This post gives a list of resources that, I hope, machine knitters will find useful.  This list if mainly UK based and online. It covers areas such as buying and repairing machines, tools and equipment, yarn, and patterns. Please comment if you want to add a resource that you have found useful. Click on the links below to go to the appropriate section or read the whole post.

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• Knitting Machines
• Tools, Accessories, Spares
• Sponge bars
• Yarn
• Free user manuals and patterns
• Knitting Machine Patterns
• Other Useful Sites

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Knitting Machines

There is only one supplier of professional home knitting machines and that is Silver Reed. Otherwise you need to do a search on eBay and Gumtree and local adverts to find a secondhand machine. Set up an alert and wait for something local to turn up. There is also a Facebook group called Knitting Machine Sales UK (look out for Irene Court who sells refurbished Brother machines) and Facebook’s own marketplace. There is also a Facebook group called Domestic Knitting Machine Sales.

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Silver Reed Machines

www.silverviscount.co.uk              (01933 311888)

Main Silver Reed website. Here you can find spares for Silver Reed and Knitmaster knitting machines.  They can offer a list of local suppliers of new Silver Reed knitting machines.   I have found them friendly and knowledgeable.

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Andee Knits

www.machine-knitting.co.uk        (01278 802066) Email: andeeknitsltd@gmail.com

This is the website of Andrea at Andee Knits, based in Somerset.  A lovely, friendly, knowledgeable enthusiast who can sell you a range of new or refurbished knitting machines.  Good range of spare, tools and equipment.  Excellent supplier of DesignaKnit Software and upgrades.     

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Sewing Machine Sales

www.sewingmachinesales.co.uk/knitting-machine/            (0845 4309824)

This company is based in Tyne & Wear and is able to offer new Silver Reed machines, equipment and DesignaKnit Software.

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Tools, Accessories and Spares etc

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The above knitting machine websites (Silver Viscount, Andee Knits ) can offer a range of tools and spares, including needles, cleaning brushes and machine oil. Also do a search on eBay. There is now a number of knitting machine tools and spares being made in China. Items such as punch cards and wool winders are good to buy. But other items from China such as transfer tools might not be exact so be careful.

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Hong Kong Knitting

www.ebay.co.uk/str/hongkongknitting (on ebay)
https://hongkongknittingmachine.ecrater.com (on ecrater)

Company run by Sunny Choi that I and others have found reliable and useful. Has good range of spare parts and accessories for Silver Reed machines and some Brothers.

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Hague Direct

www.haguedirect.co.uk    (0115 959 9028)

Hague Direct is based in Nottingham and besides selling Hague Linkers it also sells wool winders, twisting stacks, spare tools and accessories for knitting machines.  Very friendly and worth a look.

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Yarn Winders and Stacks

you can get jumbo yarn winder from Andee Knits, Hong Kong Knitting, Hague and from Amazon and Ebay. Hague does the twisting stacks. BSK seems to be out of them at the moment.

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.Sponge Bars

XenaKnits

www.xenaknits.com

I bought all my sponge bar kits from Xena kits and there is a great video to show you what to do.

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Smartco

www.smartcoknitting.com 0161 624 0757 and www.facebook.com/pg/spongebarbob/shop

@SpongeBar Bob on Facebook is a trusted supplier of his own long-life sponge bars for Knitmaster/Silver Reed, Brother and Toyota knitting machines.  Contact him for prices and payment details. He can also offer spare parts etc.  I am now using one of his sponge bars. His company Smarco is based in Greater Manchester. Bob also sells other things for knitting machines, his stiffer ribber wire is recommended.

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Yarn

If you still have a local wool shop then please support them if they sell coned yarn.  Otherwise there is a good range of yarn suppliers online.  eBay and Gumtree can be a good source of job-lots of new and secondhand coned yarn.  However, be careful of postage if you are buying single cones of yarn. 

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Woolyknit

www.woolyknit.com          (01457 879400) Email: sales@woolyknit.com

Woolyknit are a new and growing company. They have a good range of 4 ply acrylic cones (Yarn2cone) and are increasing their range of wool, cotton and linen. worth a look, they often have sales during the year.

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Yeoman Yarns

www.yeomanyarns.co.uk                   (0116 240 4464)

Excellent range of own brand quality yarn (cottons, acrylics, wool, mixtures etc usually up to 500g cones). They do not seem to be doing their yarn packs as before, however, they do have some mystery yarn packs which would be good for beginners and practice/waste yarn.

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BSK

www.bsk.co.uk/woolyarns-66-c.asp              (01234 217 096)   

Latest Update. BSK has now closed down.

yarn*thread*crafts (BUBZ) and www.yarnoncone.co.uk

www.ebay.co.uk/str/yarnthreadcrafts

eBay seller Bubz is based in Manchester, UK and always has good range of quality acrylic and wool yarns.  Prices are reasonable. Also has webstie Yarn on Cone.

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Yarn on Cone

www.yarnoncone.co.uk

website for good range of quality, luxury and fancy yarns at reasonable prices .

