Oh yeah. Stuff that isn’t for me.

So I had this most excellent plan for Christmas for HWJF. We all know how he loves his handknit socks and we all know how he bought me a sock machine for my birthday this year. Well, I came up with the idea that since he’s been hinting rather heavy handedly lately about the lack of additions to his sock drawer as of late that I would make him some socks. Not just any socks. Socks on the sock machine! And not only socks on the sock machine, but 25 socks for the 25 days of Christmas!! Brilliant right?! Yeah. Not so much.

Witness this:

This is sock machine exile. This is where the sock machine has sat, untouched since before bassoon camp this year. That would be MAY people. Let me do the math for ya. That’s 6 months. Six months this rather expensive gift has sat untouched and unloved. But no more I vowed! I will make socks with the machine. There was even a still unfinished sock waiting to be finished from a pair I had started way back in May on it. I would finish that and go on from there.

Just one problem. I am apparently incompetent when it comes to this machine. I still, after all this time, am totally incapable of making a heel or a toe without the yarn breaking. I spent three hours Sunday night while HWJF was out working on that unfinished sock and part of another. The yarn broke more times than I can count. The tubes were fine, the machine knits without dropping stitches in a tube, but heels? Forget it. After three hours of pure frustration, it happened.

The meltdown.

Those that follow me on plurk know of what I speak. I totally lost it. I called HWJF in tears, totally spoiling my brilliant surprise, begging for forgiveness but professing my absolute hatred for his very wonderful gift and my total inability to use it. I yelled, I cried, I threw yarn people. It was not pretty. I blew my stack on plurk (and had many sympathetic answers to my cries which certainly helped). It was Not Good.

But then I calmed down, took a hot shower and suddenly devised a plan to thwart the evil machine. What if I could knit the tubes on the machine but just knit the heels and toes by hand? What if I could insert waste yarn for an afterthought heel? I’d be saving a ton of time by getting the boring tube part done and still have a wear-worthy sock without a billion holes in it. So I gave it a try.

So far so good! What I did was this. I knit my hem, hung it, then continued with the leg tube. I then got to the point where I would usually start the heel, but instead of doing it on the machine I cut the sock yarn, tied in waste yarn, knit half way around with the waste yarn, cut that, tied on more sock yarn and finished knitting the foot on the machine. At that point if I was using one ball of yarn per sock, I stuffed the extra yarn inside the tube, found the other end of the ball of yarn, tied waste yarn to it and knit several more rounds. I could then start the next sock. If I was using one ball of yarn for both socks, I just cut the sock yarn after finishing the foot for the first sock and went on to the second. I’ll have a couple of extra ends to weave in, but I don’t think it’s that big a deal at this point. And I was able to complete two pairs of socks to this point in less than an hour!

Needless to say, there’s a lot more finishing work to do with this method, but I’ve still saved a lot of knitting time by using the machine to do the majority of the work. While the surprise is toast, at least I think that the possibility of the boy still getting his 25 socks this Christmas is still there. And I think he’s just happy I didn’t throw the thing through the window before he got home.

Have a great weekend!

… with a few words.

Cast on with waste yarn. Knit several rows.

Join sock yarn. Use a knot if you are still an insecure newbie like me.

Set up row counter.

After knitting several rows begin to hang hem.

Continue hanging hem.

Knit first round after finishing hem. Yarn breaks.

Curse loudly. Scare cat.

Start again. This time successfully get to a heel and even a toe. Quit while you are ahead.

Make boy model completed socks as requested by Ina for boost in confidence.

Be happy for new project. Realize that lace is not suitable for Yarn Harlot talk knitting. Panic slightly.

ETA: This has nothing to do with this post, but if you are in NJ, please go here to learn more about the governors proposed plan to ELIMINATE the Dept. of Agriculture in the state of NJ (!) and a protest going on tomorrow 4/1. I wish I could go, but I’ll definitely be writing to my reps. instead.

First, thank you for all the comments on the Baby Surprise Jacket from Friday! I’m so happy to have it get such a good response on the blog and it makes me that much more confident when sending it to the recipient, so thank you!

This weekend I decided to spend some time with the sock machine between doing a lot of other things. I hadn’t touched it during the week and it showed. Frustration was running at a high level on Saturday when I tried to finish the first pair for HWJF. My father made some new weights for me and had found a camp fork for me to use as a heel weight, so I thought things would run along much more smoothly. They didn’t. Every tweak has it’s learning curve with this machine. It can be *so* infuriating! The yarn even broke at one point during the heel which just about sent me over the edge. I finished it up anyway and tried to make repairs. I think it will survive and the fit is pretty good for a first attempt.

The light of a new day on Sunday made the second pair much easier going. I was able to get through this pair fairly smoothly this time. We decided to make the foot a little shorter and the cuff a little longer and that improved the fit a bit.

I also made a 20 row hem instead of 10 and that kept the curling down to a minimum.

