Yesterday I knitted two pairs of Opal Cotton on my 72 Griswold set-up.
There is yet another story behind this which might explain why I am so pleased. I first tried to knit this yarn when I was using my Harrison Nittol, and the machine hated it. It was heavy to turn and it missed knitting occasional stitches, but I ignored what the machine was trying to tell me and had got as far as doing the top selvedge, rib and leg. However, when it appeared below the cylinder and I realised just how many missed stitches there were, I took it off the machine and the tube and the yarn have sat in my sock box for at least two years.
When I was looking for the wool to make the socks for my friend last weekend, one of the ones I found was a different ball of Opal cotton. As this machine is so user friendly I thought I'd give it another try. On this set up it knitted as easily as the wool yarns. I then dug deeper into the box and found the previous disaster, rewound it and knitted a second pair. Temporary hiccup when I got so carried away doing the heel that I went two rows to far and had to frog it back, but the only problems were operator error.
Thinking about it now, it was just too much to expect the Nittol to cope with. It's an 84/42 set-up and it is a smaller cylinder than most at 4 1/4". Add the slightly less elastic cotton yarn to the equation and the whole thing was impossible.
Once I have done the toes, I'll post a photo.
Also this week I reknitted the Trekking socks in Richard's size and I also made him a pair of socks out of some cone yarn which I think is acrylic. This is to see how they wear in comparison to wool. It is a lovely tweed effect yarn in green, brown and red (although Richard will just see 'dark' as he is colour blind) and if it's comfortable to wear I'd rather have it made into socks than keep it on the cone to use as scrap. If they wear out quicker than wool (which is what 'everyone' says) I don't mind too much, so long as it's not 6 wears and throw them away, as it's still making a better use of the yarn than just scrap knitting. Do any of you have experience of acrylic for socks?
There is yet another story behind this which might explain why I am so pleased. I first tried to knit this yarn when I was using my Harrison Nittol, and the machine hated it. It was heavy to turn and it missed knitting occasional stitches, but I ignored what the machine was trying to tell me and had got as far as doing the top selvedge, rib and leg. However, when it appeared below the cylinder and I realised just how many missed stitches there were, I took it off the machine and the tube and the yarn have sat in my sock box for at least two years.
When I was looking for the wool to make the socks for my friend last weekend, one of the ones I found was a different ball of Opal cotton. As this machine is so user friendly I thought I'd give it another try. On this set up it knitted as easily as the wool yarns. I then dug deeper into the box and found the previous disaster, rewound it and knitted a second pair. Temporary hiccup when I got so carried away doing the heel that I went two rows to far and had to frog it back, but the only problems were operator error.
Thinking about it now, it was just too much to expect the Nittol to cope with. It's an 84/42 set-up and it is a smaller cylinder than most at 4 1/4". Add the slightly less elastic cotton yarn to the equation and the whole thing was impossible.
Once I have done the toes, I'll post a photo.
Also this week I reknitted the Trekking socks in Richard's size and I also made him a pair of socks out of some cone yarn which I think is acrylic. This is to see how they wear in comparison to wool. It is a lovely tweed effect yarn in green, brown and red (although Richard will just see 'dark' as he is colour blind) and if it's comfortable to wear I'd rather have it made into socks than keep it on the cone to use as scrap. If they wear out quicker than wool (which is what 'everyone' says) I don't mind too much, so long as it's not 6 wears and throw them away, as it's still making a better use of the yarn than just scrap knitting. Do any of you have experience of acrylic for socks?
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