 |
  |
Tips & Tricks
Here's some additional information that you might find helpful as you work through the Basic Ribbed Sock Class.
2 Basic Ribbed Socks On 2 Circulars
Don't bother trying to center your heels around the joins. Reserve the first half of your cast on stitches for the heel of your socks and the second half for the instep. Arrange the heel stitches together on one circular and the instep stitches together on the other.
Skip the wrapping rows. (The wrapping rows are the first white boxes in the columns on this chart.) If you find small gaps in the corners when your heels are finished, Heel Gaps will help you close them up.
Finish the heel for one sock, then finish the heel for the second sock. (That is, don't try to do row 1 for sock 1, row 1 for sock 2, etc.)
Heel Gaps
In the first round after completing your Sherman Heel, you may see small gaps at the corners where the heel and instep stitches meet. You can close them by picking up a loop from the gap, twisting it, and doing a k2tog. You don't necessarily have to be symmetrical; just pick a loop that seems to close the gap in the most secure way. Sometimes a different loop will make sense on either side of the same sock - this is perfectly normal. If you need to do 2 k2togs to close the gap, that's all right too. If you don't see gaps, just knit as usual.
Kitchener Points
When you close a short row toe with the Kitchener Stitch, you are adding a row of knitting between the foot of the sock and the top of the toe. This can pose a problem at the corners of the grafting, where the extra row of stitches can sometimes appear bulky and pointy. The following tips may help make your Kitchener stitching better both overall and at the troublesome corners.
- Arrange stitches on 2 needles in preparation for grafting: instep stitches on one needle, sole stitches on the other. Before you start, pass the last stitch on either end of each needle over the next stitch inward. This reduced the total number of stitches to be grafted by 4 and seems to make the seam lie flatter.
- After finishing the Kitchener seam, gently work the slack at the corners back into the surrounding stitches with the tip of a needle. (I also use this technique to hide ladders.)
- Try grafting off of scrap yarn instead of needles.
- Try Lucy Neatby's Toe Chimney technique: http://www.tradewindknits.com/tbsoctoe.html
- Use a darning egg.
- After finishing the toe, knit in the round across both the toe and instep stitches for another 2-3 rounds. Gently, gently press the toe of the sock to fix the stitches in place. Carefully unravel the extra 2-3 rounds. Now graft the toe shut.
Using Markers
Using markers can make keeping track of your place in a sock pattern really easy. The trick is to place your markers in the same place every time so that you don't have to think about what each one means. What you do is not as important as being consistant!
Here's my method; it might work for you, too - or inspire you to create one of your own.
- I always use the little plastic removable marker made by Clover. They are green and orange and open like safety pins.
- I only mark the rounds, never the stitches within them. I force myself to understand the pattern stitch so that I can determine where I am in the pattern by what my stitches look like.
- I only place markers in the first stitch of any given round.
- I always use the same type of markers: the green and orange ones made by Clover that look like safety pins. They never fall out, which is important. And since my markers are always the same, they really catch my eye.
- I never count the cast on as a round in my knitting. My first round of knitting is always round 1 for me.
- When I begin round 2, I put a marker in the first stitch of my cast on. If this sock is toe-up, I put the marker in the first stitch of the last round of the toe.
- I place a marker in the first stitch of every 10th round after that. Then when I want to know how many rounds I have done, I can quickly count up the 10s and the single rounds to get my total number of rounds completed.
- I place a marker in the first stitch of the last heel row.
- I place a marker in the first stitch of every 10th round after that.
- I do not take out the markers until *both* socks are done. (I don't weave in ends until both are done, either.)
I also take notes while I knit. Between the notes and the markers, it's very easy for me to continue from right where I left off, even if that unfinished sock has been languishing in my basket for weeks.