Figure 8 Cast On
Every wanted to know how to cast on for toe-up socks without having to use a provisional cast on and having to graft later? Why not try the Figure 8 Cast On? I was looking for a good illustration of this technique, but had a hard time finding anything. Here's my attempt to explain it:
Okay, first you need to wrap the yarn around the two needles in a -- you guessed it -- figure eight motion. This means you go up over the top needle from the back, between the two needles and down around the bottom needle from the back to the front, back through the two needles again and you have two stitches. My picture shows a total of eight stitches -- four on each needle.
Make sure that the stitches you cast on aren't too tight or you will have a heck of a time knitting your first couple of rows. Now just pick up the working yarn and knit across the top row. Your stitches should look like the example above after you knit across all the stitches on the needle.
Flip your needles upside down -- same side facing you but the needle that you just knit across is on the bottom now. Now just knit across this needle. You will most likely have a very loose looking center row (these are the stitches that you cast on -- the ones that I told you to keep loose). After you knit a few more rows tighten these stitches across the first row toward the loose end. (Basically you will inch your way across that row, tightening as you go until you get to the loose end. Then just pull the end to tighten.) Now continue with your pattern -- why not try toe-up socks? That's what
I'm making right now!
Not much knitting and these stamps are why. I have been so busy with my online store (
Stamping Online ) that I haven't had time to knit! All this crazy time spent working will result in cold hard cash to spend this Saturday at Tangled Web Fibers in Oak Park, IL.
Theresa (go check out her
blog -- it's looking great!) and I are going on a little shopping trip. I'm sure we'll also have to stop by
Paper Source. I've been thinking about creating a knitting log book and they have great book kits there.
Theresa and I are also going to be taking a class in February at
The Knitting Workshop in Chicago. It is a fair isle/intarsia class which I am really looking forward taking.
And I have to show you what
Theresa got for me:
Yes, it's Cat Bordi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles! Now that I am conquering the "toe-up" technique this is the next step. If anyone knows of a godd place to get some reasonably priced addi-turbo's, let me know. And "Thanks again, Theresa!"
Pattern: Toe-Up Socks -- my own pattern which I will post as I go.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Forest (37) purchased from ThreadBear Fiber Arts
Needles: US 1 Brittany Birch dp's 7" (wish they were 5", but that's all I have)
5% complete
I decided to try a toe-up sock for the first time! All the patterns that I had used some funky toe or were for a different weight yarn or had a pattern to them, so I'm making up my own pattern. So far I have used a figure-8 cast on with 10 stitches on each needle for a total of 20 stitches. (I think I will have to describe this technique in my next post because I couldn't find much on the web that would really explain how to do this.) Then I started to increase in the second and second to last stitch on each of the two needles. When I finished a few rows I moved half of each of the stitches onto 2 more needles. So now there are four needles plus the working needle. I continued to increase in every row (4 stitches each row -- 1 stitch on each needle) until there were 11 stitches on each needle, then I switched to increasing on every other row. I'm not sure how many stitches I will have in the end -- probably 64, 68 or 72.
And here is one finished sock which is now on hold while I make the socks above for my husband.
