August 2023

Brother KR830 ribber, prepared for Vivian in August 2023

Brother KR830 is an attachment for Brother knitting machines. These ribbers are compatible with Brother knitting machines starting with models KH8XX and above, all the way to the electronic models. It is one of the simpler ribber models.

Brother KR830 ribber attaches to the main bed through a series of clamps/bolts to knit purl stitches and to create ribbing for necks, collars, and sleeves. The attachment setup is described in the manual and is pretty easy to follow.

About this particular machine. It was thoroughly cleaned, wiped and inspected. All needles were taken out, cleaned, inspected and inserted back into the bed.

This KR830 ribber comes with all assesories mentioned in the manual.

All the assesories are supposed to fit into styrofoam form but this machine will come without the original box/packing. All the tools will be packed with extra padding.

The hard copy of the manual is not included but can be found online.

It took me a good amount of time to set the distance between the machine and the ribber correctly. It was done by following wonderful instructions in this video. Unfortunately, the manual was not much help in setting the distance between the main bed and the ribber correctly. Since the ribber was sitting too far from the machine (too high) I had to remove the “lift” brackets. The manual mentions them but apparently incorrectly.

Below is the first row of the double-bed cast-on. The first sign of the incorrect distance between the beds is missing stitches, which I got.

After the adjustments and measurements of the correct distance between the beds, I got a perfect zig-zag-like first cast-on row.

After all the distance adjustment was performed, further tests were very easy. Additionally, the KH830 knitting machine that also goes to Vivian was used to test the ribber and to set the distance between the machine and the ribber. Apparently, knitting machine chats often discuss how ribber adjustments depend on the particular knitting machine (not just a model).

These tests were performed on a small swatch and on a full bed using every other needle on both main and ribbing beds. A video blog of all these tests can be found on my youtube channel.

To ensure that all needles knitted properly, I ran two tests on the full bed. First, I selected every other needle after the first needle and then, during the second test, after the second needle. In this case, I used all needles (except the very first one).

The knitted fabric was converted to a hat: I simply sewed along the long edge and tightened the ends. Easy, fast, and reliable!!! No measurements are needed – just knit away on a full bed.

I am planning on knitting a matching scarf while testing other ribbers. It was a lot of fun! I hope it wll be fun for you, Vivian, too !

Brother KH830, August 2023, for Vivian

Here is Brother KH830 knitting machine prepared for Vivian in August 2023. Read specifics about this model in my freshly published Knitting Machine encyclopedia. 🙂

This particular machine was cleaned and thoroughly tested on a full bed to ensure all needles worked adequately and that the carriage patterns correctly over the whole bed. The video of these tests is available here.

The sponge in the retaining bar was replaced. All needles were cleaned and inspected. One faulty needle was identified during the full bed knitting. It was replaced.

The lace carriage was not tested in knitting but all levers move as they are supposed to.

Carriage is very easy to move. The handle on the carriage folds for easy storage inside the case when not in use.

The machine comes with all major assesories including extension rails, lace carriage, two (one small and one large) cast-on combs, and all stitch manipulation tools.

Most of the small tools fit into a built-in stoage box.

Minor assesories not included with the setup are:

Wax and its storage container
Cast-on thread (any smooth and silky thread/yarn will work)
Tapestry needle (any sewing needle with a large eye)
Oil (I recommend getting a Gun Oil from Amazon)

Below are pictures of the fabric I knitted while testing the machine:

“Wrong” side of the fair-isle

“Right” side of the fair isle

“slip” stitch-knitted panel (using card #8)
Tuck-stitch-knitted panel (also using card #8)

Below is the cowl/neck warmers made from these fabrics:

Reversible hood/neck warmer made from fair-isle-knitted panel:

The “other”side:

The only imperfection of this machine (with the exception of the minor bents on the case and its lid) is the slight discoloration of the plastic on the carriage due to some UV damage (the plastic on the lace carriage is a bit lighter and has some UV-burn stains). It is typical for these old machines because back in the day UV-damage blockers were not added to the plastics.

Also, a hard copy of the manual is not included but can be found here.

