Eighties style

Several months ago the discussion on a Ravelry forum turned to styles of the 80s and how much some people missed them. Ha! I didn't join in. I mean I liked 80s style at the time; I loved the sweaters that Kansai Yamamoto was designing then. But I am not nostalgic.

I started machine knitting in 1984. I fell into my rippled knit high soon after. (In case you missed my series, those ripples are deconstructed here, here and here.) But it's the fabric structure that I found (and still find) interesting, much more than what was actually made with the fabric. In case you didn't know already, I am more of a process knitter than a product knitter.

It was in the eighties that I purchased my White1602 knitting machine, also sold under the Superba and Singer names. It was my fourth knitting machine, the first and only machine with electronic needle selection that I ever owned. A great machine, true double bed, and if you have prior machine knitting knowledge, quite intuitive. I sold it only when I started designing stitch patterns on a regular basis. I needed needle selection on both beds. I needed a Passap.

DH remembers the machine well. One day he caught a glimpse of the sample pattern cards that came with the machine and exclaimed, "Oh, great. Now you can knit squirrels." I'm not fond of real squirrels, and though I've never knitted a squirrel, he's teased me about it ever since.

I discovered a series of Superba Beginner videos and Superba Selection Box videos from the period uploaded to YouTube by rosygoat. I think I would have found the videos helpful if I'd had them back then. Consider yourself warned: These videos may get tedious unless you've ever owned the machine. I admit it's kinda fun watching 80s style presentation, and the videos are very thorough. Maybe I am a bit nostalgic -- for the machine.

 

The squirrel makes an early appearance in the video below at 00:27.