Socks for Charlotte

June 2, 2013| LindyBeir| 0 Comment | 4:44 pm

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I knit two little pairs of socks for Charlotte shortly after she was born. In fact, while I was visiting at the hospital, my DS traced one of Charlotte’s footprints so that I could take it home a make a pair of socks for her little feet.

Her little foot measured 3 inches from the tip of her big toe to her heel. I used some sock yarn I had on hand in a variegated shades of pink and a size US 1 (2.25 mm) 32 inch long circular. The socks were knit using Magic Loop, two at a time. I knit them from the cuff down. These little socks knit up quickly and I made a second pair using another skein of yarn that was a light pink color. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the second pair. DIL reported that these socks stayed on her feet when most do not.

I wrote up the pattern for these socks. Each pair takes only 10 g of sock yarn, so it would be a great way to use up leftover yarn from your bigger sock knitting projects. 🙂
Here is the link to the pattern: Newborn Size Socks

A Study of Pooling in a Variegated Sock YarnA Study of Pooling in a Variegated Sock Yarn

Several days ago, I decided to knit a pair of plain vanilla socks using Serenity Sock Weight Yarn (Premier Yarns) in the colorway Amethyst. This was a yarn I had purchased at my local Hobby Lobby and had been sitting in my sock yarn stash for a few months. In the skein, the yarn appears to be a mix of greys and purples, and I thought it would result in a striping of the socks. The label does not indicate that the yarn is “self-striping”, but the picture on the label shows a sock with an interesting variation of stripes.

Since I had never knit with this yarn, I knit a circular swatch to determine needle size and gauge before starting on my socks – and this is where my study in “Pooling” began. I started with US 2 (2.75 mm) needles and cast on 64 stitches (which is what I would use for my socks with a gauge of 7 stitches per inch). As I worked on the swatch, I noticed that the yarn was not knitting up in the stripes the way I had anticipated – in fact, it seemed to be predominately purple on one side of the swatch and predominately grey on the other side.

Obviously, I had some “pooling “ going on. Pooling is an effect that occurs when a variegated yarn knits up in “pools” of color, rather than in stripes. Now, I wasn’t really sure I liked the effect – and my stitch gauge was 6.25 spi, rather than the 7 spi I wanted.

So, I decided to do a second swatch with fewer stitches, a smaller needle – and because I had read about pooling in a Rav thread, I also decided to knit from the outside of the skein instead of the inside. I cast on 52 stitches on size US 1.5 (2.50 mm) needles and knit away – and I got more striping – not even stripes, but definitely stripes on both sides of the swatch.

So, I took a picture of the two swatches and posted a comment on Ravlery under the thread, “Examples of Pooling Good & Bad”, stating what I had observed along with my assumption that the change was probably due to knitting from the outside of the skein – and completely ignoring the fact that I had changed the number of stitches in the swatch and this might also be contributing to the way the colors were knitting up.

I must admit, I did not anticipate much of a response to my comment in this thread. But I received several. It’s one of the things I love about Ravelry – fellow knitters are always willing to share and question things. Anyway – after reading the comments, I decided I needed to do a little more work before I could actually answer my fellow Ravelers’ questions.

Off I went to swatch again – this time I decided to start from the inside of the skein, use US 2 (2.75 mm) needles and begin by casting on 72 stitches. I knit approximately 1.5 inches, then purled and decreased the number of stitches to 64 stitches, knit another 1.5 inches, purled and decreased to 54 stitches and knit another 1.5 inches. Here’s a picture showing how the yarn pooled with different numbers of stitches.

So – in response to Robocass and Hypercycloid, who asked me if the difference might be due more to the difference in the number of stitches in my swatches: Clearly, the number of stitches used results in very different color patterning and it doesn’t really matter whether I knit from the inside or the outside of the skein.

Hypercycloid also asked about the length of each of the colors in the yarn. Hmm – I hadn’t thought about that, so I got out the measuring tape and discovered that each purple section of the yarn was approximately 19 inches, while the grey sections were approximately 12 inches. Not quite, but almost a 3 to 2 ratio. Statnerd suggested I count the number of grey stitches compared to the purple stitches in my wider swatch – I did and ended up with 27 stitches of grey to 37 stitches of purple. Again, this is close to a 3 to 2 ratio of purple to grey. All of you were correct in your observations that the colors shift around the circumference of the swatches – and due to the differences in the number of stitches, the colors stack up very differently for different numbers of stitches.

