Vintage Krankers

New members

2011-02-07T09:53:00.003Z

I have spent the weekend sorting out, tidying up and cross referencing the membership list, and sending emails to those members who haven't joined the forum, and to potential new members. Hopefully we will get more activity on the forum and with some new members, we will me able to organise more meetings during the coming months.

If you know anyone who would like to join us, get them to contact us through the website.

Of course this meant I didn't get near my machines all weekend, and that's my excuse for no socks.

New Year's Resolution

2010-12-31T17:47:00.005Z

Well it's that time of year when I try to get organised ready for selling my knitwear at Craft Fairs, and Agricultural Shows etc. Soooo..... I am going to knit one sock a day...No not one pair! One sock, so I will have a 'sock mountain' by the summer (I hope)

We are trying to combine my good intentions with a blog VKsockmountain.blogspot.com and make it so all VK members can join in and post their own sock pictures themselves. Jacquie is putting a post on VK Yahoo Group explaining how it can be done.
So come along Krankers and join in.
Happy New Year for 2011

Happy New Year VKs

2010-12-31T17:44:00.003Z

Hi
Am back from my Christmas travels, distributing my warm and cozy socks around my relatives - they all know by now that its absolutely no use wishing for anything else!!!
Having made so many socks pre-Christmas, I think I'm going to have a few days off before I get around to cranking out any more.
Meantime ... I have a couple of machines to list on ebay in the near future.
Hope you all had a great Christmas, and wishing you all the best for 2011.
Cheers
Janet

Children's Socks - update and results

2010-12-11T14:45:00.008Z

I eventually got some measurements for the children's socks two weekends ago (the buyer had been to the Bahamas and forgotten all about it). They were bigger than she had led me to believe, so I have been able to do them on a 60/30 set-up on an AKMC.

I knitted one pair by the Monday, when I was seeing her, and she pulled a face and said she didn't think they looked the right size. She would go and measure their feet "right now", as she was picking them up from school. She forgot Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....... I eventually had a phone call on the following Saturday from son in law and have the right measurements. It is interesting that the measurements she gave me were shoe sizes and a measurement around the foot. The actual foot measurements are bigger than the children's shoe sizes indicated (taken from more than one chart), and the leg lengths a lot longer than she had asked for. Give me real measurements every time.

Despite the hassle getting the sizes, it was a worthwhile exercise as when faced with the box with my stock in, she bought four pairs of bedsocks, not just one. The rejected pair of children's socks is now in my stock box and will sell one day. I now know I can do a range of 5 to 8 year old's size socks on my 60 slot machine and get the right sort of sizes, AND can do the tiny socks on 48 needles (or more or less) on my flat bed. Maybe one day I'll find a 48/24 set-up for one of my machines. They were made by several of the manufacturers, but seem as rare as rockinghorse droppings.

The photo shows (from left to right) the smallest socks, done as toe-up circular knitting on my flat bed machine with hand knitted ribs, in Fortissima, the next two sizes on a 60/30 set up on an AKMC, the pink is my own hand dyed yarn and the multi-colour striped is Regia. Finally the wider pair on the right is one of my pairs (for scale), knitted on a 72/36 Griswold using one of my hand painted sock blanks. The striped pair look long in the foot, but when stretched sideways to the right width, are of course shorter. Always the problem with the first pair of socks for anyone, what cylinder to use and how much stretch/take up to allow for in each direction.

Children's Socks

2010-11-15T12:55:00.004Z

Having spent the last few weeks acting as visitor/nurse/carer since Richard had a heart bypass at the beginning of October, my sock knitting (and my lace making) have been nearly non existent. But now he is getting better, and I am back to teaching, life is getting nearer to normal.

I have made a jumper on my flatbed during this time (thank you, Helen, for your help and patience) and finally got it sewn up. My first try at mattress stitch, and on dark green/brown tweedy yarn this was not easy, so it took a while. But it fits!

I have just had an order for a pair of bedsocks, not a problem as I have them in stock in a choice of colours, but she also want two pairs of children's socks in small sizes. I have tried this in the past for my granddaughter, and not liked the results. Knitted on alternate needles to narrow the tube to the right sort of size stays looking like mock rib however much I wiggle it around, and on the compound cylinder they are much too wide.

So, I am going to knit them as toe up socks on my flat bed machine, and do the ribs by hand. Cheating maybe, but if it gives me good looking socks it will solve the problem. BUT, if any of you can do small, child's socks on a CSM, please share the secret.

Uncluttering My Workroom

2010-09-05T20:36:00.002+01:00

I made a decision to jettison all the cabled legs and ribbed tops I got free of charge with my Harrison machine. The person I bought the machine from made long lengths of rib, scrap, rib, scrap. She then cut them apart, and rehung them onto the machine and knitted cabled legs scrapping them off at the ankle. Her customers then chose the colour and leg length they wanted and she added the foot the size they wanted.

