My sweetie keeps ripping holes in his socks. Not his fault. The tack strip holding the carpet down on the stairs occasionally pokes through to the surface and grabs his socks. We've hammered the nails down but it just keeps happening, and it's usually the new socks fresh out of the package. Socks that we've had to order online because we can't find dress socks to fit his dainty size 13 feet in the stores. Consequently I've been thinking of just knitting him some.
That brings up 2 problems. First off, Id hate to invest the time and effort to knit him a pair of socks just to have a hole ripped in them the first time he puts them on. Secondly, I don't knit. I know how to knit but every time I try to knit a tube for socks I end up with a rectangle. Don't ask me how, it's just what happens. Knitting which is supposed to be a meditative and relaxing pastime, sends my blood pressure into the stratosphere. Hence, I DON'T KNIT. Give me nice calming tatting any day.
After watching Diane crank out reams of knitting I took a look at the circular knitting machines and decided to order one. I had no idea what size it would be or if I could do socks on it, but I decided to give it a whirl. When the 48 needle Sentro arrived it wasn't the sock size machine I had envisioned. The broad head of the needle is about a quarter inch across and it's better suited to knitting worsted than the fine yarn used in dress socks. The diameter of the machine is more hat size than sock size. It is fast though, and I whipped out a couple of hats and scarves in an afternoon.
The small 22 needle machine is referred to as a sock machine so I contemplated ordering it. 22 stitches seemed kind of small, but what do I know, I don't knit. When I checked online, it looked like you should cast on about 70 stitches for socks. Some You Tube videos suggested that the 22 needle machine worked fine for ladies socks, but not more robust men's socks. Of course in viewing these videos an ad popped up showing a 32 needle machine.
I DON'T KNIT and I bought a knitting machine, now I'm contemplating buying another one. I mentioned this dilemma to my sweetie and his solution was - buy both. So I did. I now have 3 knitting machines and I DON'T KNIT!
Both of the smaller machines arrived on the same day and I quickly ran up a pair of tube socks on the small machine. I used some knitting worsted I have in my stash and asked my sweetie to try them out. He could have stretched them to fit, maybe, but his first comment was that it was like walking on popcorn. He didn't like knitting worsted at all.
I bought some Kroy sock yarn in both variegated black and white and solid black using the 32 needle machine. I had visions of solid black toe heel and cuff, but I started using the variegated making a tube sock. The machine wasn't happy with the finer yarn and kept wanting to drop stitches, but I persisted and he tried them out. He still says it's like walking of popcorn and the fabric it made was so loose it was full of holes so I ripped it back. I could fix the full of holes issue by using 2 or 3 strands of yarn, but I'm sure he'll still hate the texture.
By this point I'm so sick of doing things in black and dark brown I needed colour! I decided to use some of the baby pink yarn in my stash to make a mobius scarf to go with my grey coat. It's baby yarn so it's soft and squishy with a strand of shiny thread to give it a slight sparkle and I've been using it ever since.
Then I thought I'd try making a matching headband using the 48 needle machine, but I thought I might try combining it with the reclaimed sock yarn and it made a nice thick warm...I can't call it a headband as it's wide enough to be a hat, but I'm sure I'll be glad of it when it's snowy and blowy because it sure keeps my ears warm.
I went looking for something softer to make socks and I picked up a Caron Cloud Cake which is lovely and soft but not in any colours he'd like. The reddish, pink had orange in the middle of it, so I selected a mostly blue called Moonlight, but smack in the middle of it is a pukey pea green that puts me right off the yarn.
Before I got to the pukey green I cranked up a couple of headbands on the 32 needle machine because I noticed that with the cooler weather the wind whipping by my ears on the scooters was leaving me with and earache. The first was way too big and the second better but a little loose. Sweetie was complaining the other day of a headache and I jammed the headband over his ears. The headache went away and he's claimed my headband so I had to make another for me!
Then I switched to the 22 needle machine to make a headband just to hold my hair back. It works but the yarn is a bit too soft to control my mane so I may have to make another.
One thing that was a success. I needed a roller pillow and most of them are too soft to give any real support. In trying out a couple of test hats I realized that the tubes would make a great casing for a roller pillow so I rolled up a towel and stuffed it in a hat and closed off the open end. Instant roller pillow. I took it into hubby's computer room to show him and promptly lost my pillow. So I had to do another one.
I'm cranking out lots of things, just because it's so fast, but I'm getting a sore shoulder from cranking. I'm also getting frustrated with the panel setting as it seems to drop stitches at the beginning, or at the end, or in the middle, but never the at the same point on any attempt. I will master this darn thing yet.
It's all Diane's fault. She started this.
