SOLD!! For Sale: Complete At-Home Business (or Hobby) Machine Knitting Equipment Lot

SOLD!!
Location: N Suburb of Minneapolis, MN, USA
Price for entire lot: $4,000
Contact: Please contact me through Ravelry or through listing on Machine Knitting Sales Group on Ravelry


Included in the lot...

Brother KH-970 Used, well-maintained machine.  All parts are present and in excellent working condition, including all manuals and the pattern selection book.  The machine is packaged in the original carton. The KH-970 was Brother’s top-of-the-line 4.5mm electronic knitting machine.  The CB-1 allows for easy pattern set-up and automatic garment sizing from a knitted swatch.  The KH-970 allows for incredible freedom in designing your own patterns and garments.  It can be used exclusively for knitting whole garments or other projects, or can be used in tandem with hand-knitting. The accessories included in this lot (listed below) expand the capabilities of the machine by allowing the knitter to knit ribbing—both automatically with the G-Carriage, or “by hand” with the ribber attachment--as well as several other techniques.  Intarsia knitting of all-over designs or isolated patterns is also possible with the carriage included. Original Price: $2,049.00

Blank Cartridges The CB-1 can hold 665 pattern and stitch alternatives, but you can add even more designs and patterns with these blank cartridges—expanding the possibilities of the KH-970 even further.  The knitter can enter either original or commercial designs—including patterns and sized garment pieces. These two cartridges already contain patterns that I have used, including some Dale of Norway designs, but they may be deleted to add your own items.  (As a part of this lot, I have included the Dale pattern books of the designs that have already been pre-programmed.  See below.) Original price: $73 each

Brother Intarsia Carriage KA-2600 Barely used, like new Intarsia Carriage, packaged in the original carton.  Includes instructions and all parts.  Intarsia knitting cartridge allows the knitter to place a motif of color or design anywhere on your knitting project without floats.    Original price: $58

Brother KG-95  The Garter Carriage knits plain and purl stitches in the same row, and since it’s electrically powered, it can be set to knit while you’re away from the machine!  Knits straight stitch, ribbing, moss stitch, or patterns set to the exact number of rows up to 999.  The G-Carriage will automatically cast-on and cast-off as well.  One of my favorite accessories.  Used, but well maintained. Original price: $615

Brother KR-850 Ribbing Attachment The Ribbing Attachment is used to knit ribbing for cuffs and collars, but can also do much more: Fisherman’s Rib, English Rib, Circular knitting, and pleats to name a few.  With some practice, it can become one of your favorite accessories. Original Price: $498.  I purchased mine used for $260.  Good Condition with Manual and all parts.

               

Brother KH-270 Bulky Knitting Machine Used, well maintained machine.  All parts and manuals included.  This was Brother’s top-of-the-line 9mm gauge, bulky knitting machine.  There are 300 patterns built into the machine’s memory with room to enter many more.  Since this is an electronic machine—no punch cards!—you are no longer restricted to a 24 stitch pattern.  This machine knits worsted weight yarn and is the most adaptable to combining with hand knitting.  By letting the machine do the majority of the work, it’s possible to knit a garment in days instead of weeks or months.      Original price: $1,925

Brother KL-116 Knit Leader Quick and easy way to knit without a pattern on the KH-270.  Trace a pattern shape (I’ve used diagrams from knitting patterns or sewing patterns) onto the Knit Leader sheet, and the machine tells you the number of stitches needed, when to increase or decrease, and when to cast-off.  No math!  You can even add an intarsia design onto the pattern to make your design more interesting. Original price: $179

Additional Accessories and Items Included with Knitting Machine Lot

4.5mm Garter Bar A Garter Bar has prongs that let you take off or return all of the stitches on your machine at once.  A garter bar has many uses.  You can save a completed knit piece to put back on the machine later without having to work it stitch by stitch.  You can turn an entire piece to add a purl ridge.  You can even create gathering or pleats.  It’s a great time-saving accessory to have in your knitting tool box. Original Price: $60

Additional Tools: 2 extra Yarn Tension Units Orig: $45 each Adjustable 7x1 Needle Transfer Tool Orig: $11 3x2 Transfer Tool Orig: $2 Syn-Tex 10 Synthetic Machine Oil and Silicone Spray Can 4 Large and 6 Small Yarn Bobbins 2 Large Claw Weights Org: $7 each How-To Machine Knitting Video (Remember VHS?) Not pictured: Long Wire Machine Lint Cleaning Brush                 Orig: $8 2 New Bulky Machine Pressure Bars                 Orig: $20 each 1 New 4.5mm Machine Pressure Bar                 Orig: $18.50 White Gooseneck Lamp

Two Yarn Trees Great way to keep yarn cones organized and readily available and visible.  Each tree holds 24 cones.

