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Not very much, the other way to do patterns is on a chart. The older brother machines the eight push button machines, those charts seem to work with the KH 230. Most brothers are based with a ratio of eight, the newer machines with the 24 punchcard machines are the only difference.

Hi there, do not use w40, that is bad for the machine, get bicycle or sewing machine oil. The knitting machines like lots of oil, the more the better. I take take an old toothbrush and put a lot of oil and clean the underside of the carriage, I also oil the back section where the carriage slides. What I do there is oil it a lot, bring the carriage up and down a few times then wipe it off. You will see it will be quite dirty and do that a few times. I take the tooth brush and oil the top bed where the needles go up and down. That helps the needles slide better. You need to look where the sponge bar slides in, and take it out and check that there is no lint or fibre yarn under the sponge bar, that can cause the stiffness of the needles, what I use is a plumbing wire with a narrow brush, this is useful for clearing that out. Another thing that nobody looks at is the tension unit, it has screws on either side, carefully open that to check the spring and for any lint that is there. This can affect the knitting, make sure you take pictures of the tension unit in stages as you take it apart so that you can place it the same way. Be careful as it has plastic parts and you don’t want to over tighten or break the plastic.

@@aldosmachineknitting Thank you for the advice, there is a sewing maching shop near me so i'll pop in there for some oil. My machine came will allsorts of accessories, manuals, patterns, magazines etc but it didnt come with the thing you use at 7:15 to hang on the yarn, do you know the name of it so I search for spare? It also came with a couple of RRP lists from 1976, the 323 was £174.85 effective from 1st January 1976 but shot up to £183.60 from the 1st of May 1976. In todays prices that would be around £1,311 for this machine. Anyway, thanks again.

I’m not sure what you mean by 7:15. If you mean tension unit, the knitmaster/studio, is different from brother and Toyota machines. Toyota has a very different tension unit. Just look at the manuals and see the name for the equipment.

@aldosmachineknitting It's OK. In another video, the person called it the comb, that's what I'm after.

Still learning to do videos, switch the volume down and play the subtitles, it will get better.

Hi there, thanks for the message, unfortunately I don’t give out details and numbers. Please write what is wrong with your machine and maybe I can make suggestions. It. Would be better on here as it it interacts with other machine knitters and gives some ideas of common issues. What I could say for dropped stitches, is to remove all the needles and get a very strong vacuum and try to clean the inside from the top surface, I use a drain cleaner brush, it’s a long wire, about a metre and has a narrow brush at the end, this is inserted on the side where the sponge bar is slotted in. Make sure you remove the sponge bar. It can take a bit of time, and this could show where a lot of Lint has been stuck for a time. The next thing is to give the needles an oil bath, basically I use a zip lock bag and dump the needles in to get the needles cleaned, this also helps to check damaged needles and to see if the latches are working. Damaged needles with latches that are bent can cause dropped stitches. I try to save needles where I can. These machines need a lot of oil, underneath the carriage, clean the moveable bits with oil, this will also help with dropped stitches. I use oil and tissue paper, toilet paper just as good to clean the top section of the needle bed, use oil to do this, this helps the needles to slide better. I know you are thinking that it is messy, but you will see an improvement. These machines love the oil. PLEASE VERY IMPORTANT. DO NOT USE WD 40, this becomes hard over a period of time, sewing machine oil or bicycle oil is the best. After you have tried these, and it is still dropping stitches, just message and I will suggest something else. Just make sure you have a new sponge bar, this will also help with the dropped stitches. The tension unit could also be an issue, nobody thinks about that, sometimes lint is in the tension unit, check on the side a screw, undo this carefully and check for threads, this can cause jumped threads that can drop a stitch. I hope it was useful, just a case of trial and error.

Hi there, should not tilt, should sit squarely with the two clamps. There are two types of clamps, a square clamp that holds the machine flat, and a second pair of clamps, this is for the ribbing attachment. The second clamps do tilt backwards slightly to allow for the ribbing attachment to pull up. Make sure your two clamps are the same when placing the machine on the table. You can knit with the tilted clamps, but would recommend the flat clamps as it helps a more even knit with the tension unit. I don’t use a ribber that much, I like doing ribbing by hand. It’s slower and takes time but it does make it look more like a hand knit.

Hi there, thanks for the comment, the 100 is a 5mm, but more basic and needs a bit more work when working with two colours. Has the same sponge bar as the 250. I think there is an older 100 from the 1960s that has a different type of sponge bar. My 100 was made in the seventies so has the metal bar. As to gauge, it’s about the yarn size, that’s where it’s gets difficult, it’s supposed to knit a double knit. The seventies double knit is not the same yarn as the version today. What they do with the yarn is crimp or tease the fibres. The machines hates this yarn. Look at yarn on needle size 3.5mm, the hand needles. The yarn needs to be smooth and even, this applies to firm or soft yarn. It’s how the yarn is winded. The thinner double knits are the best.

@@aldosmachineknitting Thank you so much for your detailed reply. Ive been watching all your videos on the 100 and last night I tried an aran weight by skipping every second needle on my 250 and it knitted up beautifully. I love the basic design of this machine and hoping the 100 will be in good condition when it arrives. I have a brother 830 for fairisle if I want to do that but really just want to knit very basic things on the empisals. Now Im hoping to find a brother KH 230 (after watching your video) Im in New Zealand and theres lots of old knitting machines floating around. Im new to this but its such a great hobby and your videos are super helpful.