Like all goals or tasks or dreams we set for ourselves, there will always be roadblocks or challenges that stop or slow our progress to our desired outcome. This should not stop us from our continual move forward. It is just a confirmation of whether we really want to do what we set out to do. And so it is with my relationship with my new knitting machine.

I did set it up over the weekend with its new ribbing attachment. It looks beautiful, don’t you think?

Both carriages slide smoothly across the needle beds just as they should. But when I joined the two carriages, ran the yarn through the yarn slot and began the first row, the carriages jammed. I started over several different times to see if I had missed something or had set it up wrong. And then I asked my online community on another social network. And I got several very helpful suggestions…

Don’t you just love how we can connect to people on the other side of the world, in a time zone that is completely opposite from our own, and within an hour or so have a new friend come to our aid with help and encouragement?! It was wonderful.

Within an hour I had figured out the sponge bar on the ribber attachment was worn out completely. It is a long skinny part that slides through the machine just under the needle bed to keep the needles in their optimum working position. Right now, it looks like the thing in the back in the photo, and it should look like the one in the front:

Because I bought it from an importer and former dealer in these machines I sent a friendly email message asking him if he might have a replacement sponge bar for my machine. He answered within an hour and was very apologetic, saying that he didn’t even know that the ribber had a sponge bar … AND that one was in the mail that very day. Great news for me! Now I wait. In the meantime, I am working on a cushion cover. Those pictures will be along shortly.

Stay tuned. I will keep you posted on my progress. And thank you for following along.