Posts tagged ‘knitting’

The small sock knitting has continued in earnest around our house. This little white cotton sock is the outcome of the tutorial from Wednesday. I have almost commited the infant sock pattern to memory, and I am enjoying the little portable projects. No sweaters are safe in these parts anymore, now that I’ve found an affordable way to knit!

The pattern I am using (with some very slight variations and mistakes) comes from 50 Baby Booties to Knit, by Zoe Mellor. It’s the striped sock pattern, but of course I am not striping it. I also used the kitchener method to close the toe.

As you can tell I’ve been on a knitting kick. My temptation is to go get super wonderful, and expensive, yarn so that I can knit and knit and knit. But that’s not how I like to craft and honestly I can’t afford it. So I’ve been working on a way to do what I usually do: take apart things I have around and don’t use to make it into something I will use.

This tutorial will show you how to take an already knitted up sweater like the one shown and get it ready to be knit into something else. In this case, I’m planning on knitting a cotton sock which I will then dip dye after it is knitted.

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I finally stumbled into a realm of knitting that suits me. There are so many countless cast-on yet unfinished projects in a basket in my craft room that I have shied away from attempting anything more than a quick hat. But simple stockinette hats in the round get really boring, really fast so I rarely knit anything at all.

After watching my Mother-in-Law knit socks on a regular basis I decided to give it a go, planning an infant sock project to use up a ball of light weight alpaca/wool blend. It went so well that I bought a cheap ball of sock yarn from the local craft store and downloaded a toddler sock pattern by Needles and Wool and cast on. Everything in the pattern was similar enough to the first socks I’d knit that I was really flying through the pattern and getting excited watching the yarn self-pattern into bold stripes.

Then I made it to the last direction: “Kitchener the toe closed.” That about did me in. I have never even heard of that term, and my knitting book had a terrible explanation that left me with a large stiff knot on the toes.

I cast on the second sock and sent a questioning email to the ladies from Stitch N Bitch, and was sent to TECHknitting to find a better technique for the kitchener stitch, AKA a grafted toe. Success was mine in one attempt, so I pass this tutorial on to you at the beginning of knitting season. Make yourself some warm woolie socks, and if you follow this technique, even a beginner like me can make a seamless, comfy toe in no time (OK in about 15 to 30 minutes per sock).