I think we’ve decided that for the next pair, instead of narrowing the short rows down to 14 sts for the toe, we should try more like 20 sts. HWJF has a wide foot and this might help. We’ll see how it goes. I still have three more balls of this regia yarn to try it out with.

I had lots of help doing all the kitchener stitch for these socks:

And she likes the socks too!

And lest you think I will never hand knit socks again, here’s a handknit pair fresh off the needles.

Camo Socks

Pattern: My usual toe up with a simple rib that was stuck in my head and I can’t figure out where it came from. You k1, p1 for one row and then knit the next row. Easy as pie!
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Camouflage colorway
Needles: size 1 addi lace
Knit: 2/27-3/29/2008

These are just a simple pair of socks for a certain person who will love these colors. I don’t think he reads the blog, so it’s probably safe to say they are a birthday present. I’ll try to get a picture when they are presented. I like this rib pattern because it has a lot of stretch and when I’m knitting stealth gifts, that’s always a good thing.

Now that I have these off the needles I just need to finish up the bog jacket and a certain pair of gloves to have a clean slate. What do you think the chances are that I’ll just start something else?

Nah! 7 socks off the CSM in a week doesn’t count as obsessed? Does it?!

Here’s the first pair, made with Austermann Step in the ever so descriptive 0026 colorway. I was still having a bit of an issue getting the row counter working (you really have to screw that screw down tight!) so they are a tad on the short side for me, but were a definite improvement for my third pair of socks off the machine.

They were almost too short for the sock blockers! Guess these will be “around the house” socks… maybe.

Next up was a pair with Trekking in colorway 22, one of the stripy colorways.

These actually fit really well and the heel and toe short rowing has also improved. I even managed my first really decent picot hem!

To make a picot hem on the machine you knit a few rows, then move every other stitch to the needle next to it (i.e. move your chosen stitch to the needle to the right, then move the stitch after that one to the needle to its right, etc.), knit the same number of rounds, then hang the hem. Not too complicated but that first round after you move the stitches can be a recipe for disaster (a.k.a. dropped stitches).

Finally, I decided to make a pair with some sock yarn I picked up several years ago at the CT Sheep and Wool festival from Dorchester Farms. I hadn’t realized until I read the label again that there is only 192 yards per skein. Definitely not enough in one skein for a pair of socks for me, so I decided to have a little fun.

I kind of doubt anyone will ever notice when I wear them. I might even try it at work just to see. This was a slightly heavier yarn so it gave me a much more sturdy sock, but the fit is still good and the picot hem and the heels and toes were my best work yet. And for the record, I like the pooling.

All of these socks were made on the 60 stitch cylinder, which definitely wouldn’t work for socks for the loving boy who bought me the machine. Now that I have successfully made a few pairs for myself, I decided to throw on the 84 stitch cylinder and start working on a pair for him. After taking things apart, getting the cylinder in and the needles in the cylinder, readjusting the yarn guide and the tension I started knitting with some waste yarn. With the tension too tight, it promptly broke twice before I could get things adjusted properly. This is why people tell you “Make Tubes!! Lots of Tubes!!” The yarn guide adjustment was the trickiest part since the yarn has to come to the needle at the perfect time in the orbit around the cylinder or the needle closes and your stitch goes Bye Bye! Not fun.

After several hours of fiddling on a Saturday afternoon, I managed this:

(Do not fear. I did not make the boy pink girly cuffed socks. That is merely waste yarn.)

The first boy sock. Made with Regia it seems like it may actually fit. Unfortunately, I have been distracted by other things and have not yet had the chance to kitchener it up and make sure it’s a keeper before continuing with the second sock.

Tune in Friday for a completed distraction!

You all may be already sick of me writing about this thing, but please permit me one more post solely about the machine before I return you to your regularly scheduled knitblog (well, with a dose of the csm now and then of course ). I managed to make my first pair of socks this weekend!

My particular machine came with a cast on basket for getting started. It’s the blue wired thing in the middle of the cylinder.

You start with waste yarn and loop the yarn around the basket and the needles on the machine alternating between the two until each needle has yarn around it. You then carefully begin cranking. I’ll talk more about the process in future posts. When the socks come off the machine, they look something like this:

The purple is the actual sock, the rest is waste yarn. The waste yarn at the top of the sock comes right out and because of the hem, the only thing that needs to be done is that the sock yarn needs the end woven in. The toe, on the other hand, needs to be kitchener stitched together. I put mine on knitting needles to do it.

I thought that would be the easiest way to make sure all the stitches were properly oriented. After getting a little refresher on the kitchener stitch, I closed up the toe and had my pair of socks!

These were made with Trekking XXL (colorway??? Can’t remember!). They are far from perfect, and they are a bit on the small side, but not bad for a first attempt! I was so inspired, I went for a second attempt:

This time I did the socks back to back, just putting waste yarn between each sock. The blue is the body of each sock, the pink is the toes and the grey is waste yarn. This apparently is the way many people do it, but I found it a bit of a pain to get the waste yarn out from between each sock. I’ll definitely be looking for more information about making the finishing process easier. In the end, I ended up with a second pair.

