Moving To Andalusia

Tadaaa! My first pair of socks!

Ok, this is a fiddly bit. My first go didn’t work out as an undivided success, because you really do need a tapestry needle. Never thought I’d say this, but go out and get yourself a tapestry needle! The mere thought of it makes me feel very medieval somehow. Maybe once I get bored with socks I’ll move on to tapestries…. Ah well, a girl can dream!

As to the name, Kitchener made me think of Lord Kitchener, but I could find no record of him being an avid knitter. Maybe it was one of those sayings that stick “You’ve stitched up that sock like Kitchener stitched up the Sudan”? I may never know.

There are other ways to graft the toe, I simply picked the most popular one, but Wikipedia will lead you to other methods, such as the wale-to-wale seam.

I simply used a dpn and my fingers, it works, but the result is a bit shabby. I also used my fingers and a dpn to tidy away the last bits of my working yarn into the sock. This too will probably look much better if you use a tapestry needle.

Anyway, here’s a video of how it’s done by a ‘real’ knitter:

So pour yourself a stiff drink and dig in:

you cut your working yarn and you put about 12 inches of yarn, the bit still connected to the sock, on a tapestry needle (depending on the size of your toes, but take a fair bit of yarn then you won’t run out).

Start with the stitches where your working yarn is You make as if to knit the first stitch and slip it off, stick needle in as if to purl second stitch, leave on, go to the other ckn, as if to purl the first, drop stitch, knit second leave on. Repeat until the end: knit, purl, purl, knit. I still had a fair bit of yarn left after this and sort of threaded it through the toe.

Et voila: your sock’s ready!

I am ridiculously proud of myself having finished my first pair of socks. I’ve been wearing them for two days even though the weather’s been way to hot,and the feeling of achievement is on a par with graduating from university and getting my driver’s license.

I must say, in the end, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. Fun even, at times. Long live internet and all those nice ladies sitting in their kitchens with handycams patiently explaining the stitches and down with snooty knitting shop harpies!

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October 15th, 2008 | Tags: Arts, Crafts, knitting, Knitting needle, Obsessive knitting, Sock, Tapestry, Yarn | Category: Knitting for dummies | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL