Breaking All the Rules

 Here is a Brother Profile 588, fresh from the estate sale.  She is missing the small tools, including the wrench to turn the needle selector, and NO HANDLES!  She does not have the fold down handles of later models.  There is a lace carriage.  The needles were in good shape,  along with the carriages.  I added a used sponge bar and she knitted.  DH heard my handle complaints, and came up with some plywood handles, and life got better.  I called her Frankie, and set out to sample her capabilities.  She knits 'fairisle' using what you might call intarsia- the second color is laid across the needles, and is knit by the selected needles, while the main color is in the feeder and knit by the unselected needles.  Also, this machine would allow use of several colors in the same row, with only one pass of the carriage.  I also sampled tuck patterns in a second swatch. 

She got handles, and a name:  Frankie

The version that got me started, but didn't work so well

this pic shows my experiment with sponge bar refurbishing today.  I tried using 2 lengths of oxygen tubing.  The tubing is what is used for concentrators or Oxygen tanks at home.  It comes in 40 foot lengths, and says it is crush resistant.  It is between 3/16" and 7/32" OD.  

Well, 2 lengths was too much.  I got the bar in, but it felt like too much friction/resistance.  However, ONE length worked very well.  I put it on the bar with a hot glue gun.  Once in the machine, It held the needles nicely against the bed.  I sprayed silicon spray on the bed, thinking that some would get to the needle shanks through the slots- then wiped down the bed.  The needles move like butter!  Could not be better.  Now, I have heard that silicon spray should not be used, but I read the can (Three in One Silicon Spray) and said could be used on all surfaces, metal and non metal, including vinyl.  And I want you to know this machine is singing!

The tuck sample --