August 25, 2020

Added two more socks to the project. I’ve worked out the best way to do heel turns without having to watch out for dropped sts. The same method is used for toes as well.

I also had a go at making a hanged hem picot cuff. It looks nice, but it is not very elastic like regular ribbing. Might be good for the larger leg, or for longer socks. We’ll see how well it wears.

My next attempt will include making a mock rib cuff… coming soon.

September 19, 2020

New additions to my sock family! This time I’ve been trying out mock ribbing for cuffs. Mock rib looks like real 1x1 rib, but instead of purling, you are skipping what would be a Purl st.

The way to do this is to pull out every alternate needle from the cylinder - in this case 30 needles. Cast on as you would normally and then crank out approx. 32 rounds. The knitted fabric will look open and loose. Reinsert all the needles back into the cylinder. Hang the hem, by folding the piece and hanging the cast on sts onto empty needles. All 60 needles will have sts on them. Knit the rest of the sock as normal.

My example socks are the Wollmeise Blue/green and the Mondim Blue/brown stripe.

September 28, 2020

DK yarn Drama
As well as having a 60 cylinder in my CSM, I also purchased the 48 cylinder. The 48 cylinder is designed to be used for DK weight yarn. The pins are a little further apart from each other, giving a slightly larger stitch gauge.

Sadly, my 48 was having none of it! I couldn’t get it to knit without dropping stitches. I believe that in order to get it to work with DK yarn, you have to put a LOT of weight (about 900g) on the base to stop the knitting from rising and keep it below the latches.

I reached the point of giving up on using DK yarn for socks, until Finn from Ashcroft Makers suggested using DK yarn on the 60 cylinder. Well, it actually worked! I used a DK yarn which contained 75% Merino/ 25% Nylon and it worked like a dream. I still used 900g of extra weight on the base. The end result produced a sock that was a firm fabric, but not impossible crank, or impossible to get onto your foot (like previous DK socks).

Next time, I will try again using 100% merino DK and I hope that the lack of nylon will not affect the performance, but we’ll see.

The sock shown here (colour: Never Quite a Rainbow) was done completely on the CSM, except for the ribbing cuff which was hand knitted on 3mm needles.

October 15, 2020

I forgot to add hubby’s birthday socks from August this year. I used Countess Ablaze’ Persephone Sock yarn on this machine and it worked up like a dream! I hand knitted the cuffs.

December 9, 2020

Ankle socks with pom poms! Using Mothy and The Squid sparkly yarn and contrast yarn.

Feb 2021: Quick demonstration of sock knitting on my CSM

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLRjcSvJj5M/?utm_source=ig_w...

August, 2021: More socks…

The trouble with knitting top-down long socks is that you don’t quite know how long to do the leg before you get to the foot section.

After a few trials at long socks, I’ve discovered that 196 rows for the leg and 56-58 rows for the foot will pretty much use up 90-95% of one skein of 425m merino/nylon sock yarn. Add to that, 20g of a contrast colour yarn to do the picot cuff, heels and toes.

See the Yarn and Knickers sets.

January 2022: Heel Tabs

Black ankle socks with a heel tab. This is a game-changer, because it means I will no longer need to hand knit cuffs for ankle socks. They hold up pretty well and they look good! Big thanks goes to Rikki Larae for helping me understand the construction method.

She pointed me to the CSM Heel Tab “No Shows” Socks for guidance. Essentially, a heel tab is formed exactly the same way a heel and toe is, except that your short rows don’t go down that deep. In my case: I work 12 rounds, work short rows from 30 sts down to 21 sts and back up again, then work another 12 rounds, then finally I hang the hem.