Desk This desk is actually intended for use with a computer. It has a drop-down portion for a keyboard, but it’s perfect for both of the knitting machines.  You can clamp the machines on the back side of the desk—there’s plenty of room—and drop the keyboard portion to hold the yarn cones while knitting.  I also have some clamps and wooden bars that I use to attach the two extra yarn tension units (included) to make it possible to knit with six different yarn cones at once.  Works great!

 

Additional Folding Side Desk w/Drawers This is a desk that I kept on the side of my larger knitting table to store my extra accessories, manuals, patterns, etc.  As you can see in the picture, the table folds down in order to save space. Plus, Wire Basket Bin This basket worked great for keeping the extra carriages handy.

Patterns, How-To Booklets & Books, Machine Knitting Magazines An extensive collection of pattern books, books with tips and tricks, and also books with directions on how to use the knitting machines.  Also included are the Dale of Norway pattern books for all of the sweater patterns that are programmed into the CB-1 on the KH-970 or on the two Pattern Cartridges. (I have also kept legal pads that contain all of my notes for many of the projects that I have made over the years that you are welcome to take if you’d like.  I found these notes helpful if I ever made the project a second time.)

Finally…a carton of coned yarn. I have included several different weights of coned yarn to get you started.  The cones are mostly acrylic yarns, but if you’re new to machine knitting, they are perfect for practicing and learning new techniques. I also found leftover bits of yarn on cones to be useful for provisional cast-ons. There is enough on many of the cones to knit an entire sweater.  Nearly all of the yarn is machine washable, which is perfect for children’s garments.

 

And, I just wanted to include this shot to let you know that each of the machines and larger accessories are all packed in their original cartons.

 

All materials have been stored and used in a non-smoking home.  Every item is complete, well-maintained, and in good working order.  I have had many years of enjoyment with my machine knitting and hope that the person who purchases these items will too!  It's a great hobby and a fun way to make a little money as well.

Contact me through Ravelry (or see icon to the right of this post) or on the Machine Knitting Group Sales page that is also on the Ravelry site.  (I am preparing this page first, so you may not see the listing for my sale if you beat me to the punch!)  Contacting me through my Ravelry message box ensures privacy for both of us.  I am flexible on payment options.  We can work this out at the time of sale.  Obviously, due to the number, size, and weight of items, we will need to arrange local pick up.  The sale is final.  No returns.  As mentioned above, I have tested all items and all are in good working order.

If you have a question about any of the items listed, please post it in the comment section of this page, and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.  Please do not ask if I will sell off items individually.  I am selling the equipment as a lot.  Thanks for checking out this sale!

Back in the Dirt

Typical Minnesota weather to go from snowstorm to crocus blooming in the same week!  Just when we had all reached the absolute end of our rope for winter, it relents and gives us a perfect weekend and the collective mood of the entire state improves.

Because of the warmer temps, I was finally able to do what I've been waiting for an entire year to do--get out and work in the yard and garden.  What a treat!  Even though I quite literally had neighbors on every side and spouse harping at me to slow down and take it easy--which I did as best I could--it was so much fun to do those mundane springtime chores. 

Am I paying for it this morning?  Sure.  My endurance isn't back entirely.  Was it worth it?  You bet.

Weather-wise, we are several weeks behind where we were last year at this time.  Flowers that were blooming last March--a very non-typical spring--are just pushing up out of the ground. 

Personally, I'm in a much better place.  Tomorrow will mark a year since my stem cell transplant.  Some myeloma patients refer to that as their new birthday.  It really has marked a new beginning for me now that my cancer levels are low enough to be undetectable by lab tests.   Here's hoping it stays that way for a long time.  Those treatments weren't without their ill effects--neuropathy and pain that I'm still dealing with twelve months out, but I'm hoping those too will diminish as time goes by.

Strange what makes for good medicine.  The whole time I was pruning some shrubs and pulling weeds, I hardly gave a moment's thought to pain or cancer.  Life felt almost normal.

Long Knitting

As I was updating some of my Ravelry projects, it occurred to me that all of my current projects are long pieces.  I know this wasn't planned, but I'm certain it's because I don't like the process of trying to decide what to knit next after I've finished a project.  Every one of the patterns on my needles at the moment should keep me busy knitting for some time.

