My Garter Carriage Love/Hate Relationship!

I waited years until I chanced upon an opportunity to buy a Brother knitting machine and a much anticipated Garter Carriage. I’d been a Singer knitter (they don’t have garter carriages) for about 25 years when this happened and I was so excited and looked forward to working garter stitches into my designs.

This pink and periwinkle jacket has garter stitch as the lower half and cuffs on the sleeves.

I’ve made jackets like this and also scarves (fun and easy to make for Christmastime shows). I love experimenting with different yarns that I can’t used for jackets but work well for scarves.

It took a while to get it going and sometimes I need to sit in front of the machine to make decreases/increases, short rowing, check patterning and so on. I’ve sent one of my carriages across the country into the US to have it fixed, spending another $400 or so over the $250 purchase price (used – a bargain!) They need to be babied and I keep each of my two carefully tucked away and protected when not using them.

Anyway….today, as I work on an order which is partially worked on the garter carriage, I am endeavouring to complete some web work, updating web sites and so on, and am sitting in my studio to do this. The garment needs a decrease every 8 – 10 rows so when the GC stops I jump up, make the decrease and reset the row counter.

Garter Stitch Hems.