Team Knitting: Socks for Soldiers

November 12, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comments | 10:28 am

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Socks for Soldiers has a group of members who own working antique circular sock machines (CSM). These are amazing little machines that were designed to knit socks during the WWII era. I did a little searching on the web and found out that these machines often sell for between $1500 and $2500 refurbished and there are actually a few companies that refurbish these machine and keep them working. I’m including a link here if you are interested in taking a look. They actually look rather daunting.

Now, the knitters with the CSMs spend their time and yarn making those 12 inch long ribbed legs. Then they put the leg on a lifeline and send it off to a team member who knits the heel, foot and toe by hand. This speeds up the process for producing the SFS regulation socks significantly. I have recently teamed up with a CSM knitter and she just sent my first pair of CSM legs. Here’s a picture:
SFS_CSMLegs1

These legs are amazing! My team mate, Peggy, tells me that it takes her about 5 minutes to knit 1 leg on her CSM. However, the CSM itself takes longer to set up and encourage to actually knit. When we first corresponded, she also asked me if I was a right-handed or left-handed knitter. (I’m right-handed.) Seems you have to run the lifeline differently for left-handed vs. right-handed knitters. So, here are the CSM legs, close-up of the lifeline, and ready for me to put onto my needles and begin the heels. I plan to start them this evening, so hopefully I will get another pair of SFS OD regulation socks done well before Christmas.

1 thought on “Team Knitting: Socks for Soldiers”

Amanda says:

November 13, 2009 at 10:04 am

Wow, I bet that speeds up this pair alot! It seemed like the looooong legs of that last pair took forever!

I think this is a really neat idea!

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FO: Plain Vanilla Socks in Serenity Sock YarnFO: Plain Vanilla Socks in Serenity Sock Yarn

June 14, 2010| Lindy| 0 Comments| 2:39 pm

I have finished my Plain Vanilla Socks knitted in Serenity Sock Yarn (Premier yarns), colorway Amethyst. This is the yarn that I wrote about in a previous post: “A Study of Pooling in a Variegated Sock Yarn”. As I discovered in my study of how this yarn pools, by using 54 stitches on size US 2 (2.75mm) needles, I got a “striping” effect as the yarn pooled. You can see the result in the picture above.

Serenity Sock Yarn is a variegated yarn with color changes that are fairly short and don’t necessarily produce stripes when the number of stitches increases. The yarn itself has a nice soft feel to it and it knits up nicely, but I did experience a tendency of the yarn to split at times. The yarn is 50% Merino Wool, 25% Bamboo and 25% Nylon and has sufficient stretch for a well-fitting pair of socks. Anyone planning on using this yarn should definitely knit a swatch with the number of stitches they are planning to use for their socks to see if it knits up in a way that they like.

There was a pattern printed on the inner label that called for a gauge of 9 spi on US 2 (2.75mm) needles. The pattern is based upon 64 stitches. Now, I got an spi of 6.25 on US 2 needles, which is a significant difference and I cannot speak to how it would pool at the stated gauge of 9 spi. I know that I knit more loosely and guess that in order to obtain 9 spi, I would have to use US 0 (2.25 mm) or US 00 (1.75 mm). I really prefer to knit socks on a little bigger needles. These socks were for me to wear around the house and they fit my feet perfectly.

As for the pattern used for these socks — I really didn’t use one. I knit a 3 X 1 ribbing for 1.5 inches, then switched to stockinette stitch and knit until the cuff measured 6.5 inches. I did a short row or mitered heel and then knit the foot and toe in stockinette and grafted the toe when I had 9 stitches remaining on each side of the sock. I used the Magic Loop method and knit the socks two at a time.

Nearly Identical Twins…Nearly Identical Twins…

December 15, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comments| 1:52 pm

Last month, the Yarn Harlot posted an article on a pair of identical twin socks that she had made. As those of us who knit with self-striping/self-patterning yarns know, getting a pair of socks that are totally identical is nearly impossible — but this pair turned out to be completely identical. (I was impressed…)

This morning I was putting away my pair of striped socks that I had knit with Paton’s Kroy self-striping sock yarn — and noticed that while I had not gotten a completely identical pair of socks — they were nearly identical — being off only a few rows of striping. So I took a couple of pictures:
StripedSocks_Twins1 StripedSocks_Twins2

How’s that for a pair of twins?

FO: Socks for DSFO: Socks for DS

February 2, 2010| Lindy| 0 Comment| 8:20 am

I finished the socks I started for my DS just before Christmas. These were a late started Christmas present — and I wrapped them up still on the needles to give them to him for Christmas. Then, he had to give them back to me to finish. [Sometimes, a knitter has to do what a knitter has to do… 🙂 ].

These socks were knit using Knit Picks Stroll yarn in the “Carbon Twist” colorway. I like the result. After washing, this yarn is soft and has a tweedy appearance. Best of all, when I gave them to DS — he put them on his feet and wore them! They fit well. He wanted socks that would wear longer — i.e. “not wear out at the heels or toes”. So, I knit the heels and the toes with size US 0 (2.00 mm) needles to make them denser. We’ll see how well they wear — this is the way the Socks for Soldiers socks are knitted, so I am hoping for a good result.