Friday 16 October 2009

Can a sock be knitted in the round on straight needles?

Tomorrow [Saturday] I will be the tutor at an all-day sock workshop at the Blue Mountains group of The Knitters' Guild of NSW. Fortunately, because my Kitchener stitch is still a bit wobbly, I will have an assistant tutor who can apparently graft in her sleep! In my opinion, D. should actually be teaching the workshop as she has much more experience in sock knitting than I do. I love education in all its forms but she doesn't like being "up front" so I'll tutor and she'll help out with the tricky bits!

At the workshop we will knit a child-size sock in 8ply [DK] yarn from the [invisibly cast on] cuff down using a flap heel and a grafted toe.

Not very exciting but at least we can get the sock knitted and hopefully grafted in the time allotted. My sample sock was knitted in two hours so I'm hoping that we'll be able to get through it in four hours [allowing for morning tea, lunch and the Guild meeting].

To this end, I decided to prove to myself [and the doubters] that it is possible to knit a sock on straight needles in the round. It took me five hours to knit a baby sock but I did it! The actual sock would have taken less than two hours but the heel was a real challenge and I had to try it at least five times!! No flap heel though; I tried and tried but couldn't make that work. In the end I went with an hourglass heel; at least that will give workshop participants an alternative!

Why would anyone want to knit a sock on straight needles? I really don't know; it's time consuming because every stitch has to be handled twice for every round! But I rose to the challenge. It can be done - here is the proof:

7 comments:

  1. All right, if I had half a spare brain cell I might try to work it out but honestly I'm just going to bow to your obvious skill and patience!

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  2. well, I'm pleased to see you can figure this stuff out but I'll be buggered if I can work out why anyone would want to!

    And teaching with a baby sock is the best way to teach sock knitting. I've seen it work again and again. It's not exciting generally, but it's exciting for the people who haven't yet been able to knit socks. It's a triumphant moment!

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  3. Wow - I wouldn't dream of trying to knit a sock in the round on two needles, but what an achievement to work out how to do it!

    Good luck with the workshop!

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  4. Who woulda thought!!! Have fun in the workshop; hope it goes well for you and DD!

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  5. Very interesting! It never occurred to me to try that (assuming I could even figure it out if I did!). Have fun at the workshop :)

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  6. Oh no I missed the workshop. Are you doing it again next year?
    Hopfully I'll join the knitter guild next year. I just didn't happen for me this year....

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  7. So this is what you got up to while I was out of action - socks on straights ?
    you are insane woman!
    now be a good girl and go back to dpns [ mind you I haven't given up on the idea of trying that 2 at a time on 2 circs lark ]

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