It is very easy to make horizontal button holes for small buttons when knitting projects using garter carriages. This blog is a text version of the video posted on the same subject.
First, decide the position of the button holes. Pick two stitches (in my demo, I decided to pick two sets of two stitches where I knew the machine needles, not the carriage’s, would knit). Move the left stitch out of these two to the stitch to the left of it and the right stitch to the right of it. Push the freed needles back to B position.
Knit one row with your usual pattern. The needles that were empty, now have yarn hooked on them (no stitch formed). Using a double eyelet tool, take the yarn off one hook, twist it, and then put back into a needle. You just formed a loop. Do it for the remainin needles in the button hole.
I loved this pattern so much that I tried a few combiantions of yarns and i am will experimenting. Basically, all hats have 21 rows of 1×1 ribbing (pattern 532 in the stitch book), then one full pattern with snoflakes (pattern #541 in the stitch book). For bigger/deeper hats I sometimes finished with 1×1 ribbing.
Color combo #1: The main yarn (on the right-hand side) is 50/50% wool/acrylic blend for handknitting. It is a teal color more on the green spectrum
What the two-color garter carriage did for me is hard to put in words. My journey with knitting machines started when i realized i had too much yarn on hands. After experimenting the crap out of Addi (I knitted sweaters, with cables, after NUMEROUS hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves) and Brother KX350 (also seaters with cables and socks), I needed more challenging projects. I could not decide which machine to choose, so to try them all I ended up buying multiple second-hand knitting machines… All kinds… So many that I started running out of space so I had to pass along all those machines. I cleaned them, tested them, figured out what I like about them, and did not. Moved on to the next one. … But I still really never had a chance to sit down and experiment and craft with all that yarn I accumulated…
Then I discovered Garter carriage. Thank god, out of a dozen garter caraiges I picked up along with the mahcines, one was fully operations (I am still fixing 11 others). The minute it created the perfect 1×1 ribbing, without curse words and snags that I was getting on the ribber, I was in love. I immediately knitted a blanket, and, as usual, multiple scarves and hats. I would not say I got bored (there were so many patterns and projects still to experiment with). But I saw the wonderful effects that two-color garter carriages created, so I wanted to continue to experiment (and along the way, to use all that yarn I have). So, I got the adapter.
After overcoming the initial learning curve, I started enjoying watching my two-color garter carriage making various fabrics so much, that I would bring my coffee into the room and just watch it knit. I would be combing impossible yarn. Consult with my son, who is an artist on colors and designs. Create my own designs… Oh boy. I finally had that long-awaited creativity and experimentation that I was yearning all this time. I still fix my machines and pass them along, but I also create these new designs, comine colors, test new patterns, create my own patterns…. The level of satisfaction it brings is just indescribable. Being creative and crafting, according to smart scientists, increases the levels of dopamine… These levels are now spilling to other areas of my life. Double benefits. Thanks, two-color garter carriage. I cherish and appreciate you!!
… in progress as I am still learning and discovering …
I’ve spent the last two weeks fixing, disassembling, servicing, and cleaning all kinds of Garter carriages. I went through a mix of emotions: from agony of trying to identify the problem to fix to make the garter carriage work to complete awe watching the garter carriage knit a whole baby blanket just after I pressed all the necessary buttons.
In fact, it was so relaxing to watch Garter Carriage knit that my family would find me drinking coffee in front of it (instead of TV or a FaceBook page). Check out my pages with my projects, advice/notes, and patterns.
While being enthralled, I knitted swatches, hats, custom patterns, multicolor (just stripes, not using a true 2-color GC), blankets on all 200 needles…. So, below are my observations and notes.
Garter carriage is a bulky (meaning, big) carriage but unlike a main machine carriage, it knits on its own but slow. Garter arriages are temperamental. In fact, VERY! Som below I am compling a list of commonly appearing quesionts, my observations, and knowldge (acquired by making a LOT of mistakes).
The garter carriage moves too slowly.
