H
obby knitting machines from the 1980s are
pretty affordable and fun to use, but they
need old-fashioned punch cards or scanned-in
sheets or floppy drives to accept a pattern. Luckily
an amazing community of knitters and makers
has developed hacks for these machines that let
you bypass the clunky old input methods and
simply transfer an image file from your computer.
There are two main hacks for implementing
these updates: AYAB which is Arduino-based,
and img2Track which uses the port intended for a
Tandy floppy drive. Both hacks let you easily knit
an image or pattern, one pixel per knitted stitch.
In this article we’ll look at how they both work,
how to select a vintage knitting machine, and
how to set up the AYAB hack. Then we’ll guide
you to two simple first projects using your hacked
machine: a two-color Makey puppet, and a knit
slouch hat.
EVOLUTION OF KNITTING MACHINES
Knitting machines have been around for over
400 years — Queen Elizabeth I refused a patent
application in the 1590s! They became a cottage
industry before the Industrial Revolution, and
the mechanical concept used by those early
machines to form the stitches is still in use in
some industrial machines today.
Today’s domestic knitting machines, along with
most industrial ones, use a needle design from
the 1840s. The needle has a latch that flips back
and forth to facilitate the knitting action, which
pulls the new stitch through the old, one needle
per stitch. The yarn is fed to one needle after the
other in turn, with each needle moving forward to
catch the yarn, then back again, in a wave motion.
Circular machines for making socks appeared
in the 1860s, and were in use in both homes and
factories during World War I. There was a flatbed
version that could make additional items, from a
company called Lamb. Larger flatbed machines
came on the home market by the 1930s and were
widely available by the 1950s. But all of these
just did plain knitting; any patterning had to be
selected by hand.
During the 1960s each manufacturer
developed their own innovative ways to semi-
automate patterning, then in 1970 punch card
machines came onto the market, eclipsing all
The needles take a wave-like path as the yarn is fed to
each needle in turn.
A stitch is born: The needle in action, with its latch open.
An antique Lamb flatbed knitting machine.
A recent aluminum reproduction sock knitting machine;
the early ones were made of cast iron.
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