Prym 624145 Knitting mill, blue, purple

I already had one of these which didn't seem to be working and I thought was broken so I bought a second one. It also didn't seem to work and by this time I was thinking this is a dud product. I had the first one for weeks and no joy. Followed the instructions to the letter, watched instructional videos online, and still it would not work, always dropped stitches, jammed etc. I even watched a video of someone using it with a power drill and going a gazillion miles an hour with it, and still mine wouldn't work using the hand crank very slowly. So I gave up on it deciding it must be a dud and bought this one. The same thing happened. I gave up on both of them. It was too late to do anything about the first one but the second one that I bought from amazon I thought I would return since it obviously didn't work. I left it a few days and then before starting the returns process I thought I would give it one last try - and it worked!! I didn't do anything different but it worked. I even plugged it into a drill and it whizzed off really fast. Then I got the first one out and it worked too!!! So now I have two functioning knitting mills, and I have tried them with various yarns and cords and they now work every single time without fail. I didn't do anything magical to them (I read somewhere about lubricating them but I didn't try that) and they are both working perfectly. So I would say, if you are having trouble, don't give up, or at least maybe put it aside for a few days and then give it another try. I can only think that maybe it does just need to loosen up a bit. It's a great little machine.

This is fairly easy to use once you get it started... There are 4 hooks inside the plastic tube at the top ( the plastic tube does not come off.) These hooks have a tiny flap underneath them which catches the yarn so you must ensure the flaps are open before adding the yarn at the beginning, this is super fiddly due to the tube not coming off. The beginning is frustrating and the instructions are really useless. I will try to provide instructions from my own experience below, if I knew how to add photos or video I would as I think that would help tremendously... 1. attach the handle into the square hole on the side of the blue part of the mechainsm and make a note of which way the arrow points - it is very hard to see but is located around that handle hole, and make sure you only ever turn the handle in the direction of that arrow. 2. select your yarn - you can only use maximum dk thickness yarn, I used scheepjes catone and that is probably as thick as you can go.you cannot use any kind of fluffy yarn as this fouls the mechanism ( I tried kidsilk haze and then spent an hour cleaning the thing out - do not use fluffy yarn) 3.take the yarn directly off the ball - you will need to feed about 40cm length through the hole on the side of the clear plastic tube, feed it under the upside down u shaped clear hole and back out again so that it comes out on the outside of the clear plastic tube. 4. feed the yarn along the outside of the plastic tube and then through the small cut out lip at the top of the clear plastic tube so that it heads inside the tube towards the hooks...here comes the frustratingly tricky part... 5. feed the yarn into the middle hole of the mechainsm inside the tube and then make sure you have rotated the handle so that one of the hooks lines up with the cut out lip that your yarn is resting on. 6. Make sure the flap is open - you can do this by running your finger doen the hook shaft and it should op out without resistance, of course it is tricky to get your finger in there - a little paintbrush helps with this. 7. lift the yarn that should be laying to the left of this one hook and nudge it into the hook, hold it there ( again little paintbrush helps with this) and turn the handle in the correct direction - the hook should move to the left and go down at the same time and the flap should start to lift to catch the yarn. 8. as th next hook lines up with the cut out lip on the clear tube, again ensure the flap is open, very carefully nudge the yarn under the hook - WITHOUT popping it out of the half closed hook you just moved tothe left. again rotate the handle in the correct direction. hook 1 should now be down with the yarn in place, hook 2 should have moved tot he left, slightly down, flap moving upwards. 9. repeat step 8 until you have hook 4 loaded....be careful not to pop the yarn off the previous hooks - this is super fiddly and may take several attempts to get all 4 hooks loaded. If it all goes pearshaped simply put tension on the yarn outside the mechanism near the ball and reverse the handle - pulling hte yarn back out and start from the beggining. It took me 8 goes before it worked and I was rather frustrated by all of this. 10. Once all 4 hoos are loaded, carefully rotate the handle in the correct directions, keeping your trusty paintbrush to hand as you will need to nudge the flaps open and the yarn under until you have completed at least 10 rounds. 11. after sucessfully faffling about to complete 10 rounds the mechanism takes over and you can then stop holding your breath, and just slowly and evenly turn the handle. I reccomend not adding the weight until the first 10 rounds are completed - it is a really stupid design -- it is a hook, if it were a circle on top you could easily knot the tail of your yarn onto it and it would stay put until you were finished, but they put a hook on, which means that as the mechanism turns and the yarn bobs about, the thing falls off!. 12. Be prepared - you will need to figure out how long you want the finished product to be and place your machine at the correct height and make sure the bottom of hte machine is free as that is where the finished cord comes out, or be prepared to keep moving the weight up your work - I tried that and did not like the way it snagged and mishaped the cord at the attachment points. In the end I used a soft close clothes peg and attached the weight to that so it did not ruin my work. Once you get it going, it is really easy to keep going - I promise, it is the set up rows that are unnecessarily fiddly and unrelaible and just plain annoying. The way the machine is constructed interferes with getting it going and I expected more for the money in that respect. Once it gets going, the mechanism is robust enough too keep going and going which is good. I am concerned about the fact that you cannot take it apart, as even mercercized cotton gives of a slight amount of yarn debris over time, and not being able to clean it will probably mean it is a buy , use, throw away item, which I dislike intensely especially as it is , apart from the metal hooks, plastic and not good for the environment. Hence - not getting 5 stars. I am sorry I could not show pictures or video, but hoep these instructions based on my use of the machine help others.

