I Was "Demo Man" Sunday!

Sunday, dawned bright and clear......cold, too! A blogging friend of mine, Ms. Molly Bee, has been a "hand knitting" volunteer at the annual A-Z Farm Open House this year. It ran for 3 consecutive Sunday's, the last being this past Sunday. The open house is during "lambing season", where if one is lucky, they see a lamb coming into this world, or if not, they see literally DOZENS of lambs, along with their mothers, in pens. Along with this sight, they have other animals and fowl to be seen or have photos taken with as well.

In this 1st photo of mothers with their babies, you can see that the area of sun is a VERY popular spot. ;)

The pens were all located inside a huge pole barn, so come rain or shine, the open house is on.

These hungry twins were the newest addition to the flock.

With so many lambs romping around amongst the various mothers, you'd think that they would be bleating in panic when "Mom" was out of sight, but they seemed to know she was close by and were perfectly satisfied to wander further afar, then RACE back to Mom like they had a GPS system, never bumping into the wrong udder. ;)

So, back to Ms. Molly Bee. As I mentioned, she has been out to the farm, volunteering at each of the open house days, sitting, hand knitting, and chatting with the farm visitors as they came through the wood stove heated "demo" section of the barn. Among the other volunteers, were a couple of hand spinners with their wheels, bake sale people, honey "farmers", face painters, and a woman demonstrating on her circular sock machine (CSM). I should say, she was there demonstrating at the first 2 Sunday's. She couldn't be there last week, so Molly Bee suggested I call Ray, the farm owner, and volunteer my services, which I did, and he accepted, thus my day at the farm as "Demo Man". For more photos, and 1 of me, go to:

http://mollybeesattic.blogspot.com/

This following photo shows my display of finished socks, baby hats, and sock blanks (1 undyed and the rest dyed), plus some re-wound yarn for people to see how things look prior to knitting the socks/hats. A few people actually stopped to look at the books, too. ;) People were mainly interested in seeing the machine "do its thing", and I was happy to oblige, knitting 3 socks during the day, stopping to answer questions, etc. Am I saying that those socks are mistake free? Nope, but no mistakes that are noticeable nor will they make the socks unwearable.

After completing the knitting of a 3rd sock, and seeing it was 3 o'clock, I decided to not work on any more socks, but instead, attach a cone of my less expensive acrylic yarn to the machine and allow visitors to "do some cranking". Was THAT a hit!! I had kids standing in line to crank a number of rows! My image, along with their children, are on many parents cameras that day. :) Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask Molly Bee to take some photos with my camera during all of this....sigh.....it would have been nice for you to see the expressions on the kids faces. :) We had fun!

Here is Ms. Molly Bee concentrating on her pattern......1 of the few times she could actually do some concentrating. I don't "think" she had any mishaps with her pattern and had to rip any of her knitting back to begin again. What mental power, eh??!! :)

I knew from reading Ms. Molly Bee's blog, that she loved purples, so I made sure I dyed a sock blank with some various shades of purples/blues/violets and had it wound and ready to go. I knitted this pair of socks for her on Sunday, and she graciously did the "sewing of the toes" to complete them, thus was able to take them home with her at the end of our time together that day. :)

While we were packing up, one of the volunteers came in and told us that over 2000 people had come through the barn that day......over 500 in the first hour! We knew we had chatted with a lot of people, but didn't realize it had been so many.

I had a lot of fun, came home tired, but was also hyped, as Don will attest to, since my mouth ran and ran, telling him little antidotes about the day. I hope that Ray will ask me to come and be "Demo Man" again. ;)

"Success!........(mostly)"

Here are my "practice" heels. The top section with the yarn in strands is my "set up bonnet" that I used to get started knitting on the sock machine and is continually reused. I left mine on for the photo and will cut the blue scarp yarn so that I will be able to reuse it again.

My 1st successful sock! Once again, I used another set up bonnet that I had previously knitted on the machine (practicing until I had a good one). As you can see from the numbers on my set up bonnet, I'm using my sock machine cylinder with 72 needles. I knitted a sock with a "hung hem", which is a folded over top edge (next to the blue on the left). I still have to hand stitch the toe together, but will be studying a video on You Tube before I attempt that yet. Eventually, I will also be knitting ribbed socks, but I need more instruction on using my ribber before I begin one.

Here is my 2nd sock of the pair (obviously the photo was taken with different lighting). I was doing fine until knitting the toe when the yarn broke. Why? I have no idea, but know I couldn't use it after that, thus it came off the machine. Today is another day, eh? ;)

"Saturday's Crank In....."

Saturday was the monthly crank in at the Hawthorne Branch Library. Wouldn't you know it, but I got so involved with the things, I totally forgot to take photos until I was about to leave! Thankfully, some people were still there and working so I could take a few shots of them.

