Equipment and Machinery
The Equipment and machinery in the knit areas include both domestic and industrial knitting machines as well as industrial yarn winders and an industrial steam bed.
Industrial Hand Flats
These are double bed industrial knitting machines. Our industrial hand flat machines are a mixture of Stoll and Dubied, in gauges 2.5gg, 8gg, 10gg and 12gg. All of our industrial machines are maintained to an extremely high standard and whilst they are no longer used widely in industry, they acheive a professional finish on the work produced on them.
Techniques used on these machines;
Standard knitting, single or double bed
Rib
Tubular knitting
Stripes
Wide range of professionally finished fabrics using tucked and slipped stitches
Lace work and open knitting
Cables
Weave (with the use of an inlay feeder)
Techniques used on these machines;
Standard knitting, single or double bed
Rib
Tubular knitting
Stripes
Wide range of professionally finished fabrics using tucked and slipped stitches
Lace work and open knitting
Cables
Weave (with the use of an inlay feeder)
Domestic Flat Beds
Silver Reed (formally Knitmaster) and Brother are the most well known producers of domestic flat bed knitting machines, with Silver Reed the only one still producing machines of this type. We have both Silver Reed and Brother machines available in the knit studio. These machines can be set up as either single or double bed machines,
Techniques used on these machines (as single bed);
Standard knitting
Stripes
Lace work and open knitting
Punchcard knitting including tuck, slip and weave
Partial Knitting and garment shaping
Intarsia
Designaknit software
Techniques used on these machines (as single bed);
Standard knitting
Stripes
Lace work and open knitting
Punchcard knitting including tuck, slip and weave
Partial Knitting and garment shaping
Intarsia
Designaknit software
Domestic Double Bed
Techniques used on these machines (as double bed);
Standard knitting, single or double bed
Rib
Tubular knitting
Cables
Jaquard
Stripes
Lace work and open knitting
Punchcard knitting including tuck, slip and weave
Partial Knitting and garment shaping
Intarsia
Designaknit software
Passap V Beds
The Passaps are domestic double bed machines which allow students to create a variety of different stitches and to really experiment and develop stitches which work with their individual projects.
Techniques used on these machines;
Standard knitting, single or double bed
Rib
Tubular knitting
Cables
Jaquard
Stripes
Lace work and open knitting
Stitches developed from the Passap stitch manual
Partial Knitting and garment shaping
Intarsia
Techniques used on these machines;
Standard knitting, single or double bed
Rib
Tubular knitting
Cables
Jaquard
Stripes
Lace work and open knitting
Stitches developed from the Passap stitch manual
Partial Knitting and garment shaping
Intarsia
Steam Bed
Steam is used to help relax knitted fibres. Our industrial steam bed is used by students knitting whole garments to give a professional finish.
Linkers
Knitted garments are generally linked rather than overlocked or sewn, this gives the garment stretch and movement at the seams in addition to a professional finish. Students must be inducted individually on these machines.
Yarn Winder
Students are able to use the yarn winder to split large cones of yarn in order to knit with multiple ends. There is also an attachment to wind hanks of yarn onto cones, making it easier to put through the machines.