Navigation

 
Circular Sock Machine Sales, Cleaning Services & Classes
 

How to Make a Setup Bonnet

These directions will show you how to make a setup bonnet for your machine,  with out having to use the antique wire basket.

Items Needed

  • Scrap yarn in a contrasting color to your sock yarn

  • Sock yarn

  • Bath scrunchy

  • Work Hook  ( I use a small crochet hook )

  • Center pull yarn ball winder

Topics

Click on Photos to see Larger Images  
All sock machines need some form of webbing to get them started knitting.  We are going to use a bath scrunchy to get going.  Take the scrunchy and clip the string in the center of it and you will have miles and miles of webbing.
Cut off a piece of the scrunchy webbing about 12 inches in length, make sure one end has a nice straight edge.
Place your scrunchy webbing into your cylinder from the bottom of the machine up to the top so it does not get caught on the needles.
Drape about 1/2 to 1 inch of the scrunchy webbing over the needles.  You do not want much more then one inch or it starts to get caught and harder to use.
When you have the scrunchy webbing on all the needles that are showing or up, thread your machine with scrap yarn.  You will not be able to get the scrunchy on the needles that are down in the cam shell yet.
My scrap yarn is red so you will be able to see it,  thread the scrap yarn through the yarn carrier and have about 6 - 7 inches inside the cylinder.
Pull down gently but firmly on the scrunchy webbing  you want enough weight to hold the stitches down but not so much that you will rip the scrunchy.  If you start to see you stitches ridding up pull down a little harder.
Now turn the crank slowly and while pulling down on the scrunchy, your scrap yarn should now start on the needles to knit.  Stop cranking when the needles that were down in the cam shell are up.
Now lay the scrunchy over the last of the needles  again only placing 1/2 to one inch of webbing over the needles.
Crank around and ensure you keep a even amount of pull down applied to the scrunchy  you do not want to have the stitches riding up on the needles.  (if the stitches are riding up, try to pull down a bit more on the scrunchy or loosen your tension adjustment)
Continue cranking with your scrap yarn
Crank enough scrap yarn ( 10 inches or so ) so you can hang your weights on the scrap yarn.  I use 3 - 4 pounds of weight to hold my knitting down.
Now we are ready to start the Setup Bonnet
Cut your scrap yarn by the yarn ball on your table, now tie on your sock yarn with a granny knot (or any knot will do )  pull the scrap yarn into the center of the cylinder and keep pulling until you have about 4 - 5 inches of sock yarn also inside the cylinder.  Drape your sock yarn under one or two of the needles (you will be knitting both scrap and sock yarn for a couple stitches)  This helps prevent dropped stitches.
Knit 10 rounds
Use your work hook ( crochet hook) to move the stitch from one needle to the needle to its left.  You can see in the photo I started about 5 needles to the left of the carrier moving stitches.  Do NOT remove the needles just the stitch.
A trick to getting the stitch off the needle is to push the needle out a little, by pushing the needle out you can see the stitch loop and can get your work hook into the stitch very easy.
Continue around the entire cylinder moving the stitch from one needle to the next needle.  You will have a needle with 2 stitches on it and then a needle with no stitch.
You will not be able to get to all of the needles as some will be down inside the cam shell, when you reach these  crank ahead slowly till all the needles that were down are now up.  Stop cranking   and now continue moving stitches till you reach the point were you started.

When you start knitting you will see the following occur :  the needle that had 2 stitches on it will knit, and the needle that did not have a stitch will now have half a stitch.
Knit 10 rounds and stop.   When you look inside the cylinder you should see your scrap yarn, then your sock yarn,  see the row of holes  these holes were created by moving the stitch off the needle.
Take all your weights off the sock

Find the needle about 4 needles to the left of your yarn carrier,  pull it up just a little so you can see it ( see photo) 

You will now be Hanging a Hem
Use your work hook to follow the knitting down to the very first row of sock yarn.  It will be a little bump of sock yarn color. 