Unfortunately, I do not recall ever being introduced to the woman in white. John is a very experienced sock machine knitter (he even has a video out) and is teaching both women. Martha is new to machine sock knitting, too. She got her machine around the same time as I did.

Don and I met Joan (in blue) while at Rainbow Fleece Farm's open house a few years ago. She was demonstrating how to use a drum carder. SHE is the person who planted the seed for my getting one. ;) Pat, is my CSM guru. She has given me numerous tips for working on my NZAK. She also solved my tension "issue" when attempting to knit heels. Pat is holding a "chain" of mittens that John knitted and brought in to show. Joan has a pair of socks that she knitted during the crank in. Although I don't have a photo of them, Pat knitted 5 socks (!) while at the crank in. Experience shows!

And.....speaking of heels. I FINALLY had success yesterday in knitting a complete heel with not one problem. Hopefully, the stars will continue to stay aligned when I am working on the CSM! ;)

"Another Attempt at a Heel....."

This photo shows the machine as ready to "turn a heel". The back half of the needles are all up and "not working", so only the front half will be knitting. The small black marks are where I will stop decreasing the amount of needles that knit and begin to increase the amount again which will form a heel.

I have not had much success with turning a heel as yet. Yesterday, I made it the furthest so far without breaking the thread of yarn. I know that it is because I am not doing something correctly, which I think has more to do with the weight on the sock more than anything else. Today's experiment will involve the heel hooks that came with the machine instead of the heel forks that I bought on ebay. I'll see if those make any difference in how the process works.

This coming Saturday is the crank in at the Hawthorne Branch Library (East Washington Avenue) from 9 AM- 4 PM, so I will definitely get some suggestions then.

A close up of the yarn carrier....

A close up of the needles with their latches.......

"Practice and Success on My NZAK....."

I had some success on my NZAK last week. I was able to knit a "Set Up Bonnet". This was made on my 72 needle cylinder and can be used over and over to set up knitting for a new piece.

I begin by hooking the loops of the set up bonnet onto every other needle in the cylinder.

I've hooked the bonnet onto every needle that was in the "up" position, now I have to move the crank around a little to bring up the needles which are in the "down" position. At this point, the machine will begin knitting the needles that have the set up bonnet already hooked onto them, so the machine needs to be threaded with waste yarn, which in the case is turquoise in color. It is my waste yarn, but also the yarn that I am using to practice with. This knitting session will be for learning how to knit "heels".

Moving the crank AND holding the knitted set up bonnet down with my other hand.....carefully to sure.......Patience IS a virtue when working on a CSM. ;)

The fully attached set up bonnet and several stitches knit when moving the crank.

The waste yarn knit onto the set up bonnet. After a few more rows of knitting while using my hand to pull down the bottom of the set up bonnet, the knitted piece will be ready for me to attach the "buckle" and its weights, and it will be ready for more "Heel Practice".

A view of the machine showing the threading of the yarn down to the cylinder.

More photos of the CSM tomorrow.

"CSM Arrival!!!"

My "Circular Sock Machine" (CSM) arrived yesterday afternoon. I was excited AND frustrated at the same time. I just happened to be babysitting for Michael and Anna's little 3 month old son, Henry. So, I had to put off opening the package up until Michael got back from his dentist appointment and took Henry home......then I carefully "TORE INTO IT"! LOL Seriously, I was excited to open the package, but also very careful when unwrapping the pieces as I didn't want to damage any needles or anything. Here is my little beauty with all of it's parts. The biggest part (cylinder/crank handle) were already assembled and had knitting on it, which is Jacquie Grants product testing prior to shipping out any of her machines. Basically, it is all assembled and ready to knit after you put the stand together.

And speaking of the stand. Here it is, each leg piece with oiled threads, screwed in, ready to receive the main section of the machine.....the assembled cylinder.

The somewhat now "warmed up" machine pieces, moved to the back sun room, so that I can look at the DVD assembly instructions on the computer. The DVD which accompanied the machine would not work in either our DVD player or computer, so I had to watch the You Tube videos that Jacquie has posted. Thankfully, for whatever reason, this morning the DVD will now play in the computer.....I haven't checked to see if it will play in our DVD player, but imagine it will.

Copper checking out the "smells of New Zealand" from the sock sample.......

The final piece to assemble was the yarn mast.

"Theoretically"........I am ready to knit. Oh, so not true. ;) I will definitely be taking my time in getting to know the sock machine. Unfortunately, I won't be able to begin doing that until somewhat later in the morning, as I will be getting new tires on the car at 8 AM, then home to begin my "intensive learning curve" with the circular sock machine. ;)

This certainly is not the end of the photos, etc. that will be posted about my exciting (to me) journey with this machine. ;)