CSM - Sock machine update

Cranky 54 slot cylinder

 

The sock machine uses cylinders with different amount of needles to help with different gauges and sizes of socks.   I've been using the 72 needle cylinder which makes a slightly wider sock.  It fits my men folk fine, but is a little loose in the foot for me.  It's still wearable.  When I wanted to make a child's sock, I switched to the 54 needle cylinder and had lots of issues.  I felt really lucky to get a pair of kids socks done.  I thought I'd solved the issue, but when I went to make socks for my daughter who has tiny, skinny feet, I had nothing but issues.  I kept having a spate of dropped stitches.  I switched out needles.  I took all the needles out and shook them in lots of oil to  get rid of any accumulated static.  I even cleaned all the nooks and crannys  to get out any fibre which may have accumulated.  However, there were still issues with dropped stitches, and a weird noise which I wasn't happy with.  In the end, I just walked away for a few days and stopped worrying about it. 

  Why wasn't I worried about it?  Not only could I not do anything about it for a few days, but I knew that
under the Xmas tree was a box from Chambord, a Circular Sock Machine company in Canada, which makes lovely parts for old machines.   In that box was a 60 slot cylinder.  I knew this because I ordered it but wasn't allowed to open the box until Xmas day!

It's beautifully made and finished really nicely.  I didn't get the ribber stopper for it though because it's a separate item and all the prices just went up, so I kept within my budget.   When I changed out the cylinders, I cleaned everything up again.   CSM's use a fair bit of oil to keep them cranking smoothly.   It took a few oilings before this new cylinder ran smoothly.    

I've been cranking out gauge tubes and a few sample socks from yarns I'd not used on the other cyinders, to see how it works and what the tension knob does when moved.  My sweetie gave me some sock yarns that I definitely wouldn't have bought myself because I usually balk at spending $33 or more on a single skein of yarn.   So before I make extraordinary socks for myself, with lovely, lovely sock yarn, I want to know how the tension settings will work on similar yarn.  I don't want to make mistakes on the really, really good yarns!  The mauve and grey yarn is Fleece Artist organic and is nice.  It's from a company in Nova Scotia.  The other is from a much closer, Ontario company called Timber yarns.  It's two matched small skeins, to make matching socks with no measuring or math!   It's got a really, really nice twist to it.   These are definitely socks for me!