My sock knitting has ground to a halt. Sometimes, pattern instructions can bring you up short and make you wonder if you've been doing something wrong your entire knitterly career. This just happened to me.
I'm knitting the heel of my first ever toe-up sock. The instructions tell me to sl1, k11, then pick up and knit 10 stitches along the edge of the flap, knitting the last 2 stitches together. Except... for me, pick up and knit has never meant "pick up the slipped stitch with the left needle, pull yarn through, then knit the pulled-through stitch" -- it's always been "pick up slipped stitch with your right needle, pull through a bit of yarn, done."
Except, according to my method, you can't really knit anything together. Am I wrong? Have I been doing this wrong my entire knitting life?
And, as if this weren't confusing enough, another question: If I have 6 stitches on one half of the heel, then pick up 10, but knit the last 2 together... That's 15 stitches, right? Because the pattern wants me to sl 1, then knit 15 stitches to center of heel marker. Uh, that's 16. Which I would have if I hadn't tried to k2tog those pick-up-and-knit stitches mentioned above. Unggggh. Am I being dense? Help!
In other news, I have also cast on for a pair of Fawkes socks. I'm using that gorgeous orange yarn I showed you a little while ago, and I'll show you a picture of my progress as soon as I've calmed down enough to type the word "sock" without my usually lower-than-normal blood pressure going through the roof.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
13 comments:
which sock pattern are you using?
I have always picked up stitches exactly the same way as yopu & I believe it is the standard way of doing so. If a pattern wants you to do something differently, it should give very specific directions. What pattern is it?
Now I know why I'm scared of toe-up socks!
Picking up stitches sounds like it is the way you do it (I'm terrible at visualizing). But what I would do, is maybe treat the last two sort of like a SSK. It's probably just to make sure there isn't a hole at the gusset. (or you could probably even wait until the next round to knit them together)
I have faith in your ability to make it work. Creative problem solving is often a big part of knitting. If the pattern doesn't make sense, do what does. Soon you will be a toe-up sock queen.
I'm with Amanda...just do what feels right.
which pattern?
but it sounds like after you pick up the 10 stitches, you knit the next 2 stitches together. so you actually have 11 new stitches on the needle. I'm with adrienne on how to do it.
Does the pattern have you then turn, sl1, purl to the stitch you slipped on the last row, pickup 10 sts, then p2tog?
I have always picked up stitches the way you do. Seems to me that if you pick up a stitch and then knit it, you end up with an extra row of stitches that you may not want.
It's exactly like Beverly said. I'm using a sock pattern from the spring issue of Simply Knitting, and so far, it's been going really well. I read a bit further into the pattern, and I thought I wasn't supposed to touch the stitches waiting on my other 2 DPNs yet... it's quite confusing.
It's tricky without seeing the pattern (and I'm a top down sock knitter) -- But, I pick up and knit as you do. In this case though I would put my needle through the last two 'pick ups' and pull the yarn through effectively knitting them together. (Or I might bring in another needle if that got fiddly and pick the two stitches up on the spare needle and then knit them together. Same end result.)
Hmmm...I'm not sure that's very clear....Wish I had that issue of Simply Knitting!
I am also knitting toe up for the first time ( not loving it) from the SKS book. She says, at the gusset, to pick up one stitch on either side of the gusset stitch and then on the next row to knit these 2 stitches tog. to avoid a hole. It works really well. I have no holes.
Hope this makes sense!
I love knitting toe up socks, they make me happy. They tend to fit me better.
Unless there is some special stitching on the heel, I wouldn't worry about the pattern's instructions for the heel. I generally swap out toe and heel methods if I don't like the ones used by a particular pattern.
Just pick up with your right needle as you normally do, and one the next row knit the two stitches together. You do this to prevent a hole in the gusset. I usually pick up 2-3 extra stitches so I definitely don't have a hole :)
I have commented on Ravelry, it would be too long to help you here. Hope it will help.
Post a Comment