New Life for White Socks

[OC Richard]

They look great, a big improvement over the white.

I have some white hose sitting in a drawer, waiting for them to become "the thing" again!

Once in a while I have to haul them out due to having to do a matchy gig with another piper, and the other guy only having white

[MacGumerait]

Steve ,

You must have the patience of a priest .

Even though my background is in mechanical engineering and construction engineering .... I can still see myself sitting down in front of this sock knitting machine and saying ...

" Okay mechanical beastie ... you and me are gonna have problems . "

Cheers , Mike

[The Wizard of BC]

Well, I will admit that the learning curve on these machines is huge. I spent the first 6 weeks cranking every day before I got my first good sock. Then another three tries before I had a mate to that first one.

There are a lot of people who like to tell you how historically important these machines were and how many socks were made with them. In reality I suspect that the vast majority of the machines you can find on Ebay, even thought they are approaching 100 years old, have never successfully made a sock. That is why you can find them at farm auctions and in barns and attics all over N. America. They were put there after the frustration of not being able to make it work and forgotten.

Now however I can crank a pair of socks in just under 4 hours. I then spend another hour and a half closing the toes because that must be done manually.

But hey, a pair of kilt hose will send a hand knitter into fits. A full weeks worth of knitting at about 4 hours per day for hand knit socks.

Now, I find cranking to be very restful and soothing. I'll go down into the basement, put an old movie into the player and have a sock done before the movie ends.

But oh boy, in the beginning there were times when I was ready to toss that hunk of metal into the street and drive over it with a steam roller.

Now I am invited to teach others how to set up their machine and how to get it to make a good looking sock. We are even going to host what we call a "Crank-in" next year. We will invite anyone who found one of these machines in the back of grandma's closet to come and learn how to make a sock on it. We are going to bring in the representative of the company who made my machines in Cape Girardeau, MO. to come to Victoria and help out.
If you ever really wanted to know more about these incredible machines this would be a great time.

[MacGumerait]

There are a lot of people who like to tell you how historically important these machines were and how many socks were made with them. In reality I suspect that the vast majority of the machines you can find on Ebay, even thought they are approaching 100 years old, have never successfully made a sock. That is why you can find them at farm auctions and in barns and attics all over N. America. They were put there after the frustration of not being able to make it work and forgotten.

You have my greatest respect for mastering this device .

It conjures up memories of the old " Addressograph Machine " used to stamp out nameplates and dog tags .

I'm guessing that when one finds them in a barn or attic .... they are laying next to the old hand crank corn shellers and apple peelers .

[LKM]

A great improvement over the white. The picture with the bucket remind me of tie-dying t-shirts. I hope the dye you used will stay when the socks are washed better they the color did on the shirts I tie-dyed. Those shirts are almost white again but my life likes one of them.

[Hocfutue]

I absolutely love these for casual wear.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/produ...ocks?a=1923513

Just pull them on over regular socks and I'm all set. No more wearing out the heels on expensive hose. Don't require spats/anklets/puttees, either.

Going to try hand knitting something similar in diced hose. The whole "turning the heel thing" is pure voodoo to me, but these make sense to me!

[Voussoir]

RIT dye is a "union" dye. It works well for all fibers, but requires 2 or 3 dips to get an even color.
Your socks are acrylic, so they will not shrink on you. As long as the dye was heat set, which sounds like it was, then you just need to rinse until no further color comes out of the fabric and you'll be fine. It won't come off on your legs. Any application of heat is fine: steam, microwave, oven, dryer...just be mindful of matching heat temperature to fiber tolerance.

To dye wool, soak the wool in a water/vinegar mix (acidic) to open the protein fibers to accept dye.
To dye cotton, soak in water/washing soda mix (alkali) for opening bast fibers before dying.

Creative dyers have posted that they mix prepared dye with gelatin to thicken it so that they can paint it on in specific areas, then heat set, and wash out the gelatin. Just more ideas;-)

[Nathan]

When I started wearing kilts about 6 or 7 years ago, I bought two pairs of white socks. I do not wear white kilt socks any longer so I was trying to figure out what to do with them since they are fairly good quality. So, for about 7.00 US dollars of dye, I now have some decent looking kilt socks.

Here are the white socks.
.

I first dyed the tops green.


After 30 minutes, I rinsed the tops in cold water. They came out okay and here is how they looked after the tops where done. I did this outside so I did not accidentally destroy anything in the house.


I finished by doing the rest of each pair in blue or purple.



So, after they finish drying and I make sure the dye is set, I will have to try them out.

I wanted to share an afternoon project. Trying to take something I stopped using and making it into something that would work with my kilts.

Can you post some pics of these dyed hose in action?

[bryanbott]

This looks amazing! Now I wonder where I can get one lol

[derosa]

Pretty cool idea, haven't played about with dye but if I find the missing mate to my one white sock I'm doing this in black and purple or blue.