Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Waiting for the next swap

While waiting for the next swap, I'm collecting sock patterns (and knitting sox, of course, amongst other crafts). My poor husband swears he's going to need to build a library just for the sock patterns, between the books, the 3-ring binders and the yarn!

But while collecting patterns, I came across something I'd like to share with the rest of you sock fanatics (you have to be fanatics .... you are making socks for people you've never met! LOL)

My least favorite part of making socks is grafting those toe stitches. It can be frustrating, especially on dark yarn, to see what you are doing. Occasionally, I lose a stitch, somehow - I get to the end of the needles and I'm one stitch short on one of them. Where did it go? I can't find it!

So finding a way to avoid that really made my day! And it's *so* easy to do! Once I read it, I wondered why I had never thought to do that on my own, it was *so* obvious!

Okay ... what is this wonderful, magical method (well worthy of Molly, I assure you!) ....

When you've reached the finish of your sock, and you have just the stitches that need to be grafted left on your needles, change to another yarn of the same size, but of a contrasting color. Cut your working thread several inches long (whatever you are comfortable with, you won't be using it for doing the seam). Knit 3 or 4 rounds on the remaining stitches with the new waste yarn. Cut your working thread long enough to thread on your tapestry needle and slip your stitches on to the tail. Now tuck the tube you've just knitted inside your sock, so you have your toe seam 'looking' at you, outlined in your new, contrasting color. Use your sock yarn to cut a piece of yarn several inches longer than your toe seam and start duplicate stitching from the center of your toe seam to each end. (From another website, that I didn't write down, sorry, .... try slipping a plastic easter egg or darning egg inside your sock to make it easier to see what you are doing.) Kitchener stitch is actually just duplicate stitch but done on two live edges instead of on knitted fabric. Now you have knitted fabric to work from, and duplicate stitch is easy to do because all you are doing, literally, is duplicating the stitches that are already there!

Once you've finished your toe seams, and you are sure all the stitches are joined, tidy in all 3 ends (your old working tail as well as both ends of the yarn you just used), remove the egg if you used one, and remove the waste yarn. If you didn't catch it in your stitches, you can even reuse it for the next sock. :)

If you'd like to see the website I got this from, here's the link:

http://www.tradewindknits.com/tbsoctoe.html

Doing my toes is so much easier now!!

Katt

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