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ItWasTheToast

www.ebay.co.uk/str/itwasthetoast

eBay seller with a good range of interesting yarns with free Uk postage. worth a look if you want something different.

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Uppingham Yarns

www.wools.co.uk                 (01572 823747)

Uppingham Yarns have been around for quite a while, I remember visiting their warehouses in the 1980s for wonderful cheap bargains of interesting yarns.  They are based west of Peterborough. Cheap yarn is a thing of the past but Uppingham still offer a wide range of interesting yarns at reasonable prices.  Worth a visit to update your Christmas list!

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Fairfield Yarns

www.fairfieldyarns.co.uk     (01706 623808)

Family run business based in Lancashire have a mill shop in Heywood. They offer a unique range of industrial surplus yarns at great prices.  You need to visit to see what is available.  Well worth arranging a visit to support them. Update they now sell some of their select yarns on Ebay as HeywoodYarnMan. Not cheap, but you good quality yarns at excellent prices. I am sure they will add more yarns to their store as they develop this as an outlet. Will combine orders for lower postage. You can find them here.

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Airedale Yarns

www.airedaleyarns.co.uk    (online contact form)

Business is based in Keighley and offers an interesting range of quality yarns and fibres on cone. They also offer complete dye kits for vegetable based yarns. I have also bought yarns from them on Ebay when they have a sale yarn to offer.

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Free User Manuals and Patterns

You can join the Machine Knitting Beginners Circle on Facebook. This group has a number of free KALs (Knit-A-Longs) that include instructions and videos. The following resources also have free patterns.

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Machine Knitting etc

www.machineknittingetc.com

This site contains a good range of magazines and patterns that can be downloaded for free.

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Needles of Steel

www.needlesofsteel.org.uk/freepatterns.html

lots of useful information and a range of basic patterns.

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Knitting Machine Patterns

A number of experience knitters have produced patterns of their favourite designs.

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Ravelry

www.ravelry.com

Ravelry is a community site where people post and share their patterns and knitting results.  This should be your first stop for ideas and inspiration as there are thousands and thousands of knitting and crochet patterns here.  The machine knitting patterns are more limited, but you can try and convert the hand knitted designs. Sign up and set up your filters to find the pattern that you need. 

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Etsy

ww.etsy.com

A variety of machine knitting patterns can be bought on Etsy, a craft marketplace.  Enter machine knitting patterns in the search bar and see what you can find.

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Machine Knitting Monthly

www.machineknittingmonthly.net

Last surviving UK machine knitting magazine.  Good source of a range of patterns for all gauges. Also useful for knowing what is going on in the knitting machine world. Sign up for a yearly subscription. You can order back copies if available.

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Clair Crowston

www.machineknittingdesigns-by-clair.co.uk

Clair has a website with many of her own patterns for sale at reasonable prices.  These get sent through the post.

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Henio Creative

www.heniocreative.com

Marianne Henio lives in the West Midlands and runs Henio Creative, her company set up to sell her unique patterns that are still very practical.  You can download the pdf patterns. She now also sells some knitting machines and kits.

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House of Lavene

www.home-machine-knitting.co.uk

Anne Lavene runs House of Lavene that offers a range of knitted patterns and one-off knitted garments on her website and her Etsy store called HouseofLavene. Anne has developed a unique way of creating her pattern instructions and offers tutorial videos on how to do this on her YouTube.

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Exclusive Yarns

www.exclusiveyarns.co.uk

Nina Miklin runs Exclusive Yarns and offers a range of patterns for her own luxury yarns.  Good range of styles of garment (you can use other yarns).

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Scan the Cat

www.scanthecat.com

A US based website that is run by knitting enthusiast who sells collection of old knitting machine magazines that can be download in pdf form or posted on DVDs.You can also find a number of DesignaKnit patterns and cat patterns. A limited but useful list of patterns that can be found for free.  Patterns available for a variety of knitting machines. 

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Excellent range of free pdf download manuals and this should be your first stop if you do not have a manual.  There are also some old patterns that can be download for ideas and inspiration.

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Excellent range of old machine knitting magazines that have been scanned by scanthecat and are available to download as individual pdfs or as a collection (.rar file).  .rar files can be opened using free 7zip software or winzip.   At the bottom of the page you can find links to all the available magazines.  Excellent source of knowledge and pattern ideas.  Take advantage of this whilst available.  You do not need to sign up to anything.

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Other Useful Sites

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Knitting and Crochet Guild for information about knitting machines and groups

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Machine Knitters Treasure Chest has variety of knitting patterns

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Knit it Now has a range of knitting machine courses that your can buy

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Diana Sullivan’s website has a huge variety of posts and videos about machine knitting. Lots of videos on her YouTube channel.

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The Answer Lady’s website has a lot of information about cleaning and repairing knitting machines. Lots of videos on her YouTube channel.

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That’s all for now. Please comment if you know of a really good resource that is not included here.

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Happy Knitting!