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Knitting two socks at once
Saturday, December 4th, 2010 05:43 pmSo, I thought when people said that they knit two socks at the same time, that they had the socks on two different sets of needles, and they'd knit on Set A with yarn ball A, then after reaching the end of the round, they'd knit on Set B with yarn ball B. That would be a pain, and also what if you forgot to knit a row on Set B after doing it on Set A?
Today I decided to figure out what that was all about and discovered that I was wrong (as often happens; this time quite happily so because I think I will be able to use this technique!)
It turns out that doing two socks at once usually means you'll need two balls of yarn (one for each sock), but just one set of needles. You cast them on as two separate projects, work on them as two separate projects, just, both are on the same set of needles so you aren't putting down/picking up all the time, and there's no risk of unsynchronization.
I found a lovely tutorial for Two Toe-Up Socks on One Circular Needle which describes how to do it using circular knitting via the Magic Loop method. Let's call this one method 1.
I don't think it works for DPNs. You'd need a separate set of DPNs for the other sock which could be expensive, and also means that you'd need to put down set A and pick up set B after each row. However, I'm pretty sure that there's nothing stopping you from being able to use two circular needles.
I found another method which described how to do it using double-knitting, and it's neat.
Problem:
a.) I just did a double-knit colorwork project, and I hated holding two strands at the same time, to the point that instead of knitting/purling on alternate colors, once I got to an area of solid blocks of colors, I worked each row twice, once for each color, slipping the other color, so that I'd only need to be holding one strand at a time.
At some point I will need to learn, because all colorwork (except mosaic) requires you to be able to handle two strands of yarn at once, but that day is not today. It probably will also not be tomorrow.
b.) The tone of the piece turned me off completely. I don't knit to show off! I don't learn new techniques to show off! It was all meant jokingly, and yet ugh. Just completely turned off.
However, what caught my attention is that it's basically the same thing as the first method, except that instead of having two projects strung on the cable of a cable needle, you have two socks, one knit inside the other, and done by knitting yarn A then yarn B then yarn A then yarn B. This technique works for DPNs; It would also be good for if you have circular needles that are just too short to accomodate two socks at once.
A variant on method 2 (which was double-knitting) is to knit one sock inside the other, but only need to hold one color at a time. You'd knit one row at a time, by knitting yarn A, slipping yarn B for one row, then re-knitting the same row by knitting yarn B, slipping yarn A. This would still yield two separate socks, and it's basically the same way that I "cheated" on the double-knit colorwork project once the pattern was such that I needed only one strand at a time to knit each fabric, only one color at a time.
Problem:
You may end up with some loose stitches from slipping the stitches. It didn't matter so much in the hat I was making, but may make more obvious differences in a sock. Any unevenness will probably even out with blocking, but still something to watch out for.
Of all the methods, method 0 (my initial idea of knitting two socks at a time) and my variant on method 2 both suffer from not enforcing a sync of the state between the two socks -- which is probably why I haven't seen them in any tutorial! *G*
Method 2 looks interesting, but is really not for me at this time, and method 1 looks promising and flexible, makes knitting two socks not that much more painful than knitting one (especially since you'd be able to carry across the rhythm of the row from sock A to sock B). I'll probably try this out next time I'm tempted to do a sock (or a glove? *g*)
Today I decided to figure out what that was all about and discovered that I was wrong (as often happens; this time quite happily so because I think I will be able to use this technique!)
It turns out that doing two socks at once usually means you'll need two balls of yarn (one for each sock), but just one set of needles. You cast them on as two separate projects, work on them as two separate projects, just, both are on the same set of needles so you aren't putting down/picking up all the time, and there's no risk of unsynchronization.
I found a lovely tutorial for Two Toe-Up Socks on One Circular Needle which describes how to do it using circular knitting via the Magic Loop method. Let's call this one method 1.
I don't think it works for DPNs. You'd need a separate set of DPNs for the other sock which could be expensive, and also means that you'd need to put down set A and pick up set B after each row. However, I'm pretty sure that there's nothing stopping you from being able to use two circular needles.
I found another method which described how to do it using double-knitting, and it's neat.
Problem:
a.) I just did a double-knit colorwork project, and I hated holding two strands at the same time, to the point that instead of knitting/purling on alternate colors, once I got to an area of solid blocks of colors, I worked each row twice, once for each color, slipping the other color, so that I'd only need to be holding one strand at a time.
At some point I will need to learn, because all colorwork (except mosaic) requires you to be able to handle two strands of yarn at once, but that day is not today. It probably will also not be tomorrow.
b.) The tone of the piece turned me off completely. I don't knit to show off! I don't learn new techniques to show off! It was all meant jokingly, and yet ugh. Just completely turned off.
However, what caught my attention is that it's basically the same thing as the first method, except that instead of having two projects strung on the cable of a cable needle, you have two socks, one knit inside the other, and done by knitting yarn A then yarn B then yarn A then yarn B. This technique works for DPNs; It would also be good for if you have circular needles that are just too short to accomodate two socks at once.
A variant on method 2 (which was double-knitting) is to knit one sock inside the other, but only need to hold one color at a time. You'd knit one row at a time, by knitting yarn A, slipping yarn B for one row, then re-knitting the same row by knitting yarn B, slipping yarn A. This would still yield two separate socks, and it's basically the same way that I "cheated" on the double-knit colorwork project once the pattern was such that I needed only one strand at a time to knit each fabric, only one color at a time.
Problem:
You may end up with some loose stitches from slipping the stitches. It didn't matter so much in the hat I was making, but may make more obvious differences in a sock. Any unevenness will probably even out with blocking, but still something to watch out for.
Of all the methods, method 0 (my initial idea of knitting two socks at a time) and my variant on method 2 both suffer from not enforcing a sync of the state between the two socks -- which is probably why I haven't seen them in any tutorial! *G*
Method 2 looks interesting, but is really not for me at this time, and method 1 looks promising and flexible, makes knitting two socks not that much more painful than knitting one (especially since you'd be able to carry across the rhythm of the row from sock A to sock B). I'll probably try this out next time I'm tempted to do a sock (or a glove? *g*)
