The very first thing you need to know before you buy a knitting machine is the type of yarn you plan to use and what you want to make. If you have a ton of hand knitting yarn in a worsted weight and plan to use it on your new machine, you will need a "bulky" machine. Bulky machines are best for making heavier sweaters, afghans and the type of items that hand knitters make. The mid-gauge machine will handle worsted, but does not work well with the really bulky (heavy) yarns. You can use worsted weight yarn on a standard gauge machine, by using every other needle, but you risk bending and/or breaking the needles. You may also jam your carriage. This is not fun! Many machine knitters use this technique, but replacing needles all the time is not a pleasant or inexpensive undertaking.

If you have a big stash of baby and sport yarn, a midgauge would be perfect. Midgauge machine needles are closer together than bulky machine needles, but further apart than the ones on the standard gauge machine. They work fine with baby, sport and worsted hand knitting yarns.         

If Aunt Tilly left you a huge supply of very small (fine) yarn, on cones, (we won't speculate why she had it, but Aunt Tilly always bought stuff just because it was on sale) you will need a standard gauge machine. Standard gauge machines have little bitty needles, very close together so they knit much smaller stitches and rows than the other machines. You would not want to do by hand, what the standard gauge machine can do. Standard machines can knit with yarn as fine as sewing thread.

Now that you have decided what kind of yarn you want to use, most of the time, let's talk about the features you want on your machine. There are some features that are almost in the must have category.

One of the features is a row counter, (yes there are machines on which this is an extra item), which as its name implies counts the rows. Now you are thinking, "Well, surely I can count the rows as I knit!" Don't believe it for a minute! Machines knit so fast that if the phone rings, you will lose count of your rows. A brief moment of daydreaming will cause you to lose count of the rows. Every machine knitter will tell you to get a row counter if it isn't a standard item on the machine you want.

Another standard item, which is almost a necessity, is a ribber. What is a ribber? It is another complete bed of needles, which makes the knitting machine into a double bed machine. Without a ribber, there are only a few ways you can make ribbing on a sweater with a knitting machine. One way is to hand knit it, and then hang the stitches on your machine bed. This is not an easy process. It takes quite a while, you risk stretching the stitches, and the greatest danger is that you will miss hanging one of the stitches onto the machine's needles and have a great big run clear to the bottom of the ribbing. Another way to do ribbing without a ribber is to do stockinet stitch, then drop every other stitch off the machine's needles, and latch it back up in the opposite direction so that it looks like a knit/purl ribbing. One other method of making ribbing without a ribber is to start your garment on waste yarn and then hand knit the ribbing when the garment is finished. All three of those methods take too much time. With a ribber, you can have a three-inch ribbing completed; in about the time it would take you to cast on the stitches if you were doing your ribbing by hand. Ribbers are also used for pattern work such as tuck stitches, fisherman's knit, knit/purl design stitches, circular knitting and U-knitting, which in effect doubles the width of your needle bed.

Most machines come with a tension mast, but there are a few that do not. Without some method of regulating the tension on the yarn, which is being fed to the needles, you are not going to have evenly knitted fabric. Imagine if you will, that as you hand knit every 6 stitches, you are holding your yarn, in your usual manner, then for the next 6 stitches, you just let it dangle. This is basically what will happen if you don't have a tension mast to control the tension.

The next to last must have is a place to set up your knitting machine. Most machines come with clamps to fasten to some sort of table. You really don't want to fasten your machine to the dining room table. You can, but it would be very inconvenient to have to take it off the table for meals. You need a knitting machine stand or table. They are available in many shapes and sizes. You can get the very basic, which is really just a set of legs on which your machine sits. These are fine for when you are just starting out, but since you are prepared to spend some money, you might as well get a decent table or stand. Some machines have specific stands that they will fit on, others can clamp to a table type stand.

The final thing you really need is a set of tools. Now we are not talking about screwdrivers and drills. There are many tools available for knitting machines. Some machines come with a package of tools, others do not. If the machine you choose does not come with tools, the very basic items you will need are a latch hook, a pick, a set of transfer tools and depending on the machine you choose, weights and combs.

These are the basic things you should consider when getting ready to purchase a knitting machine.

From basics we go to the how much do you want to spend category. You can get a very basic machine, which does NOT come with any of the must have items mentioned above. You can also get a machine, which comes with all of these, plus many more accessories.

At this point in time you need to test drive the machine that is the one you want. Many machine knitters have fallen in love with a specific machine from reading ads in the knitting magazines. Seeing and using are not always the same thing. You must try out the machine that you think you want. You may be perfectly happy with your first choice or you may not be. Many experienced machine knitters will tell you that they were totally in love with a machine until they tried it and found out that they didn't like it at all. Others were completely correct in their "love affair". You are going to have this machine for a long time, and if you aren't totally sold on it, try some other ones, until you find the one you really want.

After you have decided on the machine you are going to buy, ask the dealer about lessons on this machine. A knitting machine is not difficult to operate, but, if you don't know the basics, you may get so frustrated that it will end up being a clothes rack. All dealers should offer lessons so that you will be totally pleased with your purchase. Most dealers are more than happy to help you, if you have a problem, even after the lessons have ended. They like happy customers and if you are satisfied with the dealer, you will probably purchase other items, such as yarn and patterns, from their shop. The very basic machines are available at local discount stores and do not come with personal lessons, however most of them either come with a video or one may be purchased separately. You can learn how to operate a knitting machine from a video, but the interaction with a real person enables you to learn more quickly and you can ask for explanations of things you don't understand.

Knitting machines are available in all price ranges, from the very basic to the computerized machine with all the added features and attachments you could ever want. These extra features include (on non-computerized machines), lace carriages (but not for bulky machines), form leaders, drop stitch attachments, garter bars, punch cards (for making your own designs), automatic color changers, intarsia carriages, motors and many more goodies which are available. Some of these are standard on certain knitting machines; others will have to be purchased separately.

The electronic, or computerized machines have features, which are not available on the manual machines. Some of these added components are a screen which asks you questions and builds your knitting project based on the answers you punch in, built in stitches (usually 600+), G-carriages, devices which transfer stitches between the beds, automatic bind off attachments, motors and lots of other gadgets and gizmos which make knitting on a machine really fun.

If you decide to get a mid-gauge or bulky machine, you should also purchase a yarn winder. Yarn winders are lifesavers if you are using hand knitting yarn on your machine. Some yarns will feed out from the center of a skein, but may have knots or tangles in them. The balls of yarn which feed from the outside, would be hopping all over your knitting machine table if you tried to knit straight from them without winding them into a usable form. Yarn winders are also handy for standard gauge machines, to rewind practice and waste yarns. You can also use them to wind yarn for hand knitting which makes it much neater.

Most machine knitters have more than one machine, but they all started out with one. The added machines are usually purchased because of the desire to work with a different type of yarn or to move up to a computerized machine from a non-electronic one. You may do this in the future, but using the basics, which you have been given, you should be able to purchase your first (and future) machines with absolutely no problem. So what are you waiting for? Get going!

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