[Nfb-krafters-korner] sock looms

[Blindhands at aol.com]

They have so much of the sock yarn available with self patterning that I  
would be interested in the extra fine one, too.
 
On the circular sock machines LaGear used a standard 54 needle cam and the  
other brand name along with Gearhart machines started with a 60 needle cam 
then  went to a 70 for LaGear and 72 or 74 for the other.
 
I always thought a 60 would be perfect, but that was on the first machine I 
 got and ended up breaking the cam.  They did have some machines that had  
100 needles, but for the yarns we have available today that was not that  
practical.
 
They do now make these sock machines and I have heard great reviews on  
them.  The machines are being made by a person that was into restoring the  old 
machines and she took the best from all the machines and designed her own  
line of sock machines.  They are crank machines and she lives in New  
Zealand and she has come out with a full range of different size cams with the  
ribber that matches them.  I heard theyare going for $1000 and I think  
thatincludes the shipping to the states.  So really that is not that bad of  a 
price as I had paid $500 for one that was 80 years old and I did not know if  
it would work or not.  That is the one that the cam broke.  I sold it  for 
parts.  I did pay $900 for a refurbished sock machine and that is the  one I 
still have.   These are antique machines made back soon  after the civil war 
up until the end of the 1920s.  I did have a Gearhart  machine that was 
dated back to 1902,  It was a pair of them thatI had  gotten 2 of these machines 
and between both of them I had several size cams, but  never got around to 
cleaning them up.  So I sold them as a pear for $700  and made somemoney on 
that.  I think they are still selling them on EBay,  but you need to know 
these are old machines and they might not work.  There  are Yahoo lists for 
the sock machines that you can get a lot of info from.
 
Joyce  Kane
www.KraftersKorner.org  (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
Blindhands at AOL.com