Oh my gosh, I just had to share this with you….those are Joyce’s legs in the picture. And her long underwear with her jeans hiked up showing me the socks she was wearing yesterday. She made them 7 years ago!!! You see, when Joyce first came to the shop, she came to learn how to use the sock machine. So, being the opportunist that I am, since she didn’t know anything about anything, I decided she would make a ribbed sock and I would video it. I mean seriously, I told her to open the latch on a ribber needle and she asked, “what’s a latch?” So, I held the video camera and taught her how to make a sock at the same time. The video was AWFUL, but the information it contained was invaluable. Anyway, she thought she was pretty much a hotshot after that first pair and sat next to me and tried to do it again (without my help)….well, you know how that went. She quit the ribber and asked two of our friends if she could be in their nonribber club. I showed her how to make mock rib socks and she declared this to be the only style of sock she would ever make. Thus ensued a major discussion of ribbed vs mock ribbed socks. (For those of you that know Joyce, you probably think I am making this up. She doesn’t have a lot of words, but when she gets on a roll, you can’t shut the woman up!) I forced her to make a ribbed sock and a mock ribbed sock then wear them and decide which one she liked best. Can you imagine my laughter when, 7 years later, she shows up wearing this very pair of socks? She says that they are some of her favorites and she wears them all the time!!! I am still laughing today! So, I asked her, which do you prefer? She said, “Honestly, I can’t tell the difference!”
So, this should have been my very first blog post!! What do you do when you’re the recipient of what was meant to be a bowl of sour lemons??? Well, you go to your friends house and she meets you at the door with a glass of…you guessed it! LEMONADE!!! For those of you who don’t know, I used to work at the family machine shop. I started there when my stepfather was alive, he built a sock knitting machine and I found my passion in making machines, selling them and teaching people how to use them….Last spring, three years after my stepfathers passing, my mother relieved me of my duties there. So I started my own business.
Since sock knitting machines are my passion, I travel the country teaching people how to use them, people make the journey to Cape Girardeau for private lessons and three times a year I host a SOCK SCHOOL with Jenny Deters. In 2020, we will be taking sock school on the road, more info will come soon! I also (with the help of a really great friend!) started this website to selling supplies needed to make socks on the machines. I know what I like, and I’ve tried an awful lot of things that I would not recommend do it’s easy to choose what things I would like to sell people for knitting on their machines!! I now use different types of antique machines, which was and continues to be a fun challenge and is broadening my knowledge of machine knitting. I have learned some new skills (turning wood, and using lots of power tools to make machine stands) and make things every day.
But the real thing that has made this transition down a new life path easy has been the support and encouragement of all of my friends in this segment of the fiber crafts. I cannot tell you how much the thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement have helped me know that this path is the one I am supposed to be on. Above all, I can see the hand of God in this whole situation. I am at peace!
So now you know why lemonade is my theme! And, having this cheerful theme really helps me in those dark quiet moments when the evil one whispers in my ear…I simply look around and just about everywhere I look there’s something with a lemon on it that someone sent me or gave me and my soul is restored.
I thought I would share Sue’s Lemonade recipe. It really is the best I’ve ever had!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!! And remember this post.
Last summer, we (Sue and I) were playing around at a crank in and we revamped an old pattern into the Lemonade Sock pattern! It’s pretty easy to make, and now that spring is just around the corner, we’re all thinking about shortening our socks for the warmer weather…Here is the pattern link: https://csmsupplies.com/store/patterns/lemonade-socks/ all written out and downloadable for free. It’s a fairly straightforward pattern. Essentially, you will hang two picot hems, with one being shorter than the other, so one sticks up and one lays down. Then a deep heel (a deep heel means you use more than half of the needles to knit the heel…this is essential when you make shortie socks, so they don’t fall down inside your shoe) a foot and a toe. These are pretty much the first skills you learn on the knitting machine, so it makes a great beginner project. Now, it makes a really cute sock to wear in a tennis shoe if you ask me!
When life gives you lemons, what will you do? Happy Cranking!!
The bad part about this blog is that most of the time, I only have myself as the model! So you just have to get used to seeing me in my latest creation…sorry about that. Nothing like putting the disclaimer up front!
So, I showed everyone how to make flat fabric using all of the needles on Socktv. (look up socktv.tv if you are not a subscriber*) The fabric here was made on a 54 cylinder with the loosest tension I could manage and still knit. I have found that anything going around your head or neck needs to be at a much looser tension than a sock or it will feel like you are being strangled. That’s my personal observation and you must consider that I am in my mid50’s so hot flashes are a real thing for me at this lifestage! So, you may find that you like a tighter tension and that’s ok. Always, always and most of the time, I show you how I do it and you take the information and do it the way that’s best for you, ok?
