House Sock Pattern

This is a magic loop house sock/bed sock pattern.  First a sketch with the idea of the general size of the sock and some important numbers.

In working my way to a quick sock that fits, I still cast on 8 stitches in classic Turkish Cast-On.

 


As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I misunderstood what the Turkish Cast-On should look like and so had to refresh myself from various tutorals online. 

 It's really basic.  I just wrap the yarn around both needles as many times as I need stitches on one needle.  I need 8 stitches on each needle and so wrap 8 times. 

I then knit around once to secure the cast-on.

There are no increases on this first round.  The diagonal stitches in the center are the original wraps.  I keep the tail to show me, when the tail is to the left, that I am at the beginning of a round..

The next three rounds are increase rows. 

I like to knit the first stitch, then knit in the front and back of the next stitch to increase one.  I then knit to the next to the last stitch and increase there as well.  Repeat on the backside.

Once I've finished the first 3 increase rounds, I work a plain knit round.  Then I alternate increase rounds with plain knit rounds until I have a total of 20 stitches on each needle. 

Time to turn on the TV and just start knitting.  For the first few socks I would slip the sock on from time to time to check the length.  I like to knit up to the pad of my heel.  That is the point where my heel actually touches ground.  At first I measured with a tape measure and decided 6-1/4 inches was good.  And it was in theory,  but in practice it was loose.  Deciding to take advantage of the elastic quality of knitting I reduced that to 6".  When I hit 6 inches, I decide which side of the sock will be the sole of the foot and ...

... thread in a lifeline.  While I have used #10 crochet cotton as a lifeline, a thin fingering or sport weight yarn works better.  This is where the thinner cord of the circular needle is handy.  Slide the sport weight in along the cord through the sole stitches.  Begin knitting again.

When I'm back to the sole stitches I stop and look around in my little balls of left-overs and find a color that will stand out as waste yarn.  Waste is a bit that I use once and throw away.  I'm using it to hold a place in my knitting while I finish the body of the sock.   I pick up that waste yarn and knit across the sole.  

Then instead of continuing around, I slip those waste stitches back onto my left knitting needle, pick up my main yarn and knit across again.

Finally, I run a second life-line through the new main color yarn row.

I knit in rounds for another 2 to 4 inches and add some ribbing then cast-off using a loose stitch.  A straight needle at least 2 sizes larger than the one I'm working with is good for a cast-off then I weave in loose ends.

I use a smaller circular needle to pick up the lifeline stitches, but you could just as easily use a couple of size 1 or 2 straight knitting needles for this. 

If you look at the lifelines closely, you'll see that the yarn goes over one leg of each stitch, and under the second. I slide my thinner needle along the same path the yarn takes, over one leg and under the next. 

I learned the hard way to be particularly careful on the ends.  Those last couple of stitches on both sides have a tendency to sink to the back.  I use the tails of my life-lines to pull those stitches up. 

I count to make sure I have 20 stitches on each of the needles before cutting and pulling out the lifeline yarn.  The waste yarn goes now too.

I chose yellow for the heel, knitting the stitches off the needles and picking up two on each side to help avoid holes.  I usually end up duplicate stitching in the ankle area to close those holes anyway, but I keep hoping one day I'll have seamless hole-less socks.

For the Heel Stitch I add a single stitch to both needles so that I have 21 and 21 stitches.  If I'm not knitting a patterned heel that requires a specific number I leave it at 20 on each needle.  After knitting up the first row and putting away the skinny needles I knit another couple of rounds.

Now for the heel:

Reduce row:  K1, K2tog, K to last 3 st., SSK, K1.  Repeat for back side.
Heal Stitch row:  K1, S1 across, end K1.  Repeat for back side.

I continue the two rows until I get down to about 9 stitches on both sides.  I end on a reduce row and Kitchener stitch closed.

I'm on a binge, but if you like the simplicity of this pattern, repeat until you've finished a pair of socks or until there's no more room in the sock drawer.

House Socks - Take Two

I spent about five hours last night trying variations on the Japanese Short-Row, No Wrap Short-Row, Wrapped Short-Row, and 'Heel Stitch' turned heel.


