With A Sock Machine, You Never Know
If you have ever tried making a sock on one of these amazing devices, you know that with a sock machine, you never know.
Especially With An Antique Sock Machine, You Definitely Never Know!
A while ago, I got some fantastic sock yarn from The Perfect Purl. One of the items I got was a hand-dyed sock blank. There were also some beautiful 100 gram hanks of sock yarn in gorgeous colors. I knew I had to try them on my sock machine!
I did the standard set up for a cuff-to-toe sock. My standard sock starts with 30 rounds of 1×1 rib and then switches to 3×1 rib for the remainder of the sock (except the underside of the foot).
I tried no less than FIVE times to get a sock started and it blew out each and every time.
First, I tried switching to a different yarn. The thickness of a particular yarn might cause issues. Then I tried making adjustments to the machine. Nothing worked. And after five or more attempts, I finally just threw up my hands and put it all away to focus on organizing the recent Men’s Knitting Retreat.
I Tried Again
Recently, a friend of mine asked if I would make a couple of pairs of socks for a gift for her husband. I had made a pair for her (also as a gift for her husband) and they fit him very well (he has a wide heel, which I adjusted for on the machine).
So, I sat down at the machine again.
Using the EXACT same yarn and making NO adjustments to the machine, I was able to make two pair of almost flawless socks (with an adjusted size heel) in less than 3 hours.
WTF?!?! Yes, I have to finish the one pair, but that won’t take long at all.
People tell me their sewing machines can be temperamental sometimes. Which happens to me sometime too. But almost always, it’s user error with my sewing machine. Perhaps it is with the sock machine too. I honestly don’t know.
Current Knitting
I was able to finish the Parallelogram scarf.
The scarf ended up being 9″ wide and about 64″ long. Although that will be a little different after washing/blocking. Overall, I’m quite pleased with how this turned out. It will shortly go into my craft show inventory for sale in the last two craft shows I will do (November and December).
Well, maybe we need to rest a little, and consider the problem on a other way. I tried and tried on my circular machine and everything went wrong. Several months after, I tried again. This time, I noted everything I did, in order not to loose my enthousiasm, and remember the processes. Miracle ! It worked ! And I too, really don’t know why. It was the same with my flat knitting machine, wich I learn to operate. Maybe we got some implicit skills in the meantime ?
I battled with my machine and leaned towards operator error when in fact my yarn carriage was to far and high. Now to master a complete sock.