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Permalink Reply by skhoyt on May 31, 2011 at 3:43pm

What book do you suggest for learning to knit socks? I'm not new to knitting but I have never knit socks and would like to learn. I'd appreciate any suggestions for where to start.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on May 31, 2011 at 3:53pm

Personally, I love Betsy McCarthy's book, Knit Socks - it covers the basics and more advanced techniques such as using two circulars or magic loop instead of using double pointed needles. Plus it has lots of great patterns ranging from basic to more advanced colorwork socks.

If you are interested in doing socks from the toe up, I highly recommend Wendy Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up. There is lots of great info on sock techniques, and this was the book I used for my first toe up socks! What I really appreciated about this book is that Wendy gives you plain vanilla socks with different heel types in the beginning of the book - which lets you really see the differences in heel types. I have also found a heel I really liked and now I am able to swap out heels in different patterns in order to use the heel of my preference.

Hope this helps, I am sure others will have great suggestions as well. Good luck in your sock knitting :)

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Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on May 31, 2011 at 9:22pm

Sharon, there are tons of great books out there and it is hard to recommend just one book. Charlene Schurch's books, Sensational Socks and More Sensational Socks are pretty good as well as the ones Jenny has already recommended. IMO, it's hard to have just one sock book. Though the first sock book I used was ASN pamphlet #1210 Learn to Knit Socks by Edie Eckman. There are so many different techniques it is hard to say which is best.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Marshall on June 22, 2011 at 1:52pm

SHIFT TOTE question. This is my first attempt at intarsia. Watched Kerin's youtube video on this, but need a little more hand-holding. Question is about the cutting and re-attaching mentioned in the pattern. Row 1, I knit across, changing balls every ten stitches. Then Row 2, I purl back, but first segment is only 9 stitches, creating the "shift." That leaves a single stitch at the end of row two -- do I cut the yarn that started the row and attach it here for one stitch-- and use it for first two stitches of Row 3? Then cut it again and reattach for the last 8 stitches at the end of row 3? So almost every row will require cutting/re-attaching, except every 10th row or so. This is the way I have interpreted the instructions, but want to be sure I'm not missing some other obvious thing I should be doing. THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE!

Carol

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Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on June 22, 2011 at 8:38pm

Carol, I don't have this pattern but I have looked at the photos for it. I've checked out Kerin's video but without having the pattern, I'm not quite sure how she has you doing the yarn. Typically with intarsia, you will have one ball per color area. So if you use a color in more than one area, you will need more than one ball of yarn. It is also very important when doing intarsia to twist your yarns when switching colors. I'm going to send a message to Jenny to see if she can help out. Hopefully one of us will be back with you sometime tomorrow.

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Permalink Reply by PickleSue on June 22, 2011 at 9:11pm

That amount of cutting seems unreasonable to me... is there another ball of the same color that you can attach to that end? I'm assuming that is where the seam goes- so you'd want the same color at the end of the row as at the beginning... but I'd think there would be an easier way than that much chopping.

But- I don't have that pattern either. Hopefully Cheryl will find someone who knows. :)

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Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on June 22, 2011 at 9:39pm

I sent a message to Jenny. Kerin did say something about the hardest part was winding it into smaller balls.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on June 23, 2011 at 7:46am

Hi Carol!

When you are describing row 2, you mention a single stitch is left over. This is going to become a new stripe that will grow by adding one more stitch to that color for each row, while at the same time the stripe that was 9 stitches will be 8, then 7, then 6, and so on until the stripe "goes away." When the pattern says: These will be used throughout the bag, each being cut at one end and reattached at the other as the chevrons pass by the edges of the bag, it means that when the stripe is complete you reattach the yarn, but not every row.

As for cutting the yarn at row 2, you don't have to do any cutting at all. Simply attach a new ball of your pre-wound smaller balls. So each stripe will have its own mini ball that you are working it with. The only time you will have to cut your yarn is every tenth row when the stripe is completed.

Let me know if this helps clarify things :)

-jenny

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Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on June 23, 2011 at 8:29am

Jenny, thanks so much for responding. This is what I assumed but without the pattern I didn't feel I could advise Carol. We really appreciate your stepping in and helping.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Marshall on June 23, 2011 at 10:07am

What you are telling makes sense --- but just to be sure I understand -- there will be 15 balls on every row (except row 1,11,21,etc)? The instructions say make 14 balls (7 of each color), and at the end of Row 1 all 14 balls are attached. So are you saying I will need to "subdivide" balls when they are used on both ends of rows?

Carol

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on June 23, 2011 at 11:22am

Oh goodness, I just had a long chat with Kerin and she dug out her original notes, pattern and the tech edit and the quantity was changed to 7 by the tech editor, but it was originally eight of each!

So yes, you are correct that there is an overlap where the same color is used on both ends and to compensate, eight balls of each color for 16 total should work out.

So sorry about this, our tech editors do a wonderful job but every once in a grand while things get mixed up. we will be putting up an official errata for this, sorry again and thanks for pointing this out!

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Permalink Reply by skhoyt on July 13, 2011 at 8:04am

I just finished my Morning Glory shawl - 1st lace shawl. It came out beautifully with the Imagination Mermaid Lagoon. Often people would see me knitting and comment on the beautiful colors. I uploaded a picture on my page. When I started blocking, I thought there was no way it would be a big as the pattern said, but sure enough, it was. Amazing! I can't wait to start another one.