What I've discovered is this: 

• I don't like any of those heels.
• Red Heart Super Saver Yarn is hard wearing, but it's also hard on my hands and not suitable for my socks.
• No sock needs to be part of a pair, because it only takes one.
• I know how to make a toe, so I can knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's after-thought heel using the fore-thought option.

Back in November, I bought a Caron Cake with the thought that I'd make some brightly colored scarves on the loom or a cardigan or some hats, but screw that. 

I'm about to make a bunch of socks that do not perfectly match any of the others but ultimately match each other perfectly because they come from the same ball of yarn.  They transcend matching.

Yes.  Take that Sock Monster.

I probably need a nap, but I'm going to have more coffee.

And yes, I did avoid the Magic Loop Cast-On war between, Judy's Magic Cast-On, European Knit-On, and the Crochet-Base-I-Don't-Know-But-It-Must-Work-Provisional-Cast-On.   I chose what I call the Herring Bone Cast-On. 

I think HB Cast-On may have happened to me a few years ago when I misunderstood how Turkish Cast-On works.  I kept using it because once you figure out how to tighten it up, it's a cinch.

If you know the real name of this type of cast-on, please let me know.

House Socks - Take One

Knitting house and bed socks are a great post Holiday/TV activity.  It's a quick way to use up all that loud yarn that didn't make it into gifts.  This pair, for instance, worked up over three evenings ... and I wasn't actually knitting like a daemon. 

After a few years of use and some dispirited and faulty darning, I have two pairs of wearable bed socks left . The major problem with those old socks was the short-row heel.  They just don't stand up.  snicker  I don't have a well defined Achilles tendon so it could be that I have a type of heel that doesn't work well with delicate esthetically pleasing sole denouements. 

I turned to Elizabeth Zimmerman's book, Knitting Without Tears, where two types of heel turns are described; the Conventional and the German Heel.  Both are based on a percentage of stitches and either begin work at the dead center where the heel stitches hit the floor, or on the center third.  When you're working on a 20 stitch heel, that means you end up with a lot of decrease bumps and holes smack dab on the bottom of the foot. 

Not only does it let cold floor touch warm heel, it increases the probability that the heel will wear out very quickly.

What I do like about the Zimmerman socks is the idea of knitting Garter Stitch along the edges of the heel flap so that you can physically count the number of rows you've completed (two per ridge), without keeping a running count in your head while you work.  I have other things, like lascivious fantasies, to think about while knitting.  On the other hand, I don't like the four stitch width of that garter stitch on both sides of the Zimmerman heel, and I really prefer using Heel Stitch (knit 1, slip 1 across, purl back) for greater durability.

So I'm going to combine a 2 stitch garter stitch border on the edges of the heel flap with Terri Lee Royea's The Super Simple Knitwit Sock Pattern heel turn, in another pair of cuff-down left-over yarn bed socks.

If you have a favorite toe-up turned-heel sock pattern, please let me know.

Socks!! Socks!! Socks!!

I just saw an ad for $35 fleece lined socks.

I'm at the beginning of a sock knitting binge and thinking about ways to do this. Here's my first thought though: Norwegian tvebandsstrikking using 100% wool, lol, as in real fleece.  I've done mittens with this technique before, and while it's a little difficult to get the hang of, once you're in the groove it flies.

Theresa Vinson Stenersen at Knitty has a marvelous discussion of tvebandsstrikking ... just google the word to get there quickly or better yet tvåändsstickning.

I hold both yarns continental and pick the color I'm using with the knitting needle as I go. If I'm running one color for a larger space, I first pick the yarn up normally, and on the second stitch pick it up behind the unused color and continue, every other stitch picking under and then picking over. 

I've also been known to hold one color on my Continental finger and one on my English, and just cross the yarns every 3, in order to anchor the carried yarn (and also perhaps to anger Zuul).

And OOOOOOOh. Just remembered I have some lovely, if fragile, alpaca/acrylic blend yarns in pistachio and purple. 

And here are the promised pictures! On the left, both socks on an Addi Sock Rocket 2.25 (size 1) 40" circular needle.  I like using the Magic Loop method of knitting socks -- though I did move to single point size 1 needles for the heels.  On the right a finished sock.