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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun...

Double the socks for everyone! I have gotten a slew of sock orders on my etsy, and in an effort to speed up the hand-knit process (not really a lot of ways to do that!) I decided to figure out knitting two at a time once and for all.

I love using double-pointed needles in knitting socks because it feels much faster to me than constantly sliding everything around on the cord between the two needles on circulars. However, if there are two socks on there, the sliding is not quite as tedious, and it means you get each pair done and ready to block more quickly. I know it doesn't seem like you should be able to, since you're still knitting the same number of stitches, and it may be all mental, but since these are orders for basic socks, sometimes it's all about the mental game! I'm using my old stand-by basic sock pattern, which is the beauty of the magic loop; you can adapt any pattern to it. In order to not get such a pointy toe, I have my own little formula that's worked out pretty well, but that's the only change I've made.

Knitting Giraffe had the best tutorial, which was found in two parts; getting cast on and then turning the heel and picking up gusset stitches. If you've knit socks before, everything else is the same. Her order for the heel worked the best, because the other tutorials I found had the gusset stitches on two different needles, incorporated a boat load of stitch markers and then a third dpn...and looked a little like a hot mess...

First attempt
Uh, no thanks! I'm all about simplifying, and Knitting Giraffe's method required no extra supplies or pieces hanging down. It's enough to keep the yarn untangled (which I've been able to do so far, phew!)

So here I am, heel turned, gusset picked up and ready to decrease. Let's hope these bad boys are ready to get in the mail by tomorrow night, which is my self-imposed deadline.

After re-ordering them on the needles to match Knitting Giraffe's tutorial-much better!
Next up: Another entrelac scarf, but a thinner version; stay tuned!

1 comment:

Crafty Mama said...

Ahhh.....two-at-a-time socks. On my list of things to learn. I'm still working on one pair with dpn's too, I messed up the gusset and have put down til after the holidays.