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January 23, 2006

Sunday Socks

I should call this the week socks. Tuesday I knit the ribbing, Wednesday the leg to first decrease row, Thursday decreases, Friday leg from decreases to ankle, Saturday flap and heel turning, Sunday gusset. I am a sock knitting fiend. Did you know that I, in all my sockity knitting love, have sock knitting tricks? I do.

You know how in typical heel flaps you slip 1, k1 accross on RS rows and slip 1, purl to end on WS rows? And then the instructions invariably ask you to repeat these two rows X times for so many chain sts along side. Like you can count the chain sts in dark yarn knit at 8 spi. Yah. Well Elka has a trick to make up for the mind numbingly boring knitting that puts her brain to sleep ummm I mean so exciting she doesn't have the sense of mind to count. She counts the floats. Yes the floats. When you slip the stitch on RS rows you are creating a float on WS row and, after having completed a WS row she can slide her needle between floats and fabric and then easily count them. Each float=2 rows or 1 repeat. Here we have 14 floats and the pattern calls for row 1, row 2 repeat rows 1&2 14X for 15 chains. I need to knit 2 more rows for 1 more float..... see

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yarny days and knitterly evening everybody

Posted by Elka at January 23, 2006 08:01 PM

Comments

I count floats too! although it never occurred to me to help myself by sticking a needle in them.

Here is my big sock mystery. When someone says "repeat X more times for a total of X+1 chain stitches", and then they say "pick up X+1 stitches down side of heel flap", X+1 is never enough for me, I invariably need X+2 to feel like I've closed all the gaps. Is it just me??

Posted by: CarolineF at January 24, 2006 07:05 AM

Elka! That's brilliant- I think I will pass that tip along to my sock class. I always try to count the knit st in front- but always lose track. P.S. I admire your fortitude in doing the Kaffe- looks lovely.

Lorraine

Posted by: Lorraine The Knitting Hammy at January 24, 2006 08:06 AM

What I do is find the center row of the heel flap (or near the center) and count the elongated stitches there. I can see them much, much better than the ones on the side of the flap, which always look a little muddled to me.

Posted by: Beth S. at January 24, 2006 10:39 AM