Circular Sock Machine (CSM): yay or nay?
or: should you keep hand knitting all the socks?
Have you ever been bored with knitting miles of stockinette socks, or your hands can’t cope? I love knitting socks and I’ve thought for a long time that I wanted to go down the circular sock machine rabbit hole to knit even more socks! But the cost of a new one is rather prohibitive for me as a casual hobbyist when sock knitting isn’t (and won’t be) my main craft. A 3D printed one is in the realm of 1000€ plus EU import taxes, shipping etc. and metal ones are double that. Of course, vintage ones or self-print 3D are possible. Unfortunately I’m not that mechanically inclined!
The short story: I thought I better go try before I think about buying… and then ended up confirming it wasn’t for me! But even if it’s not right for me, maybe it’s right for you? It all depends on your motivation …
A workshop on the Circular Sock Machine (CSM)
After watching a ton of YouTube videos on CSM, I went to visit Marie Handwovens near Leiden in the Netherlands who has a Tru-Knit machine. She happens to sell hand-cranked socks at markets and was willing to give me a private workshop on how to use the CSM and some basic techniques. I can highly recommend it - thanks Marie for your time! What we covered - ribbing, stockinette, tension/gauge adjustment, making a short row heel, short row toe.
Whilst you can find videos on YouTube or maybe go to a yarn store for a short demo, for me at least there’s no substitute for trying in real life and being able to ask all the questions. If you’re interested in doing the same, Marie said that she contacted the CSM manufacturers directly to see if they could help her find someone locally who had one and that were willing to give her some time. A good tip I’d say!
Without further ado, here’s my opinion!
Why you would buy a CSM
You love machines (probably the most important!): tinkering with settings and doing yarn experiments is your jam!
Your hands can’t physically handle the knitting
You want to make a sock in an evening and want to give socks to everyone you know (as well as have your own box of socks). Or sell them
You love the idea of producing a perfect-looking sock that you can also customise for size, yarn etc.
You have the funds for a new machine PLUS all the accessories that’s ready to go. Or you get an old one and have time, patience, energy to work out how to make stuff work.
Why I’m not buying a CSM
Seeing that CSMs are an investment and not an impulse purchase, going to this workshop forced me to think harder about sock knitting and why I do it. And that in itself was already valuable. My crafting time is limited and I thought a CMS would help me a) finish more socks - I adore hand-knit socks in winter and I want everyone I love to have these kinds of socks! b) give my hands a break, c) give my brain a break from boring stockinette (my favourite socks are stockinette ones knitted in self-striping yarn).
But actually, on reflection….
I’m a hobbyist —> with no intention of producing loads of socks to sell. And a CSM can’t do much else besides a sock yarn weight hat.
A CSM sock looks like a perfect version of a hand-knit sock. It doesn’t look like a RTW cotton sock —> that’s pretty obvious but it occurred to me that I don’t like the finished product enough to justify the cost of the machine. If the output looks like a hand-knit sock then I want to be the one making it by hand (and then let it be imperfect) … because I know I can knit it myself. My husband always says there is something charming about hand-knitted socks; they are not meant to look like shop-bought ones!
I’m not into machines that much - a CSM is very fiddly and the learning curve is steep, there are a lot of accessories and you need to set up a whole workstation —> back to the first point that I don’t feel the need to produce a lot of socks so I don’t really want a permanent workstation for it.
Hand-knitting is nice! Valerie who came with me gifted me a ball of glittery self-striping sock yarn and I made a joke that I don’t have a machine to help me with the stockinette … turns out she has the same yarn in her stash and she volunteered to knit me up a sock tube on her double bed flat knitting machine in exchange for the yarn she just gave me. I declined because where’s the fun in that?! If I really wanted the sock then I’d ask her very nicely if I could commission one for my birthday.
To conclude, you’ll find me at the dining table or on the train slowly handknitting the socks on my DPNs / magic loop / short circulars … in the meantime, if you’re curious, here are the key websites below I went to for my information.
Till next time
Kate
Links to popular CSM manufacturers
https://www.deanandbean.com/
https://tru-knit.com/
https://erlbacherknitting.com/
Links to other resources
https://www.csmlove.com/
https://sweetgeorgiayarns.com/blog/category/craft/circular-sock-machines/