A few decades ago I had some round bale feeders fabricated by a local welding shop.
The two ends of the feeder slide in along the sides as the bales are consumed. When I set out a new bale I simply lift the feeder over the top.
Many bale feeders have runners on the bottom, or a rail that rests on the ground. These feeders just have the vertical extension of the side ends - about 6" - that go directly onto the ground. They can punch into the ground, specially if the sheep stand on the rungs to get a higher reach.
But the problem I had with other feeders which avoid the hold punching, is that come winter those rails would freeze into the snow/ground making a horrendous task of moving them.
With this design if they freeze in it is a simple effort to pry them out with the end of a crow bar.
Most of the hay I use is 4' x 4.5' bales and these feeders were made for that, but can accommodate up to 5'.
Recently I bought some 5.5' bales as I'm short of hay for the coming winter and this was excellent quality hay at a decent price.
So I went back to welding shop to get a longer version made up. The proprietor who designed these has retired but his son has carried on the biz.
The days have been quite warm lately, but the mornings are cold enough I need to wear a quilted jacket for early chores. A sign that winter will be arriving in the not to distant future, so I'm a gittin' ready,
I've got a decent collection weight buckles - these are used to hold the weights that keep your work taught while using a sock knitter.
Number 2 is standard Legare or Verdun buckle and one of these came with my first knitter. Unfortunately I broke it - a difficult thing to do, but I managed it - and had to come up with a solution while I searched out a replacement.
Number 1 was my temporary solution - a plastic clip used for closing bags - from the dollar store, A loop of sturdy yard to hang the weights from was all I needed to make it functional. The weights need to hang evenly to avoid losing stitches and this solution wasn't the best, so its where I developed the habit of using my non-cranking hand to add balance and extra weight while knitting.
Eventually I found 3 and 4, I think on eBay and I apologize for not recalling the names of who made these. Number 3 became my standard use on my knitters. When I eventually got more knitters and more buckles like Number 2 I still kept using the wood buckle with my primary knitter.
Number 5 is a new manufacture buckle that came with my NZAK. It's similar to Number 2 but the peak, where you hang the hook of the weights in offset - this provides additional leverage?grasp of the buckle on the knitting.
Number 4 is home made by someone out of metal. The plate is about 1/16" thick, maybe a little more.
This year I started knitting Bis-Sock yarns by Laines Biscottes - a very light fingering weight, almost a lace weight, and it is a very very smooth yarn. So smooth that my buckles would slide down rather than hold, particularly if I parked my left hand on them while cranking (which I do).
This resulted in a few near toe-crushing experiences as the weights slid right off.
I dug Number 4 out of my box of bits and sure enough, this one holds tighty tight tight. I have no idea where I bought it - if it was on eBay or came with another sock knitter purchase - and I didn't even recall having it.
If I bought this from you - Thanks!
Dina Grammer Woodard
September is Size Small month.
Before moving over to my 54/27 set up on my second Legare 400, I'm spending some time on the 72/36 on my first Legare knit lace weight and 'almost lace weight'.
The sock on the knitter is Koigu Lace Weight (this colour is L753). I knit this yarn concurrently with a strand of fine lycra as well as adding Wooly Nylon to the heels and toes. To get a size Small I actually use my size Medium pattern but at a :(quite) higher tension than a fingering weight like Koigu KPPPM. (I do the same think to knit a Lace weight Medium, using size Large pattern + higher tension).
New to me this year is Bis-Sock yarn from Laines Biscottes in Montreal and I experimented with some swatches to see what cylinder I would use with it. If is a finer gauge than Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, but not so fine as the Koigu lace.
As it happens, the Bis-sock swatched up almost identical to the Koigu lace, so I used the same pattern. The Bis-sock has much more elasticity so knitting it at a lace type tension works out quite nicely.
Two samples of the Bis-sock are colourways Marley, in the colours of the Jamaican flag, and Poudre de Cari (Curry Powder).
Seabreeze is a b*gger to dye.
I love the colour but it has turquoise in the dye make-up and its very difficult to exhaust the dye bath, even when using only half the recipe amount.
1 're-cooking' with additional mordant, and 7 rinse cycles in the washing machine, the rinse water barely had a tinge of colour left it. (I don't want to sell a yarn that bleeds.)
Taking pictures of the colour is even more difficult. I don't know why any camera I've had simply doesn't do turquoise. I presume the camera colours are based on different base colours but this is beyond my ability to get sorted.
However, and I'll ask you to trust me, not my photo, its an absolutely gorgeous colour, so is worth the extra time and frustration. It is actually warmer and a little darker than what my photo looks like on my monitor.
For sure it will end up as a fabulous pair of socks ;o)
