I thank you all for this input -- I suspect what I need (for my limited patience and brainpower) is a higher end machine that does way more than I need, but helps me more to do it. Make sense? I just don't want to pay what it's worth.
All I think I want to do is finish raw edges, on clothing or crafting items. Long ago I was content with zig zag, but on knits that is ugly, and not really a solution.