Day 5 - Antique Circular Sock Machine

I thought I'd start putting a little title in with the day number, kinda makes more sense. If I can figure out how to edit the previous days, I'll fix them too.

It's Wednesday so I'm busy around the place. This is the night my family comes home from the city so I have some extra stuff to do on Wednesdays. I knit for a while on the Boneyard Shawl but only a few rows today.  I really want to get that shawl finished before I start a sock on the machine.

A little bit about my machine (I am VERY new to this), It's a Legare 47, Made in Quebec, Canada. Not sure of the age, around 100 years old. My sweet, amazing, supportive hubby found it on eBay and purchased it for me. It arrived before Christmas but I had to put it to the side until I finished my Christmas knitting.

Initially I had it on a small folding table and it was immediately evident it needed a proper type of stand as I needed to use a chunk of granite to counter-balance the table. Scary.

I found LOTS of examples on the Internet of different ways to mount this very heavy, cast iron machine. The way I've seen in videos is a stool with the centre cut out and the machine mounted in the centre so the legs are equally supporting the weight. I will eventually want this type because it's compact and looks comfortable to sit at while cranking out socks. There were several types of stands you could purchase for lots of money. But then Rusty, that's my hubby's Internet handle, he found something that made the most sense, use a Black and Decker WorkMate bench. The one with the metal legs and the top that cranks open to clamp things.

Off we head to Canadian Tire to find a WorkMate bench. We finally find where they're located in the store and they have a cheaper version called a JobMate bench and it was...are you ready? $11.77! Seriously, how? But whatever, it's cheap for sure..nowhere NEAR the quality of a Black & Decker WorkMate but as a temporary solution to a problem, it's the bomb! I have the machine mounted on one side of the bench the swift at one end and the ball winder at the other end (although I think that's why I'm having the too tightly wound ball issues.) Like I said, I'd eventually like to have the stool with the hole in the centre solution but for now, this works well.

 You can see a bit of the swift on the left and of course Bear MUST get his face into most of my pictures. Now you'll have to watch for "Waldo", I'm sure he'll be creeping into future blog posts.