I had to go and buy one of these.
With thanks to Mitzy on Ravelry, I've manage to work out what the little mystery box is, it's a knitleader that lights up the needles to assist with shaping. And no earthy good if you can't read the Japanese instructions. Never mind it's a lovely machine.
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| Mystery box which is an early knit leader - all in Japanese |
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| Brother KH355 NaNa carraige |
Thanks to Mitzy again, who found the Japanese method of
changing the sponge bar. Which I thought would be nice in English. So here's mine
The sponge is enclosed in plastic and is changed from above
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| The top comes out by pinching the ends |
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| The tape is on one half of the machine |
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| and rolls off |
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| lift up the electronic board and carefully remove the old sponge |
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| Brushing out the fluff then insert the new sponge |
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| put the circuit board back into it's clips and line up the lugs at the back and roll forward |
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| locate the white pegs into their slots, making sure it all lines up and press down |
Now my NaNa is ready for a test knit! As far as I can tell, (which means as much as Mitzy could find out for me) it was only made for the Japanese market. But I hope the pictures are interesting.
8 comments:
Oh my, what a find. I've never, ever heard of this model. Must not have been distributed very far. Do you like it better than manual shaping?
No, it was a Japan local market only. So no specific English manual for it and the lovely little box that worked the lights is only in Kanji - not in English. So it's back to manual shaping, or Plan B, put a lego block on the back on the carriage and use the knit leader!
What an interesting little machine!!
I have just acquired one of these, was very chuffed Lorna, to find how to replace the sponge - oh dear, mine is just a sticky mess! Hopefully I will be able to follow your very clear pictures and instructions and get it going in due course. As for the little knitleader gadget - hmm, that is a challenge. I believe these machines were released in the USA too, without the electronics and called KX355. So there may be some manuals out there perhaps - but I presume it is much like the KX350, which I am familiar with, so should not be a problem with he actual knitting.
Hopefully you can see where you need to remove the part to access the sponge. It knitted well and I was able to get it to another knitter, hopefully to knit up what they wanted. I love these plastic bed midgauge machines. They certainly fill a void! Let me know if you have any further problem popping the top cover of the sponge.
No problem at all popping the cover off, and delighted to find that altho the sponge was totally disintegrated and a sticky mess, it came out in clumps with very little cleaning to do in the channel. Methylated spirits did that job extremely well. New sponge in place, needles cleaned, and now ready to knit! I too love the plastic bed machines, especially the Brother ones - I would so love to understand the electronic knitleader - am I right tho, in thinking there are 22 pre loaded patterns, and you would not be able to add your own, even if you could read and type in Japanese? I am thinking of getting an LK150 row counter because I already have the KR10 knitradar - I could somehow stick the row counter onto the KH355 & plug in the knitradar.
Yes, the pattern unit is in Japanese. And to be honest, it's easier to go it alone. The LK150 row count with the jack(?) in the back? yes, my friend has rigged his up to as a row counter on the computer for patterning - ie, racking and other sorts of things. He uses it on other machines as well. But.. the LK150 row counter fits into a special slot at the back of the unit from above and the KX plugs into the back. Download and take a look at it in the manual:
https://mkmanuals.com/singer-lk150-knitting-machine-instruction-manual.html
Thanks Lorna! Another discovery - the KH355 has no row counter - the electronic unit IS the row counter!! Oh dear! 😂😂😂
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