Socks Socks Socks

I just found this book at the local library. 70 winning sock patterns from the Knitter's Magazine contest by 64 sock knitters from the USA, Canada, Iceland, and New Zealand. It was published in 1999, but the patterns are timeless. The Table of Contents lists seven broad categories of socks, including Simple Socks, Kids Socks, Lace Socks, Color Socks, Texture Socks, Whimsical Socks, and Icelandic Socks.

This book is for experienced knitters who want to learn how to knit socks, as well as for sock knitters who are looking for advanced socks challenges. It looks like it is still available from Amazon at a very reasonable price, considering how many patterns there are in it. The reader reviews for this book on Amazon are generally favorable. The biggest complaint is that some of the patterns have mistakes in them. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an eratta page at the publisher's website. However, there does seem to be an Online Forum called KniTalk. This is the website for Knitter's Magazine, which I recently saw on the magazine rack at my local Borders book store.

I really enjoy finding these older sock knitting books, especially since I'm a beginning sock knitter.

When Knitting Becomes An Obsession

Directed by: Laura Neuvonen
Country: Finland
Year of Production: 2005
Running Time: 6:45

Watch on YouTube.

My Giant Knit-Knit

Yesterday, while at the Tuesday Morning store, I spotted a crank knitting machine. These types of knitting machines usually sell for about $30, but I bought it for $8.61 including tax. It came with two balls of DK weight acrylic yarn, totaling about 70 grams. There was also a plastic needle, a plastic hook tool, a yarn guide, and an instruction manual included.

The eight page instruction manual was written in seven languages, with GB (Great Britain - English) being one of them. Even with English instructions, I doubt that any child would have been able to figure out how to set up the machine, or successfully knit with it, despite it having For Ages 5 & Up on the box.

I have watched some videos on YouTube on how to set up these types of knitting machines, so I was able to figure it out. It only took a few minutes to knit a tube from one of the balls of yarn.

There is a switch on the front of the machine that can be set to circular knitting, or square/rectangular knitting. With it set to circular knitting, it keeps going around and around, making a tube. Set to rectangular knitting, it will go in one direction until it hits a stop, then it must be cranked in the other direction until it hits a stop. Working back and forth creates a flat panel. This machine has 22 needles.

So, what does this have to do with sock knitting, you ask? Well, some of the things I've run across while searching the Web for sock stuff, are sock dyeing blanks. People make knitted fabric on a knitting machine, then dye the fabric in all kinds of colors. The fabric is then unraveled, wound into balls, and socks are knitted from the hand-dyed yarn.

How To Get Want You Want has more information on various crank knitting machines.

For $8.61, I couldn't pass it up. My Giant Knit-Knit is now part of my knitting studio.

Wool Yarn Ball Winder

Instead of constantly updating the wool winder information on the Animation and Automata blog, I decided to make a static web page for it: Wool Yarn Ball Winder. There is also a page for the Umbrella Swift.

That site has more detailed information, and it will be easier to update. So far, I have a Rough Draft finished and uploaded. I'm not a technical writer, so trying to explain how to make a Wool Winder is actually quite difficult. Part of the difficulty stems from trying to make the instructions generic, so that people can make a custom wool winder that does the work they want it to do, rather than slavishly copying the 3:1 ratio wool winder that I made.

I'm also trying to make some new drawings that show more details. I'm doing all the drawings using the KolourPaint program on my Debian GNU/Linux computer. I will continue polishing the tutorial until it reaches a finished state. Anyone with questions can PM me on Ravelry.

Cast-on and Toe Increase

As you can see in the above photo, I'm using a large Ziplock baggie to keep my yarn from getting tangled. The yarn comes out through holes in each side of the top, with the middle of the baggie pressed closed.

Cast-On

Using Judy's Magic Cast-On, I cast-on 20 sts for each sock, then worked one round, remembering to knit into the back of the stitch for the first round on the second side of each sock.

Toe Increases

I calculated that these socks will be 84 sts for the foot and leg. 84 sts equals 100%.

Round 2 (all M1 increases worked with a backward loop increase)

Side 1 (instep)
Sock A: K1, M1R, K to 1 st before the end, M1L, K1.
Sock B: K1, M1R, K to 1 st before the end, M1L, K1.
Rotate

Side 2 (sole)
Sock B: K1, M1R, K to 1 st before the end, M1L, K1.
Sock A: K1, M1R, K to 1 st before the end, M1L, K1.
Rotate

First increase round of socks completed.
Each sock now has 24 sts (12 sts on each side of each sock).

Round 3 (even)
Knit both sides of both socks with no increases.

Next Rounds (increase and knit even)
Repeat the last two rounds (increase and knit even) until 84 total sts

End work at marker having just finished side 2, sock A.
Each sock now has a total of 84 sts.
Each side of each sock now has 42 sts.

This is my row counter for the increases. I have it written down on a piece of paper. I mark each completed round with an "i" then an "e" for increase or even.

rnd   B  A
2-3   24 24 ie
4-5   28 28 ie
6-7   32 32 ie
8-9   36 36 ie
10-11 40 40 ie
12-13 44 44
14-15 48 48
16-17 52 52
18-19 56 56
20-21 60 60
22-23 64 64
24-25 68 68
26-27 72 72
28-29 76 76
30-31 80 80
32-33 84 84

When I reach 84 sts, I'll just start knitting Stockinette Stitch until the sock is about seven inches long from the tip of the toe. Then I'll start the gusset increases.

