From the moment I heard about antique circular sock knitting
machines, I knew.
I heard rumors, first, on a knitter’s discussion forum, in
the early days of internet access—in the days when no one posted photos because
photos took too long to load. I was seeking patterns for hand-knit socks, when
someone described a 19th century sock machine. I first witnessed a
real machine six or seven years ago at the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool
festival. The owner was just getting ready to pack the machine home—it was tired,
and things were beginning to go wrong with the knitting, she said, but she did
show me how it worked, just before it skipped a bunch of stitches and she
packed it up. She said these little knitters are “persnickety,” which was my
mother’s word for me—particular, not easy to steer.
Later I searched an online directory of CSM teachers, and I
invited a nearby teacher to demonstrate her work at my children’s school. Then
I found a group of CSM knitters that meets monthly on the southern border of
New Hampshire, and I heard about new manufacturers making sock-knitter designs
from antique machines. I kept doing research. I am not the kind of person who
can drop $2000 on a new hobby—but a new machine would cost $1500 or more, and yarn would cost more.