I am going to attempt to describe how to do flat fabric using all of the needles on a circular knitting machine with words here. People learn all sorts of ways, and so if you are a read a book learner, this is for you.
PRACTICE THIS BEFORE YOU START A PROJECT!!! READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING FLAT FABRIC. TAKE MY ADVICE, i DID NOT USE IT!
Before I tell you how to do it, we’re going to establish a couple of things. When I say “raise needles” in these instructions, you will use your crescent and raise the needles the width of the crescent, plus two or three needles. When I say “lower needles” you will lower the raised needles down, but not all the way down and make darn sure all latches are open. These two steps are vitally important to understand in order to make this project work for you. You raise enough needles so that the cranking can be reversed, just like on a heel…if you don’t go far enough, the machine will jam when you try to go the other direction. Now, lowering needles is easy when you know how to do it….if you push them down too far, the latch will begin to close and your stitches will drop and run like old lady pantyhose.
Stop with the yarn carrier at 6 o’clock. Select a fin at the midnight position to be your marker where the flat fabric begins. Raise needles to the left of the marked fin. Crank until the vcam is under the raised needles and the trailing cam has cleared the last needle so the machine can be reversed don’t stop, just reverse crank until the yarn carrier is almost to the raised needles. Lower the raised needles to the left of the marked fin and raise the needles to the right of the marked fin. Crank backwards until the machine is able to reverse then reverse and crank to almost the raised needles. Practice this until it’s comfortable, then change to project yarn.
Now as far as making this scarf, I knew that I wanted to to touch the floor then come back up to be even with the machine. In hindsite, I would have made it a little longer.
There should be at least 2 inches of waste yarn at the top and the bottom of the scarf. There is no selvedge on either end of the scarf, the fringe will make the selvedge.
If she knew I called her a toddler, I would not be in her good graces. She’s three and was only too happy to put that sock on and whip her foot up on the kitchen table!
If you’re a socktv fan and you happened to catch the 2019 black Friday episode, you caught me with my pants down! Not literally…I mean really…what were you thinking? The weekend prior to Thanksgiving is Sue’s annual Show Me Your Socks Crank-In and at that event my friend Teri saw me start a ribbed sock and claimed she had never seen it before. She was heading out the door soon so she didn’t want me to teach it to her right then, but I promised I would do it on the next socktv.
So, the very next Friday….BLACK Friday if you will, I packed up and went to Ron’s studio fully prepared to show how to start a ribbed sock. With examples already made and an iron to show how to finish the top of the sock so it’s nice and tight. I even remembered that Joyce couldn’t make it because she had to work. Even though he was previously fired from the job of telephone at socktv, I convinced Jeff to try it one more time. The only thing that I might have forgotten was the ribber. Pretty important when you are showing how to start a ribbed sock…
So, we arrive in plenty of time to get set up, situated and organized. Ron and Jeff always have a lot to talk about, but we got that out of the way and I cast on and was getting ready to go when I realized that I couldn’t find the ribber in the box. It was 8:58. I think I might have dropped the F bomb, because I didn’t have enough cylinder needles with me to fill the cylinder (I had at least 100 ribber needles along).
My mind was racing and so was my heart. But on the fly and as that beautiful computer music started rolling, I decided to make a sock with every other needle. It was a 72 cylinder and set up for normal sock tension. I would call it a toddler sock.
So, I opened the show…Jeff is keeping up with the shout outs, though, they were coming in at a pretty quick rate, changed to project yarn, cranked about 18 rows and hung a hem. Then I cranked 25 rows and began to make a heel, I added an extra needle on each side to make a deep heel and that’s when the fun began. The heel spring decided it didn’t want to work. I was dealing with that when it was time to install some sort of downward pressure…you know, like heel forks or a v hook. Guess what!?!? That was at home too! I made it through the heel and cranked about 20 rows and made the toe. I got if off the machine (miracles never cease) and delivered the news that all sock gremlins were at my house so the whole world should not have dropped a single stitch for the rest of the day Friday!
With all that being said, I came home and closed the toe. Then I washed and dried that little sucker and Joyce took it to her granddaughter’s house. It fit! She liked it! Joyce said it had a little problem at the toe, but that’s no surprise if you saw me make the sock!
Toddler Socks on the CSM: Use every other needle at normal sock tension. Example was made on a 72 slot cylinder and modeled by a 3 year old. Crank 18 rows of project yarn. Hang hem. Crank 25 rows. Make a deep heel by using one extra needle on each side of the half marks. Crank 20 rows for the foot. Make the toe. Cast off onto waste. Close the toe, then wash and dry the sock.
