Where Has the Time Gone?

I'll tell you where...  right down the drain!



Skip this paragraph to avoid egregious whining.  I started this post with a long description of my last five weeks or so, but no one who happens to read this is interested the gory details.  So I will simply say that I had the flu and it took forever to recover.  Last weekend was the first time since mid-December that I felt good enough to do anything I didn't absolutely have to do, and I took full advantage of the day. Enough said!

So to catch up with the end of 2013...


Late last spring, I came across a spinning wheel that I just fell in love with.  Came to find out it was made by Betty Roberts, lady in Washington state who builds the most beautiful wheels.  She makes several styles  in a number of different woods.  What makes her wheels easy to spot is an inlay of wildflowers and butterflies with different colored backgrounds.  After several email conversations with Betty,  I found myself ordering a custom-made castle-style wheel with a Chinese red inlay.  It arrived in November, and has been gracing my living room since then.  I'm sorry to say that I was so busy making pens that I didn't have time to do more than admire the wheel until this month.

I've had just a little time to play with the new wheel this month.  It's a double-drive, which I've never tried before, and I'm challenged by a bit of a learning curve...  so far I've managed to spin the drive band right off the wheel within seconds each time I begin treadling, but I WILL get it together.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying just gazing at her while pretending to watch TV and trying to get her to tell me her name.

Last weekend I felt great and spend most of my free time in the shop turning pens.  I had several "novelty" pen kits that included fanciful details and thought it would be fun to do those as well as my favorite Manhattan style pens.  Also had a couple of pens that needed adjustment and took care of those.  Results:

Manhattan Pen in Green/Terra Cotta Acrylic

Knight's Armor Pen in Ironwood

Detail of Knight's Armor Pen

Celtic Pen in East Indian Rosewood

Detail of Celtic Pen

Manhattan Pen in "Lava" Inlace Acrylester

Royal Pen in Holly

Detail of Royal Pen

Detail of Victorian Pen

Victorian Pen in Mahogany

Detail of Nouveau Sceptre Band

Nouveau Sceptre Pen in Laminated Woods

Manhattan Pen in Olivewood from Bethlehem

Lancer Pen in Violet Inlace Acrylester

And had time to inventory my unused pen kits (100+!) plus get a dozen or so in the prep stages before turning.  All I need know is a few more days in the week.

Also started a couple of baby blankets in novelty yarns.  Actually meant to do only this one:

This is Loops and Threads Pom Pom yarn from Michaels.  Didn't start it until Wednesday night for a baby shower on Saturday - not realizing that knitting between all the little pom-poms would slow me down so much -- not that I'm a fast knitter to start with.   Realizing after a few hours of knitting that night that I wouldn't be able to get it done in time even if I did nothing but knit until Saturday, I made an emergency dash to Michael's Thursday afternoon and found this:

Bernat "Tizzy" super-bulky baby yarn in "Green Pea."  Even though it's highly textured, this yarn knits up really fast and I love the feel of it.  Reminds me of a thick shag rug, but in a good way, and I'm tempted to make a lap-robed size for myself.

I did manage to get about a third of this done before the baby shower.  Good thing Baby Z isn't due for another month or so...  I WILL have it done by then.





Last weekend I was invited by a friend of a friend to go to an "Eat 'n Stitch Yarn Swap" with her crochet/knitting group. Karen is a new spinning wheel owner and we were both planning to bring our wheels along for the group to try out.  Never having been to a yarn swap, I imagined each person bringing a few skeins of unwanted yarn, doing a little horse-trading back and forth until all the yarn was traded and we got on with our knitting/crochet/insert-name-of-craft here.  I didn't have time to grab anything out of my stash, so I decided to go just to meet Karen and her friends, and see what they were working on. 

To my surprise, when I arrived I was handed a large space bag (one of those giant baggies you vacuum the air out of to compress whatever is in it) and ushered into a garage bursting at the seams with bags and plastic tubs full of yarn.   I tried to demur, saying that I hadn't brought anything to share, but the hostess, Heather, insisted that most of the yarn came from her stash and her goal was to have it all find new homes.

I liked the way she was doing this exchange -- she had an app on her iPad, and when she spun a virtual wheel, it randomly picked a name.  Then that person got to choose five skeins of yarn to take home.  After this had gone on for a while, I think Heather realized that we could be there for a few days before all the yarn was taken, so she announced that it was time for people to just start stuffing their bags with yarn.   It was actually a lot of fun - there was no grabbing or fighting -- in fact there was more "enabling" going on than anything else.  You know, where you find a yarn that someone else would like and make sure they have a chance at it.  I came home with several really nice skeins - some sock yarn that I will use to make socks I can donate to a project my sock knitters' club is starting, and some heavier weight yarns that might go into the shawl-making bin or get passed on to friends.  I hope I'll get invited to one of these again, because I would love to destash a few cubic yards of yarn that I will never touch.

