Knitting Pal/Mate

Knitting Pal or Knitting Mate

What ever you know this knitting device as they are essentially the same thing a hand knitting machine originally invented and made by Walter Palange. The round knitting pal was first made in 1978 followed by the more common straight version of the Knitting Pal. Improvements were made in 1994 with the more well known segmented straight Knitting Pal being made with plastic handles on the needles which can be joined together or used individually.  https://patents.justia.com/inventor/walter-palange

I was lucky enough to purchase a Round Knitting Pal (RKP) with it arriving on 16th October 2012 from Mechanicsville, VA in just 2 weeks. Other than the round shape the needles that come with the RKP are also different to those of the straight Knitting Pal (KP). The needles are just the metal strip section without the plastic handle covers. It also came with a manual, a leaflet with 4 patterns, 4 needles and an unknown tool.

The needles and tool are in a sealed packet, so we know the tool belongs with the Knitting Pal just not what it is or even what it is used for as there is no mention in the manual or elsewhere.

This RKP appears to have only had a small amount of use since 1978. I tried it with needles from a newer Knitting Pal as the original needles look like they would be uncomfortable to use. The RKP is made of curved segments. Each segment consists of 36 slotted pegs with every even peg numbered.

The knitting pal versions that I own are all different colours - red, blue and pink. Both the RKP and the red KP have Knitting Pal embossed on the surface.

The RKP was made in Florida and the red KP was made in Italy.

Both the blue and the pink Knitting Mate (KM) are made in China. While they can be joined end to end the blue KM is slightly different in make to the red KP and does not line up fully. This does not prevent them from being used to extend a knitted piece as they clip together easily.

The Italian made red KP comes in a plastic case with a place for each part including a little flip book that shows the motion of knitting with the KP. This particular KP also came with a manual and 4 double sided, glossy pattern sheets.

One of my KMs came with a VHS video tape which I have preserved by adding a digital copy on my YouTube channel in 2013.  https://youtu.be/lLS4QqJorZI
Once I check out copyright for the manuals, flip book and pattern sheets I just might share them in a future post to preserve these resources for future users.