The trick is to stumble across bargains, especially at thrift shops and garage sales. Unfortunately, that means you have to be patient and rely on someone donating or selling cheaply. I got my first knitting machine (Brother KH-860) at a garage sale for $100, which is about what a Bond would’ve cost me.

A couple of years ago, my dad was at a thrift shop and found a huge stack of knitting machines and parts. It was from the local knitting machine shop, which the owners had closed due to old age and infirmity. Apparently none of it was selling, so the thrift shop marked the entire pallet of stuff $100, and my dad used his senior discount to get it for $50. Go Dad! That’s how I got my Corona 8mm machine, and a bazillion other parts.

Last summer, I found a Studio 360 at a thrift shop for something like $6, and I got two incomplete Passaps for $10 (one is the needle bed of a Passap Pinky, the other is a Speed-O-Knit). They’re not complete machines, but for $10 I couldn’t say no! There’s always the hope of finding enough spare parts for a whole machine or just using them for spare parts down the road. Then in the fall, I saw a Passap Duomatic 80 on Craigslist and ended up buying it.