Vintage Krankers Sock Mountain

Going Round in Circles at Ruddington.

2012-02-11T03:52:00.001-08:00

"Going Round In Circles in Ruddington"

Date: Saturday 24th March 2012, 9:30 to 4:30

This is a new, one-day event in the Chapel of Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum, a few miles south of Nottingham, for owners and users of circular sock machines, beginners and improvers alike. I am hoping to draw in CSM lovers from different parts of the UK, as there has not been a national conference or regional gathering for some years. The idea of the day is to get to know each other, learn a little (some acknowledged experts will be on hand for workshops), exchange ideas on sock and non-sock projects, compete for a small prize, perhaps solve a few problems, and have a lot of fun. The cost of the day will be just £10 to include refreshments throughout, but bringing your own lunch (or there's a pub next door).

The museum and cottages across the street will be closed for springcleaning, but you should also be able to visit the stocking collection upstairs in the Chapel. It takes about one and a half to two hours to do this "gem of a museum" justice anyway. See www.rfkm.org for map

Numbers are restricted by the size of the room in the Chapel, as most people will be bringing their own machines. It will be first come, first served, so I need to know the numbers beforehand. If you are coming a great distance, there is little accommodation in Ruddington itself, but plenty in Nottingham and West Bridgford, about 5 miles away. You will need to Google for it. If coming on public transport, there is a very frequent bus service, the Nottingham- Loughborough route, which drops you within yards of the museum.

If you can make it (and I would love it if you could), please send me a direct email (clicking on the symbols at top right) rather than replying to this posting on the group - I do not get a daily digest so might miss a reply The day's programme has not yet been finalised. Further information, hopefully answering any questions like parking (close, free), possibility of sharing a car etc, will then be sent out to everybody by direct email.

Mary The Knit

2011-04-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

Colour is showing darker than the socks are

Shorter leg made with Forsell's supersoft yarn

75% wool and 25% nylon

Getting better no boob with sewing up

2011-04-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

February's socks made with 2 strands of yarn from BSK Note this yarn is still twisting but not as bad as the cream coloured one.

Not pressed or steamed, just as they come off the machine.

Note bloomer with sewing up on the lower sock, eyes not what they used to be.

january socks

2011-04-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

January's socks made with Forsell's rutland tweed which is 97% wool and 3% nylon.

Just as they come off the machine no pressing, steaming etc

April Sock of the Month

2011-04-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

This month is a fairly easy one, to allow us all to recover from not having done lace socks last month. You can still do them in the future months.

Contrast heels and toes. This is fairly self explanatory - any sock you want to do but with a different colour changed in on the last row as you come to start the heel, and changed back on last row before you start circular knitting again.

It is useful to do as it means you can use up scraps of yarn left over from whole socks. See one of my February Mock Rib pairs to see what they look like.

March Sock of the Month

2011-03-10T03:27:00.000-08:00

As I expect all the Vintage Krankers members will have seen on the forum, the March Sock of the Month is LACE.

You can make a panel down one side, a band around the top, a completely lacey sock or however you choose to interpret it. Any area of same colour pattern - more than one colour comes later in the year.

Dig out your sock manuals and have a read. I think they all have some fancy stitches in the back, and some were talked about on the forum. Another reminder that there are manuals to download on the website and the forum.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with - even if you only get as far as doing some samples it would be interesting for all of us if you would post pictures of the results.

My February Socks

2011-03-10T03:09:00.000-08:00

Here is the photo of my February socks.

The two pairs of random-dyed black and white are the Sock-of-the-Month ones I wrote about before; mock rib with e-wrap start and curly over tops.

The other two pairs were orders which is why they have my Darn Good Handcranked Socks labels on; fortunately I remembered to photograph them before I put them in the post.

They are both made from my hand dyed wool. The long pair at the back have a grey through to purple colour range. When I came to knit them I discovered that the only two skeins of the colour I had left in stock were slightly different so I knitted the legs from the slightly darker, more purple one and the feet from the one with a touch more grey. In the finished socks the colour difference doesn't notice at all.

The other pair are from one of my painted sock blanks - the yarn is knitted double and a large design painted on. When rewound into single yarn and knitted the pattern bears no relationship to the original design (so it's always interesting to see what you get), and both socks are as near identical as it is possible to be with a handcrafted item. I should have moved them a little apart to take the photo, but you can see at the heel and foot that the design matches in both socks.

