Monday, January 18, 2010

Product development: socks and hair sticks

I tried the knee socks again, this time with the bigger cylinder I have for the circular sock knitting machine. I got the leg to fit nicely over my calf...but now the ankle and foot are too baggy. I'm not really surprised. My calf is, in fact, bigger than my ankle.

So, I dug back into the original manual that came with the machine some 100 years ago. (Ok, I don't have the original, but there is a copy on line that I printed out.) The directions for a high sock there suggest that you remove every fourth needle when making the ankle. Then, before the heel, you put back in the needles that will knit the underside of the foot. This makes a mock ribbing. I did a test run, cranking out about 90 rows of tube with every 4th needle removed, then slipped the tube on over my foot. It is noticeably tighter around than when I have all the needles in. So the theory is sound. Hopefully I can give it a try tomorrow--I'm a bit tired to be experimenting with something new tonight.

And just so this post isn't totally lacking a photo, let me show you what else I've been working on. I recently got a batch of bone hair sticks that had holes drilled in the top. I finally tracked down screw-eyes that would fit in that hole, and have started digging through my bead stash to make dangles. Here's the first set done:



Watch for a line of hair sticks and hat pins to be added to the Tangible Daydreams Etsy shop in the next few weeks! A pair of hair sticks will be running around $15.

2 comments:

  1. Those are very pretty. I've always wanted to be able to wear hair stick but I keep my hair much to short for that kind of loveliness.

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  2. Unfortunately, I'm finding that the bone is relatively fragile. I think I'm going to need to move the dangles over to wooden sticks.

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