I have always been interested in knitting machines ever since I taught myself to knit when I was in university. I thought they were interesting and maybe a "short cut" version of knitting. I am the slowest hand knitter you will meet!
One day I went on Ebay and found a Toyota 787 machine with ribber bed and lace carriage for sale for a nice price of $200. I thought why not? I will give it a go! So did my research and found out that the 787 is the best machine in the Toyota range as it had a lot of things built into it.
I have bought manuals off ebay to help me learn how my machine works/clean it. So I have spent every spare moment in the last couple of weeks reading them, staring at the machine and having a fiddle around with the machine. Today, I had a thought about 'blogging' my adventures and help anyone else who is starting to learn how to use a Toyota 787!
What have I figured out already?
The first thing I did was to replace the sponge bars as they were non-existent and became sludge in the bar. I followed the instructions on a blog I found online to replace the sponge (you find the link here)
I am annoyed I didn't take photos of the before and after but now I know how to do it, I am confident to replace them whenever they need to be and I will blog about it then. The only difference was that I used foam glue instead of a water-based glue as I didn't want the bar to rust.
Here is a picture of when I finally figured out how to set up the machine and do a basic swatch on the machine a few weeks ago. I just wanted to see "how" it worked.
- Yes, I am using the ribbing weights.
- Yes, I didn't use a cast on comb because I didn't know I had them/how to use them until I read further into the manual.
- Yes, I was VERY frustrated because I thought it would be easier.
- Yes, I did get hay-fever from the dust within the machine (make sure you clean your machine before you start! Plus keep it dust free!)
- Yes, I am proud of figuring out how a machine older then me works!
My next blog will be about the little things that made me frustrated when I first set up the machine and tried to knit a swatch.
Happy knitting everyone!
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