Cranking Away............

For those of you who are new to this blog, I'm a sock maker.  Our socks are made on an antique sock machine named Doris.    The above photo shows "Doris" in the middle of cranking out a sock.  She has 72 needles and she loves fingering weight yarn that gives about 8 sts to the inch.

I think many sock knitters make their color sequences match up, but I prefer to just let the colors run as they wish.  I call them "Pipi Longstocking" socks!  It's much more fun for me and I always get a few giggles once the socks come off the machine.  I've made up to 7 socks in a day, but gosh is that hard on the ole back.  4 is pretty much my limit these days.

We have a craft show coming up on November 10th in Bear Valley Springs, so I'm trying to get ready for it.  With the cooler weather now upon us, our Etsy sales are just starting to pick up, too.

These antique sock machines can be found on eBay, Craig's List and I've seen them even on Etsy.  If they've been refurbished, they can be a bit pricey.  We bought Doris on eBay and was very, very lucky that she arrived in perfect working order.  She came down from Canada and it took me a good 2 months before I could make a decent sock. 

I still enjoy handknitting socks, but I also get the same satisfaction out of making them on Doris.  It's funny, I can part with a sweater that I've made, but sometimes I feel sad to see my socks leave!