PREPARING THE YARN

For your first attempts at knitting with your new LK-150, I recommend a good quality smooth hand knitting or coned yarn in the size usually called "4-ply" in the US, or a heavy DK or chunky in other countries. This yarn should be one that normally knits at approximately 4 - 5 sts and 6 - 7 rows per inch. I personally prefer to teach with a good quality acrylic, since my new knitters have the least problems with it. Wool is a second choice, since for some new knitters it does cause problems. Please save cottons for later, after you have some experience. Cottons don't have as much elasticity, even the expensive ones; they cause problems for many people. After you are comfortable with the machine you may experiment with any yarn you like, but it is much better not to set yourself up for any extra problems which may be caused by a difficult yarn.

Hand knitting yarn, which comes in skeins should be prepared first. Yarn must flow freely at all times; tight spots or tangles may cause jams and dropped stitches. Any extra tension on the yarn, such as is frequently found in the center of skeins, will cause a row of tight knitting. This looks like a recessed stripe, or "ditch" across the fabric. Even though "infomercials" show another brand of hobby knitter using yarn directly from the skein, I recommend that you take the time to prepare the whole skein first. Knitting machines use up yarn at an astounding rate. Even if you actually do remember to pull out enough yarn for the next row, it really takes longer to stop every row and pull out yarn than it does to prepare the whole skein at once. If the yarn you purchased came in a hank, rather than a pull skein, it isn't even possible to knit directly from it.

yarn

Never rewind by hand into a ball. It is easy to stretch the yarn just a little while winding it, causing uneven tension and its resulting uneven stitches when knitting. Furthermore, the yarn does not unwind smoothly, since the ball bounces around as you knit.

yarn ball

If at all possible rewind loosely, using a cone/ball winder. Yarn should be taken from the center of a ball, and from the outside of a cone.

If you do not own a winder, the next best solution is to pull the entire length of yarn from the skein or ball into a clean box or basket. Knitting machines positively devour yarn, and having to stop every row to pull out enough yardage for the next row gets very tiresome. It is also easy to forget to pull out new yarn, and just continue knitting, often resulting in pulled marks across the fabric. If you do pull out an entire skein into a basket, be sure to keep the dogs/cats/toddlers out of it. It doesn't take much agitation to cause a very tangled knot. (Voice of experience, here!)

Selecting the Needles

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