Insert your work hook in this bump and pull it up and hang it on the needle that up pulled up.
You are now going to go around the entire cylinder can pick up that first row of sock yarn and hang it on the needles.  In the photo I placed Black Marks by the first row of stitches so you can see the bumps I am talking about.
Using a scrap yarn that contrasts with your sock yarn makes this step easy.  You can see in the photo the bright red scrap yarn and the brown sock yarn.
You will not be able to reach all of the needles, as some will be down inside the cylinder.  Hang as many as you can, when you reach the point where you can no longer hang the stitches. 

VERY IMPORTANT :   Grab a hold of your knitting inside the cylinder and pull down to put weight on the knitting and now crank slowly just till all the needles that were down are not up.
Now continue hanging the stitches around the cylinder until you reach to point where you started.

Your needles will have 2 stitches on them
You can now put your weights back on the knitting 
Now crank, as you knit around you will be knitting those 2 stitches together and making a hem.  ( this is how you can make a hem top also )

 
Continue cranking until you have about 9 - 10 inches of sock yarn knit into a tube.
To end the setup bonnet I just cut the yarn by the yarn carrier
Remove your weights.   Grab a hold of the knitting and pull down
And crank slowly,  your knitting will come right off the needles  crank around the entire cylinder slowly to get all the stitches off the needles
Remove the scrunchy webbing from your scrap yarn

You can reuse your scrap yarn by ripping it out and winding it onto a center pull ball

 

I do not do any thing with the bottom edge of the bonnet I just let it roll onto itself.  Beware there is a loose end on it and if you pull the wrong piece of yarn it will rip out. 

I also leave the bottom edge open so when I need to remove the bonnet I can get my hand inside the bonnet.
Use a Sharpie and write on your bonnet what size cylinder it is for
How to Use the Setup Bonnet

Look at the top edge of the setup bonnet you will see a edge (picot) that looks like hills and valleys.  In the valley there will be a longer piece of yarn ( this was caused by the skipped stitch)  this longer piece of yarn is what you are looking for.

Insert your setup bonnet in your machine, going from the bottom so it does not get caught on any needles

Insert your work hook into one of these long stitches (in the valley) and hang it over a needle

In the photo on the left I added Black marks on the photo so you can see the valleys 

These valleys or longer stitches will be hung on every other needle

Work to your left find the next valley stitch, and hang that stitch   working around the cylinder hanging a stitch on every other needle

You again will not be able to get to all of the needles as some are down in the cam shell.  Stop

Thread your machine with scrap yarn

Hold down on your setup bonnet with your left hand and crank ahead till the needles that were down are now up.  Stop

Now hang the stitches on the rest of the needles

You can now attach your weights to the setup bonnet and crank
Crank about 4 rounds and Stop

To stretch out the valley stitches I leave the setup bonnets hang like this for a half hour or so  with the weights still attached.  This will make finding those valley stitches very easy next time you use your setup bonnet.
How to Remove the Setup Bonnet

 

 Your setup bonnet can last for quite a while, in fact even if one of the loops wears out you can still use it.  Just pull up a new valley stitch and start using it.

To remove the setup bonnet you will place your left hand into the open end of the setup bonnet.

 

 Find the tail of your scrap yarn in the photos my scrap yarn was the pink yarn.

 Pull the tail to the front of the sock.

 

 Give the tail a little tug so you can see which direction the scrap yarn wants to pull
Then taking a sharp pointed pair of scissors clip the SCRAP yarn of the opposite loop making sure Not to cut the setup bonnet loops.

Example if the tail pulls to the left you will cut the scrap yarn loops to the right

 
Now start pulling the tail of the yarn,  it will start to gather up around the setup bonnet  just work it around, and keep pulling.

Depending on the scrap yarn you have used it may pull it easy or hard.  I use cheap acrylic yarns and they can out very nice.

When you reach the end where you clipped the yarn it the scrap yarn will pull off the setup bonnet and you can reuse it now.

 

 
Country Rain © 2006
| Contact Us