Having only converted two pairs into socks despite having them here for about four or five years now, and for the other reasons given below, I have no reservations about letting them go. In one bag I found a couple of finished pairs, and even though I say it myself they don't look a patch on my socks so I am now even more convinced I have made the right decision.

My reasons are as follows – I hate picking up the stitches again, I didn’t actually get the matching wool to knit the feet for a lot of them, I didn’t much like the finished socks; a cable leg on an 84 cylinder is enormous, I don’t like using this particular pure wool for socks to sell (it shrinks as easy as blinking), and the only socks I have worn a hole in were ones made in some of that wool, despite the fact I hadn’t worn them all that much.

I am still not convinced that making the ribs all in a row with scrap spacers, rehanging them and doing the same with the legs, and then rehanging again for the feet is any quicker than just knitting the sock all in a piece. The idea is that it's much quicker if you don't have to keep changing the needles in and out, but that's not a lot slower than rehanging and it gives another two lots of ends to darn in.

I'm sure that I would get quicker at it with more practise, but it is such a fiddly job. Because of the nature of sock machines and the needles caught down in the cams, you can't put all the stitches on all the needles. If you miss a stitch or a needle, you don't always find out about it until it is too late, or it's really difficult to correct it.

Technical Problems

2009-10-24T18:58:00.000+01:00

Sorry to anyone who tried to access my website. Technical hosting problems. All will be resolved ASAP - I hope!!
Thanks
Janet

Good news for sock machines

2009-10-01T00:07:00.004+01:00

Yippee-- New needles are hopefully coming for the 108 cylinders an 54 ribber dials. That means finer socks and stocking. So I must look out the 108 cylinders and get them cleaned up. (They are not all as bad as the one in the picture . It's the only one I could lay my hands on without grovelling in boxes tonight. )
Let us know if anyone is interested in getting any needles or perhaps a cylinder set up too as there are some around as they were useless without the needles. Contact us through the web site Sockknittingmachines.co.uk

On the move again!!!

2009-07-19T20:46:00.002+01:00

Hi all

Just want you all to know I'll be on the move again very shortly!!! This time, I'm moving up to Ayrshire in Scotland. After the move itself, I should find life a lot more relaxing, with a lot more time to spend on sock machines and associated things! That's the intention anyway ....

So, hopefully after August, you'll be hearing a lot more from me ...

If anyone wants my new address details, please e-mail me off list.

Thanks

Janet

All go now

2009-06-29T10:25:00.007+01:00

Aug 22nd - Aug 23rd FIBREFEST weekend at Coldharbour mill in Devon. See www.fibrefest.co.uk

Janet, Helen, Jacquie and Richard will all be there.
We are doing Mini workshops on Sock machines with copies of tutorials on DVD available to buy at workshop or on stand as will sock machine spares and socks.

See you there.

Latest Socks

2009-03-29T00:02:00.002Z

Today I finished restoring a very old Imperia machine. It is in very good condition for its age and doesn't have excessive wear on the cams and cylinder grooves. The needles of course all needed replacing.
I have knitted a sock using the 72 cylinder and found compaired to my lovely Cymbal machine that the Imperia knits a little tighter. I will add a picture of the machine when I have it set up again. In the meantime here is todays sock.

The Problems with Knots.

2009-03-22T20:26:00.004Z

I have been away from home this week, teaching my lace classes, so I haven't had much sock knitting time. But I want to tell you about a pair that I made on Sunday last week. Two or three years ago I bought some pure wool sock yarn off e-bay. It has a label on it written in Russian and it came from a seller in Hull; I bought five 100g balls for a good enough price to risk the fact that it is supposed to be hand-washed, whereas I will wash at least the first pair on a machine wool wash. I don't do hand washing unless it is essential, and I know my machine is gentle. But of course, I had never gotten around to using it.

In the light of my current enthusiasm for the Griswold I brought down one of the Russian wools, and rewound it ready to knit. As I wound I came to a knot, but decided that as I was about half way through I probably had enough for one sock, and set to work. I was nearly right and it knitted a beautiful sock up to the end of the foot and the first two or three rows of the toe.

At this point I wound some more, until I met a thin bit of wool that just fell apart in my hand. Looking at what I had wound, I decided it was more than I had the first time so should do the second sock, which it did. I grafted the ends together with a long overlap so I had a smooth but strong join on the toe, finished sock one and knitted sock two.