The most time-consuming is the Cabled Afghan I started over a year ago.  Whether it was wise counsel or not, I chose to knit this blanket in one, wide piece rather than knit it in strips and face the drudgery of putting them all together when I was done.  Obviously, the progress is slow when knitting across so many stitches, and cables to boot, but it grows---bit by bit.  Occasionally, I lay it out on the floor or coffee table to be sure I haven't zigged where I should have zagged.  It would be terrible to find a mistake and have to frog several inches.

As of today, the finished length measured 28", eight skeins in.  I think I purchased 20 skeins total.  Plenty for a good sized blanket.  Nothing worse than pulling a blanket up to your chin and having your toes exposed. 

Side One

The most recent cast-on is a Reversible Scarf with cables featured on one side and lace on the other.  It's a pattern from the aptly titled book, Reversible Scarves, by Audrey Knight.  I must confess that this wasn't the intended pattern for the yarn.  It's a second shot at yarn that was meant to be a capped sleeve cardigan from a pattern that, in the end, turned out to be more trouble than it was worth for all its errors and bad writing.  I won't mention the name of the pattern to protect the guilty.

Side Two

Anyway, this pattern is so cute with the ruffly edge on both sides, and I love the concept of not having a wrong side on a knitted scarf.  I would imagine I'll have enough yarn for a scarf and a pair of matching mittens eventually.  I made my usual flip cards with directions for each row to keep track and keep the brain work to a minimum since this is the project I keep where we watch movies.  A very fun knit.

The most ignored project is my Scarf w/Mittens travel work.  Ah, because we haven't done much traveling.  This project sits in a bag, in my otherwise empty suitcase, in my closet waiting for some adventure.  I hope it's patient.  No journeys are planned, for a while anyway.

A week from today we will meet the wonderful milestone of making it to March!  This is big news in Minnesota.  Sure, we can still have some wintery days, but we're on the other side of winter now.  We can see the light ahead.  We know that it can be snowing and cold one day, and warm and sunny the next.  Anything is possible at this point.  Moods are improving.

How many more weeks before I can get back out in my garden?  Whoo-hoo!

2012 Draws To A Close

It's been so long since I've had the---time, energy, desire--take your pick, to post anything.  I thought maybe before the New Year passed by I would take a few minutes to type up a quick entry.

Recovery continues after getting through my treatments and stem cell transplant.  I've come a long way but need to keep going to try and get back to feeling like myself and having the energy and stamina to do what I would like.  My goal is to be strong enough to get out in the garden and wrestle it back into shape once the warm weather returns.  Since it's barely 20 degrees today, that seems like a long way off, but I'm sure it will come before we know it.

We certainly are having a much better Christmas this year.  Even though it probably wasn't the wisest idea, considering I still had much to do at home, we took a quick trip to Vegas last week.  Our son was home on break, so the whole family got to spend a few days together with nothing to do but have some fun.  Unfortunately, trouble did hit once we got home.  The guys picked up some kind of stomach flu and we no more than got in the door from the airport and...well, not good.  We even ended up in the ER one day to get some IV fluids.  Not quite sure how I dodged that bullet.  Post transplant paranoid hand washing pays off.

So, we had to miss my family party on Saturday.  We didn't want to be responsible for five families coming down with that mess at Christmas!  We'd be disowned.

Now I'm looking forward to another week to spend with the family before everyone heads back to school and work.  Lots of good movies in the theaters to see.  A few plans with friends.  A fun New Year's Eve ahead.  Fresh snow would be nice, too.

Very much looking forward to 2013. 

Annual Fall Trip to the North Shore (sans donuts)

Due to post-stem cell transplant issues, we've stuck pretty close to home this summer, but with our beautiful fall weather and the other half having a few extra days off from work, we decided to head North.  The colors are getting close to peak, so we were looking forward to a colorful drive.

It was a pretty day and being able to leave on a Sunday meant we were driving against the traffic.  Road construction wasn't a problem.

Even though we're not fortunate enough to live on Minnesota's North Shore, we are lucky to live close by so that we can visit often, and it's amazing how the lake can change from one visit to the next.  Strikingly blue and calm one day and steely grey and forbidding the next.  We've seen it locked in ice one day and free flowing by morning.  What a Great Lake!  Ha, ha.

This year, we happened to hit the colors and the weather just right.  Mostly brilliant blue skies and enough of a wind change to make each day a different experience.

While we were in Duluth it was calm and warm for the season.  We even saw one brave couple go in for a swim.  I can't even imagine what that was like.  I know that can be painful in the middle of August!  We were content to stick to shore.  We did tough out the chills of sharing a malted milk--brave souls that we are.

