. . Automatic patterning on our knitting. machines is almost magical.. . Do you remember the first time that you. played with stitch patterning?. . I remember crawling under my machine. and looking back to see the results.. . But often we make things harder. than they really need to be.. . Many a knitter has gotten discouraged. because of all those buttons and levers,. . and it just seemed too complex,. complicated and overwhelming.. . We're presented with diagrams that look. like this or a bunch of translated. . Japanese in a manual. that really isn't clear.. . No matter what machine you're using,. there are really only three things. . to learn and understand when it. comes to automatic patterning.. . Let's consider a manual knitting. machine for just a minute.. . In order to create, say,. . tuck on a manual machine,. you'll manually pull out some. . of the needles all the way and then. set your carriage to hold.. . As you push your carriage across,. . some needles will form stitches. and other needles won't knit at all.. . You'll do this three times and then cancel. . hold, knit across and you've. created a series of tuck stitches.. . Are you with me?. . So two things happened.. . Needles were positioned by you and the. carriage was set in a certain way.. . Now, let's take this a step further.. . The first puzzle piece is the automatic. needle selection mechanism.. . Oh, that's a mouthful.. . Let's call him OTTO.. . We're going to tell him what to do.. . Automatic patterning machines have. . a mechanism that cuts you out of the loop.. To form stitch patterns.. . needles are selected automatically.. . How does OTTO know what needles to select?. . Well, he isn't really very smart.. . He relies on instructions. from punch card or electronics.. . Hole / no hole, on/off, black. square/ whitesquare, ones/zeros.. . Auto only knows on and off.. . Now, once upon a time,. machines had actual mechanical switches. . that you could turn on and off. to create stitch patterns.. . No matter how you do it,. . flipping a switch, reading a punch card or. electronics translates to positioning. . the needles as you knit. to the correct position for patterning.. . So needle position is. puzzle piece number two.. . Now, we don't have to worry too much about. . this because OTTO takes care. of the positioning of needles for us.. . Moving on the automatic. needle selection mechanism.. . OTTO has read the ons and offs and he's. selecting positioning needles for us.. . But how does he know what. stitch pattern we want to knit?. . As I said, the device isn't really very. smart and it certainly doesn't read minds.. . The third piece of the puzzle is. the carriage or cam settings.. . It's the carriage that pushes those. . needles back and forth,. forming stitches as we knit.. . All of the different brands of machines. call these settings something different.. . And the buttons and levers are all located. in different places on the carriage.. . This gets especially confusing when you. work with different knitting machines.. . Now, if you have one machine or multiple. machines,. . the secret is to understand the function. of the cam levers or buttons. . and their relationship to the other two. puzzle pieces OTTO and needle positions.. . Your challenge is to locate. and identify the OTTO on your machine.. . Introduce yourself to OTTO and appreciate. the fact that he's keeping track. . of the stitch patterns. and pulling needles for you.. . Be aware of the different needle. positions and their function.. . A-B-C-D-E-F OTTO is going to select. . the needles for you and the cam levers. and buttons will control those needles.. . But if you have to rip or bind off or. . troubleshoot in some way, it's critical. that you understand the needle positions.. . Lastly, your challenge is to identify. the specific cam buttons or levers. . that control the needle movement. to create specific stitch patterns.. . For example, once you have the first two. . puzzle pieces in place,. which button or lever do you set to knit. . fairisle?. . What about tuck? On some of the machines. . this is pretty clear.. . This clearly tells me. this is my tuck setting.. . But part what does that mean?. . Maybe there's just a symbol.. . You need to translate for yourself. . the settings for the different. stitch techniques on your machine.. . The very best way to cement these concepts. for yourself is practice and repetition.. . Step one meet OTTO. What's. his name on your machine?. . Step two understand the needle positions.. . ABCDEF, the letter really doesn't matter.. . You need to understand what happens. in each of the positions as you knit.. . Step three identify and learn each. . of the settings for each. of the available stitch techniques.. . Tuck, slip, fairisle weaving,. lace, thread lace.. . All of the beautiful stitch patterns. we can create automatically.. . Understanding the three steps will put you. in the right track for success. . with patterning on your. machine with less gray hair.. . Happy knitting..