Did you know?

LeGare supplied several sizes of V-cams. Your machine's abilities will be affected by the V-cam it has.

Cone Sock Yarn Sources

From eirual :

Wool2Dye4 - sells really nice cones of sock yarn that are ready to be dyed. Also, skeins of pre-dyed sock yarn.

Webs - also sells cones of sock yarn, they are not nearly as nice and squishy as Wool2Dye4’s but - they are less expensive. $15 a lb plus shipping (if you order 4 lbs it’s $12 a lb). I find that the color is more cream, the spin is a bit loose.

Bartlett Yarns - lovely cones of sport weight yarn. I find that you really want to use a bit of woolly nylon with this to give the sock a little body. Very easy to knit, I use it to make socks on my 72 needle cylinder with no problems.

Sylvia’s Threads - Best price I have found for woolly nylon.

From sarahspins:

Lion Brand - 100% wool

I should add that one of my current favorite CSM yarns is Treadsoft from Henry’s Attic. The easiest way to buy it retail is likely from Catnip Yarns (just email them - very nice company and super easy to work with). Treadsoft is a smooth 2-ply superwash with a tight twist, it’s not only easy to knit with (it’s a 2/8 yarn, unlike most of the 2-ply sock yarns that are 2/6 and IMO a little on the heavy side), but it wears very well too.

If you have any more sources, please contact me so I can add it to this list.

CSM Teachers

Northeastern Maryland, and have
a variety of machines.
wollon@comcast.net
410 734-7980
Gregory Dodge Wollon
Havre de Grace, Maryland

Donna Peters
http://www.countryrain.com/class.htm

Maureen Newell
creatne2@yahoo.com,
11 High Street Fairfield, Maine 04937
207-453-7708


Roxana Baechle
Coleman, Michigan
Baechler@mindnet.org
989-205-7476 and 989-465-1526.


Eric Wolff
Pinckney, MI USA
fine knitted items of all sorts
sock machine sales, maintenance & repairs
ewolff1516@yahoo.com

Barbara Clorite-Ventura
eastern MA
bclorite@verizon.net

Judy Scheuneman
Knitewe1@intouchmi.com
Specializes in new knitters/ribbers
carries small parts for sale
Wisconsin and Michigan areas


Maureen Patterson
Roseburg, Oregon
mpat777@charter.net


Stephanie DeVoe
Plum Cottage Crafts
Frederick, MD
sdevoe@comcast.net
www.plumcottage-crafts.com


Katy Abbas
New Hampton, Iowa (NE) 1945 Kenwood Ave. Variety of CSM's
Sales, repair, restoration, parts, new parts machined and
lessons katy@thelegacyfarm.com 641 394 3627


Laura Schickli
http://handwerkstextiles.com
teach 3 classes as well as give private instruction based on the customers needs. classes are:
Basic CSM set up and Machine Adjsutment, Knit a sock, Fancy Sock Tops
hand dyed sock yarns, and needles laura@handwerkstextiles.com San Francisco Bay Area, CA. BayAreaCSMers group


Susan Forsyth
http://www.woolcombs.com/
+1 (604) 288-9811
susanf@rocketmail.com
Located in Mission, British Columbia, Canada
classes in all levels. Willing to travel
new knitters welcome.
CSM Repairs and maintenance.
classes also in spinning, felting, dyeing.
wide variety of small parts: - lifters, picks, crescents(wood and
metal), heel hooks, long handled stitch catchers.


Melanie Wilson
Leicestershire UK
Willing to help get people going on sock machines. Also Dyeing instruction.
0116 2604442 or socks@dragonflight.co.uk

Maker Faire

This was just posted to the Make: Magazine website earlier this week.

It's a video of my demonstration of my machine.


Antique Sock Knitting Machines - CRAFT Video Podcast from make magazine on Vimeo.

How to make a cup cosy on your CSM

I Frogged It has a great tutorial on how to make these quick gifts!

Sizing yarn

Typically CSM'ers will use yarn classified as sock yarn to knit socks with but occasionally you will hear on the Yahoo! group about knitting socks with some "strange number" yarn.

The numbers actually mean something. Crazy Fiber Lady posted a comment to this blog to a great site that explains just how those numbers are calculated and what they mean. (Thanks!)

Laura, with Handwerks, posted this great link to visually show you the difference between yarn weights. It's very handy!

Needle sizes & When to use large hook needles.

Typically, there are two different types of needles. Cylinder needles and ribber needles.

The cylinder needles are the long shank needles. This is a photo of a 12 gauge cylinder needle typically used in Auto Knitters, PT Legare's, most Creelman Brother's, Master Machines & Verdun's:

Cylinder needles essentially makes knit stitches.

The shorter needles are ribber needles and are used in a ribber dial. Ribber needles purl. Here's a photo of a 12 gauge ribber needle:
Pat Fly with Angora Valley is currently the resource most CSM'ers use.

Pat also sells needles called Large Hook needles. These needles are exactly that, larger hooks.

Why use a Large Hook needle? When you have a machine that can handle thicker yarns (I've heard some LeGare 400's can knit worsted) or if you find that your yarns keep splitting.

I personally have an Auto Knitter and my machine, while it can knit with the large hook needles, it's certainly not happy (i.e., it feels very different when I crank and tends to drop stitches more often).

On the other hand, I've heard from people who one LeGare's who LOVE the large hook needles.

Another CSM'er likes to use large hook cylinder needles and regular sized ribber needles.

So really, it's a matter of what you're machine is happiest with.