Your Path to Cranking with Joy: Part 2, Why & Where to Start
This is the second in a four part series that tackles where, what, how and why of Sock Machine buying.
Why Desire A Sock Machine ?
This may seem like an odd question but why do you want a sock machine?
The answer goes right to the hart of what machine you should be focusing on. Here is my list of frequently noted reasons for wanting a CSM. See if there is one that comes close to your current reality.
1. Have you seen a Circular Sock Machine at a Wool Festival or Old Thrasher & Tracker days and you can not dispel the compelling thought of cranking or just having one or many sock machines?
2. Do you enjoy history, maybe doing reenactments or think of using your sock machine for producing old time clothing.
3. Do you love making socks and just want another way to make them faster. Or maybe you have a real project in mind like reducing a growing yarn stash or making socks as a way to support your favorite cause or selling custom socks.
4. Are you a flat bed knitting machine user but suspect these curious round sock machines would be a more enjoyable tool for making socks?
For those who just want to crank out socks then what you will focus on is how the machine functions.
When you want a CSM for making socks there could also be an expectation of making socks using yarns you already have. You may also want to make socks or other knitted garments for a specific purpose such as socks for the military, small hats for preemies or producing a line of socks using one type or size of yarn. All of these are reasonable expectations for your first sock machine and it is important to recognize ahead of your purchase what features will be more likely to meet your expectations. Many of these uses are best addressed at your local and regional crank-ins where you can witness first hand which machines use what yarns and how easily they crank those yarns. Most any sock machine can crank out a sock but with what yarn, lace weight, fingering or will it do sport or DK weight? Not all machines can crank the yarn your dreaming of using, or it just may not crank it very well. For example, how much effort does it take and can you envision wanting to crank with that same effort for several hours a day. The compelling nature of these machines can fade quickly when cranking is more of a struggle than a pleasure.
What about the money?
Crank-ins also offer you the best opportunity to hear about the way the different users found their machines, what they paid for them and if they believed that source is one they can happily recommend. No one person, has experienced all the possibilities and your height, weight and arm strength may make your experience very different from another person using the same machine. So the more CSM users you listen to, the more machines you can try out, the more likely your first purchase will meet your expectations.
When Your Focus Is More For Collecting or Historical Interest
You have just identified your first big fork in the road. It is likely you will want to focus your CSM purchase on a particular period of sock machine manufacturing if not a specific brand or type of needle control system. My recommendation is that you start your CSM search at the library and doing a lot of web surfing for all the sock machine pages you can find. It is also important to soak in all the pictures of machines you can find. One place I recommend for learning about what the different machines look like is http://www.oldtymestockings.com/default.asp
Though your local crank-in can certainly give you a feel for what a machine looks like and feels like. Much of your first efforts will be less social and very hands on.
As soon as you have a good working CSM vocabulary and can easily recognize the different brands, types and the major parts it is then you can have meaningful discussions with collectors, historians, restorers and long time users to develop your own historical narrative. But be prepared, there is no one version of CSM history and as new discoveries are revealed the story is ever changing and always up for discussion where everyone is part of history but no one owns it.
In Part 3 we tackle the issue of what yarns work best with what machine set up and why it is important to believe what the machine is telling you.
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