Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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?

Monday, January 12, 2009

Retail Therapy





This is some Lucious Silk by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The occaision? My youngest left for 5th grade science camp today. She'll be gone a week. You'd think this time it would be easier, having gone through it before here. But she's my baby and well, it's too quiet around here w/o her. I think the dog even misses her, she was especially whiny when she greeted me this evening. When I got to work I thought about how I was going to get through the week. Daytime should be easy -- I'm pretty busy at work and everyone's back from vacation so my productivity will be handicapped. Wednesday will be the hardest, 2 days in but still 2 days to go. I decided at lunch to drop by Purlescence for a pick-me-up.





No, I don't need the yarn. Especially after the retreat yarn crawl and Commuknity closing. I hadn't been shopping for yarn all that much since the Shop Hop and I've been busy with the holidays and such to get much knitting done. But now that we're settling into the new year I'm knitting more frequently and buying again. But it's not just the yarn that does it for me. Above, enough Blue Moon Fiber Arts WooBu to make Chic Knits Ariann. It was going through the yarn store surrounded by inspiration. I got a book. And it was talking to Nathania about our kids and how we cope with separation anxiety. It was her youngest's first day in daycare. Several yarn shops closed in the last year but I'm glad Purlescence wasn't one of them. Yarn + Inspiration + Friendship. Total damage $150. Hug from Nathania, priceless.

And failing that, there's always