A Mate for my LeGare

No socks yet -- just lots of tubes, long stockinette tubes, short ribbed tubes. I had issues with my ribber. It was stuck and sitting too high to actually rib.
It fit fine this way: 

And it fit fine this way: 

But together: 

See the center screw? That's suppose to touch the base to adjust it up or down.

So, I dug out my handy-dandy caliper and took some measurements:

What, doesn't everyone have one of these?
I found that it flared out a bit. So after some filing of both the small pin and the hole that it went into:

I finally got it to sit right. And now it ribs!

Just in time for the arrival of this:

A 1924 Gearhart

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?

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

20 projects

17 of which are pictured in the basket above. These are the "small" projects I picked up during the shop hop. All bagged up with their perspective patterns. Most of these are the 1 skein projects, but the basket also includes other 2 or 3 sk projects I picked up along the way. This does not include the other 3 full sweater sized projects that I also picked up during the shop hop. That makes 20 projects all together. This also does not include the yarn I bought -- um, just to buy. Yarn that was either on sale or the last of it's kind, or both. Yarn that I don't have plans for. Thankfully there wasn't much of that. Well, as much. Now what am I going to do? The stash room is full. It's been full for quite a long time now. I don't finish projects as fast as I can buy them. There was a comment on my last post about knitting all this up by the next shop hop. Not a chance. I only got one thing from the last shop hop done and that was just a hat. I gotta either knit it, stop buying more of it, or give it away. We already know I don't knit that fast. And the last two stash busting/freezing enterprises failed, miserably. I can't seem to part with it once I acquire it either, although today a skein walked out in the hands of my buddy Lisa. But she left some ribbon behind in it's place. Sigh. There's no hope. Stash reduction is a myth. At least in my house. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Shop Hopped Out

That's just a sampling of my treasures, but you can see most of them here. On Days 2 and 3, I brought the pink wristlet with the 3 SWTC shopping bags neatly folded inside into each store. But I forgot to use it at our first stop at Continental Stitch so I ended up with a bag from there -- at least it's paper. When I used up the red bags I used the Tinkerbell sack at our last stop for the day. It was just me doing my part to go green and I was rewarded at Commuknity and Full Thread with an extra point toward a discount at one and an entry for a monthly drawing at the other, respectively. Day One: Friday, 9/19, 6 hops The hop actually started the day before but since Kelsey wanted to do it again** (we did all 16 shops last year) I had to wait until she got out of school. Promptly after 3pm we met Sylvia at the Knitting Room and got our passports. Our next stop was Commuknity, then Bobbin's Nest, followed by Yarn Place, Purlescence, and Yarndogs our final stop for the day. We had a lovely dinner at Thai Pepper. Each shop had a one skein project and I picked up Commuknity's beaded shawl with matching beads from Beadz occupying the same retail space, Yarndog's neckband in Curious Creek and Purlescence's mitts in Dream in Color Classy for Kelsey. I also scored 3 skeins of Manos Silk Blend in a beautiful black multi at Purlescence. Day Two: Saturday, 9/20, 7 hops Saturday was our biggest day. Starting at Continental Stitch I picked up the crochet one skein project -- a lovely beaded mobius in Schaefer Susan, and a sweater's worth of Berroco Jasper for Joyella. We took the long drive south and headed for Carmel. At Knitting by the Sea I found a new-to-me Noro called Taiyo. The huge 100g sks were a cotton blend and I only needed 5 for Klaralund, a sweater out of Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton 2. Our next stop was Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove where I picked up the one skein mitts from Monarch (a pattern I saw previously at The Knitting Room and got the yarn w/o the pattern). We had lunch in Monterey at Sea Harvest then made our way up Highway 1 to A Yarn Place in Capitola and of course, Gayle's. Our next stop was Swift Stitch where I got the makings for a lovely knitted/woven scarf and their one skein beret using Chasing Rainbows Texas. From there we went along to Golden Fleece's new location -- which we passed on our way to their old. I picked up a button for my Anthropologie Capelet and a pattern for a Circle Shrug in Boku. Our final stop for the day was Luminous Threads which we arrived after 5pm. There was a large container full of strawberry lemonade waiting for us. Here I found enough K1C2 Paint Box for the Circle Shrug pattern I had just got at Golden Fleece. Day Three: Sunday, 9/21, 6 hops This was by far our best day. Kelsey, Sylvia and I were joined by Cris, Carol and Fae. Yarn, Paper, Scissors was our first stop, the one furthest north. Kelsey, who was picking up things here and there all along the hop had her eye on an origami kit and we both found a sock monkey hat kit for Lindsey. Before we continued on to Nine Rubies we all trotted down the street to Peets for a cuppa. At Nine Rubies we all were enthralled at the beaded bag. I got a skein of the recommended Art Yarns for Kelsey and a skein of Baywood silk for me. Cris, Fae and Sylvia bought some cotton for the same project. From there it was down to Creative Hands, Fae's last stop. I got a skein of sock yarn for their crocheted mitts. After we dropped Fae off the rest of us made our way to Los Altos. At Uncommon Threads I found copies of Rowan Studio issues 1, 2 and 3 -- I love Sarah Hatton. They were one of 2 shops* that had a sock pattern which I got with a ball of Opal Feeling. I also scored 6 sks of the now discontinued Kidsilk Night in a beautiful light pink -- no surprise there, eh? We walked a couple of blocks down to Full Thread Ahead our penultimate stop, where Hollis the shop owner proceeded to show us their one skein projects. She's a hard sell and we happily got both, a hand dyed sea silk shawl in LuLu's Marinella and a Louet linen shopping bag that folds into itself. Our last and final stop was Green Planet Yarn back in Campbell where our knitting group meets once a month. I think I'd had enough one skein projects so I skipped their's but I just might pick it up when I return this week for our meeting. We all turned in our passport page and made our way down to the new bakery for a well deserved treat. *Bobbin's Nest had the other sock pattern and I got that too, the first day, with a skein of Hazel Knits. **Links to last year's shop hop here and here.