How to set up front or collar bands on the knitting machine with two beds. Tutorial.
Hereby I describe only front band but the collar band is made exactly the same way.
Make on your machine 1x1 rib that fits to your front middle side height.
The carriage is on your left.
Transfer all stitches to your back bed (Knitter Needle Bed).
Make one row. The carriage is on your right.
Pick up stitches from previous row and put them onto needles of front bed (Ribber Needle bed).
Click to viewSet all controls on your machine to knit only on front bed (Ribber Needle bed) and make 1 row (If you want more wide stockinet on your band, make 2-3 more rows in round. See the difference in lime and blue jackets: blue jacket has only 1 round row but the lime one has 4 round rows.).
The carriage is on your left.
Put front piece onto the machine (not to needles but onto the machine, onto the needle bed) right side up and middle side line closed to the needles.
Evenly put the front side middle line of the jacket inside 1 stitch onto the needles along the needles with stitches.
Push a little bit back all needles with front piece on it just to release needles from your front bed (Ribber Needle bed).
Now transfer all stitches from your front bed (Ribber Needle bed) onto corresponding needles of the back bed (Knitter Needle Bed) covering the front part and lower the front bed. So your front part is gripped between 2 rows of stockinet.
Release the thread from the carriage. Remove (do not cut off!!!) working yarn from Auto Tension and put in on the floor in front of the machine. Push a little bit back all needles of the back bed (Knitter Needle Bed), open latches of all working needles insert working thread into all opened hooks and close all latches.
Now take Gauge scale and put it onto the needle bed between rail and working needles on your left. (I covered the rail to avoid oil dust on my jacket)
Manually knit all stitches starting from your left: pull the needle back to its B position through all stitches hanging on it until the Gauge scale.
Repeat with all stitches till your right.
All stitches are on hooks under your front part. Carefully relocate your front part above all needles/hooks onto your front bed (Ribber Needle bed) so it hang on manually made stitches. Make sure that all stitches are on hooks.
Close all the stitches with Tappet tool starting from you left and you will get professionally looking front or collar bands.
PS. White and lime jackets have 4 round rows of stockinet for the band
and blue jacket has only 1 round row:
Russian version (Версия на русском)
http://lace-knitting.livejournal.com/20946.html