AC Moore has a 50% off coupon this week:  http://www.acmoore.com/showweeklyspecialcoupon.asp?ID=23

So I got my knitting machine last night!  It's still in the car, but I hope to play with it tonight!

omg soooo cute!

I just got started with the knitting machine.  This thing is *way cool*.  It took me about 1/2 hour to set it up and figure out how to use it.  Then I set it up with some Bliss yarn (it's a bulky fur/eyelash novelty yarn: http://tinyurl.com/y6fuln) and knit up the entire 82-yard ball in about 5 minutes.  I forgot to set up the row counter, but it's about 16 rows of 100 stitches.

There's a lot I have to learn about using it, but it took me 4 hours to knit up one ball by hand, so I think this was well worth the money (maybe even if I had paid full price for it).  The only complaints I have are that takes over 3' of table space for the duration of the project, and it makes a really noisy clickety-clack sound.  Once I figure out how to do garter stitch, lacework & cables, I'll let you know how it holds up.

wabe-I think I need to come up there for a tutorial before I invest in one for myself *grin*

Seriously, does it seem to have the flexibility to do pretty much anything you want? Are there still things youw ould have to handknit?

Does it come off looking machineknit, or does it still ahve that hand knitted irregular loveliness to it? 

I'm making a felted bag out of Noro Kureyon this weekend. Will post pictures if I can find my camera.

http://www.yarnmarket.com/yarn/Noro_Yarn-Kureyon_Yarn-568.html

(see number 102) 

Girty -

The machine seems perfect for scarves and pieces that involve large areas of stockinette like sweaters and felted items.  It looks like there's still some hand-knitting involved for edging, or you can do crochet edging.  Since it also only does 100 stitches per row up to size 10.5 needles (about 38" max width) it's got some limitations. You can add more of them together for longer rows, which I'll do at some point since I really hate seaming and one can't make a sweater over size M.

The rows all look very even, except in spots where the machine jammed (jamming is a major annoyance, but there are supposed to be ways to deal with that I have yet to learn.)  I think the nice neat rows make it easier to size and match up seams, and the added hand-knit parts will make up for the uniform stitches made by machine.

For now I'm just going to make scarves and seamed pieces to embellish with fancier details by hand.  There are a ton of deco edges I want to try from _Knitting on the Edge_, and I have a bunch of intarsia ideas, so the machine will save me time and joint pain with the expanses in between.

Bear in mind I got the cheapie Ultimate Sweater Machine.  There are much nicer models out there that can do a lot more, but they cost a lot more. 

IG, is that better than the Ronco Rhinestone and Studsetter? :^)

here's a better pic of the booties:  http://www.wabewalker.com/pics/booties.jpg