Just a quick introduction

I'll post more soon, but I just wanted to introduce you to the newest member of my fiber arts family.

On Monday I got a heavy box full of irregular shapes wrapped in bubble wrap.



I started opening it, and realized pretty quickly that this was going to be complicated.



I feel so steampunk, except these gears are actually useful!

After an interlude of knitting with the Purlygirls, I came back and put the Circular Sock Machine together!



And I made knitting!!! The next step was to attempt a heel - this is one of the trickier parts. I tried last night, but even though I was using some fork weights, the stitches were still riding up the needles and popping off.

But today I managed to come up with inspiration* on what to use for weights and turn my first heel on the CSM. (You can't see it here, but it went OK. Probably not wearable quite yet as I had some tension issues, but it's getting there.)





*The inspiration came when I recalled that one time when I was moving in Boston. A friend was in the bathroom helping to pack up some of the last bits when I heard a confused voice:

Her: "Ummm... Why is there a can of vegetable soup under your bathroom sink?"

Me: "My mom bought it when she was here and left it, but it has beef broth so I can't eat it. So I'm using it to weight my handspun."

Her: "How did I know this had something to do with knitting?"

Luckily this came back to me today, and a couple cans of coconut milk later... A sock heel!