This device would be a single purpose fully automated sewing machine. It would make one item: socks. Every day a fresh pair if you want. Just feed in the bolt of cloth when it's empty and push a button when you want socks.-- Voice, Nov 16 2013 Sock knitting machine http://www.youtube....watch?v=2bBFuyrLSvEStrip out all that CNC junk, maybe add a cast iron flywheel and a treadle. [mitxela, Nov 17 2013] Hand cranked sock knitting machines http://www.oldtymes...chines_english.htmlOh wait -- the Victorians beat us to it. [mitxela, Nov 17 2013] [+] of course, but
//bolt of cloth// for socks ? yarn or thread, no ?
and does the machine make the socks while you wait ? or does it make the socks when you stand on it, around your feet.-- FlyingToaster, Nov 16 2013 How would this differ from just having a stock of manufactured socks massing the same as the bolt of cloth?-- CraigD, Nov 16 2013 Good idea, presumably alterable for thickness summer/winter socks. Maybe some technique like ruching?-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 16 2013 If it isn't limited to pair increments, this solves the age old one-lost- sock problem. Just pop out a new one to replace the lost sock.-- swimswim, Nov 17 2013 Useful for those who wear a number of socks other than two simultaneously.
Some time ago I considered a post about single-socks being made for sale but I discovered it is already baked (though oddly available in packs of three).-- tatterdemalion, Nov 17 2013 You could feed worn socks into a machine that shreds them, cards the fragments and spins them into yarn which is automatically fed into the knitting machine.-- pocmloc, Nov 17 2013 [+], although I'd rather have one for underwear. A fresh unworn pair of underpants is one of my most innocent guilty pleasures.-- Alterother, Nov 17 2013 So..wh..what do you do with them?-- rcarty, Nov 17 2013 oh no, this will put Grandma out of business!-- xandram, Nov 18 2013 I'd like to see this device contain a large number of silkworms and to demonstrate the collection of silk, the spinning process and then the manufacture of a pair of silk socks. To my mind there's something more pleasing in having a machine that you provide with sunshine, air, and water (for the plants the silkworms feed on) and which produces socks from these, than having a machine which you have to supply with manufactured thread.-- hippo, Nov 18 2013 Excellent idea [hippo]. Can also dispense fresh mulberries.-- pocmloc, Nov 18 2013 // So..wh..what do you do with them? //
I wear them. What do you do with your underpants?-- Alterother, Nov 18 2013 [Pocmloc] - Mulberry jam - that can be the machine's other function-- hippo, Nov 19 2013 random, halfbakery