Silver Reed SK280 Standard Gauge Punch Card Knitting Machine
The Silver Reed SK280 is the classic 4.5 mm standard-gauge punch card knitting machine: a 200-needle metal-bed machine for fine yarns, from around 3-ply through 4-ply and into lightweight DK.
If you like the tactile side of machine knitting, the SK280 is lovely. The 24-stitch punch card system lets you build repeating pattern without a computer, while still giving you a surprisingly broad range of techniques.
What can you knit on the SK280?
- Fair Isle and single motifs
- Tuck and slip stitch
- Punch lace
- Weaving and plating
It comes with 20 pre-punched 24-stitch cards plus the core tools needed to get started. You can also punch your own cards when you are ready to design your own repeats.
Key details
- 4.5 mm standard gauge
- 200-needle metal bed
- 24-stitch punch card patterning
- Best suited to fine yarns from approximately 3-ply to lightweight DK
- Single-bed machine, expandable with optional accessories
Grow the machine with you
Useful optional additions include the SRP60N ribber for true rib knitting, the LC2 lace carriage for automatic lace, and the AG24 intarsia carriage for colour blocks without floats across the back.
Why I love machine knitting
I have been obsessed with machine knitting since I was 17. I studied knitwear through my BA and Master's degree, where I spent a great deal of time working on knitting machines, and my mum machine knitted too — including while she was pregnant with me — so perhaps I never had much chance of escaping it!
What I still love is the combination of speed and creativity. A machine can give you beautifully even knitted fabric quickly, but it does not remove the making. You are still choosing yarn, colour, structure and finish, and you can mix machine knitting with hand-knitted ribs, crochet, embroidery, hand-transferred texture and all sorts of other textile techniques.
If you are choosing between the SK280 and one of the other Silver Reed machines, get in touch. I am very happy to help you work out which gauge and patterning system fits the yarns and projects you actually want to make.