CSM

Here she is.  I’ve been told that all sock machines should be named, but I haven’t yet named mine.  I’ll have to work with her a bit more, and learn her personality before I give her a name.  Isn’t she a beaut?

My first cranked item…a bonnet (seen mounted in the CSM above).

I’ve kitchenered the bottom around a D ring.  The ring is there to hang your weights from.  I had a devil of a time with the kitchener on this.  I originally tried kitchener the bottom with the waste yarn in place.  This is the same as kitchener the toe of a sock with a toe chimney.  Simple enough, follow the path of the existing stitches.  Except I didn’t.  The waste yarn was blue, which was hard to see in my already blue yarn.  And I was doing it late in the evening without my Ott light.  When I pulled out the waste yarn, the tip came wide open.  After a few nasty words, I picked up the stitches with some DPNs and tried again.  Much better.  I think I will be doing it using the DPN method from now on.  No need to do it twice.

So far, this is my only finished item on the sock machine, because the sock didn’t make it.

Here’s the sock to be.  Looks good, doesn’t it?  Well, here’s the close up…

See that nasty run at the corner of the turned toe?  There’s a matching run on the other side.  There is just no easy way to pick all those stitches up and ensure that you maintain the short row toe turn.  At least, not in my inexperienced hands.  I’ve decided that it would be much easier and faster to rewind this sock back on the cone and re-crank.

Or it would be, once I start cranking again.  This week is full of holiday parties.  I found that it isn’t a good idea to work on these things after a night of festivities and drink (see above paragraph on the kitchener attempt).  I’ll give it a go this weekend.