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CHEAP TRICKS
for machine knitters

This is a collection of nearly free knitting helps. Some are original inventions of The Answer Lady. Others have been passed on from knitter to knitter. All are designed to make your knitting go more smoothly with less money and to prevent the derailing of a project if a tool goes missing. I am especially pleased to be able to offer the tool-making section. It includes ways to make all the tools machine knitters regularly use plus some extras. 21 fully illustrated pages.

Table of contents

yarn management................................................page 3
making the yarn flow smoothly, combining yarns to make tweed, preventing tangles with multiple yarns, intarsia bobbins, knitting from balls and skeins
a needle latch opener..........................................page 5
making center pull balls without a ball winder...page 6
spare cones for most winders............................page 7
pompoms & tassels............................................page 8
tool-making...................................................pages 9-21
mini-weights[p.12], hefty claw weights[p.12], sock weights[p.17], transfer tools both large[p.19] and small[p.20], cast-on combs[p.14], latch tools[p.20], needle selectors[p.20], extra cones[p.21]
Most knitting machines will do the same things but the settings on the carriage are unique to each brand. click here to download a chart that compares the settings for various brands this file is hosted on the free version of mediafire which means that ads will pop up. They are safe--just ads. So ignore them and click only on my file and you will be fine.
FREE KNITTING GRAPH PAPER Graph paper that is sized to match a stitch and row gauge exactly is a handy tool and a great "cheap trick". It can be used to chart a sweater design without any math at all. It may also be used to position a motif, experiment with fairisle looks, and chart intarsia patterns. Using such graph paper often advances our ability to visualize sweater parts. To work well, the paper must be very close to representing the true size of a stitch. Here are some common gauges of papers for you to experiment with. The link below will take to to a mediafire download page where you can retrieve them. There is a microsoft .doc version, and Open Office odt. version and an image version. Try to set your printer to print full size without scaling. You may need to adjust the margins to get this. Some printers will automatically get one version just right. Sometimes you have to experiment. Should you come up with tips or other graph papers you are willing to share, please get in touch. We'll expand this file as needed to include as many graph paper helps as we can assemble. Mediafire is a legitimate file-sharing service but its advertising will offer you other things. To be safe, ONLY click on the files you went for. download graph paper