Still here…!

In case you were worried…I am still here.  :)  Sorry to leave you hanging for so many days!

UPS sent money for most of the cost of the sock machine (since they broke the crank in shipping).  I still need to take the crank to Ernie & see if he can braise it.  Still been using it without the crank.

I’m on the second pair of actual socks from the csm.  Working on the heel (handknitted peasant heel) for the second sock.  I used Red Heart Heart & Sole yarn.  I don’t think I’m going to get the whole benefit from the aloe in the yarn, since most of it is knit on the machine, but I like it and my csm seems to like it, too, which is good.  I still need to learn to do heels and toes, but I think I finally figured out how to do the hung hem properly (the fourth sock doesn’t have live stitches hanging around in the hem.

Working on a new batch of chemo caps for my MIL.  Sortof upset about that.

Seem to have come out of the whole (I didn’t tell you!) old boyfriend from a zillion years ago spilling to me about his former addiction.  Didn’t really need to know about that, it turns out.

Hand-blended some of the llama that Susan gave me (had to de-hair it first, then washed it) with some Dorset and spun up a bit of it.  I like it.  Still missed some of those llama guard hairs, I think.

Worrying about people (20% of WVians in a recent poll) who think Barak Obama is a Muslim and even more about how those people are all bound to HATE muslims.  Interested in some weird way in Sarah Palin, but don’t like her.  Why didn’t McCain pick someone REASONABLE like Olympia Snowe???!!??

Trying to do some house-cleaning (or, more acurately, decluttering) today and also go out to look for Bernat Glow in the Dark yarn, more Heart & Sole, more soywax, synthrapol…It is drippy and grey outside, which makes it hard to get motivated.

First Socks from CSM!

I did mock rib (3×1), a hung hem (mine is pretty messy and maybe there are live stitches that I ran some yarn through, cross fingers!), knit the cuff and the foot.  Did afterthought heel and toe decreases by hand.

Register to Vote–Ultimate College Bowl

Okay.  I’m not a college student.  But I do live in a college town…

 Ultimate College Bowl

And I think everyone ought to register, educate themselves & vote.

In case the other thing didn’t work, go to the Ultimate College Bowl thing and your school can win a concert and YOU can win stuff, too!

more transparently–yes, I got it working

Dave asked if I got the sock machine going–yes.  Even without the crank (I am turning the cam thingy by hand), I managed to nearly make a sock.  As per the advice given to me from my online buddies (whew, a lot of nice, helpful people out there!!), I had to increase the tension and hang more weights to get the stitches to knit.  Then when I switched yarns the thing was skipping stitches again, but this time they were riding UP on the needles, so I had to turn the tension LOOSER.

 

 I made my awful setup bonnet, knit with some scrap yarn, switched to “real” sock yarn, knit a few rows, hung a hem, continued for a bit in mock rib, put in the rest of the needles (that I have, lol, I am three short, because 3 of mine are bent–ordered a batch today from Pat Fly at Angora whatsit), continued the foot in stockinette (almost), when I got to where I thought the toe should go, I removed the live stitches to a piece of weed whacker line, then transferred them to dpns and did the toe decreases.  This afternoon I picked up the stitches in for the afterthought heel (don’t think I messed it up too badly, even though I had to do the scary “clip a stitch” thing).  If I hadn’t had Cub Scouts tonight and wasn’t planning to be busy all day tomorrow, I would have hopes of showing you the completed sock.

maybe almost a sock

My bonnet was crappy looking because I didn’t switch from one yarn to another and then it was all twisted and crooked (too hard to see which row I was picking up, let alone which stitch!), but it still worked.

But, yes, I got the stitches to work and I got the needles in. I was told to add more weight and MORE tension (it wasn’t riding up, it was just not making stitches) and I got that to work okay with the fingering weight acrylic baby yarn. When I switched to the wool it got messed up and I started again, making it looser than when I had finished up with the acrylic. I am right now, gasp, getting ready to take my tube off the machine and keep the toe stitches live so I can hand knit the toe.

I am not a very fast knitter, but not really slow. Toes and heels are SMALL compared to a whole sock! I am using some regia or something that a friend gave me (her aunt has leftovers) and I think there is probably only enough in this ball to knit ONE sock (I figure by Murphy’s law, it will turn out really well and then never get a mate that matches, lol).

I think this hung hem is pretty crappy looking too, but maybe not so bad as on the bonnet.

oh, and a couple of people have advised trying SuperGlue to mend the crank.  Wouldn’t that be nice if it worked?  Wonder how long UPS will take to decide about my money?

1904 Gearhart 56-slot?

The ladies on the groups think that I have a 1904 Gearhart with a 56-slot cylinder.  The cylinder is only 4″ instead of (what is apparently the average for “newer” Gearharts) 4.5″.

One lady thought that my funny needles look like Steber sock machine needles.  Apparently “co-operative” needles are needles that belong in a Creelman or Cooperative sock machine (I’d never heard of a Steber or a Coop!), not a special type of Gearhart needles.  So, what does a 1904 or 1908 Gearhart use for needles?  12 gauge Gearhart needles, or something else?

 

My auto-mechanic says that welding cast-iron is tricky, but he has the stuff at home to try to braise the piece back together, after I’m done with UPS.  However long THAT takes!

 

Trying to knit more today–I made my tube for a while and then started losing a bunch of stitches (probably not enough weight) and started over.  That is going less smoothly than last night.  Don’t know why.  I think maybe my mesh is too fragile and is ripping with the weights and not distributing the tension evenly.

 

Tried using some size 2 yarn instead of size 1 and couldn’t make that go.  Do I increase or decrease the tension and the weights with a fatter yarn??  My first little fingering weight (sock weight, size 1) yarn tube-thing is a bit too loose for my foot, in the 3×1 mock rib.

Mesh for setup basket

I did it like this (mostly, I think!) http://www.countryrain.com/Bonnet.htm

Houston, we have a tube!

Yay!!!

Got help from my sockknittingmachines yahoo group (thanks Kim!) and from the circular sock machine forum on Ravelry (thanks Jessica!) and I have a very poor tube cast on and started.  Not bad for a sock machine with no crank, huh?  I had to add more weight and turn up the tension on the cam thingy…now to figure out how to pick up those stitches… and…

Oh, someone named Adele thinks I might have a Gearhart with co-operative needles.  Cool.  A name.  Now to find who has more of them!?

Not making stitches…

hmmmm….I don’t know if I just didn’t cast on right (always a possibility!  I was trying to do it with the mesh, but maybe it wasn’t right) or if the needles aren’t right, or what.

So, I got this maybe-Gearhart csm (no markings) with the now-broken crank.  I set it up and have been pushing the crown ring thing by hand (like the crank would turn it, theoretically, until I get the crank situation resolved).  The yarn guide thing puts the yarn in the right position, I think, and the needles go up and down and the latches open and close like they are supposed to, but when the needles go down, no stitch is formed.

I am wondering if there is a possibility that the needles in it are NOT the right sort of needles?  They do not look like the Gearhart needles in the angora valley website (these have a little “toe” on the bottom), but, then, I am not sure that the machine is a Gearhart!

I have gone around like 10 times (although maybe I didn’t cast on right or something)and the stitches are just staying on the needles and the latches still close up on them, but never pull through a stitch.  Maybe the needles are too long??

Any advice welcome!

how do you get the needles in?

before or after you put on the cylinder spring?

is there a trick?  I can get them OUT, but how do you get them back in without pulling on the spring with a foreign object?