Playing Bach

My new circular sock machine is made by Erlbacher Gearhart. I called him "Bach" (mainly because so many people call their machine "Erl"- hehe) but I really should have known better. I learned a bit of Bach, way back when I had piano lessons, and that's about as far as I got. I think I've jinxed my CSM, because Bach won't play nice, at least, not for me.

We've been arguing for the last two weeks.

Can I make a tube? Yes! Tubes are generally nice and easy. I got the kids to dye up their own yarn and whipped up some little presents for their teachers.

Zac made the first on the left, Jasmine made the second and Byron the last two.

And you can turn tubes into socks by adding toes, cuffs and afterthought heels

But as for using the machine to make a heel, I can't seem to do it without stitches dropping off or forgetting one of twenty things, or cranking the wrong way...

Half a dodgy, holey heel. Then I had to cut it off the machine because it jammed.

Two nice neat picot hems! Pity I had to cut them both off just after starting the heels...

A heel and a toe! Pity I didn't start at the top...

There are bits of socks everywhere. I thought I was good at the hems, at least, having started them off so many times. But so many factors (eg a different brand of yarn) make a difference, that today I couldn't even do that much. Felt very much like throwing Bach out the window.

The videos on You Tube make it look so easy. So a big part of my frustration is how ridiculously stupid I feel that I can't do it yet.

Anyway. I cranked another tube. I'm going to take it to work tonight and knit on the toes. :)

By hand.

NEWT 8

This NEWT (for the Harry Potter knitting game on Ravelry) is finally done! I really struggled to get this one finished; socks are a lot of work!

Purple! This is yarn I got from "Fiberific!" at Bendigo last year. Loved the knitting and the color and the pattern.

and it's got hugs and kisses cables all over it :)

And then I used all the bits of leftovers to make these colorwork socks out of all the rainbow bits, and the black and white :)

The next 8 socks are going to fly by! I've gotten my Circular Sock Machine (it's an Erlbacher Gearhart Speedster) and (as recommended) put a few skeins through it as just plain tubes. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can do a picot hem and a heel and a toe.

It's a sharp learning curve but I'm starting to figure out all the parts and pieces. There's a sock thing called a bonnet. You hook it up to all the hooks, thread some yarn down from the top and through the yarn carrier on the side, and just crank the handle around and around. That makes it sound easy. There are lots of things to keep an eye on, like hanging weights from the bottom, keeping the tension right, fixing problems with the hooks, etc.

Did these three skeins in the three days after getting the machine (I call him Bach) and today made the second one into armwarmers and a little bag for Jasmine. Took me far longer to knit the little bit of ribbing at each end than it did to crank the whole tube of sock yarn :)

It's December. No new NEWT for me; I'm having a month "off" (even though I start work again on Friday with 6 nights in a row!) I'm going to figure out how to knit socks properly, and fix a few things that need repairs :)