Ain't it a Splice

I've copied my reply to an email about how to splice colours on the sock machine. I took some pictures to try and illustrate my comments. The photos in the series can be clicked for closeup.

My camera was fixed at about 3 o'clock to the side of the machine.

Stop with the yarn carrier about 7 o'clock. The position doesn't really matter, but it makes cleaner work if you stop and start at the same point with each change, and I find it preferable to 'hide' the changes at the back of the sock.

Cut the 'old yarn' leaving a tail of ~ 6 inches. Pull the old yarn into the cylinder side of the yarn carrier. (So the yarn carrier is now void of yarn).

Hold the tail FORWARDS about half the length of the tail. Then fold the tail BACKWARDS. So the tail is now doubled against itself. Lay the doubled yarn under the first three needles that will knit next, leaving the end of the tail inside the cylinder and be sure the yarn is under the hook but on above the latch. Holding the folded end of the tail, with gentle tension, carefully knit forward three or four stitches.

This will catch the doubled yarn and leave you with a loop.

Take the new yarn and feed it through your mast topper and yarn carrier as you would normally do. Feed the new yarn THROUGH the loop the remains from the tail of the old yarn. Feed through a tail of the new yarn several inches worth, and hold/lay/lead that new tail FORWARDS in the direction of knit.

Try to hold it with enough tension that it is properly under the hooks and above the latches of the next stitches that will knit, and the tension should also hold the loop of the old line 'straight' so that it will be caught by the needles when you start to knit. Carefully knit forward several stitches.

Your knit will be a tad stiffer as you are knitting double yarn - the loop on the old yarn and also the tail of the new yarn you are holding forward, plus the new yarn that is feeding through the yarn carrier.

This is one of those things where you may feel all thumbs in the beginning. But it becomes very quick and easy with practice. The main thing is to be sure the yarn is always UNDER the hooks but ABOVE the latches when you turn the crank.

There are other ways to splice yarn on the sock machine. With the method illustrated there is a BIG BONUS , especially if you are doing muliple changes - there are no ends to weave in when you are done - this method knits in the ends on the fly.

At the Dye Pot

This is one STRANGE batch:



If you can peek through the steam, you will see that the skein in the top right is pale blue, while the remaining skeins are charcoal grey. ALL skeins are 75% wool 25% nylon sock yarn and all went into the pot un-dyed. The skein that is pale blue is single ply and the others are 3 ply.


And see how the scrap yarn ties on the charcoal grey skeins are ALSO pale blue. These scraps are 100% wool, 2 ply worsted weight.

Cripes. It's not even Halloween until tomorrow, but the goblins are at work already!

With the three skeins (in photo above) removed from the pot, I've added some more dye to the bath with the pale blue skein....its brewing right now and we'll see what it does....