New Toy

I've been knitting. Really! I knit a little on my Swirled Pearl and finished another stripey noro scarf, this one for L. And, I cast on another for K.

However, a major distraction was waiting at the post office for me this morning. This box:

came filled with all of this:

Daunting isn't it. It's a circular sock machine. It came with 3 manuals, 2 of which were in French. Actually one manual was for the Legare 47, another for the Money Maker, and the last one, in English, for the Auto Knitter. My machine? The Legare 400. I also downloaded a general Legare manual, in English, from here. Upon further scrutiny mine matches the parts for the Money Maker, -- but that was one of the manuals in French.

Okay, deep breath -- I can do this. I'm an engineer. The English manual did not have directions on how to put it all together -- actually none of them did. Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad to have all 4 manuals but it's like the saying, "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink." Fine, I bought this on eBay and the seller had a ton of pictures which I downloaded and printed.

First there are 3 beasts here. A winder, a skein holder and a circular sock machine. To get parts out of the way I decided to put the winder together first:

So far so good. Next the skein holder:

I think that's as big as it gets -- see the wing-nut in the middle? It's adjustable. Cool huh? See these machines came with everything you needed to get started. I'm not sure how old mine is, but these babies were marketed in the early 1900's as a home based business -- you know, for making and selling socks. Anyways, after putting those together here's what was left:

At this point I stopped and reviewed all the pictures. I mounted the base that contained one of the cylinders, added and secured the needles, attached the yarn guide, ribber assembly, the yarn mast,...
Et Voila!

Elle est belle! N'est pas?