It was nice that a certain Lord Kitchener, commander of some sort in the British Army figured out a way to seam sock toes so that it wouldn't irritate the tootsies... It's the part of sock making that I dislike the most. It should be the exciting bit at the end, because once it's done, you can wear the sock... but I find it frustrating and fussy.
I finished one of the green socks on the weekend. It's the sock yarn I dyed myself with acid dyes. I was pleased with the skein right out of the pot, happy when it was re-skeined into a normal sized skein and am thrilled with how it knit up - no colour pooling at all! However, I had to unstitch that stupid toe grafting 3 or 4 times before I got it to a level of acceptability. I should have expected it, since I had to tink a couple of rows at one point and go back with a crochet hook at another to catch a rather annoying slipped stitch that was irking me to no end. I'm still not totally happy with the toe grafting, but I know when I have to live with the results so I won't be doing it again.I've always avoided trying the toe up sock method. I like the order in which a cuff down sock is made and I like doing heels that way as well, but I think the next pair will be just that! Toe up.. Sorry Lord Kitchener, I'm just not using your stitch on the next pair!
I usually prefer knitting toe-up socks. Why? I'm not sure. Because of the heel they're faster and use less yarn, but then there's those little holes sometimes from the short rows. Also, if I don't know how much yarn I have, toe-ups can be knitted simultaneously so I can make sure both cuffs are the same height. It's not though, because I don't like kitchener stitch grafting. My only problem with that is having to look at some instructions each time I do the toes because I can never remember which way to start the first stitch!
ReplyDeleteWell, one of the reasons I've not tried toe up is that I prefer the way a flap heel fits to that of a short row. However, I did find toe up pattern which has a sort of flap heel, so I will try that one. I will admit, that I've never had a problem with cuffs not matching up but I pretty much measure everything as I'm going.
ReplyDelete