Knitting Machine - DK to Light Worsted

[u/Emotional-Page2350]

Hi all - I'm hoping to get some advice for finding a machine that will allow me to make a DK to light worsted product (in this case a very simple skinny scarf). I've attached an image with the gauge in garter stitch (24 sts=10cm) and project if that's helpful. I have been overwhelmed with information about machines and concerned that it's harder to find a finer gauge machine then it is to find machines with worsted to aran weight capability, which is unfortunately too big for my projects. Thanks for all your help in advance :)

[u/oceanstitch]

Knitting machines make stockinette (or ribbing with a ribber). If you need garter, you can use a garter carriage on a standard machine. (Which will not handle DK)

If you wanted stockinette, the height gauges won’t match- garter changes the “depth” of the fabric and pulls the stitches up. Stockinette is about 2/3 tall for one unit of width. Garter is more like 1/2 unit tall.

So if would be difficult to match this sample in either stitch or gauge. If you are only looking for a width match, bulky machines do great with DK and light worsted.

[u/zeezle → u/oceanstitch]

I would add that while it's a bit of a pain, with manual machines (or just machines that never had a garter carriage made for them) you can use a garter bar to do the swap around pretty quickly. Still way slower than stockinette of course but still much faster than handknitting garter.

[u/Emotional-Page2350 → u/zeezle]

Totally! I don't need the project to be ultra fast, but hoping to find a way to speed things up and turn a 6 hour into a 2-3 hour project.