Zgma commented:

“It doesn’t look like a self-striping yarn to me. The striping you got in the top sample is a result of the colors pooling in a way that looks like stripes, not actual “self-striping”. When yarns are labeled self-striping, it is because the runs of color are large enough that for the project intended (as in, socks for self-striping sock yarn), the color will last for all the stitches in at least one round or row, usually more. When a particular color (for instance, the black in your sock samples) lasts for part of a row, but then in the next row the color occurs before or after it did in the previous row in such a manner that it looks like striping, it doesn’t mean that the yarn is self-striping – just that it is prone to pooling in a stripey way.”

Yep, you are right about that.

To each of those that took the time to comment — thanks! I learned a great deal about pooling and variegated yarns.

I did a little internet surfing on the subject, as well. I found two informative posts about Pooling — One from the Yarn Harlot and the other from Knitting Sutra.

So – I am not really sure if I like this particular yarn – but I have decided to proceed with using it to knit a pair of plain vanilla socks. I am going to use US 2 (2.75 mm) needles with a gauge of 6.25 spi and cast on 54 stitches (this should fit my foot). I’ll post pictures of the final result.

Provisional Cast OnProvisional Cast On

A Provisional Cast On is a method for making a temporary cast on that can be removed later. The method I use requires a crochet hook and either waste yarn or an extra cable from a circular needle. If you are using waste yarn, you should use a slippery yarn in a contrasting color so that the cast on stitches can be easily removed.

Where this cast on is used:

Knitting hems or edges where you want to add a border or knit in the opposite direction
Knitting scarves when you want the ends to be identical

To make the Provisional Cast On use a crochet hook the same size equivalent as your knitting needle. Start by making a slip knot with waste yarn and placing it on the crochet hook.(This does not count as a stitch.) Hold your knitting needle in your left hand and the crochet hook in your right hand. Make a stitch over the needle or cable by holding the yarn strand under the needle and taking the crochet hook over the needle, grabbing the strand and pulling it through the loop on the crochet hook. Repeat this process until you have the desired number of stitches.

If you are a crocheter, you can do a Provisional Cast On by making a crochet chain and then knitting into the bumps on the back of the chain. Tips: 1) Make the chain longer than the desired number of stitches; 2) Use a crochet hook one or two sizes larger than the knitting needle you will be using to make it easier to go into the bumps.

Links for Provisional Cast Ons:

Provisional Cast On – One Step Method

Crochet Chain Provisional Cast On

Cast On Methods: Cable Cast On and Backwards LoopCast On Methods: Cable Cast On and Backwards Loop

The Cable cast on is very similar to the knitted cast on. It starts the same way as the knitted cast on, where you make a slip knot and place it on your needle and then knit through the loop to form the next stitch. After this step, instead of knitting another stitch and putting it back on the right needle, you insert your needle between the two stitches to form the next loop and then place that back on the right hand needle. You continue making stitches by going between two stitches to make the loop.

Where I use the Cable cast on:

When I need a firm edge such as the border on a blanket
When I need to add stitches at the end of a row
Making a one -row buttonhole

Backwards Loop (e-Wrap) Cast On is a very basic cast on and is one of the cast ons often taught to beginning knitters. It starts with a short tail and a slip knot placed on a knitting needle. You then take the working yarn and wrap it over your thumb , insert the needle under the loop on the outside of your thumb and let it slide off your thumb onto the needle and tighten up the stitch.

Where to use the Backwards Loop Cast on:

This is an elastic cast on that can be used for most projects needing a stretchy edge (hats, gloves). You can also use it to add stitches in the middle of rows (i.e. the underarm of a top down sweater or at the base of the fingers of a glove.) You can also use it to add stitches at the end of a row. The loops between stitches can look sloppy so you need to pay attention to how you make your loops.

Here are links to YouTube videos for these two cast ons:

Knitting Help – Cable Cast On

Refined Cable Cast On

How to Knit: Backwards Loop Cast On

Technique Tutorial: Backwards Loop Cast On (shows how to cast on in middle of stitches)