Archive of Thread: Is Designaknit (DAK 9) worth the cash? Back

3 years ago
Hello All,
LaRae in Ohio here. I have a Brother 270 and a Brother 970 and am slowly but surely learning new things everyday. I see alot of info about DAK and am wondering if it is worth the cost? How hard versus intuitive is it to learn? Is anyone using other options like Envisioknit for designs? My ultimate goal is to do a ton of fair isle garments, especially very large intricate repeats. To be up and going, DAK is $450 and the linking cord at least $300. Are there other programs that allow the direct transfer of a pattern to my machines?

Wanting to understand options before dropping the cash...
Thank you,
LaRae

3 years ago
I think the decision about the utility/worth of DAK depends on whether you want the interactive knitting feature.  That is pretty exclusive to DAK.  The ability to design and download fair aisle patterns to your machine is available from other programs including IMG2TRACK. You can also check out the FB100 emulator download.  The ability to overlay designs on a garment pattern is also available the patterns here in Knit It Now and also I believe on Garment Designer as well as Design-a-Pattern from Ileen Levy.  I think it really depends on what you want to do.   Maybe experiment with what it already available on your machines and then decide what else you need.  This site has a lot to keep you learning for an amazing amount of time with new content being added thanks to Sue!

3 years ago
Wanda, Thank you for your answer. Very much appreciated. I don't understand interactive knitting, but will happily do more research!

3 years ago
Hi LaRae!
The decision really has to do with what you want to accomplish with DesignaKnit.

The program is VERY powerful.

If stitch patterning is your goal, DAK is a very good solution.  Adding new patterns in your 970, with it's teeny, tiny screen is crazy. You'll be able to create your designs on your computer as if you are drawing them, then download them directly to both of your machines.  

The Graphic Designer part of DAK allows you to scan photographs, separate out the colors and knit the image with your machine.  In addition, Graphic Designer allows you to scan existing punchcard or stitch pattern images and convert them to downloadable files. Saving a lot of drawing time.

But as Wanda pointed out there are other solutions to stitch design, if this is the only part of DAK that is of interest.

However, you can design garment shapes and integrate stitch patterns directly on the garment shape.

The interactive knitting piece is also very useful.  It works like an electronic version of a charting device. Allowing you to visually follow the shapes of a garment piece (increasing and decreasing) and incorporate a stitch pattern at the same time.

DAK is a very powerful solution for a serious machine knitter.  Yes, the learning curve is steep, but not impossible and the functionality is well worth the price. (in my humble opinion)

3 years ago
As a now proud owner of DAK, I'm really glad I took the plunge into the world of learning it. Thank you all again for helping with that decision.