If you want you GC to move faster, adjust the dial on its power supply. Right (“H”) is to increase the speed. If this does not change the speed, it is very likely that either the motor is malfunctioning or there is gunk in the carriage preventing it from moving faster.
The garter carriage stopped and is not moving.
The service manual describes some of the possible reasons:
Check if the power supply is actually working. My carriage stopped working literally in the middle of a project, and i could not figure out what was going on until I decided to try a different power supply. Well, the previous power supply decided to die without a warning.
The motor is not running. There are several reasons for that: bad motor, incorrect connection to the electrical outlet, yarn sensor is down, your row counter is at zero, a knot in the yarn feeder… Refer to the service manual for more detailed information.
What might cause garter carriage to randomly drop stitches?
bad (bent needle): it might have a sticky latch, be bent, misaligned or stuffed with lint. Check this first.
yarn is too thick. Solution: decrease tesion (increase the number on the dial) or switch the yarn. I was able to use yarns on garter carriage that a regular standard-gauge machine cant. BUt there is always a limit.
problematic yarn: fuzzy, or with boucle, or staticky, or stretchy yarn, or simply yarn that does not want to knit on the garter carriage (it happened to me; I put it in a bag and marked “GC cannot knit”).
check sponge bar: the spongy part needs to be about 1 cm above the metal sides. also: is it still spongy? is it even across the length of the retaining bar?
gate pegs might be bent or out of line. Check gate pegs from different angles.
clean the brushes from fluff and dust.
insufficient or too much weight
Overall, Garter carriages are quite temperamental.
Why does my garter carriage turn in the wrong place?
There are actually a lot of reasons for that, and they depend on the situation.
old grease and gunk. Solution: open up your carriage and clean it up.
if you recently disassembled your garter carriage, check if the turning cams are installed correctly
check the manual: it says for the automatic “turn” function, the slider needs to be moved to “G” first otherwise it causes problems.
make sure your needlebed DOES NOT miss any needles. It will trigger the turning cams incorrectly.
Are extension rails necessary?
It depends on the width of what you are knitting and also on your comfort level. It also depends on your machine. For example, the needlbed of the Brother KH930 is pretty wide (beyond where the needles are nested). In additional, the end cap on the right-hand side is wide too. So, even if you are moving the garter carriage past the sensor (to activate the “GC ON” light on the machine), rails are not necessarily. Thus, even if you are knitting on the full bed (like shown in this video), rails are not all that necessary.
What are good yarns to use with the garter carriage?
Gareter carraiges can handle yarns thicker than the standard machines can. Mostly because it knits one stitch at a time and pulls the yarn to form one one stitch at a time. Couple of examples: For example, I made a wonderful blanket with “we love yarn” (400 g/1312 m; 100 g/328 m) per ball) which is considered pretty thick for standard-gauge machines. This yarn creates beautiful texture and is machine washable at 104 F. I made a blanket with the cream yarn with tension 9 for the border and 10 for the main body. One skein of mega ball was enough. Two color garter carriages will need thinner yarns (for both feeders). But in both cases, knitters need to experiment with yarns and tensions. The golden rule: if the machine struggles, increase the number on the tension dial (which loosens the tension). Still struggle: the yarn is not compatible with your garter carriage.
Do I need to remove the ribber bracket to use the GC on my machine?
Just the brackets should not affect GC functioning. However, some believe that the best angle for GC to work properly is when the machine is flat. Thus, use the flat table clamps, not the S-curved ones (those that we use to attach our machines to ribbers).
Do I need to use cast-on comb?
Yes and no. Some knitters like to hang the cast-on comb on the 3rd or further rows. Some knit without it. I found that with thicker yarns and for two-color carriage, cast-on combs benefit me. Again: try and see for yourself.
Why are GC needles so expensive?
Simple answer: supply and demand.
My garter carriage is mispatterning.
Again, there are several reasons, including, gunked-up machine. But also:
you forgot to activate the GC light on the machine (if your machine is electronic)
