Bond Antepenultimate Knitting Machine

I've been knitting a top-down cardigan in fine and annoying yarn, and somewhere in the middle of the long, tedious circular-knit, stockingette-stitch, needle-size 0 sleeves, I began to think about my knitting machine. I have a Bond "Sweater Machine" bought cheap on eBay in 2000. At that time, there were many knitters posting "Bond Incredible Sweater Machine" how-to's, hints, and tips on newsgroups and mailing lists. I learned how to use the machine and made several sweaters, then put it away, mostly because I had plenty of knitwear.

I had a chance to buy a professional knitting machine a couple of years ago, but decided that was a large, expensive object I could do without. Nowadays, it seems the better consumer-market machines, such as Passap and Brother, have disappeared. The industrial machines are still available, and at the other end of the scale, the toy-like "Ultimate Sweater Machine." (That must make my model the "Bond Antepenultimate Sweater Machine.") Evidently, interest in home knitting machines is down. There are far fewer Internet resources available now than when I was learning, and disgruntled Bond owners are unloading their machines on eBay for low prices.

I really enjoy my little plastic machine. Although it is limited, it taught me how machine knitting works, and it will crank out the stockingette stitch fabric at a good clip. (Unfortunately, I'm committed to finishing the troublesome top-down cardigan by hand.) This week, I've figured out how to knit intarsia, Fair Isle, cable and ribbing, too. It's always fun to try new things.

I've put together an annotated list of "Machine Knitting Links," because so many of the sites coming up on Google Searches are moribund, with dead links and "404 Errors."

Advice, particularly on Bond Knitting Machines

• "Hints and Tips" collected over the years from seeing questions and answers on the Bond List. These tips are a miscellany, but there is much useful, well presented information. I didn't find any link rot here.
• Bond Links and Tips from Valarie, who last updated the page in 1998. These tips are good ones, well explained, and specific to the Bond knitting machines. Here's where you'll find directions for making claw weights for machine knitting out of cheap forks from the discount store.
• Miscellaneous Machine knitting Tips from Knitting Any Way, a knitters' and spinners' resource, along with some products for sale. Up to date and active. I particularly enjoyed MK Sock Hints and Tips.
• Heidi's Knitting Room contains lots of patterns, techniques, and Bond knitting machine tips. It's amazing how many different effects she can achieve with a very simple machine.
• Machine Knit - Your Machine Knitting Resource has some Bond knitting advice and patterns, but is more general in scope.
• Superba Knitting Blog has some well-illustrated how-to's.
• My Knitting Machines and Me--A machine-knitter's blog, she has good how-to's instruction manuals, and interesting things.
• Elaine's Knitting Page-devoted to users of the ISM Incredible Sweater Machine. A personal page with finished projects, she also includes Creating a Gauge conversion worksheet in either QuattroPro or Excel.

Commercial Web Sites With Good Information

• Knitting Today has Bond Club Online links page.
• Charlotte's Yarn Barn
• ROCKING HORSE FARM knitting machines and more.

Lists of Links

• Steph's Home Page: "Bond List Thoughts." Steph has several long link lists, for patterns, tips, and techniques. I don't think she's actively updating anymore (the most recent date on a page is 2004), but link rot is not rampant.
• Craft Site Directory: Machine Knitting Machine Knitting magazines, dealers, and yarn sources.
• Machine Knitting Free Patterns from Bella Online.
• Charlene's Machine Knitting Links and More. So many links, it's hard to work through it. There are some gems among the linkrot, though.

Machine Knitting Reviews and Overviews

• Demystifying Knitting Machines: An illustrated review by Eileen Bator. This is a good place to start learning about knitting machines, and she includes sources for further reading, if you're so inclined.
• Better Living Through Knitting Technology from "Knit Like a Man" blogger
• What Every Hand Knitter Should Know Before Buying a Knitting Machine from Angelika's Yarn Store

Interesting Ideas and Inspirations

• Machine Knitting to Dye For. Knit up a big rectangle on the machine, paint it with dyes, let the dyes set and dry, then unravel the whole thing and knit something else with it.
• Liz Biven's Machine Knitting Patterns--lots of inspiration, especially when she creates intarsia designs based on quilt patterns.