Kilts and Circular Sock Machines!

[KiltedKnome]

At Fibrations 2015, a Victoria celebration of fiber arts, The Wizard demonstrated the use of circular sock machines .... kilted, of course!

[Profane James]

Ah cool! Putting the 'spoke' in bespoke with that thing!

[IsaacW]

OOooo.... I would love one of those machines!!

IW

[KiltedKnome]

OOooo.... I would love one of those machines!!

IW

Check out this website....http://stores.erlbachergearhart.com/

[IsaacW]

Check out this website....http://stores.erlbachergearhart.com/

Yes, I have seen that. My wife and I have considered getting one but have been waffling on it. They are a bit of an investment, but I do know there are less and less people making bespoke hose and especially tartan hose.

IW

[Steve Ashton]

If I can throw some advice your way.

The learning curve with these machines is huge. Most are purchased and never used simply because their owners never seem to be able to make a sock on one.

I'm pretty mechanical. I mean I used to take apart multi-million dollar attack helicopters and put them back together.
But these machines almost drove me over the edge.
They are old world steam engine technology. You have to be able to adjust them, timing one gear to another, and they work best when you have an oil can handy.

I never was able to get a good sock out of my first machine which was an antique purchased about 6 years ago.

With these brand new machines at least you know that the machine works. That is simply not true of many of the EBay machines. Some EBay sellers have found that these machines have become popular and are buying old rusty ones from farm sales and bodgering two or three together then commanding prices that rival a new machine. Ravelry is full of horror stories about these EBay machines.

It took me about six weeks of nightly cranking, and about $300.00 worth of yarn to get my first good sock.

I am now seen as some sort of expert with these machines. I have been asked to teach classes and hold seminars on how to work them. And I am not yet able to make an argyle or Tartan sock. I can do ribbing and cables all day long but the secret of Argyles and Tartan patterns is still slightly beyond me. I WILL get there but I may go crazy doing so.

If you are seriously thinking about one of these sock machines I strongly suggest you find someone near you who has one. Go see them and crank on their working machine. Having a mentor can make all the difference between making a sock and having a couple thousand dollar door stop in your home.

[Pleater]

I suspect that the circular sock machine doesn't make it easy to increase stitches to enlarge the circumference of the leg though.

We (husband and myself) do quite a few repairs on the E6000s, plus upgrading them to download from the PC and increase the memory from 8K to 32K.

We have done quite a bit of work on those lines for Passap Canada.

I'm just trying to find all the bits for a Duomatic 80 I agreed to sell without factoring in the time to do that and service 17 Silver Reed machines - plus the amount of dust which the Duomatic has accumulated whilst lying idle for several years.

I do get myself into some fixes.

One of the first lessons in the Duomatic 80 manual is - a sock.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Pleater]

Making an argyle pattern is probably best done on a Japanese domestic knitting machine.

first you knit some triangles /\ /\ /\

rather than decreasing stitches they are removed onto hand knitting circular needles.
Then you replace stitches from the sides of two triangles and knit the in between \/ \/ \/ so joining them into a band. Remove the last row of stitches of as many triangles as necessary so as not to stretch the knitting - it being made into a continuous loop just over half of the circumference has to be removed from the machine, the rest can be left with the needles in holding position.

The knitting is probably best done with an intarsia carriage so as to enable the single stitch diagonal lines to be knitted in.

Triangles to complete the tops of the diamonds are then made one by one either putting needles back into work and then removing them onto the circular needles or replacing sets of stitches onto the machine needles and then removing them one by one onto the circular needles.

It would be quite fiddly and you'd need multiple smallish balls of yarn - but quite interesting to achieve something so complex.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Steve Ashton]

Hi Anne,

Yea, that is how it is done on a flat bed machine. Mine is a Passap E6000.

But I really need to practice more on my circular machine. It is so much easier. I have capability of 6 different colors in work at the same time and I don't ever need to transfer stitches off the machine onto hand knitting needles.
On a circular machine you simply raise the needles to make them idle. What is on them just sits there till you need it.

On a circular machine we knit in triangles. Then fill in between them. The process is actually quite simple I just need more practice to make a perfect sock.

[Father Bill]

*snip* I just need more practice to make a perfect sock.

And I may be lining up, Steve!