These used some scraps of Dale Baby Ull that I had leftover from other projects. Also not exactly perfect considering they aren’t even the same length and are still a bit on the small side, but good practice for sure! I’ve got another pair in progress that I’m sure I’ll be sharing with you soon.

The three most important things I’ve learned from all this so far?

1. My knowledge of crochet hooks and picking up stitches that have run are good weapons to have. If you aren’t comfortable picking up dropped stitches on knitting, it’s going to make life *really* difficult if you try and learn how to use a CSM. Being comfortable with kitchener stitch helps too.

2. Distribution of weight on the stitches on the machine is essential, especially when making a heel or toe. I’ve managed to rig things so I can get by, but I could really use a better plan for weight distribution. I need to find some additional weights and ways to distribute the weight on the knitting to make my life a little easier.

3. Patients and plenty of waste yarn to play with are key. Having someone nice enough to be willing to work with you in person is also a *huge* help.

I think it’s safe to say…

THE SOCK MOJO HAS RETURNED!!!

… to write a decent blog post.

I’ve managed to make tubes

and I’ve done hems and even managed to make the yarnovers necessary for a picot edge

and with the help of Risa last night, I finally managed my first heel!

It ain’t perfect, but it’s a heel nonetheless!

Goals for the weekend:

- Try and make my first real sock
- Take pictures and whatnot necessary to finally answer all your questions.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Firstly, thank you all *so much* for the birthday wishes! I can’t possibly respond to you all individually, but I really appreciate each and every one, both here and on Ravelry. HWJF and I were in the car as they just kept rolling in (along with all the praise for him and his gift buying prowess. Seriously people, you do know how to give a guy a swelled head! Of course, he does deserve it. ) and we definitely had some laughs with some of them.

Sunday was most of the celebration even though my actual birthday was on Monday. I got my new toy in the morning and then my folks came down and we went out to dinner at The Melting Pot with them and a few friends.

Who doesn’t love fondue? Especially when it looks like this?

For those of you who asked, my new toy is a Circular Sock Machine, otherwise known as a CSM. The particular brand of mine is a New Zealand Auto Knitter or NZAK for short. You can read a little bit about the machines here and you can actually watch the instruction video that comes with my machine on Youtube. Just search for NZAK. I also hope to supply those of you who asked with more information and pictures as time goes on, but for the time being you must know that I am a *total* newbie with these things so I’m doing a whole lot of learning myself right now! I’ll be sure to share what I learn as I progress, but the learning curve on these babies is a bit steep, so you’ll have to be a bit patient with me. If you want a really great post about making an actual sock on one of these machines, head on over to Jessalu’s blog post here. She even made me a pair on her machine which sparked my interest in the first place. And I need to publicly thank Risa who was HWJF’s prime source for CSM information and helped make it all happen. Thank you and sorry his idea has cost you so much cash!

In the meantime, I will distract you from my mechanical inabilities with unbelievable cuteness! I spent the actual day of my birthday with HWJF taking a trip up to CT to hang out with Chris and to learn more about her bunnies! I can’t imagine a better way to spend a birthday than to be surrounded by all the fluffy cuteness! We got to ask a whole lot of questions and handle a whole lot of bunnies, including her most recent batch of babies. I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures because I was too busy falling in love with them all asking questions, but Chris got some good pictures of HWJF and I both in this post.

What I did get some pictures of was the before and after of the sheering process. German angoras need their hair clipped by hand every 90 days. It’s an interesting process that involves sharp scissors and calmness on the part of both clipper and clippee. Chris pays special attention to temperament in her breeding program and the results certainly pay off during this process. Here is the ever patient Lorelai on Chris’ lap before her hare haircut.

Something else I learned about these bunnies: pictures do not do their size justice! Lorelai is only 7 months old and not quite full grown and as you may already be able to tell, she’s a big bunny!

Here’s the after:

Amazing difference, eh? There was about 6 ounces of “prime” fiber harvested from this clip. Chris has several bunnies and can be very picky about what she calls “prime” fiber. The result in the roving she sells (which I was lucky enough to try out on her Norm Hall wheel!) is an amazing spinning fiber that has to be worked with to be believed. Chris was even nice enough to send me home with some fiber as a birthday present (which I stupidly neglected to upload the photo of for this post. Damn!)! I totally can’t wait to spin it, but I’m a bit distracted these days with new toys and thoughts of bunnies. Thanks again for putting the cap on a fantastic birthday Chris!

Fiber people are just the best!

And… um…. OH MY FREEKING GOD!!

If there was any doubt as to whether or not HWJF was a keeper in anyone’s mind, this should cure it!!

That definitely softened the blow of hitting the big 3-0!!