At the end of the episode, I claimed that the sock (though the tension looked hideous) would be fine with a little wash and dry action and that I would show the sock off…so here it is. I didn’t take a before picture and I am sorry for that.
Moral of the story? Never, ever judge a mock rib sock until it’s been washed my friends.
Until next time, I hope the sock gremlins can’t find your house. Well, actually, I hope those gremlins at socktv on Friday took a long walk off of a short bridge!
I just got the Ross family tradition of Cranberry Fluff into the fridge and had a little time to kill before finishing chores, showering and heading out to kick off the holiday season with Thanksgiving dinner with family. I thought it would be a good time to pause and reflect my thankfulness. I feel like a broken record because I keep telling you guys how thankful I am to have you in my life. Without you, I would be jobless….and let me tell you, I was raised that productive work is right up there with God and Family as far as priorities go. So, I took a little stroll through my recent pictures on my phone to see if I had any that would mesh with Thanksgiving…..here’s what I found….
There are no dead horses in this picture. That’s my Mocephus basking in the sunshine like a turtle. He’s a chubby dude and lives to aggravate me! Nortica is laying down in what I call the lamb position. She’s dirty and muddy, but perfect. Sassy, the baby mini, has her butt to me. She will be two at the end of March. Sierra is in the back, snacking on some dried grass. I am thankful that I can look out and see my little herd any time of day.
Here’s a funny picture that you are looking at wondering how could I ever be thankful for a picture of some logs and an excavator….well, I am thankful for my silly thoughtful friends who send pictures of logs. But wait! In the red circle? Do you see it? It’s ET!!! I am thankful for laughter and silliness. It sure makes the world a funner place!I know that it’s obligatory to be thankful for family. But this year I am especially thankful for my husband and my children. They are my anchors in this sea of craziness called life. My dad and stepmom are right there on my thankful list too. Their love, encouragement and support have been amazing, but Jeff’s family has outdone themselves in this season of change in my life.
In everything, there is a purpose. In this season of Thankfulness, take a minute to count your blessings as well. See the connections and embrace your season of life. So, next time, I will post on sock knitting. I just felt compelled to post this today.
Fall has arrived and I am so happy to be wearing my socks again! My feet (and my life stage) will not allow me to wear socks in the summer and hopefully, one day I will pass through this hotflash mania and be able to wear shirts with sleeves and socks on my feet for a whole day. Layering suits my life stage. Or else I will finally come up with the perfect cool sock….I’ve been working on that pattern for the last 10 years and have yet to come up with a suitable solution! I know some of y’all out there can feel me…anyway..let’s get back on topic, ok?
Speaking of hotflashes, the other thing I can’t do anymore is wear turtlenecks. Ever since I got preggers, I can’t stand things sucking up to my neck. So, scarves and cowls are what keeps my chest and throat warm in the winter. I love the cozy feeling of a soft wool cowl or scarf around my neck…but don’t get me started on acrylic here…..
So, I present to you the dropped stitch cowl or scarf pattern. Now, don’t get me wrong, lots of people out there make dropped stitch items, so dropping stitches to make a more interesting pattern in plain knitting is an age old technique. I’m just giving you an idea of how to do it on a circular knitting machine. This is a starting point. You can do with it as you will, but please be sure to send pictures so I can add them to this blog post, because let’s face it. I would rather look at pictures than read all this writing just to get to the pattern!!!
You may be wondering…why would one go to the trouble of dropping and running all those stitches instead of leaving needles out of the cylinder? It’s entirely possible to make the same scarf by removing needles and cranking a tube…and that could very well be your jam. But here’s why I like the drop stitch. When you drop the stitch, it drops a whole loop of knitting, giving you a wider bar in between stitches. This give a more dramatic effect and a wider scarf after blocking.
And there’s another thing….do you want to take your knitting to the next level? Start by blocking. Makes all the difference in a final product. I don’t mean you have to run out and buy multiple sets of sock blockers! I mean adjust your iron to the wool setting and fill that baby up with water and press your items with lots and lots of steam. Then leave them to dry. Try it. You’ll like it.
Enjoy fall and happy cranking!!
