Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

The last part of the sock knit along involves working happily up the leg and then binding off. Two at a time is not difficult. I don't even teach it as a separate class. Rather, I do teach it as part of my knitting in the round class. If you are using the two circular needles method, then one needle goes in the first half of both socks and the other needle goes in the second half of both socks. If you are doing magic loop, then thread first half of the first sock, all of the second sock, and the second half of the first sock. It is that half—whole—other half threading that I think messes people up. While I prefer magic loop, two circulars is very useful and possibly more versatile. You can work very small circumference with both techniques. However, you can also work very large circumferences with the two circulars method by making it three or four or more. I could, theoretically, knit a house cozy simply by having many, many circular needles. Knowing which method you like for work...

If you are doing the sock knit along, hopefully you finished the toe and foot of your sock and are ready for the heel turn. I'm using a short row or hourglass heel. You can work this using whatever short row method you like. I'm using twin stitches, sometimes called shadow wraps or dopplegänger stitches. I haven't had time to run a proper short-row sock experiment. There are several parameters: Do I use clean up rows between the top and bottom of the hourglass or not? Which type of short rows do I use — wrap & turn, Japanese, German, or twin? Plus, I think there might be a couple different ways to work wrap & turn — one way throws the wraps to the private side of the work and the other leaves them as a decorative line. That looks like at least 10 different heel turns. For the moment, I think I will continue to work on the socks. By the way, I spent 2 months swatching for pattern. I cast on Monday and turned the heel Thursday. This is a good reminder to me that I am ...

I'm active in both of my local knitting guilds — Atlanta Knitting Guild and North Georgia Knitting Guild. Sibel, who is currently leading programs for North Georgia Knitting Guild, asked if I could please lead a knit along for socks. I have some sock yarn that has been languishing for awhile. This seemed like a good motivation to turn that yarn into socks. Initially, I thought I would demonstrate the techniques at consecutive guild meetings. After some thought, I decided it would be nice to have video members could watch ahead of time. That way, I don't need to take up a big chunk of a guild meeting. I want instead to concentrate on assisting members who are having difficulty. So, here are the first two videos as well as some instructions. To start your sock, please swatch. Swatch until you have achieved these things: You have produced a fabric you like for socks (dense for wear but stretchy). You have figured out which needles you like best for working this yarn. You have figu...