Stripes & What I Learned

Roger's Stripey Socks are done. 

I learned a few things along the way and thought I'd share them with you.

Not All Stripe Joins Are Created Equal

As you can clearly see in the photo below.

The sock on the left I just picked up the new yarn and dropped the old one.  The sock on the right I wrapped the yarns as I changed colors.  Big difference!  And, the difference is greater in person.

Here is what I did (click on any picture to make it larger):
At a color change, loop the old color (here it is the purple) over the new color (the grey).  Tug on the new color (grey) to tighten the last stitch in the grey stripe below. 

You are doing two things to minimize the jog at the color change.  Looping the yarns around each other snugs them together horizontally.  Tightening up the last stitch makes it appear less tall minimizing the vertical jog.  Both give a flatter and smoother join.

Repeat this at every color change.

So you may ask why I didn't use the jogless join.  It is a lovely technique.  The answer is that I didn't want to have a traveling join especially on the foot.  To work the heel, I really need the join to be at the beginning of the round.  I could have stacked the join using jogless join but I didn't want the dip that comes with frequent row changes.

The other thing I did was to loop the yarns once at the join point (beginning of a round).  Say once after round 2 or 3 (I made 5 round stripes).  This doesn't help the join, but it will keep toes from snagging a loop when putting the socks on. 

Looping the yarns may make it harder to pull the last stitch snug (as described above).  You can use the point of your needle to pull on the loops and the yarn carried up across the contrast stripe.  I pull on the yarn from the inside while watching the outside to see how it looks and how much to tug.

A riskier method is to bring the carried yarn out after a couple of rounds.  After one round put the carried yarn back in.  The risk comes with forgetting to put the yarn back in.  One round and it just covers one strand of yarn (sometimes called the running thread).  Two rounds and it is a visible blip.  More than two rounds and it is an obvious mistake.

Why tempt fate?  Because it makes pulling the first stitch of the new color possible without using a knitting needle to tug on various stitches and loops.  Minutia!  I hear you saying!  Yes, it definitely is a minor detail.  It is the littlest bits that keep me entertained.

I made these pictures smaller so you would have to click on them and make a conscious choice to live with mistakes or flirt with frogging when you forget.

Striping The Ribbing

My best trick on these socks is an old favorite.  I like the clean and simple lines of the stripes and didn't want to muddy it with contrasting purl bumps at color change rows in the ribbing.  The solution is so easy.  Knit the first row of the new color.  Return to ribbing on all other rows (I used k2, p2). 

For my 5 round stripes that means:

R1 in Main Color (MC): knit
R2-5 in MC: k2, p2
R6 in Contrast Color (CC): knit
R7-10 in CC: k2, p2

The stripes look great and you can't tell that the knit row is in there.  The knit row doesn't change the look of the ribbing when it is relaxed nor does it diminish its elasticity.

The wrong side looks pretty cool too.  I may use this as the right side someday.  Sometimes the purl bumps add instead of detracting.  The simple act of putting the purl bumps on the knit stitches (the forward portion of the ribbing), makes them a feature.

A couple more shots of Roger's feet:

 

Today I am taking pictures of my blocked Aeolian!  That will be the next post.

Mando un saludo a los amigos de Marcela en Lima, Peru.  Hola!

Comments

[Kay - From the Back Yard]

Love the stripey socks! And thanks for the neat tutorial, too.

[Julia]

I am endlessly amused by those small things that make a big difference, too. I knit socks top down, and when I pick up stitches for the gusset, I always knit them through the back loop so it twists the stitches prettily. No one else notices it, but it amuses me no end. It's good to be easily entertained! Beautiful socks, jogless or no jogless.

[Jamisyn]

Very Nice! I use the same *knit one row in new color before purling* in sweater applications but never thought to do that with socks....and yours came out very VERY nice!

[Ann]

Gorgeous socks and great pictorial. And it's playing with the little details that keep things from getting boring.

[Ronni]

Excellent tip. I'll have to consider using that on the next pair of stripy socks which are coming up very soon.

[Robin]

Smart-looking stripes! And, smart tutorial! Thanks!

[Bonnie Zink]

I love the stripes and you did a great job. I'm not great at the striping thing and prefer the self striping yarns. This colour combination is fabulous!

[Lorraine]

Hi - I've only just come across your blog - I am a sock-o-holic . . . . !

Thanks for the top tips about stripes, very simple, very effective and never thought of it :o)

Lorraine