Just a Little of the Yarn Being "Swapped"

  After all the swapping was done, we retired to the house, where we chatted, snacked, and knitted/crocheted/spun.  I had a chance to let people try out my Hansen MiniSpinner, and just had a nice, relaxing afternoon.


Yesterday I went to a crank-in at my new friend Loan's home in Calabasas.  We've been in the same spinning guild for a couple of years, but as I told her, I've been in such awe of her spinning skills, I have been afraid to talk to her.  We got to know each other a little through Ravelry...  She was one of the first people to join the SoCal Crankers group I started for circular sock machine enthusiasts.

My loss for letting two years go by without getting to know this remarkable and talented woman.  Not only am I in awe of her spinning, now I'm in awe of her knitting skills.  There was only one other guest, Anita, at the crank-in, so it turned out to be a private knitting lesson for the two of us.  Loan could sit down at either of our machines and crank out a perfect heel, and she could tell us what was causing any problem just by looking at the knitting in progress.   Loan has (by my count) four working CSMs and one she is restoring.  Which turns out to be a good thing, because somehow I managed to leave my yarn guide (the y-shaped thingy that sits on top of the yarn mast) at home.  No problem...  Loan opened a cupboard door and pulled out the mask from her antique Gearhart machine.  It fit my machine base perfectly and I was in business.  Kinda.  The weight from my mast was way too heavy and made the heel spring not work properly, so I spent a lot of time tensioning the yarn myself.  And Loan, bless her generous heart, spent quite some time holding the yarn for me.

I meant to take photos when all the machines were set up, but naturally I forgot until Anita and I had already put ours away.  But here's a photo of Loan's living room, which was the perfect setting for several people to sit and crank.  In the foreground with all the holes is my traveling machine table - I got it with a coupon for about $12 at  Harbor Freight.  This was the first time I'd used it and I was concerned that it might be a bit flimsy.  But it was plenty sturdy and didn't even wobble when I cranked.  Plus it's light enough that it takes almost no effort to fling in the back of the car.

The table to the left is Loan's.  I'm pretty sure it's this projector table from overstock.com. Very attractive table and Loan says it's sturdy enough to hold two machines at once.  If I didn't already have my Erlbacher table, which I love, I would seriously think about this one.  The table to the left of the fireplace is Loan's Erlbacher table.  This is the one she takes to all of her demonstrations.  And Anita uses a barstool for her machine.  All four great choices for supporting a machine.  (Note - barstools should have a weight hung over a rung on the side opposite the machine to provide some extra balance).

Speaking of portability, I used my Fat Max (how offensive is that name?!) rolling workshop to transport my machine and tools.     Bought it several years ago for another hobby and haven't been using it lately so I thought I'd give it a try.  Not good.  Getting it in the car was a challenge - it's pretty bulky and VERY heavy when loaded with everything.  Getting it out at Loan's house was worse.  Getting it back in yesterday afternoon was even worse -- I'm not even going to try to explain the massive bruises on my leg but I will say it's not a good idea to use one's leg for leverage.  And I waited until this morning when I absolutely HAD to unload the car to try to get it out.   Going to pick up this rolling workshop on my way home from work tonight because it can be broken down into three separate pieces for transport. And probably ordering a transporter made to fit in it from Dewberry Ridge.  I've been eying this ever since it came out and it looks like I will be traveling with my machine enough to justify paying for the added safety.

By the time we left, Loan had gone through heel-turning on each of our machines, had Anita finish her first cast-on bonnet, turned a sock and grafted the toe so we could see her Kitchner technique from start to finish, and done a lot of hand-holding and cheerleading.  As much as I learned (and forgot) at my first crank-in, I learned even more from Loan.  I feel like I could go home and make a sock now.









As an added bonus yesterday, we had a nice lunch, and Loan served her homemade (!) macarons for dessert.  They were perfect.  Even though I told her I shouldn't have all the calories, I didn't exactly object when she sent me home with this box. 

All I will say is I didn't exactly share them when I got home, either.

I wonder if there's a low-calorie version of these?  I would totally love to learn how to make them!











