Greetings and Dear Laura:
AACCKK!! My brain is overflowing! Short-row toes just push me over the edge. Which is why the criteria for these socks included "figure-8 cast on!"
Seriously, one of the many things that I love about knitting socks is that I can generally knit socks without being 'tied to a pattern.' As long as I know how many stitches to cast on for my yarn & needle size, then I can make a pair of socks. Cuff-down, flap heel, and I can even jazz up the ribbing combinations and/or throw in some lace or cables. Once the lace or cable pattern gets a little complex, I may need a few notes to stay on track. For instance, the pattern for this pair of socks, while rather basic, still takes 2 pages and that's more than I want to carry. The summary that I carry around in my project bag looks like this:
AACCKK!! My brain is overflowing! Short-row toes just push me over the edge. Which is why the criteria for these socks included "figure-8 cast on!"
Seriously, one of the many things that I love about knitting socks is that I can generally knit socks without being 'tied to a pattern.' As long as I know how many stitches to cast on for my yarn & needle size, then I can make a pair of socks. Cuff-down, flap heel, and I can even jazz up the ribbing combinations and/or throw in some lace or cables. Once the lace or cable pattern gets a little complex, I may need a few notes to stay on track. For instance, the pattern for this pair of socks, while rather basic, still takes 2 pages and that's more than I want to carry. The summary that I carry around in my project bag looks like this:
I figure that once I master the short-row heel technique, whichever I end up with, I'll be able to knit a basic sock, toe up and short-row if I know how many to do a figure-8 cast on, and how many stitches I need to increase the toe to. However, the words "provisional cast-on" give me the heebie-jeebies!! I know I've done it, but only with a book in front of me and well....let's just say I have it in the same category as Kitchner. (To be avoided if possible!)
Marit and Tania - thank you for your short-row heel suggestions. I am going to try them on the next heel - I'm sure I'll have more than one opportunity! I'll definitely be using a lifeline - Marie N, I'm glad that you've found that tip useful. I would still be knitting my first project (a garter stitch scarf with furry yarn - you could NOT find a dropped stitch!) if it weren't for lifelines!
Lauren. Yeah, yeah, spell check will not catch if you use viola instead of voila!! ;)
Guess that's all for today,
Keep knitting!!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
2 comments:
I don't know what provisional cast on you use, but there's one I REALLY like that I find much easier to execute than any of the others and you don't need anything other than a bit of waste yarn and your knowledge of a long-tail cast on!
http://www.knitandtonic.typepad.com/LTPCastOn.pdf
That's a pdf file with the instructions. It's so simple...maybe that will help you? It really helped me!
Next time try this for your toe-up cast on:
http://fluffyknitterdeb.blogspot.com/2005/10/knitting-made-easier-turkish-cast-on.html
It's much easier imo than provisional or figure 8!
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