This yarn is so thin, and the needles are so small that I have to knit with my glasses off so I can see what I'm doing. I still don't have enough experience so that I can knit without looking at what I'm doing.

Gusset Increases, Heel Turn and Heel Flap

The last time this Sample Sock was seen, the toe had been shaped. Knitting the foot in stockinette stitch was very straightforward. When the toe and foot together measured about two inches, it was time to start the Gusset Increases on the sole side of the sock. The instep side of the sock was knit a straight 16 sts each round. The sole side of the sock was increased two sts each round (using the same pattern as for the toe increases), until there were 32 sts total. An even round was knit all around in between every increase round.

The nice thing about doing the gusset like this is, there aren't any stitches to pick-up, like there were in Ann Budd's cuff-down sock. I did not take any pix of the gusset increases in progress. There ended up being 16 sts on the instep needle, and 32 sts on the sole needle. Remember, the instep needle is the one with the stitch marker in the first stitch.

As usual, the heel turn is where the Magic happens. The heel is worked on the sole side of the sock. Starting on the knit side (right side):
Row 1: K8, PM1 (Place Marker 1), K15, sl1 (as if to purl), bring yarn to right side to wrap stitch, PM2 on left needle, slip st back to left needle, turn work to the wrong side (purl side).
Row 2: Bring yarn to wrong side for purl stitch. Purl to 2 sts before Marker 1. Sl2 (as if to purl), bring yarn to right side to wrap stitch, slip st back to left-hand needle, turn.
Row 3: (right side) Bring yarn in position to knit. Knit to 2 sts before previously wrapped stitch. sl1 (as if to purl), bring yarn to wrap st, slip st back to left needle, turn.
Row 4: (wrong side) Bring yarn in position to purl. Purl to 2 sts before previously wrapped stitch. sl1 (as if to purl), bring yarn to wrap st, slip st back to left needle, turn.
Next Rows: Rep Row 3 and Row 4 until all but the 3 center sts have been wrapped. End having completed a right-side row. Turn.

The Heel Flap was worked back and forth in rows on the sole side of the sock.
Row 1: (wrong side) Purl to 1 stitch before Marker 1. Sl1 (as if to purl), remove marker, slip st back to left needle, P2tog. Turn.
Row 2: (right side) Sl1 (as if to purl). Knit to 1 stitch before Marker 2. Sl st (as if to knit), remove marker, slip next st (as if to knit), place the 2 slipped sts back on left needle, and knit the two slipped sts together through the back loop. Turn.
Row 3: (wrong side) Sl1 (as if to purl), purl to 1 st before gap, P2tog. Turn.
Row 4: (right side) Sl1 (as if to purl), *K1, sl1 (as if to purl); rep from * to 1 st before gap, SSK, Turn.
Next Rows: Rep Row 3 and Row 4 until all the sts on the sole side of the sock have been worked.
End on a right side row. There are now 16 sts on both needles.

The legs are knit in stockinette stitch, just like the foot. As the above photo shows, I ran out of yarn as I completed the heel flap. If I'd had enough yarn, I would have knit an inch or two of leg, then done K1, P1 ribbing for an inch or so, finishing with a Bind Off. The trick to doing a bind-off on a toe-up sock is making it loose enough so the foot and heel can fit through it.

That's it! I guess I'm ready to make Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks with the fingering weight yarn and the US #0 circular needles.

Shaping The Toe

My goal is to be able to knit Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks with fingering weight yarn on one US #0 40 inch circular needle. But first I'm going to knit one Sample Sock with leftover Class Sock Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi) weight yarn on one US #5 40 inch circular needle. There are so many things to remember when learning how to do this that I had to make a list.

1. Judy's Magic Cast-on: 16 sts (8 sts per needle)
   
   
   
   • Yarn tail over index finger.
     
   • Working yarn over thumb.
     
   • Loop around Top Needle.
     
   • Loop bottom needle around yarn tail.
     
   • Loop top needle around working yarn.
     
   • Repeat until there are 8 loops on each needle (16 sts total).
     
   • End with a loop on the bottom needle (tail yarn).
     
   
   
2. Pull tail yarn over working yarn and to the back, out of the way. Knit first side (8 sts), rotate. Place marker on first st.
   
3. Knit through back loops on second side (8 sts), rotate.
   
4. K1, M1R (working yarn to back), Knit to next-to-last st, M1L (working yarn to front), K1, rotate.
   
5. K1, M1R (working yarn to back), Knit to next-to-last st, M1L (working yarn to front), K1, rotate.
   
6. Knit evenly all around.
   
7. Repeat 4., 5., and 6. until there are 32 sts total (16 sts on each needle).
   

I don't know why it has been so difficult for me to get my head wrapped around doing this, but I am making progress, albeit, slowly. I've been doing a lot of frogging.

KnittingHelp.Com: Increases.

Once the toe is shaped, Knit evenly around for the Foot until the Sample Sock measures 2 inches from the tip of the toe.