Lots of Socks

I forgot to post that I finished my Skew socks:

The 2 hanks of yarn that I used for them were just a bit different (they were hand-dyed so I suppose that’s to be expected) so the left sock has more dark brown and less red than the right pair. I don’t think anyone would notice if I didn’t point it out though. And I started another pair of socks last week. I had 2 more hanks of Lorna’s Laces yarn that I just needed to use and I decided on these Up, Up and Away socks. So far, the pattern is pretty easy but the heel (as usual) is confusing.

Tags: FO, knitting, socks
Category Knit |

Knitting Increases

One thing that I didn’t expect about knitting is that you can’t just increase however and wherever you want like you can in crochet. If you do you’ll likely get lots of holes. In crochet, increasing is simple: just put more than one stitch into a single space in the row below. Sure, it’s good to space increases out evenly but the technique is basically the same no matter the location. But with knitting there are lots of increase techniques and you must use the right one to get the right look for the project (some good illustrations here). Here are the ones I’ve learned so far:

Yarn Over (YO) – I used this in the first sock pattern I tried. I’m pretty sure I wrapped the yarn around the wrong way (the crochet direction).

Make One (M1) – this one seems the most intuitive to me but I learned the hard way that it makes a big hole in stockinette fabric if you don’t twist the stitch before knitting into it. Those first socks have tons of holes.

Lifted Increase (LLinc or RLinc) – I used this one LOTS in the Skew socks. This is when I learned that stitches must be sort of twisted to look correct. I was sure I was doing it wrong almost the whole way through the first sock but I wanted to at least stay consistent so I kept doing it the same way. I think it’s right… it looks good to me.

I also didn’t know that you have to increase differently depending on which way the stitch should lean and whether you’re knitting or purling … and there are several more ways to increase that I haven’t learned yet. Not to mention all the different ways to decrease!

Tags: knitting, socks, techniques
Category Knit, Techniques |

Skew Socks: One Down

It might be a record… I started this sock on Tuesday, didn’t touch it on Friday or Saturday, finished it on Sunday and started the second sock. Four days it took me to knit a whole sock! I’m amazed :)
It turned out a little big for me despite reducing the foot repeats by 4, but not too bad. My heel sewing is a little rough but no one would notice except myself. There’s a weird pointy spot at the heel that I think might relax once I wash and block it. I started the second sock right away because I spent too much money on this yarn to just make one sock and forget about it. I’m sure the second one will come more slowly but I think they will be lovely to wear when it gets colder so I’m surprisingly motivated to finish the pair.

Like I said before, this pattern is not as easy as I originally thought it would be, but I got through it and learned more about knitting. The short rows at the top were not the pain I thought they would be at all. It’s actually very straight forward. The only complicated part for me was the grafting and sewing of the little hole at the end of the grafted seam.

Also, as I worked on this pattern, I naturally thought about how it might work in crochet. Sometime I might experiment with doing a crocheted sock on the diagonal. I have another pair of Lorna’s Laces skeins that might be perfect for that!

Tags: crochet, FO, inspiration, knitting, socks, techniques
Category Inspiration, Knit, Techniques |