So, I grabbed this Addi Express knitting machine thing, you know, the one everyone’s been talking about. I’ve been wanting to try making hats, and I figured this could be a cool shortcut. I’m no knitting pro, I usually just mess around with yarn and needles, but I was curious to see what this machine could really do.
First off, I had to set this thing up. I followed some instructions I found. Clamped it onto my table and started messing with the yarn, a nice, chunky wool I picked up from the store. I’ll be honest, it took me a few tries to get the yarn to actually feed into the machine properly. There was a bit of a learning curve, getting the tension right and all that.
Once I got the hang of feeding the yarn, I started cranking. Round and round it went, the machine clicking away. It’s actually kind of satisfying, watching the stitches form so quickly. I just kept cranking, adding more yarn when needed. I was going for a simple, no-frills hat, just to get the basics down.
- Crank away: That’s basically what I did, just turning the handle.
- Watch it grow: You can actually see the hat taking shape pretty quickly.
- Keep it simple: I wasn’t trying anything fancy, just a basic hat shape.
After a while, I figured the hat was long enough. Then came the tricky part – getting it off the machine. I had to cut the yarn and carefully pull the stitches off those little hooks. I fumbled a bit here, dropped a few stitches, but I managed to wrangle it off without totally messing it up.
Finishing Up
With the hat off the machine, it looked… well, like a tube. I had to close up one end to make it an actual hat. I just used a yarn needle and some extra yarn to sew it shut, nothing fancy. Then, I flipped it inside out to hide the seam, and bam! A hat! It wasn’t perfect, a little lumpy in places, but hey, I made it with a machine!
Overall, it was a fun little experiment. This Addi Express thing is pretty neat for quickly making simple knit stuff. I wouldn’t say it’s gonna replace hand knitting for me, but it’s a cool tool to have. I’m thinking of trying other projects with it, maybe a scarf or something. If you’re looking to get into knitting without, this machine could be a good starting point.
