HI there,

I have a small guage knitting machine, I've had it for years. It's really different from hand knitting. You can't purl on mine, only do stockinette, and then hand-manipulate.. which I do. And mine takes fine yarn, even worsted weight is really too heavy. I think the sweater machine is different in that regard.
But anyway, it is fun to knit on... and I design things for it that take advantage of either hemmed ( a picot hem looks nice) or rolled edges, and that are flat.. so not sox in other words. Blankets are good, sweaters are amazing they're so fast. And I do fair isle on it, which is cool. I've done hats and sewed them up.
One thing to watch for, and that is evenly spaced increases/ decreases... it's a pain, because you have to move all the stitches around.. decreases along one edge work better.
It has it's limitations but it's fun to play with.
I'm curious what others have to say-- as well
marie

i bought one almost a year ago & am still learning to use it easily (my own fault in not spending the time). my best advice is watch the video! it really helped shine a light on what i was doing. anothr girl i knit with bought one also & she loves it...i think by her second project she had done a sweater on even ithe seaming!

k

I have 2 USMs hooked together so it's called a Super Bond. It is one of the best hobby machines around if you ask me.

Be sure to watch the video FIRST before you unpack the rest of the box when you get it.

Kev

I have the USM as well and I agree with Kev...watch the video first! =) It's an awesome machine, though of course it isn't perfect. Some knitting I much prefer to do by hand. But you can turn out some awesome sweaters with USM. If you haven't purchase the ravel cord I would recommend it, in my opinion it works better than the elastic cord you will get with the machine.
Have fun!!!
Tammy