I'm loving the bamboo needles - the wool, mostly, stays on, except maybe for the last stitches, and that's easily dealt with,and five needles are a slight pain to handle, but other things make up for that, including that I can try the sock on - it's not much more than a toe cozy now, but it *fits*.
I also spent a little time last night playing with worsted and size 5 needles playing with knitting and purling, creating a 2x3 check. I changed my way of purling to match the change in knitting, and I've stopped all twisting - I know twisting is not bad and sometimes desirable, but I'd rather it be a choice.
On the other hand, the short rows for the toes are - well. I'm okay with the initial slipping and wrapping, and I'm fine with *knitting* the wrapped stitches when that is called for, but purling them is not working. I've dropped stitches that I had a hard time recovering. In fact, I have a nice little hole on one side of the toe of the sock I'm knitting now, which I'll just stitch up.
Perhaps if I wrapped all those stitches loosely, it would work better? I could play with worsted tonight and see if that helps. I've looked at non-wrapping short rows, but I want to see if I can do this before I give up. I have the heel coming up, and that's also short rows.
I also spent some time yesterday morning watching knitting videos. They were all helpful - one showed me how to handle my dpns, and the other two showed how knitting on two circulars and magic loop worked, and now that I've used dpns for a while, it all makes sense, but isn't moving the stitches back and forth on the cable a trifle - inelegant? Not that dpns are elegant, but there's less yarn movement.
Anyone have preferences? Why?
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Page Summary
 catrinella :: (no subject) [+2] otherdeb :: (no subject) [+2]
December 2010
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Sock stuff and informal poll
DPNs (five, not four). The rest just feel like magic tricks to me - fun for showing off but not "better" enough to make it worthwhile. I'm using Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock Pattern on sock weight, five dpns, size 0. Bamboo. 64 stitches because that's how the gauge worked out. I knit very very tightly (which is why the larger stitch count). It can definitely cause trouble with wrapped short-row on the purl side, so I've learned to loosen it up a bit. I have over the last several years become addicted to magic loop. It is especially nice that I can do both socks at once, and never have to deal with second sock syndrome again (except when I crochet socks). I don't think that the movement is inelegant at all, just part of the rhythm of making a sock. Again, it's how it looked - not how I've tried it. I'm still a bare beginner - I have two sets of straight needles, three sets of dpns and one circular - size 8, 16". Not long enough to practice the magic loop. Oh, and one H crochet hook, but I need to get another, although I've gotten good at reknitting dropped stitches. |
