Sunday, May 25, 2008

Creating I-cord using a CSM aka circular sock machine

Photo #1 of CSM I-cord process

Photo #2 of CSM I-cord process

Photo #3 of CSM I-cord process

I love the fact that there's a Bay Area CSM group that is fairly close by (1 hour away). It's a great group of people that freely shares tips and techniques on using CSMs. Yesterday, one of the topics discussed was making I-cord using a CSM. The concept sounded so cool, I just had to go home and try it out myself. Perfect timing too, because I needed a few to finish up the Yoda Baby Sweater I made for a friend's baby boy to be. 

Here's how I created i-cord on my CSM (Legare 400):
  1. Take out all cylinder needles except for those you need to make the I-cord. In my case, I kept 3 in place.
  2. Thread yarn through yarn carrier.
  3. Long tail cast-on the number of stitches needed for your I-cord (e.g. 3 for my baby sweater).
  4. Transfer the stitches to the working needles on the cylinder.
  5. Thread yarn through your yarn mast and make sure to use the heel spring to take up slack yarn.
  6. Using your left hand to weight/pull down the tail of your long tail cast on, proceed to crank with your right. You may have to coax the first few rounds along as the stitches may need a little assistance in getting created. Once you get going, it should get a lot easier with each turn of the crank. 
  7. Crank in the usual fashion, in one direction, clockwise. As the yarn goes past the last needle, since there are no additional needles on the cylinder and because the heel spring is being used, the slack yarn should be pulled up by the yarn mast. when you crank around back to the 1st needle, the yarn should be in the appropriate place to knit the next row.
  8. Let me know if you have any questions or need clarification on the process.


1 comment:

  1. That is awesome. I read somewhere that I could make icord on my csm but couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Thanks!

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