By the time we got up to Grand Marais, the waves were incredible.  We couldn't even walk out to the lighthouse because they were crashing and spraying over the pier.  Overnight things calmed down and by the next morning it was t-shirt weather and we were able to walk out to the point.

Tragedy did strike at one point, however, when we realized that the World's Greatest Donuts shop had gone to fall hours and would not be open while we were in town.  We could have cried.  Honestly, it's one of the reasons we go to that town.  My plan was to press our faces to the glass and look as pitiful as we possibly could, but the place looked deserted and I don't think it would have made much difference.  Even though it wasn't a freshly made sugar donut, we were soothed by walking down to The Angry Trout for dinner.

How About a Half-Finished Project?

That's right.  Half-finished.  And while that sounds pathetic, I truly feel that it's quite an accomplishment.  The mitten dangling at the end of one side of my Scarf w/Mittens project has been knit and re-knit so many times I'm amazed the yarn held up.

Honestly, it wasn't terribly difficult.  (I don't mean to scare any one away from this pattern.)  I had my own problems.
1. Mostly I was sick of looking at this thing.  It's the project I dragged to the hospital with me this spring, and so it's got a history.
2.  I never seemed to want to work on it long enough to get past the "set up" stage that involved cables, gusset, and palm pattern all juggled on dpns, so every time I sat down to knit I had to spend far too much time figuring out what I was doing.
3.  I'm something of a perfectionist (shocking, right?) and I couldn't get it to look just the way that I thought it should.

This was supposed to be my travel project, and I knew if I was having trouble finishing it at home where it was potentially quiet, I was never, ever going to get it done in a hotel room.  So, I sucked it up, got it out, and kept working on it until it was done---well, half-done.

Now that I've picked up the stitches at the middle point of the scarf to work on the other half and gotten back to mindless knitting for travel, I've packed it up and put it back in my suitcase.  Good riddance for now.

Besides sharing the excitement of finally getting this bleeping mitten done--sad what passes for excitement these days--I will pass on a wonderful new iPhone app I discovered for posting this progress on my Ravelry page.  For a mere 99 cents, the Yarma app will post a picture that I take on my iPhone right onto the project page on Ravelry.  Badda bing.  Now that it's so simple, I'm far more likely to keep up with posting my progress.  It does have it's limits, but what do you expect for a buck?

A Finished Project!

 Yes, a finished project!  It's been so long.

I sometimes get the nagging feeling that I haven't accomplished much of anything in the last few months, but here's concrete proof that I have.  A finished sweater.  And I like it, and it fits, too!

When I saw this pattern at the Yarn Harbor shop in Duluth, I thought it would be interesting to knit a sweater on the bias, and I thought it was a good way to knit with two colors that wouldn't end up in a tangle since you knit only one color per row.  I put yarn to needles way back in February and worked on it when I felt like keeping busy as we watched movies and shows we had on Tivo.  There was a long hiatus while I was getting my transplant...and then I picked it up again earlier this summer.

Now that I think about it, there was some weird TV viewing going on with this knitting.  I started it while we were watching last season's episodes of Fringe, and I completed the project re-watching the whole Twin Peaks series.  There should be some strange vibe around this sweater.

As I was knitting, I'll admit that I wasn't exactly sure if I liked it or not, but now that it's done, I do.  It's a good every day, knock around sweater.  Something different.

I did make one adjustment.  Rather than use the directions for a striped neck and button band, I used a single color and knit a band around the entire edge.  I thought it did a good job of toning down the test-pattern look to the cardigan.  It's just garter stitch with some increases around the turns and buttonholes knit in.  Probably something I remembered from an Elizabeth Zimmerman project.

Progress is still being made on my cabled blanket, but I've had a hard time working on my scarf/mittens.  It's the project I took with me to the hospital.  I think it brings back bad memories.  (I should have finished that while I was watching Twin Peaks.  Bob peeking between my dpns.)

Otherwise, it's been a dull summer.  Still restricted on what I can do and working on getting my usual strength and stamina back.  I have been walking.  And walking.  And walking.  By now the neighbors must be used to me going around and around the neighborhood.  I've also kept busy in the kitchen.  No one said I couldn't cook, so I've been whipping up all kinds of things.  Baking.  Perfecting my ice cream making skills.  Trying new entrees.  I can even eat pretty much whatever I want since I need to gain some weight back.

The best news of all is that I am in remission.  After some recovery time from the transplant, we repeated all the tests and it looks good.  I don't think I can quite put this all in the "finished project" category, but for now life is starting to get back to normal.