Kris Krafter Garter Bar Review

By the time I got the video down to ten minutes, I trimmed away an awful lot.  There is a lot more to say about this product, so here it is:

• I am not affiliated with Kris.  If she decides at some future date to wholesale these, I like them well enough that I would like to sell them.  I did what's basically an "infomercial" for the item because I am so pleased that she's manufacturing something we need for machine knitting and doing a good job, as well.
• The one I use in the video is a bulky, but Kris makes a mid-gauge one as well.  She's even going to add a 7 mm midgauge to her 6.5. 
• Mid-gauge garter bars are RARE.  Frankly, if I had a 6.5 or 7 mm, I'd get one asap.  
• The price is very good.  You can check the price and other details at Kris' website.
• The garter bars do not come with a stopper.  Kris is looking into manufacturing a stopper separately.  If she does, I want one!
• I found that I could catch the stitch from the row below when I was rehanging the work after a garter flip, which results in problems.  Please don't be discouraged if this happens to you.  Because with our old-style garter bars, we couldn't see and we put down the flipped stitches just by feel, we all got in the habit of pressing down hard and scraping along to put the stitches on the needles.  With this one, you do not have to press down like that!  With a little practice, this problem goes away.  It helps me to keep the garter bar horizontal when I'm putting the stitches down.
• If you do catch the stitch from the row below, drop it off the needle and fix it manually.  Again, no worries - this problem goes away with practice.
• The bars are light, well-made, and polished so you won't cut a finger on a rough edge.

I think every MKer should have a garter bar and then practice until it's second nature!  The only reason we aren't all using them frequently is the instructions that came with them were difficult and skimpy.  That's why I made all those video lessons.

You can do all these techniques with your garter bar:

• Hold and move stitches without waste yarn
• Decrease evenly across a row - or even gather
• Increase evenly across a row
• Make garter stitch or Quaker stitch
• Turn cables, even fancy ones!
• Do programmed lace using the machine's pattern device to pick out needles
• Park stitches on the GB to divide for a neckline
• Move only the selected stitches
• Transfer stitches from the ribber to the main bed
• Vertical weaving
• Rip stitches fast

Look down the left-hand margin of this blog and see the garter bar free video lessons, and also the hi-def DVD Garter Bar course that I sell.  You'll be surprised at all the slick techniques a garter bar can do!