In other CSM-related news...  I've failed to mention that a few months ago I joined a newly formed society for CSM enthusiasts...  which is now called the Circular Sock Knitting Machine Society.  There has been at least one organization for CSM users before this, and I gather it imploded last spring.  I don't know exactly what happened (and I don't particularly want to know).  But the new society's board was looking for writers and an editor for their newsletter, and I volunteered to write.  When no one came forward to be the editor, I volunteered and somehow I find that I'm not only the newsletter editor, but a board member. (Thanks, Mom, for teaching me that if you're going to join an organization, you should be an active participant.  Am I being sincere or sarcastic?)

I have to say that every one of the board members is really dedicated to getting this organization off the ground and has put in many hours of work in meetings, budgeting, dealing with governmental red tape, writing articles for the newsletter, etc..   I spend about 40-50 hours myself just assembling one issue of the newsletter and collecting all the bits and pieces that fill it in.  Not complaining, because I really enjoy it, but thank goodness it's not a monthly! Although the newsletter is a members-only benefit, we made the very first issue public.  Last month I redesigned it to complement our new website design, and have replaced the ugly graphics with a very attractive (I think) design.  We're also getting some great content.  If you happen to have come to my blog looking for CSM info and you're not already a member of CSKMS,  I hope you'll consider joining us.  We're already planning a conference to take place in August 2014 - and hope that it will be just the first in a series of annual conferences. 

Socked In

I have yet another new obsession.

Socks!

But first...

This is my great-great-grandfather, Elias Cabot Balcom.  I love that name.  From the little I know about him, he had a hard life.  Born in New York in 1827, by 1850 he was married and living in Iowa with a young wife and one year-old daughter.  He was listed in various documents as a wagon maker, a physician, a photographer, a postmaster, and a miller.

His oldest son, my great-grandfather Ira G. Balcom, said about him:  "Father was a very brilliant man. He knew more of chemistry, geometry and algebra than most of us do today (1935). He was a community doctor much of the time while in Ohio."

At some point he left his wife with four children, married another woman (perhaps without benefit of a divorce from my g-g-grandmother), and had two more children.  When his second wife was pregnant with their second daughter, the story goes, he took her to look at a mill he was building in West Virginia.  She fell in the mill pond, and he jumped in to rescue her.  She was fine, but he developed pneumonia and died before the child was born.  Another version of the story has him dying "cause unknown" two weeks before the child's birth. 


What does this have to do with socks?  Not much, except for this brief story in a letter written by my great-grandfather, Ira G. Balcom to his half-sister, Sarada (the unborn child) decades later:


The picture I wished you to send was one of myself, when about thirteen or fourteen years old.  I think it is likely to the one taken when your mother and I went to Syracuse to sell socks (father had bought a knitting machine). We stopped just outside the town and had some pictures taken, both of your mother and myself. [27 Jan 1933]    


This would have been in 1869 or 1870.  According to the 1870 census, the village of Syracuse in Meigs County, Ohio, had a population of about 1200 people, many of whom worked in the coal and salt works.  Ira never did say how well the socks sold.

I've been intrigued by knitting machines since I was a kid.  My mother had one of the Japanese flatbed machines.  Even the manual was in Japanese, and we never could figure out how to make it work.  It resided in our basement for about thirty years before someone decided to get rid of it.  If you're read some of my previous posts, you know that I've been really into these machines this past year.

I saw my first circular sock machine (CSM) at a Newton's Seminar a few years ago. It's been in the back of my mind ever since.   CSMs have been a niche hobby for quite some time.  The first machines for home use were sold in the 1860s.  Their heyday was apparently during WW1, when socks were needed for the armed forces.  And production of the machines pretty much ended in the 1930s.   For many years, the only way to have a CSM was to invest in a vintage or antique machine.  Since I wasn't allowed to take shop classes in high school (back in the dark ages), I'm not prepared to repair or maintain one of these machines.  In the 1980s, the Harmony Auto-Knitter was sold, but unfortunately the company went out of business.  More recently, a New Zealand company has been making the autoknitter (NZAK), which has been very popular.  They have an excellent reputation for quality and I've learned that loads of CSM knitters swear by them.

But they're awfully far away.  I worry about things like how long it will take to get replacement parts or get something repaired if (ok, when) I drop it.  If they were in the U.S., I might have invested in one of their machines by now. 

That hasn't stopped me from being fascinated by these machines.  Then a few weeks ago, convergence happened.  I had a modest windfall that I was told to spend on something "fun" for myself.  And just that morning I had seen a comment about a new CSM in one of my Ravelry groups.  AND I came across Ira's letter talking about his father's knitting machine.    One week later, I was the proud owner of "Elias Cabot" (we CSM owners like to name our machines), a brand-new Erlbacher Gearhart machine.