My January Score

2011-03-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid NewYear's Resolution went to the wall very quickly.
The photos are missing a few socks as some are still waiting to be sewn up and the long socks were made for a man to go trekking in the Himalayas (as you do). He had them in black and grey. I am going to call my long socks 'The Everest Range' I will think of names for other styles later and publish them on here. In all I managed 22 socks (11pr)
February alas I made none! but promise to do better in March (can't do any worse)

Mock Rib Socks for February

2011-02-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Just an update as I have done two pairs following the instructions for "A Man's Plain Sock" in the Griswold manual, which start with an e-wrap (onto scrap knitting) over groups of 3 needles in, and 1 out. Once the top is knitted, needles are added to fill all the space, (picking up a loop from the row below for each new needle) before working the rest of the sock in plain knitting.

This worked quite easily and I made a pair of these. The only problem is that the top rolls to the outside, so I then made another pair using a contrast yarn for the roll, heels and toes. If you can't beat them join them - it is now a design feature. It does make a soft top which would suit people with circulation problems, but I have yet to test-wear them to see how well they stay in place.

In the Griswold manual these are suggested as the first sock to be made before you worry about the ribber, and it is suggested they are knitted with the "Stitch as tight as will run easily", which I did. Perhaps made in pure wool, steamed well, the top is more stable but I doubt it. I will post a picture of these in a day or two when I have grafted all the toes.

Fired with enthusiasm, I looked next in the New Harrison "Sunette" Circular Ribber manual to find instructions for both "Turn down Mock Rib Tops" and "Another Method of Knitting a Mock Ribbed Top. Imagine my disappointment to find the latter was just the same as the Griswold.

For the former you start on scrap with every other needle. The instructions are to knit 20 rows "at a loose tension". I lengthened the stitch by one complete number for this. After 20 rows you add needles into every other space (giving 3 in, 1 out) and pick up the hem, but very specifically only onto the original needles. The instructions are then to knit another 40 rows, before adding needles and picking up loops (as for the Griswold sock). Having cranked on so the top was visible I could see I wasn't going to like this one, so I knitted the rest of the ball as a tube and took it off the machine to photograph, before I re-wind it.

There are multiple problems!

First, when you don't have all the needles in, the knitting is much looser anyway. I should have worked this one out from first two pairs. As you can see, the top hem is very loose; the stitch length either didn't need to be altered, or could even have been made a little tighter with no ill effect.

Second, because you didn't either hang onto the new needles, or pick up loops from below the stitches onto them as the hem was hung, there is a dinky little row of holes around the top - ribbon anyone?

Third, the 20 row hem (now only 10 rows long) is out of all proportion to the 40 rows of 3x1 knitted for the sock top, whether it is left up or folded over. Your 'eyes' see the hem as the sock top while the 40 rows of mock rib stretch a long way down the leg and just look strange! I'm not even sure which bit the turn down is supposed to be; if you fold it any lower than the hem you see the purl side of the knitting. Judge for yourself from the photos.

But all is not lost. I am not crazy about the look of the mock rib hem tops when an inch or so is all there is. So after making this sample what I am going to try next is to make the 1x1 bit a lot longer (60 rows), fold up the hem and add every other needle, but this time picking up loops as well (no holes this time). I will then knit a slightly shorter length (another 25 rows) in 3x1, before adding the rest of the needles to do the sock. The double hem will fold over the 3x1 and give a nice old-fashioned turn over top look - hopefully.

And I still have the Imperia, Cymbal, Golden Fleece and AKMC books to look in. How are you all getting on? Anyone else want to join us?

Sock of the Month, February.

2011-02-18T08:39:00.001-08:00

This month's sock is an easy one (allegedly), but one I have never done. And that, of course, is the whole point of Sock of the Month. We are only asking for one pair in each of the SotM techniques, but you never know, you might find that it is one you want to use again.

Your challenge this month is to make a sock with mock rib. For inspiration take a look as the Soxophone Player's blog (one of my favourites) as his socks are mostly made this way. http://soxophoneplayer.com/ will take you to his current blog, but for his earlier archives look at the previous site as well ttp://www.soxophoneplayer.blogspot.com/ . Be warned, you can spend many hours looking at his site - he is very generous at sharing his ideas.

Most, if not all, of the machine manuals have instructions for mock rib socks; don't forget there are ones to download on the website and the forum.

It is a good job that it is an easy one this month, as you only have 10 days left to do your socks. I'll try to get the March sock up a bit more promptly.

My January Score

2011-02-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's over half-way through February! However, as I am only claiming for 5 socks then you'll know the late declaration wasn't so I could try to play catch-up.

This first photograph shows the reason for having FIVE socks. The one on the left was my first try with a new yarn on a new-to-me machine and it is far too long. The pair on the left are closer to being right, but are a tid short in the foot for me - probably about a size 4 to 5 shoe.

