Heel turn

Turning the heel is actually pretty easy since you've got some great instructions but I thought I'd give you pictures of how it will come together. Here's what it looks like with 4 rows done.


Once you've done a couple rows, you'll start seeing a pattern. Until you see the pattern, it's a good idea to write down what row you're on if you should have to set down your work at any point. Here's a finished turn.




Next is the gusset. For me, picking up and knitting the stitches is the hardest part. You'll notice that stitches are looser on one side of the heel flap than the other. I tighten these stitches before I start to pick up and knit because it just makes it easier for me in the long run and I feel better about the way the flap looks; all symetrical. I guess I've got a bit of picture taking ahead of me tomorrow!

Starting the heel flap: For Angel

I do a little reading ahead and preparation before starting the flap to make my life a little easier. These instructions are asking that you K a set number of stitches onto a needle. In most sock instructions, they refer to this as "Needle 1". (You don't actually need to know that for these socks. It's just good to know in the future.)

Before I go to K these stitches onto a needle, I slip the stitches from needles 2 and 3 onto a piece of waste yarn.



With most (if not all) sock patterns, I've noticed that there will be an equal amount of stitches on the heel as there are on the instep. BTW, make sure you try on your sock at this point. If it fits over the widest part of your instep, you should be just fine. It will feel a little snug because you still have a needle in.

At this point, I'm going to start to knit across the heel stitches now that I've got my other stitches on the waste yarn. Reading forward a bit in the instructions, it says that, after you've knit across the heel stitches, turned and purled back across them, you should place a saftey pin in the row below the purl row. If you're not very experienced in counting rows, it's a good idea to hang your safety pin now. I'm using a split ring stitch marker because I'm too lazy to go find a safety pin. Make sure you click on this picture and make it as big as you can get it so that you can really see where I put this marker. The stitch that it is on is not important. Only that it is on this row. So you can pick any old stitch to hang your pin on but I do it somewhere in the middle as general good practice. Sometimes you have to measure from a marker and the stitches at the end of rows have a tendency to be looser than in the middle until things get seamed up.

Now, you're going to K across this row and turn. Slip 1, purl across the heel stitches. Here's how your stitch marker will lay as you are doing this.


Sorry about the blurry pics... Now here's what your stitch marker will look like once you've purled across the heel, turned, slip one and knit across the heel.
So, you'll have a stitch marker, a V above it and the loop on the needle above that. Lather, rinse repeat!!!

Next will be turning the heel. You'll be really surprised how easy that is too. Yay for Angel!

Measuring the gauge

I knitted until I got about 2.5" long. BTW, I put way more stitches on the needles than I needed but that's OK because I'm just going to rip this and start knitting once I'm ready.

Grab a ruler. I have this neat little thingy that has a cut out for counting stitches. Most patterns want to you to knit a swatch large enough to get a 4" count. I'm only counting over 1" because my gauge is fairly consistent at this size and won't vary much over 4".

Note that my 8th stitch falls exactly centered over the 1" line. I'm going to count 1/2 this stitch. So my gauge is 7.5 stitches per inch.

Now that we've got gauge, I figured we'd use my pal Lucia's Sockulator to customize our sock size. Since I've got a short, stubby foot, I like to customize anyhow. We'll be making a slightly longer ankle than she's showing on this site because we should have enough yarn for it. We can always edit length as we go based on how much yarn is left when we get the length we want. Sockulator

DPN Tut part 2

You can just knit as normal from this point. You can count rounds by noting each time you come back around to your tail. I do the long tail cast on but if you use some other method, your tail might be on needle 2 instead of needle 1 like mine. Keep in mind that you should forget the needle numbers as soon as you start to knit the first round. Otherwise you'll get all corn-fyooosed.


A few rounds done....

CO for DPNs Tut

We're going to knit a swatch so we can measure gauge. I'm using sport weight so I needed to cast on more stitches for a swatch than you'll need to. I think that 40 stitches should be enough for you. But cast on one extra stitch. I'll explain that later. Cast on over 2 needles. Because socks need to be able to stretch around the top, two needles helps you make sure you're not casting on too tightly. Once you've cast on all your stitches, pull one needle out. If you're worried about stitches slipping off the other end, you can wrap a rubberband around that end while you're slipping from the back end.

We're going to slip stitches from the opposite end from your working yarn. Slip (as if to purl) stitches onto a second needle. If you bought a 5 needle set, we're going to put 10 stitches on each needle with one extra on the first needle you slip onto. I cast on a total of 61 and I have 5 total needles. I seperated the stitches in multiples of 15. The first needle I slip stitches onto, I slip on 16. You'll slip 11 (or whatever depending on how many total stitches... this is actually not critical since this is just a swatch). This is needle 2. Your CO needle is needle 1.


With 11 on the first needle, you'll slip one from the CO needle onto a second needle. In order to help keep from twisting the stitches when you join the round, we'll insert needle 2 into this first stitch as well


Now, continue to slip stitches until there are 10 total on needle 3, including the first stitch that has needle 2 inserted into it.


Repeat for needle 4.


Now, with all the bumps along the bottom of your needle, pull the yarn so that it's behind your work and turn so that needle 1 is in your left hand and needle 2 in your right. Slip one stitch off needle one with needle 2. We're going to pull one stitch from needle two over this slipped stitch (like a bind off) and then slip the stitch back onto needle 1.

Who? WHat? WHat town am I going to???

KAL

This is a place for Christine and Sachi to track their first KAL in their usual OCD style.

Note that I haven't gone through the trouble of doing much in the way of editing this template because I know Christine will go to town with that too. ;-)