Overall this machine was very easy to use and I did not experience any major issues with it. Hope you will enjoy it too!

Brother (Genie) KH710 for Larissa

This would be my 10^th push-button machine cleaned, serviced and tested for customers. I love push button machines for their reliability, resiliency, simplicity and hard work.

Brother KH710 (aka Genie) is a metal-flat bed knitting machine with 200 needles, 4.5 mm apart from each other. This distance (4.5 mm) makes this machine a standard gauge.

Brother (Genie) KH 710 is an 8-push button machine with a full pattern center that makes needle selection much easier and more automatic. The pattern center consists of the slide display, 8 push buttons to select the needles, one push button to deselect all selected needles, A-B lever to select the needles according to either pushed (position A) or unpushed (position B) buttons and a L/R sliding knobs which enables knitters to slide the needle selection by the corresponding number of positions. I know it might now make any sense now but refer to the manual – it explains everything very well.

The machine is in excellent shape including needles and there are absolutely no signs of rust. I still cleaned and inspected the needles. Additionally, all the needles were tested on a full bed to make sure all latches function properly. (In my video, you will see that one needle started mispatterning, which I identified by the tucked stitches first but then by its bent latch. This needle was replaced and the swatch- and the full-bed-tests were performed again to make sure all needles function properly).

A completely new sponge was attached. I reused the retaining bar. Because the sponge is still very puffy, it is somewhat resistant to go into the retaining bar channel. The ends of the retaining bar need to be pushed down when inserting it to make sure the tape does not come off.

The machine comes with all major accessories.

The minor ones not included are:

Cast-on thread: any smooth strong yarn will do (not too thick though)
Wax – the one that came with the machine was too old and just crumbled
Oil – the one that came with the machine was too old and yellow so I discarded it. A good oil for knitting machines is gun oil available on Amazon.
A toolbox and a toolbox lid will not be included. They did not come with the machine. The toolbox is to store the tools right on top of the bed when the machine is put away. The way the toolbox sits on the main bed and clings to it is convenient for storage. However, I find that I do not use the tool box when the machine is out because it is hard to easily get the tools out of it. All the tools will be packed carefully for transport.
A hard copy of the manual will not be provided but an electronic copy can be found here.

The machine was tested on a full bed and everything works great. I knitted hold-stitch pattern (butterfly pattern), tuck-stitch pattern and stockinet. The lace carriage was not tested but all the buttons move freely. It is not a complex carriage and it is very unlikely it will not work. The fabric I knitted during these tests was converted to these two cowls/neck warmers:

A general recommendation: tuck-stitch requires somewhat higher tension than stockinet on the same machine with the same yarn. However, for slightly thicker yarns (even sport weight) it might be a problem because on higher tensions the machine might choke up). This is why I tested the tuck-stitch with 1×1 needle selection using two different yarns: a thicker one (green) and a thinner one (power pink color). I was able to knit a nicer tuck-stitch using the thinner yarn.

However, with the cast-on on every other needle (also shown in my video), even yarns slightly thicker than sport weight can be used.

A couple minor flaws and hiccups that came up during tests are:

The wrench tool has a cracked plastic handle. I could still use it without problems.
When using a pattern that requires switching between A and B positions, I strongly recommend putting the L/R indicator onto the 2 or above position (but not at 8). When L/R indicator was on one, the switching needle position when A/B knob was used sometimes did not work as expected. I suspect that the gear is not engaging properly at the very starting position but it engages very well when the L/R is on two. I opened up the machine and checked and there are no visual wear/tear signs on the plastic gear. When I used the settings I just described to knit tuck-stitch (where every other needle was brought to C position and those needles were alternating on every row), I absolutely did not have any problems. My video confirms that.
I discovered that the ratchet tool (the wrench) needs to be used with confidence and medium-strength force, especially when a significant amount of needles needs to be moved to C positions (like, in my video, where I had to move 100 needles to C position). Force lighter than medium might result in not all needles being moved forward. Just be on the lookout for that while adjusting to this machine and to which force to use to move the needles forward.

Despite these two potential hiccups, which just need a bit of adjustment and a bit more paying attention, everything else was great on this machine. I hope you will enjoy using it.