Friday, April 18, 2008

Three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF

The Lucas Lights joke; the three-position Lucas [purlgurl's brain] switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF applied to me in the understanding of short rowing socks, specifically when it came to making the 2nd half of the toe. I tend to run before I learn to walk, so I've NEVER finished a handknitted sock, but I've finished a few pairs on my circular knitting machine. I can't really even claim to have the 2nd sock syndrom as I have never really finished a FIRST one either! I've tried toe up and it's variations a half a dozen or so times and have a few cuff downs in various stages of completion, but none have made it off the needles.

So, I decided it was time...mind you I still have yet to finish the first pair as I am JUST finishing the first toe portion. I started with Wendy's Toe-Up Sock Pattern. I've followed her blog on and off for a few plus years now and found it listed on Ravelry after an "easy sock" pattern search. All went well until I hit the section, "Now you'll work the second half of the toe"...yeah right! I read, them over and over and I just didn't get the instructions (sorry Wendy). I guess I'm lame. I prefer knitting instructions and things in explained in general with clear "a picture is worth a thousand word" images and good use of the English written language. So, I did a few searches and in googling "short row toe" came up with Jill's Short-Roe Toe Sock instructions. It was JUST what I was looking for and there weren't even pics to boot:

Short rows for second half of toe:
  • Knit Row: Knit across to wrapped stitch, slip the wrapped stitch to the right needle, reach left needle under the wrap and pull the wrapped stitch out and onto left needle. Slip the (now freed) wrap back to the left needle and knit the stitch and the wrap together through the back.
  • Yarn forward, slip next stitch to right needle, yarn back, slip the stitch back to left needle. (This stitch now has 2 wraps. When you unwrap it later, those 2 wraps will fill in where a gap might have occurred.) Turn.

  • Purl Row: Purl across to wrapped stitch, slip the wrapped stitch to the right needle, reach left needle under the wrap and pull the wrapped stitch out and onto left needle. Slip the (now freed) wrap back to the left needle and purl the stitch and the wrap together.

  • Yarn back, slip the next stitch to right needle, yarn forward, slip the stitch back to left needle to create another double wrap. Turn.

  • Continue working the knit row and the purl row until you have worked all the wrapped stitches. You will be unwrapping two wraps from each remaining wrapped stitch.
THANK YOU JILL! I can now continue (using both patterns and maybe more) and more likely now to complete atleast ONE toe up sock in my lifetime. :) Muhwah!

1 comment:

  1. I'm the same way! I really needed it to be spelled out for me, step by step. I used a tutorial from someone's blog called "Miso Crafty". That's a good one too. Your socks are nice!

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