I am now getting to the point of the tale. The dyed pattern on the yarn was a splotch of blue then pink, yellow, pink, yellow, pink and back to blue. The complete repeat knitted just over a round (on the 72) with the blue starting a few stitches past where it had been on the previous round. There was enough blue to knit about 20 stitches, so the blue spiral was about 6 rows deep. It was fascinating watching the blue 'moving' round the cylinder as the handle cranked.

Sock two seemed to be just the same, with the blue moving around the cylinder row by row, but as it came out of the bottom I realised that the blue spiral stripe was much narrower. The blue section was much shorter, so it didn't knit as many stitches; this meant that the overlap only took about three rows. I think that the pink/yellow sections must be slightly longer each time giving a total repeat of the same length or the blue wouldn't overlap in the same way. I now have a unique 'pair' of socks and I don't want any jealousy.

As a first experience of this make of wool it is not impressive. However Helen has had a similar experience with the far more expensive Opal where she found that her best laid plans of a beautifully matched pair of socks went awry when the pattern repeat was reversed at a knot!

I have another ball of Russian yarn to knit next, by request of Richard who complained that his socks are boring compared to mine, so I will report back about the quality and also how it copes with being machine washed. If it turns out that all the different colours are dyed using the same pattern repeat it will be interesting to see the different patterns that result when knitted on other size cylinders. The seller is still on e-bay with the same yarn - currently Buy-it-Now for around £5 for two 100g balls, plus shipping of course.

I still have to do the toes on the cotton socks, and I have noticed I have a repair to do. I must have dropped a stitch as I finished the heel and pushed the needles back down into action - operator error not feeling a closed latch - but easy enough to repair as I saw it before I sewed the toe.

Bless My Cotton Socks

2009-03-14T09:21:00.006Z

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?

Strange Sizes

2009-03-09T14:06:00.004Z

Do you remember I took an unfinished sock for my friend to try? As it was way too big, I offered her my new pink Opal Flamingo ones to try on and they fitted. She loved the colour (even though it's not her usual thing) and was as pleased as Punch with them (should that be a capital P? Is it Punch the puppet, or a Punch horse or the drink, or the action that you are as pleased as????).

Anyway, those socks fit me, size 5, and apparently fitted her at size 8. Certainly the extra 10 rows was too many on the ones I had made for her. And she has quite chubby feet and mine are slim to average. Strange.

Helen and I have been talking about sizes recently and she is going to post a 'foot' on her personal blog (http://socksrme.blogspot.com/) and would like as many people as possible to send in their measurements. Will you please do it, and encourage all your friends to as well, so we can make better fitting socks. I will tell you when she has posted the foot.

I'm off to rewind and reknit the Trekking wool into a slightly shorter pair of socks for Richard - this time they'll both have toes.

I'm sad.

2009-03-06T12:07:00.012Z

For quite a while my bestest friend has been hinting that she hasn't got a pair of my socks yet. As I am seeing her this weekend I thought I'd make a pair for her, and as her feet are a good bit bigger than mine I made them so they would fit Richard (small men's feet, but wide) if they were way off for her. But at least I would be able to get an idea from her feedback whether to use the 72 or 84 cylinder and how many rows in leg and foot.

So I chose a ball of Trekking in her sort of colours and knitted the same recipe I have used for the last three pairs, but with 10 rows more in the foot.

About 5 rows before the toe on sock two, I ran out of yarn!!!!!

So now I can only take one and she will have to try it with the toe unfinished so I can frog it out and reknit with the leg a few rows shorter, and then I will have add the remaining bit of yarn to the yarn from the other sock and reknit that a bit shorter as well. I need to review Janet's magic way of splicing wool together; I can bodge it so it looks OK when its been knitted, but she can do it so quickly, while I am all fingers and thumbs. I am missing something impotant in the technique.

I am sad, not because I have to knit them again, but because I was looking forward to being able to say "They're yours," if they fitted. Looking on the bright side, at least now I know that when I reknit them they will fit her.

What I am cross about is that I had loads left from the Opal, Regia and Fyberspates socks. The Regia is the shortest of the three at 420m per 100g, which is just the same as the Trekking; I had more than enough left to knit the extra 20 - 25 rows worth of wool I needed for the last bit of foot and toe. After all is said and done, these socks are only 20 rows longer than the ones I have already knitted so I have run out at about the same number of rows as my other finished socks. Please comment on your experiences with Trekking - was I just unlucky with this ball?

Boasting? Well nearly.

2009-03-02T10:28:00.013Z

I'm in love with another machine. This Griswold knits just as smoothly as my favourite Harrison. I finished knitting the pair of Reggia socks on Saturday, but late in the evening rather than afternoon. I am amazed how much quicker it feels changing the ribber needles in and out on the 72/36 - it's only 12 slots less after all. Now I know why the US CSMers can boast about how quickly they can make socks when they are using a 54 slot machine and no ribber.

