Knitting Socks in Waiting Area

August 26, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comments | 11:55 pm

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Yesterday, I had the role of being supportive of my DH while he underwent some tests at our local hospital. (Nothing serious, just part of routine maintenance for the over 55 crowd.)

Anyway, I decided to take along a pair of socks I am knitting as my “keep occupied” project for the time I would be sitting in the waiting area. I am doing cuff down, two at a time on 2 circular knitting needles. So I pulled out my knitting and started to knit away while I sipped on a cup of coffee. An older woman walked into the group of chairs where I was sitting — and pulled out her knitting!

She was knitting something on dpn’s in a pretty dark green yarn. For a time, we sat and knit without any conversation. Then, she put away her knitting and came over and sat next to me and chatted. (I think she was anxious about whomever she was waiting for, but she never really said.) I learned that she was working on a pair of mittens and she was very curious about the method I was using for knitting socks and my self-striping yarn. We exchanged bits of information about yarns and knitting and then she was called to go back with her family member while he/she recovered.

It’s interesting how knitting forms a link and an introduction for us. I know it made the time in the waiting room go by more quickly for me and I’d like to think it eased my companion’s anxiety a little and helped her time in the waiting room pass more pleasantly.

P.S. Started the socks so that I would have an easy knit project for the knitting guild meet ups. More on the guild in another post. I promise to post a picture of the socks when done.

1 thought on “Knitting Socks in Waiting Area”

Amanda (SparkeeSpud) says:

August 27, 2009 at 4:36 pm

I love your socks! I hate pink normally but the pink and the grey are awesome together!

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Stitch Patterns – Three Examples of RibbingStitch Patterns – Three Examples of Ribbing

3Ribbings

All ribbing is a combination of knit and purl stitches across a row. When you knit back on the next row, you knit the stitches as the face you, that is, knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches. The knit stitches form a ridge (or rib) and the purl stitches form a valley. Ribbing is essentially a reversible fabric. Ribbing is elastic crosswise and will stretch lengthwise and is most often used for sweater neckbands and bottoms and the cuff of socks. Ribbing also “pulls in” naturally, so it will effect the shape of your garment.

One-By-One (1×1) Ribbing:

This is knitted exactly as it says. Knit 1 stitch, purl 1 stitch across the row. (Remember to move your yarn from back to front as you knit and purl.) If you are knitting this ribbing flat for a garment, you should be knitting an odd number of stitches, so that when the garment is seamed together the ribbing will appear to be continuous. If you are knitting in the round, you should always have an even number of stitches. This ribbing is the most elastic of ribbings. It tends to look more loosely knit than stockinette stitch, and because it is so elastic, most patterns have you knit your ribbing on needles that are a size or two smaller than the body of the pattern.

Two-By-Two (2×2) Ribbing:

2x2Ribbing

This ribbing is made by K2, P2 across the row. It is a multiple of 4 stitches, so when knitting a flat piece to be joined with another, you should be knitting a multiple of 4 plus 1 stitch so that the pieces will weave together correctly. For knitting in the round, you would knit over a multiple of 4 stitches. This is a popular ribbing and it works well for sock cuffs, but it is not as elastic as the 1×1 ribbing.

Three-By-One (3×1) Ribbing:

3x1Ribbing

This ribbing is also a multiple of 4 stitches: K3, P1 across. The rules for 2×2 ribbing also apply to this ribbing. As you can see in the picture, this produces a wide rib with an almost invisible valley. I have seen this ribbing used in sock patterns and it does give the socks and attractive looking cuff.

Other Ribbing Patterns: There are many other variations of ribbing, including Cabled Ribbing, Four-By-Two Ribbing, and Six-by-Three Ribbing. I will include an example of Cabled Ribbing in a latter post on Cable Stitch Patterns.

Note: For information about tension issues with ribbing, see my post: Master Knitter Level I – Swatches # 1, 2, & 3.

Update on Progress with SFS Team-Knit SocksUpdate on Progress with SFS Team-Knit Socks

SFS_TK_Heels1 I knitted the heel and had about half of the gussets done on these socks when I decided that I did NOT like the way the picked up stitches for the gussets looked. They weren’t tight enough and appeared to have small holes along the picked up edge. Frustrating, VERY frustrating – especially since these socks must be knit to very high standards. I don’t know if the problem is the way I picked up the stitches – or if I pulled the yarn too tight. I have found that the Regia Stretch yarn used for these socks can be overstretched – it is a very stretchy yarn.

I put the socks in “time out” over the Christmas holidays – just too stressful to deal with them given all the other demands of the season. Last week, I pulled them out, put in lifelines at the instep and the end of the heel turn and then frogged them back to the point where I need to pick up the gusset stitches. 🙁

I plan to tackle the picking up of the gusset stitches this week, paying special attention to how the stitches form as they are picked up…and trying to avoid overstretching the yarn…I will let you know how it goes.

I have just added Fisherman’s Rib to my Stitch Library. This is an interesting rib pattern that uses “knit 1 below (k1b). K1b is also used in the Bee Stitch and if you want more information on it, here are links to that information.

Post on Bee Stitch and Knit 1 Below

Bee Stitch Pattern

This ribbing pattern results in a fluffy, soft and warm ribbing that is similar to the brioche rib stitch. In fact, while researching Fisherman’s Rib, I found several places where it is described as a variation in the brioche technique. Nancy Marchand, author of Knitting Brioche, states:

“In the Netherlands, both brioche stitch and Fisherman’s Rib are called patentsteek. The method of working the stitch is different but the end result is the same.”

The main difference between the brioche stitch and fisherman’s rib is that you use yarnovers combined with slipped stitches to form the fabric in brioche and you use k1b to create fisherman’s rib. There are several different ways to make the Fisherman’s Rib stitch and I have included these in my Fisherman’s Rib Stitch instructions.

I have used fisherman’s rib to make several lovely warm hats. It would work well for a warm scarf or a cowl as well. This stitch pattern will use approximately 30% more yarn than regular 1 X 1 ribbing and should be done on needles that are one to two sizes smaller than what you would normally use for the yarn you select.

There isn’t a lot of information on how to decrease or increase when doing fisherman’s rib, and it took me awhile to find ones that worked well for my hats. I will share that information in my upcoming posts.