Of all of the things I imagined myself doing this week, learning how to use a knitting machine was not on the list. But look at me now – the knitting machine queen!

Not exactly the knitting machine queen, but you know…

A little hopeful hyperbole never hurt anyone. That I can recall.

This week I went from never having touched a knitting machine to having set up a Brother KH-710 and producing a knitted sample. It was amazingly good fun, I have to admit.

Thank goodness for YouTube is all I have to say!

Some of the videos I saw demonstrating casting on/off techniques made me gasp as if it was obeah, no lie.

I was also struck by an enduring sense of pareidolia when looking at the yarn tension unit: it looks just like some sort of bug’s head to me… a praying mantis, to be precise. Now this means I’m going to be saying hello to the machine like it’s a creepy pet.

The last time I knitted anything was in 2006.

And there’s quite a story behind that one, but I’ll leave it for now. Of course I still have all of my needles from that time (and a vintage pattern book) in case the fancy ever strikes me. Even though it hasn’t for 13 years.

And of course I still have a hand-knitted jumper that I put together and then took apart, that has survived all of the periodical studio purges despite the fact that it’s sprung lots of holes and isn’t something I’d wear now. It’s just one of my artifacts.

Will I end up knitting again? I don’t know. Still, I’m definitely looking forward to playing around with the machine again, even if it’s just to master the dark art of casting off.

Last week