Sunday I found the charger for my camera, but then the camera itself was hiding. As I couldn't take photos anyway, there was no rush to graft the toes. The second Reggia sock was still hanging on the machine, I was on a knitting roll, so Richard acted as a swift and I wound a skein of lovely hand-dyed Blackfaced Leicester/nylon sock wool from Fyberspates. I knitted a pair of socks very speedily - the second one I timed at 35 minutes and that included cooking supper at the same time. Well OK, only putting chicken joints in the oven and turning the gas on under the potatoes. I had realised half way through the first sock's foot that I'd still got the heel spring on, so I knitted a few extra rows and did the second one the same.

At this point I snipped out the waste yarn below sock two, only to find an unfinished selvedge. That's what happens when you're very smart and cook supper at the same time as knitting socks! On contemplating I realised I'd missed the important 'ribber out of action, ribber back in action' step. Ooops. I then separated second Reggia sock from the first Fyberspated one, only to find that part of the top of the latter was also not finished properly. That one I don't know what I did wrong.

Rewound Fyberspates #1 and re-knitted it. You can be sure that just before the heel, when there was enough leg hanging down to get the buckle onto it, I snipped off the waste yarn to check the selvedge. I may make mistakes, but I try to learn by them. This time I made sure I took the heel spring off after the heel and knitted the foot without it, so I could omit the extra rows and be sure to have enough yarn. I was surprised at the end how little difference there was between the amount of yarn used for 55 rows without the spring and 60 rows with. It was the same on both socks and was less than a metre.

Rewound #2 and re-knitted, both absolutely fine. When things like this happen I have to admit that I am glad to have an electric wool winder, even though I told Richard I was happy with the hand turned one when he was thinking of buying one for me. He is very happy when he is proved right. Can I count that as two pairs for Sunday, or only one? The Fyberspates yarn feels very soft compared to unwashed Reggia; I'll let you know a comparison afterwards.

Monday I found the camera, where it belongs, and where I looked on Sunday. Ditto the crate of sock wool I couldn't find on Saturday. How do things that large 'go invisible'. To release the second Fyberspates sock from the machine I started a pair of maroon/pink/cream Opal. This ball has the label is missing, which seemed a good reason to use it up - and I like pink. From another the same (told you I like pink) I see it is Rainforest Flamingo. But when I was up to the heel and took off the other sock, I found that yet again the selvedge wasn't locked properly.

This has got to be solved. I made sure I had overlapped the start of the new yarn (ie a row and a quarter of rib) before I switched out the ribber, counted the rows on just cylinder needles and checked that everything knitted cleanly on the first row with the ribber back in action. I think that I will do the next one very slowly, with Richard eagle-eyes watching from above. Problem is I did two right, one that went wrong (I'm not counting the one I forgot to switch in-and-out at all!), then two that went right and another that's wrong. Just take deeps breaths and think beautiful thoughts.

This evening I have grafted three toes, the Reggia pair and one of the Fyberspates socks. I only seem to be able to get the picture at the top of the page; it shows the finished pair. I'm sure there ought to be a way to put the photo where I want it, but I don't know how, just yet.

72 slot socks

2009-02-28T14:30:00.013Z

After all the time we have had sock machines, I am about to make a pair on a 72 slot cylinder for the first time! Most of the socks I have made have been for Richard and he has wide feet, so the 84 with the standard yarns seems about right for him. But they are really too wide for me.

He has set up a Griswold (#40862) for me to use, but as I don't remember if I have used this machine before I started with good scrap and made a tube with a heel. So far so good. I had been going to try Trekking but as that is away in a safe place (do you have those too?) I eventually settled on Reggia that had already been wound onto cones ready to knit. I used a whole ball doing a tube with different stitch lengths, added the ribber and tried the same settings with that in place, and finally did a ribber in/out selvedge. All very smooth and troublefree; what a lovely machine.

So this afternoon I am going to knit a pair of socks for me and, thinking beautiful thoughts, try to make them with the same number of rows in the same places and remembering to take off the heel spring at the same point in both socks which is my usual stumbling block. Watch this space; I might even post a photo when they're finished. J

Getting there slowly.

2009-02-27T09:13:00.003Z

Hi.
We are working hard getting the website and blogspot up and running. Eventually only members will have access to the blogspot along with a members area in the website. All this takes time though as age gets in the way!!
If you have any suggestions how our blogspot should progress (only nice, clean and respectful ones considered R-----) Please add them to the comments.
Helen.k

Welcome

2009-02-26T20:41:00.004Z

Welcome to Vintage Krankers. An on-line meeting place for British Sock Knitting Machine enthusiasts.