Speed Knitting? Nothing to It With the Increasingly Popular Machines

In the time it takes to read this sentence, six rows of knitting or about 1,000 stitches can be produced on even the cheapest home-knitting machine.

Revolution or evolution? The experts aren’t quite sure, but all agree that the recent surge in knitting machine sales is changing the face of home knitting in the United States.

“The growth has already started--we’re in the infancy of a knitting-machine boom,” said Rick Drainville of White Knitting Machines Co., a division of VWS Inc. in Cleveland. “If you asked someone what a knitting machine was five, 10 years ago, they would have just looked at you.”

“I will increase my business at least tenfold in the next four years,” agreed Gjoko Ruzio, president of Kimberly Market Co. of Stockton, N.J., which imports the lightweight Bond knitting machine. “I’m aiming to sell 250,000 units per year by 1992.”

U.S. knitting-machine sales rose from about 5,000 in 1980 to 50,000 in 1986, according to figures compiled by White Knitting Machines. It is estimated that about 70,000 machines will be sold this year.

For the uninitiated, knitting machines come in several distinct models and price ranges:

- Lightweight or hobby machines range from $200 to $350, not including accessories.

- Punch-card machines, which are able to automatically repeat a pattern of up to 24 stitches, range from $400 to $850 without accessories.

- State-of-the-art electronic machines, some of which can take a photocopy of a design and reproduce it on a knitted fabric, range from $950 to almost $1,600.

Accessories vary widely, from $2 weights that ensure even knitting, to ribbers that can knit and purl in the same row, to motors that cost almost as much as the machine itself. Perhaps the most advanced accessory is a computer that allows knitters to design their own patterns in color on their television sets.

“Electronic machines are driving the market demand,” said Allen Tuchman, vice president of Knitking Corp. in Los Angeles. “Each machine with more hoots and bells really does allow you to use it more.”

All machines save one, the Harmony Auto-Knitter of Maine, are imported. European knitting machines are imported by Passap, VWS and Kimberly Market Co. Japanese machines are imported by Brother International Corp., Knitking Corp., Singer Sewing Co., Studio Products Inc. and Newton’s Knits, Inc.

Lightweight machines are beginning to be sold through mass-market retailers such as J.C. Penney Co., but individual dealers still sell the vast majority. Dealers and importers offer a number of support systems to help machine knitters expand their expertise, including lessons and seminars, newsletters, 800-numbers, service centers, patterns and clubs.

Experts hail the growth of machine knitting as the salvation of an industry that has been on the wane.

“Our life style is not what it used to be. Hand-knitting is fading because of demands on people’s time,” said Lynne Higgins, a former yarn shop owner in Chattanooga, Tenn., who now produces and distributes videotape knitting-machine lessons.

“Machines are the best thing happening to the yarn industry,” agreed Karen Ancona, editor of Craft & Needlework Age in Englishtown, N.J. “Yarn sales, which had been dropping, have stabilized.”

Who is buying knitting machines?

Many lightweight machines are being purchased for or by teens, or by women in their mid-20s who have more limited time and income than women in the 40-to-60-year-old bracket, according to Higgins.

Cynthia Monsky of Singer Sewing Co. says about 40% of the people who buy Singer knitting machines do so in order to sell their work. Some of these knitters supply the Colorado and New England ski industries.

Nancy J. Thomas, editor of Vogue Knitting, says sewers and weavers are attracted to knitting machines, the former because of their familiarity with machines and the latter because they can obtain results so quickly.

“You can finish a project in less than a day, “ said Marlene Cuniberti, owner of the Machine Knitting Studio in Englewood, N.J., and editor of Macknit, a magazine for machine knitters. “I’ve knitted a quilt for a twin bed in a couple of hours.”

Machine knitting sales are particularly strong, but not limited to, the Northeast, Midwest and California.

“Knitting used to be dictated by climate, but that’s no longer true,” said Carol Nepton, spokeswoman for Brother International Corp. in Piscataway, N.J. “Florida and Texas are in major growth patterns because of the popularity of cotton yarns and short-sleeve sweaters.”

“Our hopes and dreams are to make the knitting machine as essential to the home as a sewing machine,” said Nepton, adding that 80% of U.S. homes own a sewing machine. “We need to get it into the school systems, the home economics classes. We haven’t even cracked that area yet.”

Speed and the potential for creativity are cited as the main reasons for purchasing a knitting machine.

“We want to speak to the lady who is looking for a hobby in which she can become creative,” said Kimberly’s Ruzio. “We teach her to paint by numbers, and then give her the tools to become a Warhol or a Da Vinci.”