Sunday, February 12, 2006

Down with cotton

As the title suggests, I haven't made much headway on my sweater, and the progress I have made has been hard won. I should have done something else in wool. Ah well. I will press on. Since I'm only about 3 inches in, I'll post, instead, my little tutorial on picking up stitches for the gusset of a sock.

After turning the heel of a sock, I knit back across the row, according to the pattern. Then I take an empty needle and pick up the inside edge loops from the heel flap. (I don't pull yarn through to make a stitch, I am literally picking up a stitch loop that is already there) Here is my needle, set up with the stitches.
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Then I knit through the back loop of these picked up stitches, to twist them. This makes them tighter and less likely to cause holes.
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This is what it looks like after I've picked up all the gusset stitches and then knit a few rounds.
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See how the twisted stitches are crossed in little "x's"? I love that detail. I'm stretching it out a little so that you can see it -- in reality, the fabric is a little firmer than it might seem.

So there you have it. My favorite way to pick up heel stitches for the gusset. Hopefully I can post some real sweater progress for tomorrow. That's all for now, folks!

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