Aaaack! It's the Kitchener Stitch!

Last night I finished the knitting portion of my "seven-needle" socks. Now to figure out what color to make them. What I did last night was to weave the toes with the dreaded kitchener stitch.

This time seemed to be easier than most times when I've done the stitch. I guess it's not really hard to do...the main problem I have is in keeping track of which step I'm on. Here's a trick I use to make that simpler. (Remember I like my knitting simple.) This isn't a tutorial on how to actually do the stitch. This is assuming someone already knows how, and like me, finds it hard to keep track of what to do when. I wrote up a chart with some color coding according to the directions I use for making the kitchener stitch.


The key to my abbreviations:

Step 1
FN, P, LO = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Front Needle as if to Purl, Leave On the needle.

Step 2
BN, K, LO = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Back Needle as if to Knit, Leave On the needle.

Step 3
FN, K, Sl Off = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Front Needle as if to Knit, Slip Off the needle.

FN, P, LO = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Front Needle as if to Purl, Leave On the needle.

Step 4
BN, P, Sl Off = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Back Needle as if to Purl, Slip Off the needle.

BN, K, LO = insert weaving needle into the first stitch on the Back Needle as if to Knit, Leave On the needle.

Then......(this is sounding more complicated as I'm writing it than it really is)...as I repeat steps 3 & 4, I can look at the chart and think "red," "yellow," "green," "blue" as I do each step and look at the corresponding directions for each color.

Wow, I don't know if that will help anyone or not...after seeing it written down I'm thinking maybe I'm just weird. :) But who knows?

Two-at-a-Time Sock Progress

My "seven-needle" socks are coming along. I've started down the foot and have maybe another inch or less to go before starting the toe decreases. It's been kind of slow going, but this is fast becoming my new favorite way to do socks. As I said before, it might have been easier to use separate balls of yarn, but then you would have had to divide your original skein exactly in half. So in the long run, this way might be simpler after all.

Did you remember this is sport weight yarn? I'm kind of liking it, too. I have kind of narrow feet anyway, so thicker socks might help some shoes to fit a little better. And besides, winters can get pretty cold here sometimes. A few more evenings of knitting, and the "seven-needle" socks should be ready for color!

Two Socks at a Time on...How Many Needles?!

Seven!!? Yes, seven. I'm not a very fast knitter, and by the time I get one sock done, sometimes I have a hard time getting motivated to do the second one. I've seen the directions for two socks at a time on two circular needles, and two socks at a time on one long cable needle, but I'm awfully bad about getting things tangled up, and both of those just seem too complicated for me. I get along pretty well with double-pointed needles and decided to try something different. I ordered two sets of size 3 DPN's. My sock book calls for #3 needles and sport weight yarn, so I thought I'd give it a try. (Less stitches per round, too. I'm kind of a lazy knitter, you see.) Anyway, after winding the yarn into a ball, I cast on one sock pulling the yarn from the center, and the other from the outside of the ball. I thought I'd do maybe five rows on one and then five on the other, and so on. But then I have to keep track of those (see? lazy knitter) and decided to just do a row on one and then switch over and do a row on the other. It goes a little slowly that way, but then both socks will be done at about the same time, and without too much concentrating! I haven't dyed this yarn yet. The pattern called for a 270 yard ball, and the one I'm using has 274 yards. Since this is the first time using this pattern with sport weight and that might be cutting it close, I thought I'd wait and dye the socks after they were finished.

It seems to be working pretty well so far, though it would probably be easier if the yarn was in two separate balls. May have to try that next time!