Sunday, January 3, 2010

New Knitting technique

The Mystery Sock Knit A  Long is written for a style of sock knitting that was new to me.  It's for the Magic Loop knitting method.  Basically, instead of knitting the socks on 4 or 5 double pointed needles, you knit them on one long circular needle.

I spent one afternoon with the laptop on my lap, watching you tube videos of the technique.  I tried, ripped, tried again, then ripped and cast on for the 3rd time.  I have the hang of it now but the cuff isn't very pretty.

Circular Needles


The idea of the knit-a-long is that you only get pieces of the pattern at a time - one "clue" every week.  The first clue isn't given officially until Jan 15 (you have to be a member of Ravelry in order to get the clues) but since I ordered the yarn from the company, it came with the first clue.

So I finished  the first part on the circular needles.  I decided to start the second sock on the same size needles, only double pointed.  I cut the yarn from the first sock and started the second sock.  Since I know how the pattern works now, the second sock looks much prettier.

Double Pointed Needles


Double pointed again


So, I'll continue to knit the second sock when the clues start to come in, since it will look nicer to send a picture to the sponsoring company.  I do have the hang of the Magic Loop method and I can see how many prefer to knit their socks this way.  I suppose it is all what  you are used to plus it's part of my new year's resolution to try and learn new knitting techniques.

2 comments:

  1. Ludos to you for trying a new method although I, like you, would prefer the dp method!

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  2. I haven't ever really enjoyed circular needle knitting - my grandmother taught me to knit and she always tucked one needle under her arm, and so do I - makes for very even tension, but not possible with circular needles.

    That said, I watched some youtube videos of European or Continental knitting (I think that's what it's called) and I can do that on circular needles pretty well - but I can only knit so far that way.

    enjoy the sock project,
    w

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