Brother KH511 is very likely the first pushbutton knitting machine to appear on the market. Its only 4-pushbuttons allow for a more automatic needle selection, activated by the pressing the buttons and rotating the ratchet tool.

Its vintage look is similar to the earlier manual-only models: with metal unfolding flaps like KH311. The carriage also looks vintage, but, to the best of my knowledge, no very similar to any of the Brother’s earlier knitting machine models I found so far.

The uniqueness of this machine its pink pushbuttons. The rest is identical to the later models: KH521, KH531, and KH551, thus, read the corresponding posts.

Judging by the experience with other pushbutton machines, here are couple of hints to avoid mistakes with the set-lever and pushbuttons:

• adjusting the tension (increase it slowly – decrease the number) as transitioning from stockinet to tuck/slip.
• general rule of thumb: tuck requires higher tension (smaller number on the tension dial) than stockinet. So does slip/part.
• Make sure the ratchet tool goes ALL THE WAY to the left when activating the needle selection and all the way to the right (to OFF position) otherwise, incorrect (or incomplete) selection might happen.