Since the knitting is done in a spiral, your kitchener will look like this. But read on because I had an idea to offset the Ktichener by one stitch to make it look better….PLUS, I also want to add that I steamed the scarf BEFORE I Kitchenered it together. It’s easier to block when it’s in a straight line, because when you steam it to block it, you have to pull it apart so the scarf will be wider. It’s also nicer to sew closed after steaming. So, my idea was to offset the Kitchener stitch by one stitch to line up the dropped stitches. And when I came to the wide spot on the Kitchener, two of them want to spread out into larger stitches, and the one across the street is one big stitch. So, I still went down into the old and up into the new on those stitches. I made a short you tube video on the closing of this cowl….you can watch it here…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w1sTdvqDKc So, here’s the closing and what it looks like with the offset stitch. I think it looks much nicer than my first version! That’s the fun part about the CSM, there’s always room to step it up a notch! Lots of people on my Christmas list will be getting these cowls!!!
So, here’s the drop stitch scarf that Meghan from the comments section did!! She left the tails so she could identify where the Kitchener stitch is and show us her cowl! Zoom in!! I can’t see it!! Good job Meghan and way to keep at it!!!
It’s Sunday afternoon on September 22, 2019. I am sitting here at my desk printing orders while Jeff and my dad Tex are busy in the woodshop working on engraving all of the custom tools that have been ordered so far. My new website has been live since Wednesday and I am absolutely gobsmacked (look it up, it’s a real word) by the response I have had so far. I am so thrilled. I ordered more yarn from Germany last week (even before the website went live), it should arrive late this week so I can fill all of the yarn orders.
Myra Kness gifted me a lacy Christmast tree ornament pattern on Friday and I am thrilled to report that there have been more than 100 downloads of the pattern so far. I am guessing there are going to be some very lacy Christmas trees this year!!!
Here’s the ornament. I did an episode of Socktv on Friday, September 20 that showed this easy lace technique and Myra used that technique to make this ornament. Then she took the time to write the pattern, complete with pictures and emailed it to me to add to the website. https://csmsupplies.com/patterns/jamies-ornament-by-myra-kness/
You can download the free pattern from the pattern section of the website. If I can figure out how to link it right here, I will!! This is still all very new to me and I also wanted to thank everyone for their support and patience as I learn how to navigate woocommerce.
Of course a post with the title of thank you would not be complete without acknowledging Rich McGeheran for helping me set this site up. Without his guidance and encouragement, I would still be trying to figure all of this out and pulling my hair out!! He’s the one that’s made it look the way it looks, added the behind the scenes plug ins so I can print invoices, made it where it won’t charge $12.01 for shipping of a free downloadable pattern, and lots more computer stuff that I simply don’t understand!
Again, I just want to humbly thank each and every one of you who are interested in my products and services. This week Jenny Deters and I will round out September by teaching a beginner and advanced sock school. Then next week I will kick off a very busy SOCKtober schedule by teaching in Minneapolis at StevenBe. The rest of the month is booked with private lessons in my craft castle.
Just off the machine. The one without lycra was made first. Pattern: 20 rows, hang hem. 2 rows. +3 heel. 50 rows. toe.
unwashed/finished for 24 hours
washed and laid flat to dry
There are some things to notice. You can see how the sock with the lycra looks marled. If you would enlarge the picture, you can see that where the pink yarn is, the lycra is underneath the pink. It’s the opposite where you can see the black lycra, so the lycra is on top of the yarn. This is the nature of the beast. You’re never going to get it to either always show or never show. (that’s why there are different colors of lycra…so you can choose the color that will show the least with the yarn being used. On the store, I made a knitted sample showing each color of lycra on light, medium and dark yarn. That way you can make a better decision as to which one you would likely use the most. I know you’re wondering how much lycra is on each cone. The answer is a lot. I don’t know exactly how many socks you can make before the lycra runs out, but it’s a lot. It’s taken me more than a year to go through one of these cones of lycra.
These pictures show you what lycra does to a sock. I used Heritage sock yarn and black cobweb lycra. The top left picture is what the socks looked like when they came off of the machine (a 54 cylinder Creelman Improved Money Maker). I made the top sock, the one without lycra, first. I did not change any settings, then I made the bottom sock with black lycra so that it would be easily visible. The first thing you can note is that the sock is about 1/2″ smaller as it comes off the machine. I closed the toes and laid them out overnight. The next morning, I took the unwashed picture, notice that the lycra sock shrunk more overnight. The picture to the right is what they looked like coming out of the washer. I did not dry the socks.
