I designed the Candy Corn blanket a several months ago. I figured I would wait until fall to knit it out. Candy corn and the fall season seem to go hand in hand. I drew the design by hand and then used Designaknit to convert it into a knitting pattern. I am sharing my digital pattern files (Designaknit .stp and Wincrea .bmp) for free if you would like to knit one. If you do decide to sell finished blankets, please acknowledge “Herman Hills Farm” as the designer.
This blanket is knit in 2 color double bed jacquard. Needles 88-0-88 on the bed. It is 1000 lock passes/250 pattern rows. It can be knit on any electronic double bed machine with 200 needles. I knit mine on my Passap E6000 with tech 188. If you are using a Passap E6000 knitting machine, tech 187 or 188 work great for a lap and child size. Use tech 186 for a larger throw size. I used 2/24 yarn double strand for each color. Click HERE to access the Designaknit .stp and Wincrea .bmp files.
The fine print/copywrite: Do not share or sell digital files. Do not post any digital files from this website to any other location where they can be downloaded by others. Free files can be sold as 500 finished knit items per year- any more than that and you need to contact me for a commercial license.
You are getting ready to program a project into your Passap console and a keypad button seems to not be working. Has this happened to you? There is a simple solution for the problem. The keypad contacts need cleaned. I use 90% isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip to clean the contacts. You may want to use an anti static band while working on the board.
You must take the board out of the console to get to the contacts. First, remove the console from the machine. Then remove the screws from the back of the console to expose the computer board. I suggest taking a photo of the board at this point. It may help you see where all the screws go into the board when you are putting everything back together.
There are several short screws holding the board in the console and 4 long screws on the large square block. All the the screws must be removed. You will need to remove the entire board from the console and clean the keypad contacts which are on the back of the board. Lay the screws out carefully in an order which will help you with putting them back in. My console may look a little different than yours as it does have the daughter board in it for the 4600 motor. There is also a screw under the small board on the top right (in photo) which will need to be removed. Remove screws and gently pull up on the board to see if you have indeed removed all of them. The board should easily lift up if you have removed all the screws.
Once you have all the screws removed, flip the board over and look at the keypad contacts. There are several gold rectangles which are the keypad contacts. They may look fine but sometimes if you move the board in the light, you may see a slight hint of a circle on each pad. This very light circle impression is where the rubber keys make contact. Spend some time gently wiping each gold keypad contact with a Q-tip soaked in alcohol. If you were able to see that slight impression of the rubber key, be sure it is cleaned off of the gold contact. Wait a minute to be sure all the alcohol has evaporated and then screw the board back into the console. Before putting the back on the console box, plug it in and do a quick keypad test to be sure all the keys are working.
I want to thank my friend Carol who told me how to do this back when I first encountered this problem with a console. She has a tutorial on her blog.
The gold rectangles need to be cleaned with alcohol
The green rectangle is the keypad. The keypad does not need to be cleaned.
I often see people asking how to clean a Passap machine. I have restored quite a few machines and I am going to share how I do it. I recently picked up a machine which was absolutely filthy. Not only was the machine very dirty, it also had a yellow film of nicotine on all of the metal parts.
So how do you clean the machine? Wait until you have a nice warm day. Take the machine and stand outside. You will only have the stand and knit beds. All these parts are removed: the locks, end extensions, racking handle, color changer, motor/console/cords, and masts. Remove all the needles and pushers (soak in denatured alcohol). Now all you have is the knit beds on the stand. Keep the needle retainer bars IN.
Keep the machine on the stand. You will be using a pressure washer with a soap attachment to spray clean the knit beds. I use blue Dawn soap in the soap dispenser. The blue Dawn soap removes nicotine and does a great job of cleaning off all dirt and oil. It is a dish detergent which is known to safely remove oil. If you have access to warm water use it. I use cold water with excellent results but warm water would be great. Soap down the knit beds and under the beds. I use a thick paper shop towel to scrub the bed and rails. The pressure washer does most of the work, but a paper shop towel does help with removing the dirt/nicotine especially off the metal rails. I do not worry about scrubbing any of the needle or pusher tracks or the flow combs.
I soap down the beds until the dispenser is empty, then do a clean water rinse. I repeat this process one more time. When I do the clean water rinse, I remove the soap attachment and put a pressure wash tip on the pressure washer. This is not the most powerful pressure tip, but the least powerful one. If your pressure washer doesn’t have interchangeable tips, be sure to stand back a distance from the knit beds. You do not want to use so much power that you will cause anything (such as the flow combs) to break and you don’t want to knock the machine over from the pressure!!. Rinse down the knit beds and also under the knit beds. Be sure to rinse every last bit of soap off on the final rinse.
When I am done with the pressure washer soap and rinses, the machines always look brand new. I remove the spring retainer bars while the machine is drying. I leave the machine outside to dry in the shade. I put a fan under the machine (facing up) and also a fan blowing across the knit beds. I always make sure to dry the machine completely.
I had put all the needles and pushers in a soak of denatured alcohol when I took them out of the machine. After soaking them a few hours, I spread them out on a paper shop towel and spray them with Hoppes Gun Cleaner and Lube . I then put them back in the machine. Once all needles and pushers are back in the machine, I oil them with Hoppes Gun Oil.
So there you go that is all you need to do. There is absolutely no reason to disassemble the machine to clean it if you use this method. I know it sounds too simple.
Here are some before and after photos. This machine was very dirty. It looked like it had been stored in a barn. The metal pieces were covered in yellow film of nicotine. It was way worse than the photos even show. It was disgusting. Now I know there will be some “nay sayers” saying this does not work or it will damage the machine. Nope. It works and there is no damage to the machines. The person who taught me this method is a well-known production knitter and repair person who has restored many machines over the years.
Below you will see how pristine clean the machine is after pressure washing.
