all the capabilities that one ought to expect from a circular.

Time will tell.