It’s August and I’m sitting in my family room wearing these socks. If you know me, you will know that I don’t really like to put socks back on until after the first frost, but in the interest of this blog post, I am wearing them around. Both socks fit my foot, and I don’t normally make my socks on the 54 cylinder. My foot is sensitive and I can’t feel the stitches. (I thought I would be able to since I made them on the 54, but I can’t!!) The black one stretched out and fits just fine, it is not pulling or trying to slip down. I am liking them (except my feet are already feeling hot)…
Here’s my personal lycra story: I have told it before and I am sure I will tell it again, but it’s the best example of the use of lycra that I can provide. I went to a crank in in Washington in 2015. We had a sock swap. Jackie Lee made my socks out of Koigu sock yarn. It’s wonderful, but it’s not superwash, she used the cobweb lycra in them. I have to tell you, these are some of my favorite socks and they are among the first I wear after wash day. I can still wear them….they are 5 years old now. Normally, my socks don’t last two seasons because they get too small and I have to pull and tug them to stay on my heel…I have a few people that have smaller feet than I so I pass them along. Now, these Koigu socks are still going strong. In fact, I just changed my socks and put them on for you to see.
August 30, 2019….me modeling a pair of Koigu and lycra socks made in 2015.
So, I will close this second blog post with a couple of random thoughts.
Y’all are probably going to get tired of looking at my feet in socks. But it’s what I do. I can’t help it. I never realized how much I had to say about lycra before posting this. I will tell you one thing for sure, if I sell it to you it’s something that I use myself. If I don’t like it, I am sure not going to sell it.
Next, don’t you just love to pull something out of a drawer or a box that someone else made for you? It makes me smile every time, a little reminder that someone thought of me. I tuck these things all over my house and smile when I pass by….
And , as always, I wish you happy cranking. I hope you’ve learned a little something today.
I am going to kick off this blog with a statement. I hate it when a blogger writes a big old long story before he/she gets to the recipe or pattern or whatever the case may be…yet I sit here, writing my first blog by telling you a story….hmmmmmm……..
The most popular pattern Sue ever came up with is the Heel Tab No Show Sock. It’s very popular in the summer time. Probably even more so up north, because here in Cape G in August it can be hotter than the gates of hades and ain’t nobody wearin no socks! (ok, it’s southeast Missouri….you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl!)
A really long time ago, I was at a crank in in Colorado where I watched a woman demonstrating heels on her machine. Now, at this time, heels and toes still gave me hot flashes. So I watched in fascination as she made her heel using two thirds of the needles. I was thinking, I have trouble with just half the needles so why would I do this? She was explaining that by using more needles on the heels you wouldn’t have the problem of the sock working down into the shoe. {honestly, at this point, I hadn’t made a sock that would fit my foot and feel good yet, but that’s a whole other story for a different post}
So fast forward a year or so and I was at another crank-in where I was talking to Mike Yeomans. He was working on making short socks to wear for the summer time, and he had this idea to add the little tab at the top of the heel, in the hem, so that they could be worn with hiking shoes or tennis shoes. What I didn’t know was that Mike meant to wear them on 5 day hikes in the mountains of somewhere, I thought he, like everyone else, just had the shoes!! But his socks weren’t working because they would wad up in the back of his shoe. That’s when I remembered what the other lady told me and we combined the two techniques. We told Sue our idea and she wrote the pattern. It’s free because it was a combination of several inputters and Sue is the best pattern writer. It’s so popular that one knitter changed the terms in the pattern to hand knitting terms, changed the name, but not the row counts and published it as a PAID pattern on Ravelry!!!
The Heel Tab No Show Sock is a great pattern for beginners who can cast on, hang a hem and make heels and toes. There’s no ribbing.
Basically, you will cast on to the circular knitting machine and change over to project yarn. The heel tab is made with in the hem of the sock…so you go a few rows and make a little heel that uses more than half the needles. Here’s a link to a little you tube video I did about this part of the heel, because it sounds very confusing to read and understand. This is a case where pictures are worth a thousand words. Then you go the same number of rows as before that mini heel and hang the hem. Once you get the hem hung you go a few rows and make the heel. This time, you will use MORE than half of the needles. The first time you try a heel like this it will feel like the heel that lasts forever! Once the heel is made, it’a a downhill slide to the toe and to waste yarn for the Kitchener stitch!
Once you make a pair as the pattern directs, you can adjust the width and height of the tab to your preference. Be sure to keep notes so that you can make another pair if you so choose. I will warn you, they are fun to make and fun to wear and if you’re not a dude with giant feet, you can get a pair out of a 50g ball!
It makes me crazy happy when you post pictures of what you’ve made because of a pattern or tutorial that I’ve done, so head on over to my Ravelry group and post a picture! You won’t have to worry about someone trashing your work there, so you can post without fear of getting made fun of. Especially if you have questions or something didn’t turn out right. We’re there to help!!! The name of my Ravelry group is Jamie’s School of Hard Socks!