The yarn is the one from Lidl's, and the machine is an AKMC with a 60/30 set up. The yarn is finer than the standard sock yarn, which I like as it will be less bulky in my shoes, but Helen says it's stringy. I used the 60 so I could knit it without ribbed legs. I did test knit a complete ball on different stitch lengths, but obviously went well astray on my calculations.

The second photo (left)

shows that pair finished, and a second pair with a few more rows in the foot. I also made the top rib a bit shorter as I thought it was long in proportion to the leg.

Trying harder for February.

I am still on track

2011-01-21T01:01:00.000-08:00

Well over halfway through January and I am still on track with 'a sock a day'.
Not all socks though but the leg warmers have been done on a sock machine so they do count. I have made 3 (not 3 pair!) The first was the proto type and as the weather has turned very cold again (well it has here in Devon) I think I will be doing more. I have found that the easiest way to make a cast off edge on 1/1 rib is to do the last rib row as loose as possible. Leave a very long end of sock wool attached, then do several rows of waste yarn . Remove knitting from machine. With waste yarn still on pick up last row of ribbing on sock using small circular needle. Remove waste yarn and with a larger size ordinary needle cast off in rib with the long end of sock wool

Dilemma

2011-01-02T12:43:00.000-08:00

I have a dilemma! Today I knitted a sock. Well that is what I plan to do most days. BUT.....

I was using a yarn I haven't tried before, on a machine I haven't used for socks for me before. I used the 60/30 set up on the AKMC on which I knitted the children's socks before Christmas (http://vintagekrankers.blogspot.com/) and as I use a 60/30 Golden FLeece to knit my only-ribbed-at-the-top alpaca socks, I thought I'd do much the same. No problem so far.

Having finished the first, and made a complete pigs ear of the second (so I'd taken the knitting off the machine,) I thought I'd try it on before grafting the toe. It's a good job I did as the foot was way too long, and where I'd made the leg longer than on my alpaca socks, the rib was too tight around my leg that much further up. About 15 rows less in the foot and 30 less in the leg needed.

So my dilemma is, I have knitted this sock but am about to rewind it to try again. Can I count it as a sock? Or are they only socks after the toe is finished? I can photograph it and post the photo tomorrow to prove it was there, even if only briefly. I could even photograph it next to a ruler so you can all see that the next one is smaller.

Anyway, if it's OK for me to count this one, so can you if you are in the same situation at any time during the year; and if that's not bribery and corruption, I don't know what is.

January's sock

2010-12-31T10:48:00.001-08:00

Once you have got this far, I hope you have decided to join us on our new venture. Helen told me last year she was hoping to knit a sock-a-day in 2010, and I thought it sounded a good idea. We both failed miserably. This year we thought that if more of you are watching us, we might have more success. And if you join in, even with a much lower target, then we'll all be prepared for birthdays, Christmas and unexpected sales opportunities in 2011.

To recap from the Yahoo forum, decide how many socks you aspire to make each month, and e-mail one of us through the Vintage Krankers home website ( http://www.sockknittingmachines.co.uk/index.htm ); we will transfer that figure to the left hand sidebar here on the "Mountain" blog, and at the same time give you author's rights on the blog so you can post.

At any time during the month you can post to let us all know how you are getting on, for support, encouragement or a big kick up the backside (I need lots of those). At the end of the month take a photo of all that month's socks and post it on the blog, so we can all see how close you came to your monthly target. At the end of the year, add up your score and see if you made it for your grand total.

For the first "Sock of the Month" we are letting you off lightly as we are asking for a top-down ribbed sock, which is probably what most of you knit anyway. But, if you are still not using your ribber, this is the month to get it working! If you don't use it because it doesn't knit reliably, ask your questions here or on the Yahoo forum. If you don't use it because you don't like it, it's only one pair to be made, and you might decide that the professional looking ribbed socks are worth the extra effort.

For the ribbed sock, you can follow Janet's "Pennine Ranger's instructions" in Files on the Yahoo Forum, the ribbed sock instructions in your vintage manuals (the Golden Fleece and Imperia manuals can be downloaded from the website) or Helen has just posted her instructions in Files as well. The selvedge can be done in whatever way you prefer, e-wrap, automatic selvedge, or Juanita's CSM Selvedge (find it via Google) are three ideas, and the rib can be anything that will fit with your needle count, but in the spirit of the exercise you could try methods you've not used before. If you have any problems in the making, the group is here to help.

Hope to see lots of you here with us, Kranking out socks and perfecting our skills.