Another photo of the treebark stole, for Beverly

I am not sure if this will help, as I do not seem to be an expert photographer and it is pretty long…but Beverly asked for another photo, laid out flat.

Maybe she was wondering if there was shaping?  There is not.  And, of course, the only reason that my stole has a different colored center is because I got the yarn on sale and those were the colors left in the bin!

new BUNNY “got wool?” shirt design

We visited Susan & Jim a couple of weeks ago and Susan asked if I was going to make batik shirts with bunnies on them.  {Did I tell you that they have TWO Pippis and a Wendy wheel, along with the Baynes, a Louet, the Babe she’s trying to sell…???  The Pippi wheels are SO cute!}

Anyhow, Andrew also told Jim that I would make him a shirt to go along with the one I made for Susan and forgot to take in the car.  So I did a bunny…

Let me know if you need to have a bunny batik shirt!  Through here or my etsy shop…

Circular Sock Knitting Machine!

A lovely lady on Spindlers sent me an email offering to sell me her sock knitting machine!  Actually, as per me, this is a much longer story.  One nice lady sent me such an email and by the time I figured out ENOUGH to know about csms at ALL, hers had sold (it was listed online, already).  Then ANOTHER lady, this one named Barbara, offered me hers.  More dithering.  Asking.  Research. etc etc etc 

 

I AM buying Barbara’s Gearhart csm and it should be here next week and I can get to work on cleaning and oiling it and seeing if I can coax it into making socks.  Barbara wants me to send her a pair, since I’m getting a REALLY good deal on this thing!  All the people who use them say there is a steep learning curve and we aren’t entirely sure that this machine will work smoothly right away, as Barbara never was able to knit socks on it, but I hope I am up for the challenge.

This is what it looked like, a couple of days ago, at Barbara’s house.  I will make more photos when I get it cleaned and then, hopefully, when it is working!

socks on a machine??

Hey, been on vacation!  Friend Susan http#mce_temp_url# mentioned that sock-knitting machines have come way down in price from the antique thousand-plus dollar ones and I’m trying to figure out what she is talking about.  Are they the Addi tube knitters??  Do the Addi things adjust enough to make socks??  Who knows these things??  How do I find out??

I would LOVE to knit the tube part with a machine and then do the toes and heels by hand, using lovely (one hopes) handspun, hand-dyed yarn.  Hand made socks without QUITE the labor involved!

I started looking on Ravelry and found some CSM knitters and someone was asking about afterthought heel measurements (how much space does the heel take up) so I posted this:

ooooh! I almost can help you with this!! I don’t have a sock machine (although I am curious about them, in a big way, but also frugal and can’t imagine getting an old one for $1000+), but I have been knitting peasant heel socks. I think my next pair I might try to not put in waste yarn (what I’ve been doing is starting at the top, ribbing the cuff, knitting straight for a few rows, knitting HALF the stitches on waste yarn and then purling back on those same stitches, getting the original yarn and keep going until it is time to decrease the toe, do the toe, kitchener the toe, go BACK and take out the waste yarn and do ANOTHER “toe” for the heel), but just snip and unravel like EZ and the Yarn Harlot for a true afterthought heel. Anyhow, I asked around about the measurements issue before I started these. This is what was suggested, combined with what I did: trace the foot that is to wear the sock. Measure the circumference, too, for gauge/number cast on, etc. For a “standard” wedge toe, you start the decreases at the top of the pinky toe, right? So mark on your foot-tracing how far it is from the tip of the pinky toe to the top of the big toe (something from 1.5 to 2.5 inches, depending on the foot size). Also mark on the foot-tracing where the ankle bone sticks out–that is where you will put in your heel. Measure from the ankle-bone-knob to the back of the heel–if it is about the same as the size of your “toe”, you just do the same toe for the heel. If it is longer or shorter, you will have to adjust what you did for your toe by a few rows, maybe. The toe thing is one of those “magic” things that sortof adjusts based on the yarn and stitches and size, and I think the heel is usually close.