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Knitting Circular Socks It is very important to knit your swatches carefully. You must knit one swatch with your ribber using the circular stitch and another one in the fashion you wish to make the top ankle part. Measure accurately and write the measurements down. You must also measure the circumference of the ankle, the length you wish to knit the top ankle part (taking the measurement from the top of the heel to how ever high you want to knit it), the heel height (measure from the top of the heel to the floor), and the length of your foot from the longest toe to the heel. If you wish to knit knee socks, you should also measure the calf and make adjustments to add more stitches in that area.If you make the top of the sock in a stockinette stitch with a pattern such as fairaisle, you can add an elastic thread as you knit to give it elasticity. It's also a good idea to use your fine knitting bar along the gate pegs on your main bed to help the stitches knit off easily. Top of sock - knit this in the fashion you wish. If you want a rib, use the one-by-one rib as in your instruction book for your machine. Calculate the number of stitches you need and add two extra stitches for the back seam, knit as high as you wish, then remove with cast-on thread and waste yarn.
Circular Knitting - consult your manual for directions on circular knitting. Looking at your swatch, measure the diameter of the circular knitted part. If you used twenty stitches in all for your swatch, 10 on the main bed and 10 on the ribber bed, and it measures 4 inches across; then 20 stitches = 4 inches. Remember that it takes two passes when knitting circular to equal one row of knitting. The carriage must first knit the ribber part, then the main bed part (or vice versa) to give you one complete row of knitting. Therefore, when making your swatch, you would need: Standard bed - 60 rows = 120 passes Mid-gauge - 40 rows = 80 passes Bulky bed - 30 rows = 60 passes The ribber tension should be set one number larger than the main bed to give an equal amount of tension as the ribber usually knits tighter. Once you are ready to complete
the sock, place the amount of needles you need from your sample into working
position. (Remember half are on the top bed and half on the bottom) Take your
top portion of the sock, which has been knitted flat and place the first two
stitches onto the first needle to the right of the center mark. You need two
here so that you will
Now you are ready to knit circular. Hang weights on both the front of the sock and the two back pieces. Calculate how many rows will knit approximately one inch and knit those rows. Many times, stitches seem to fall off when knitting circular, so it is safer to pull all the needles out into D position to ensure that it knits properly. Heel - To shape your heel, you must lower the ribber one notch. Set your carriage for stockinette knitting, as you will now be knitting flat for the heel shaping. Bring the needle closest to the carriage out to holding position and make sure your carriage is set to hold. Knit across and on each row, place the needle closest to the carriage into holding position. Continue until there are approximately one third of the stitches left on the needle bed. Then begin placing the holding stitch farthest away from the carriage back into working position. It is important here to place weights or press with your fingers to push out the heel, or the stitches will not knit properly. Continue until you have all the stitches back into working position.
Base of Foot - You are now ready to continue knitting circular for the bottom of the foot portion. Before you start, take the purl stitch on either side and place it onto the last stitch on either side of the ribber bed. This will make sure you don't end up with a hole on the sides of your heel. Calculate how many rows you need to knit for the base of your foot, subtracting two inches for the toe and two and a half inches for the heel. If your foot measures 8 inches from the longest toe to the heel, then you would knit 3.5 inches for the base of your foot portion. Remember while counting your rows that it takes two passes to equal one row of knitting. Toe - To knit the toe, you will decrease one stitch on either side of both beds every other row and then every row as you near the end. To calculate, multiply the number of rows you need for two inches times the gauge. Example; you need 7 rows for an inch times 2=14 rows for 2 inches. Multiply this times .75 for a thin sock and .50 for a heavier sock. So, if you are knitting a heavier sock, you will decrease every other row for the next 7 rows or 3.5 times. Place the end stitch on both ends of the ribber and the main bed onto the adjacent needle, pull all the needles out (make sure your holding lever is off!) so that they knit in properly. Then knit one row normal, repeating the number of times you needed to decrease. Then, decrease every row till you have approximately one inch of knitting left on your machine. Cut the yarn, leaving a tail to sew the toe and take off the machine with waste yarn.
Kitchener Stitch the toe - Place the tail of your yarn onto a blunt needle and find your first half stitch. Pull the yarn through that and up to the first half stitch on the other side of the toe opening, then to the half of the stitch beside it and pull through. Then go back down to the other side and pull through half a stitch and over to the adjacent half stitch and back up to the other side until you have sewn all the stitches together. Weave in your end and sew up the back of the top portion of your sock!
Size 8 Ladies sock knitted on a Brother 260 bulky machine. But you should use this only as a guide from which you can make your own measurements. I find it's easier to figure out what you are doing after you have knitted one sock. T = 2.5 on main bed, 3.3 on ribber. Yarn = Bernat Soft N' Cozy 4-ply worsted weight yarn Cast on 40 stitches for 1X1 rib - T = 3.5 Main Bed and 4.5 Rib Bed. Knit 50 rows. Remove on waste yarn. Set machine for circular knitting. Place first two stitches on right #1 needle. Continue to needle 10. Place purl stitch on #10 needle on ribber, continue across to left to #10 needle on left with a purl stitch. Place stitch on #11 needle and continue to #1 on left of center with the last two stitches. You need to add the purl stitch to make up for the two stitches you put together onto the first needles to each side of 0 on the main bed. Knit circular for 7 rows (14 passes) or if you wish that part to be higher, knit as many rows as you please. Drop rib bed and set machine for stockinette stitch. Set carriage to hold. Place needle closest to carriage into hold position. Knit across. Place needle into hold and knit, continue till 4 stitches left in center. Then place farthest needle from carriage back into work position. Knit across and continue like this till all needles are back in working position. Take carriage off holding position and set for circular knitting. Place purl stitch on both sides onto last rib stitch on both sides. Continue knitting circular for 31 rows (62 passes). Decrease one stitch on either side of main bed and either side of rib bed (total 4 stitches). Knit across main and rib beds, then knit across again. Decrease on both beds again and knit it in plus an extra row as before. Decrease one more time and knit in plus one more row. Decrease every row now until there are 5 stitches on main bed and 4 on rib bed. Cut yarn leaving tail for sewing up toe end. Waste yarn and cast off. Sew up toe with kitchener stitch and sew up back seam on sock top.
11/16/2003 |
