Knit Leader - Tools, Essential & Helpful

If you don't have a Knit Leader for your Brother machine, you can purchase one secondhand fairly easily on eBay, from a knitting-for-sale list, or from an online dealer who carries used equipment.  Or, perhaps you have a Knit Leader but haven't used it.  I hope my information will make you pull it out and give a try.

If you're inventorying yours or considering a purchase, a complete Knit Leader should contain the following:  a manual, a set of stitch scales, a ruler, a pen, a mylar sheet, the device itself, brackets to attach to the machine and guides to hold the mylar sheet.

If you have an incomplete one, you really must have the device and brackets (first pic), the stitch scales (second pic), and the mylar sheet (top of third pic).  Those are essentials.  I suppose a handy person could make brackets in a pinch, but it would be more difficult to make the stitch scales.  You could perhaps photocopy a set, make sure the copies aren't distorted by comparing them to the originals, and then glue the copies onto cardboard.  That's a lot of work.  The stitch scales need to be true to size, because the stitch scale for your gauge needs marks that line up with the stitches in your gauge sample.

If you have some other standard machine, and a charting device was never available for it, did you know you can still use a Knit Leader?  You'll have to click it forward a row each time you knit a row, though.

Toyota machines had the Knit Tracer.  This is essentially the same as Brother, except that it had a bigger mylar sheet, which is nice.  Studio machines had the Knit Radar, which is good, as well, but different enough that I won't teach it right alongside the Brother and Toyota versions.  Hope I can go through that later.

The mylar sheet is pictured in the third photo - rolled inside a rubber band.  Perhaps you will acquire more than one mylar sheet, as I have - they come in handy if you want to leave somebody's fitted pattern on it or if you want to sandwich a tissue pattern between two mylar sheets.
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I also have a few items I purchased separately, or already owned, that I always dig out to use with the Knit Leader.  These are for tracing the pattern onto the mylar sheet.  First, I have a flexible curve for drafting.  You can purchase these at office supply stores.  You bend it as much or as little as you want, following a curved line, and you can trace a nice, gradual curve.  It's about a 1/2 inch wide, so with little fiddling, it can be used to draw lines and eliminate the seam allowance.  Sewing patterns have extra space along every seam, and you don't want all that extra for knitting.

Next item down in that photo is a cheap package of fine-tip dry erase markers.  I like having lots of colors.  The Knit Leader came with a black pen, which lasted a long time, and after that, I started using Vis a Vis transparency markers.  Those markers come in colors, have a fine tip, and are water soluble so you can get the marks of the mylar.  However, as the discount stores starting carrying white boards for peoples' kitchens, they also started carrying colored dry erase markers, which are quite nice for drawing on your Knit Leader, as long as you buy the fine tip ones.  Multiple colors are great for drawing in other sizes, or pattern variations like different necklines, or just reusing the sheet without erasing the old outlines.  However, I can't have too many pictures on my sheet, or I find myself following the wrong outline...I've made that mistake.

Do not ever, ever use a permanent marker like a Sharpie.  It's hard enough to get marks off the mylar if they've been on it for a while, but permanent pen marks are a major pain.

The last item is a pattern drafting ruler from the fabric store.  I'm not sure how long I've had it - many years, anyway.  I was always interested in drawing and modifying sewing patterns, and I've nearly worn this favorite ruler out because it has such a nice curve as well as a long straight edge.  It's great for armholes, crotch curves, and just generally tracing or drawing patterns neatly.

You might want some paper for drawing or modifying patterns.  As a pattern drafting nut, I have tried all kinds of paper, including the expensive stuff marked with dots and squares.  For tracing and most pattern drafting, I prefer cheap, plain white tissue paper, the kind you use when gift-wrapping.  For an absolute favorite pattern, one where you want to make a copy that will last through many uses, I have copied the pattern onto brown kraft paper or even sturdy interfacing.