Gris-sold

On 7th September I referred to the Griswold machine I had bought in March, but only really got my hands on in early September.  I put it on my new knitting table.  The table top was originally a small shelf from the old curator's office in the museum.  Recent refurbishments meant there a was a skip full of bits and pieces just waiting for a new home.  I love the fact that the table has two square cut-outs at the back, where the original shelf supports went through - I can see speculation on the use of these at future events!  I haven't altered the size of the piece at all.  The base was from an old cast iron pub table, acquired at the March event the same time as the Griswold.  The table on its own sits very neatly in my utility room and I can open the freezer door (handy for resting stuff on) and get to mops etc the other side without moving it.  The white top makes it "disappear" into the wall.  I don't think it will ever get upstairs to my knitting room, which is fine by me!

I had to a wait for new needles to arrive from America before I could try the Griswold out for myself.  Matt had got it to the stage of ribbing and sock heel - I told him not to worry too much about the looks, just to get it running again.  So there was a bit of surface rust to deal with.  The machine, typical of factory machines, had been painted pale green over the black, and both were coming away in parts.  I took it to pieces twice for new oil, marking up one base screw and placing with red nail varnish.  No new screws or parts were needed, apart from a new needle retainer spring from Gordon, and a spare buckle.  Naturally, it was still rather stiff, but would get better.  I did my own sample sock with 1x1 rib, 5x1 rib, heel turn, plain half foot - no need to repeat myself with a toe or show off my Kitchener skills!  No problems.  However, I am not keen on needles falling into the cylinder if trying to get at one needle when half are up out of work, nor do I like the lack of adjustment on the yarn carrier, which preclude fiddling about with any yarn close to it, say should a hairy yarn get split by a hook.  These are typical of the Griswold brand, and most people wouldn't mind at all, but I do.  Also the stitch length adjuster doesn't like being altered where stitches are in work.  Again, not a problem once you know its preferences.

So I felt happy to advertise it for sale to four newbies who had been clamouring for a machine, as they do.  In the event, only one actually replied, and a bit of a discussion led to a nice price for the machine, and a goodly sum was duly passed over to the museum.  So now I am down to three machines, or two if you don't count the Ashcroft, which will be going to the museum one day anyway.

I am still waiting for an equal slot ribber dial before I make my decision on the "pretty" Cymbal.  I will definitely be selling this on, but whether with two cylinders/dials depends on how I get on.  Every time I go back to my original Cymbal, I realise how beautifully it behaves these days, how easy it is to crank.

Then it throws me a wobbler - not its fault, operator error (isn't it always?).  A couple of weeks ago I had a manufacturer's knot suddenly come undone in some slippery bamboo yarn, right just before the yarn carrier.  The rest of the yarn fell out back to the ball,  On the Cymbal, there are six places where the yarn is threaded through or under.  Number four from the yarn ball is a thin piece of wire bent into a square, the further end of which is a circle (number five).  I accidentally missed this out on re-threading.  Subsequently, I had a lot of problems with the yarn looping in both good and waste yarns.  The stitch dropped but often corrected itself a few rounds later, and with the ribber in place I wasn't seeing this.  I was getting ready to blame needles (I did find one slightly bent ribber needle latch).  On resetting the digital row b counter yesterday I spotted the threading a error.  What a difference it makes!  One can only speculate that the original yarn toppers were the cast iron with four holes design, an the wire was added later .

There's an exciting afternoon ahead - a video of me in the Griswold Room is making its appearance in the CSKMS AGM.  More later!