making socks on a loom knitting ring

[Alan H]

I'm going to pick up one of these over the weekend....



The Knifty Knitter seems to turn out a more "chunky" product and I want a finer mesh. Project #1 is a pair of simple cuffs for some really gorgeous machine-woven gray marled wool socks I got at the Enumclaw Games. I love the socks, but they're too short to have a foldover on my gigantic gams. So I'll knit a contrasting cuff and sew it to the top of the sock.

After that I might try some full-on socks. Anybody got any experience with these things?

[brewerpaul]

Ive got one and am using it for basically the same purpose. They are pretty easy to use and you can expand it out for big thighs, which is my issue also. Ive got some burgundy wool that I am making into tops, with extra long down mid calf. That way I can use it as a top on any pair of kilt hose by pulling the other kilt hose over the calf section to secure it and then having the top to fold over for the contrast. So in theory I will have a 1/3 sock with top that will ride from calf on up and be covered by my kilt hose. I figure this would be easier than sewing them on kilt hose as tops. But for a short pair of socks your idea is great... Have fun, there are some videos on the net to show casting on and the couple of different knit designs you can put in it.

[The Wizard of BC]

The problem you are going to find Alan is the number of stitches these type of thing are capable of making. The average number of stitches in a Kilt sock is 60-160 per row. The finer the individual yarns the more stitches it takes to go around your leg.

For example my Heritage Hose are made on a CSM with 80 needles. You've seen them and they use a pretty thick yarn. When I tried to use a thinner yarn I found that the stretching over the calf left spaces in the sock. I had to change to a cylinder with 100 needles. And I could have used 120 needles but no one makes one for my machine.

If you stick to thick yarns your machine should be able to make a good sock. For what you are saying though you will need far more pegs than these are capable of using.

Pull a pair of hose out of your drawer made with about the same thickness of yarn you are thinking of using and count the number of stitches in each pass around your leg. I know you have large calves so take that into account.

[Chas]

Have you got a link, of any sort, for that, Alan, please? I have the Knifty Knitter and have managed to turn out some reasonable cuffs, but your model looks to be a bit more versatile.

Regards

Chas

[brewerpaul]

Have you got a link, of any sort, for that, Alan, please? I have the Knifty Knitter and have managed to turn out some reasonable cuffs, but your model looks to be a bit more versatile.

Regards

Chas

KB Sock Loom which can be bought from their site or places like JoAnn's Fabrics. I think Amazon might have the too.

http://www.knittingboard.com/product_p/sock%20loom.htm

[sydnie7]

I've used the Knifty Knitter -- a lot -- and frankly, it was easier to just learn to knit! The whole wrap-and-hook business is really tedious, even with relatively large yarn and round plastic loom. Anything small enough to make decent kilt hose strikes me as tedious to the Nth degree, not to mention the difficulty of wrapping around those small, closely spaced posts.

[brewerpaul]

I've used the Knifty Knitter -- a lot -- and frankly, it was easier to just learn to knit! The whole wrap-and-hook business is really tedious, even with relatively large yarn and round plastic loom. Anything small enough to make decent kilt hose strikes me as tedious to the Nth degree, not to mention the difficulty of wrapping around those small, closely spaced posts.

Yes it can be a bit tedious and time consuming. Add big hands like I have and it can be a chore. The plus side is it takes up some of my winter evenings quite nicely. In time perhaps learning to knit will be the ticket but till then......

[Alan H]

Good information here, thanks everybody.....Yeah, Sydnie, probably easier to just learn how to knit, but I suspect that my good intentions here will wind up making me two pairs of hose cuffs and then the thing will be resigned to the back of some drawer.

[Friday]

As Steve says one question is the number of stitches per inch that your knitter can make. Sock yarn if frequently knit at around 7 to 9 stitches per inch, or more. If you have a 18 inch calf you will be working with about 130 or more stitches to go over your leg.

It appears that the model show only has about 60 stitches available. I have seen other models that have more stitches available.

As a knitter I believe that the increased versatility of knitting needles may well be worth the extra effort, and I don't think that it is much more effort.