Meet Elias Cabot!

I don't knit socks.  Heck, I don't even wear socks.  My feet get too hot.  But I'm told that a good pair of wool socks will not cause digital overheating, so this may have to change.  Or a lot of family and friends are going to be getting socks for Christmas.  They may just get them anyway, when I get the hang of this machine.  So far I've learned to cast on using net, a webbing of waste yarn, and a cast-on sack. I can knit a tube, hang a hem, make a picot edge, and change yarns.  But I'm stumped by shaping a heel.  No matter how careful I am, I'm dropping stitches and curse words all over the place.  I know it can be done -- I've seen actual videos of actual people doing it. 

I have been knitting sock blanks for friends to dye and re-knit.  After a recent cone-winding disaster, when one of the drive chains fell off my cone winder and as I was rushing to turn it off, I knocked the skeined yarn off my swift, I had a pile of tangled undyed sock yarn, and spent a few mindless evenings untangling it.  Several times I had to cut it and start over, and the friction caused by untangling made the yarn pill and fray in spots, so it was not sock-worthy.  Wanting to try out some different ways of making self-patterning yarn, I knit them into blanks anyway, and went to town on the dyes.

Note to self:  NEVER EVER AGAIN try to dye yarn in the kitchen.  And ALWAYS put the lid back on the little container of powdered dye completely.  And NEVER pick up said little container by the lid.  Fortunately my kitchen is all tile and stainless steel, so there was no permanent damage except for one shirt that bore the brunt of the flying powder when the little jar slipped out of the lid and hit the counter.   The only other comment I will make on this unfortunate incident is thank goodness for Reduran.  A good scrubbing got everything off my skin except the spots I didn't notice.  Having turquoise cleavage is not a fashion statement I care to repeat.

Anyway, I dyed up several blanks and look forward to seeing how they knit up.  I knitted the first blank fairly wide, then painted half of it black.  On the other half, I alternated turquoise and yellow stripes.  I painted this one with dye on both sides because I didn't want any white flecks.

This should give me narrow bands of colored stripes alternating with black.  The yellowish bands on the top and bottom and in the center of the blank are waste yarn and were pulled out when I wound the cones.









Next I decided to try some different colors in bands to see how nicely they played together.  They actually stayed in their own places pretty well, but the result was boring and the red stripe was too wide.  So I got into the black dye left over from the previous blank and decided to make some polka dots.  When knitted up later, these dots won't line up this way -- they should appear as random bits of black here and there among the colored stripes. I did not paint the back of this blank, hoping to get a  heathery effect with white specks and less saturated colors throughout.













This is the resulting yarn. Only the green, turquoise, and black colors from one end of the blank are showing, although if you look at the bottom of the left-hand cone, you can see a little of the purple, red, and yellow peeking out.




Then I got a little crazy with the red, turquoise, and blue dyes on the blank below.  This time I didn't want any striping - just random colors. I deliberately tried to make this bizarre and unappealing. I even added a little black here and there to make it even uglier. And I succeeded, didn't I?  Once again, I left the back alone so there would be some white speckling.  The gold color on the ends is waste yarn.

I do like the looks of the coned yarn.  I have no clue how this will knit up.  Will there be stripes?  Bizarre pools of color?  Appealing to the eye or downright disturbing? 

Then one of those serendipitous things happened.  Some friends had found a textured yarn at Tuesday Morning that they thought would make interesting ropes.  I happened to be near my local store and had a few free minutes, so I dropped in to see what they had.  I did find a few skeins to add to the ropemaking stash, but then I found sock yarn.  And not just sock yarn, but SOCK YARN ON MAJOR CLEARANCE!  Not having experienced sock yarn prices except for the bulk undyed yarn I bought for blanks, I bought a few balls of yarn and went my merry way.

When I got home, I started to add the yarns to my stash on Ravelry, which sent me in search of reviews and info on these yarns in online stores.  When I saw the regular retail prices of so many different types of sock yarns, I realized what a bargain I had found.  That sent me off on a quest to all the T.M. stores within driving distance.  Six of them.  And another two stores that happened to be on my route to other destinations.  Plus my good friend Holly, who is also on a mission to find yarn for ropemaking visited two other T.M. stores.  At last count, there are now some 60 or so balls of sock yarn in my newly established stash.  Now all I have to do is actually learn to knit socks.

A Portion of the New Sock Stash