Elizabeth purchased her first Circular Sock Machine from "Elmogirl" in New Hampshire in 2004. We traveled from our home in West Virginia to New England just to pick up the restored LeGare and receive several hours training on its operation. (OK, so it was also an opportunity to travel around New England for a couple weeks checking out museums and lighthouses, too.)

Circular Sock Machines or CSMs can be very temperamental and must be adjusted perfectly for uniform knitting. The Internet has several mailing lists and the CSMSA (Circular Sock Machine Society of America) holds a yearly convention.

In June 2005 we attended a CSMSA convention at the Valley Plaza Inn (Best Western) in Midland, Michigan. Elizabeth took her LeGare and Jim took a basket-case Gearhart. With the help of Pete Olson, a complete set of needles, some scrubbing and machine oil, and fine tuning, Jim's machine was made operational except for the ribber which was broken in the process of trying to unstick it. (The machine will make a sock with out the ribber, and the needles for the ribber are no longer available anyway.) These pictures are of Jim and Elizabeth at that convention.

Yes, Jim can make a heel but has not mastered closing of the toe at this stage. Our sock drawers are not filled with a full collection of hand-cranked socks as of yet. If you would like a pair of hand-cranked socks, a Google search should provide a number of folks who have second jobs turning out socks on these machines.