Not worth buying. The hooks don’t open and close evenly. They stick, causing dropped stitches or the yarn then gets jammed and gets knotted. This is a waste of money. Do not buy.

Well....this little machine is a great little device. It allows you to churn out yards and yards of i-cord in no time at all. Doing the same amount of knitting would take days and days, but this machine can hammer out the cords in a fraction of the time. However - it is so tricky and finicky - it can be a real headache. If you're using DK or a light weight yarn, you'll be fine. Once you master the art of 'casting on' - take your time for the first 10cm or so and keep a VERY close eye on what the catches are doing, if they're not opening or catching the yarn like they should, you will have to manipulate it by hand until the machine gets into a groove. Go ultra slowly for the first few cm, and you should be ok. If you want to use a heavier yarn like I did, I hope you have lots of patience! I use aran cotton yarn on this, and to say its frustrating is an understatement. Its forever sticking, clicking, splitting the yarn and only half catching the stitch, and always dropping stitches....it does work, but it's frustrating and slow going at times. Randomly - a heavier dyed yarn sticks more and is more problematic than a lighter dyed yarn! Pro Tip: if you are using a heavier grade yarn, put extra weights on the rope as you're knitting - it drags the whole thing down more and stops bunching, so makes it all flow a bit better. I'd also advise using a bulldog clip or a grip of some description if you plan on knitting a whole ball of yarn. If the weights hit the floor or table, and there's no drag on the cord as you're knitting, its game over.

Really confusing at first, not best quality item because it does sometimes loose stitches and not grab them the best so does a decent job.

This product is a true gem and at this great price a steal. It’s the only and most important tool you need to start your very own business of knitting cord or for simply decorating your home with it. I found it very easy to use and it’s very well made which have me great confidence when finding my rhythm with it. The weight included is the only way to make it work and when attached properly you will be flying. I would suggest having tweezers at the ready just to help untie twisted wool at the beginning, to not break the needles. From one ball of wool, I got ampere amounts of strong beautiful cord. I didn’t use expensive wool either so was worried it would snap, but it didn’t at all. Another best trick is to stand up and allow the weight to full work as she turn. Not only do you get your steps in but the needles are far less likely to become tangled due to the extra gravity.

I bought this fully aware that it was one of the cheapest to give french knitting a try. It perorms as a cheap item. It's not very user friendly, difficult to get started and very clunky. It tangled the yarn.I wouldn't waste money on it, but one that is better quality and you'll get better results

This little gadget is a bit fiddly to get started and I do find that it sometimes skips a stitch at the very start but I have made loads of cord with it using various types of yarn, both 4-ply and DK, including slightly fuzzy yarn (see the green yarn in the pics). Once the cord has started and the weight is in place I've found that I can turn the handle really fast and the cord grows amazingly quickly. I don't intend to use a power drill as someone on youtube did though! The longest I've made so far is the 160 cm red one in the photo and it took about 5 minutes! I have come up with a few tips that might help, based on problems that I've had and that other people mention in their reviews. 1. Don't worry if the hooks are closed at the beginning. Use a cocktail stick, needle or slim crochet hook to gently open them all before you start. Once you get going the weight on the cord pulls the stitches down the needle opening the hook ready for the next stitch. 2. Do the initial 2-pin round and the next 1 or 2 4-pin rounds without any weight on and check that each stitch has worked then add the weight. 3. Don't have any tension at all on the yarn going in. Even a tiny bit of resistance (eg: the ball of wool needing to unroll) will cause the stitch to tighten and it is likely to slip that stitch. Pull out plenty of loose yarn regularly. 4. As the cord gets longer you need to move the weight up the cord so that it doesn't rest on the ground. I tied mine to a clip (as someone else suggested) so that I could move the clip up the cord without damaging it. The hook on the weight is too thick to clip into a stitch and would make a hole that drags downwards. 5. Keep the feeder yarn and the growing cord apart or they will twist together. When I'm sitting I let the weight drop between my knees and keep the hand holding the mill under the yarn and keep the ball and loosened yarn well away from my legs. 6. If you need to add new yarn the instructions say to knot it. When I did this the knot wouldn't go through the stitch so I had to help it along by making that stitch using a crochet hook. Then checked that the next round worked OK, which it did. I hope this helps. I have such fun making the cords. No idea what I'm going to do with them all yet, though I have used some, but I find it very therapeutic just playing with the mill! I've had it for about 2 weeks now and the novelty still hasn't worn off.