Knitter in the Kitchen

Pattern: Instead of following one pattern, I referenced techniques from multiple tutorials/patterns:
Misocrafty’s Turkish Cast On Tutorial for Two-At-A-Time Toe-Up Socks with Magic Loop
My Fashionable Life’s Elfine Socks Short Row Heel
Misocrafy’s Short Row Heel Tutorial
Cosmicpluto’s Short Rowl Heel Tutorial
Wendy’s Toe-Up Sock Pattern
Grumperina’s Fancy Lil’ Bind-Off
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM Colorway P419, 2 skeins
Needles: US #1 / 40″ Addi Turbos for Magic Loop
Thoughts: For a long time, I had been intimidated by toe-up socks. But the fear got old and I grew increasingly curious to see why many knitters like the toe-up approach. Learning the Turkish Cast On and short row heels wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated. Granted, I stumbled occasionally, but the excellent tutorials and patterns I linked above got me through. Photos truly can be worth many words.

The thing I like most about toe-ups is the short row heel. As I mentioned in my previous post, I think it’s so very nifty! It looks very tidy — unless there is a hole at the gusset. I ended up sewing up the one hole after I finished the sock, so it was no big deal. I still love the heel. Other than that, I didn’t particularly enjoy the other aspects of my toe-ups. The Turkish Cast On is wonderful, but I did a bunch of M1s in order to reach the total number of stitches for the foot. I hate doing M1s. Big time. I considered switching to k1fb, but it wasn’t any easier for me. It seemed to take for-ev-er to get to 56 stitches! Lots of people have also mentioned that knitting toe-up allows them to use up as much yarn as possible or to stop early if they are running low. Because I have narrow size 5 feet and I knit stockinette socks, yarn shortage has never been a problem. I always have plenty of leftovers, even when I make the legs 8″ long (ribbing included).

Lastly, I found that knitting two socks at once isn’t my thing. Yes, it’s wonderful to avoid second sock syndrome completely, but the project felt bulky to me. I know that doesn’t sound right because socks are small, but I just didn’t like dealing with two balls of yarn all the time and making sure they weren’t tangled. It discouraged me from bringing the socks out for public knitting.

Overall, I’m really glad that I knit toe-up socks successfully! This is the one “big” technique that I learned this year. I think I would knit toe-up again, but I foresee mostly top-down socks in my future. To me, it is easier to start socks top down, and I like knitting toe decreases much more than toe increases. I don’t even mind grafting the toes now. But you never know…I might change my mind with more experience! I realized that I have sworn off socks twice already, and look at what I’m knitting all the time now?! Yeah, things can change. So, these are just my current thoughts about toe-up versus top-down.

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Some things that I am doing over the holidays:

Reading. I haven’t had this many new books at once in a very long time.

Knitting my Yarntini Gimlet socks. Why are self-striping socks so addicting? I keep wanting to knit “just a little bit more” so that I can see the next color change. Of course, five color changes later I’m still going.

Playing Scrabble. Recently, Hubby and I have gotten into playing once or twice a week. He usually wins by 80 to 100 points which tells you that I am pretty darn bad at Scrabble. But it’s still fun! Last time I finally beat him, though only by a mere eleven points. The neat thing is that our Scrabble set orignally belonged to my parents and is probably about 22 years old.

Happy holidays to you and your loved ones! May you experience much joy and peace in the coming year.

My Pink Posey Socks came off the needles two weeks ago. I really like them because the yarn is so incredibly plush and the colors make me smile.

Pattern: Top down sock pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, Pink Posey, 2 skeins
Needles: US #1 / 40″ Addi Turbos for Magic Loop

I still need to work on neatening up my socks. As you can see below, I had some ladders. It took me until the second sock to remember that when I insert my needle into the second stitch, I should tug on the working yarn a bit to tighten up the first stitch. I do this with all other knitting, so I don’t know why I forgot with socks. Also, my ribbed cuff isn’t as neat as I would like — anyone have tips for that?

As soon I finished the Pink Posey Socks, I cast on for another pair. This time, I am doing toe-up, two-at-a-time with Magic Loop. The yarn is Koigu KPPPM Colorway P419. There is actually a lot more purple than what is showing up in the photos.

After I finished the short row heel, I had great difficulty closing the gap between the live stitches on the heel and the ones on the instep. I knew that I was supposed to pick up an extra stitch or two, but the problem was that when I picked up stitches, I created an even bigger hole. It was pretty darn ugly and I got so frustrated. I finally took the socks to an LYS and asked the for help. The owner gave me a few pointers about where I might pick up the stitches, and also suggested that I twist them by knitting through the back loop. Generally, her advice worked for me, except that I still ended up with one quite large hole. It may not look gigantic in this photo, but it’s definitely noticeable when I try on the sock! But one out of four isn’t too bad — I could live with that for my first toe-ups.

On the positive side, I think my short row heel looks pretty decent. The short row heel seems so cool.

I’m hoping to finish these up later in the week, and then I’ll post my impressions of top-down versus toe-up.

By the way, you see that nifty floral zippered pouch peeking out in my photos? That is the small project pouch from Piddleloop. It’s the perfect size for sock projects. They come in lots of fun fabrics and are very well made, so go check them out!