Brother KH260 are wonderful and highly desired machines. They habe 110 needles, spaced 9 mm apart from each other).
This distance and large needles makes this machine “bulky”. Brother KH260 can handle a large variety of thicker yarns, including worsted. I tried double-thrded boucle yarn and it ahndled it well as well. I was especially happy about it because I love textures yarn, especially boucle, but not many machines can handle them.
What I did on this machine:
- Removed all needles, cleaned them and inspected individually and then during knitting on a full bed.
- Oiled carriage and ensured that all levers and kbod ove frely and do not mis-function during knitting
- Cleaned the bed and gently cleaned the plastic parts
Overall the machine was in good shape before I started cleaning it. The case does not have any major bends/scratches. Only minor ones.
This machine came with all its assesories with some minor exeptions.
The card clips were missing – I cinluded two paris of new ones (small yellow plastic things in the picture below).
The assesories that are missing from the machine and wll not be included are:
- Oil canister. I do not include old oil on purpose. Please, get a fresh/new oil. The recommended by many machine kntiters is Hoppe’s Elite Gun Oil
- No ravel cord is included but any smooth strong yarn can be used.
- Place card holder was missing from the set. As you can see in the video, I was not even using it and the cardreder worked well. However, any straight or bent hand-knitting needles will work. I included one.
- -some manuals state that the machine comes wth 20-count punch card set. The hard copy of the manual that came with this machine lists only 15 cards. Indeed, a set containing only 15 cards came with it.
All tools fit into a tool box: a buil-tin compartment on the main bed.
This tool box is excellent to store assesories whlie the machine is not in use. The sinker plate, tuck-brushes, punchcard, tension rod and the row counter also fit wonderfully into the lid of the case when not in use.
The machine size is larger than all other single-bed flat-bed machines. The bed is winder and slitly longer.
The machine performed wonderfully with slip, tuck and fair isle patterning on full bed. I did not even have my usual trial/error starts. I did nothave to putz around too much with tension and the right number of hanging weights…. I was very pleased how well everything went.
I used this machine to knit simple stockinet, fair-isle, slip and tuck-stitch patterning. You can see those in my video. Below are the things I made while testing this machine and filming my demo.
Cowl/hoodie from a variegated dark red yarn using slip-stitch. Reversible/double sided.
Cowl/hoodie with a matching hat. Hoodie was knitted using a self-striping yarn and tuck-stitch patterning. Can be worn as reversible. The hat was knitted using simple stockinet. The ribbing was made by a mock-1×1 ribbing.
Cowl/hoodie knitted using fair isle and custom-made punch card. It can be worn as double-sided/reversible.
I did not really find a lot of cons for this machine. Maybe simple specifics of the machine which make it to stand out.
So, pros and cons are:
Pros:
+ Carriage (despite being heavy) is still relatively easy to move especially in KC mode (attached to a timing belt)
+ capable of handling thicker and textures (typically challenging) yarns
+ accessories, including needles, are still easy to find.
+ straightforward manual
+ because of the usage of thicker yarn, creates a texture similar to hand-knitting. I personally love those large stitches. Makes me instantly feel warm and cozy. The thicker yarn when knitted on loose tension also make the knitted fabric very soft and moldable (not stiff as on some standard machines).
Cons:
– Larger than other machines, including some other bulky models. It is also heavier.
– Expensive as they are highly desirable.
– carriage levers prone to sticking, especially when not in use for a long time. This might result in improper needle selection. But can be done with regular maintenance/care.
– requires more weights than other machines very likely because of heavier yarns.
– tuck brushes need to be installed. Some machines (mostly standard) already have built-in tuck-brushes on sinker plate. This is not really a con but just one more thing to keep track of and not to misplace.
Overall, machine knitters all over the world call Brother KH 260 a working horse. And I am in complete agreement!!
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