More Baby Socks

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I’ve been in the ‘knitting for baby’ mode for a new grandbaby in the family and can’t believe I haven’t posted these little socks on my blog yet.  Guess I’ve been preoccupied.  These are made on my standard gauge machine with a couple different brands of non-wool self striping sock yarns.  I’ve knit them flat and seamed the side later but could easily be knit in the round if desired.   My pattern is designed with a 3-1/2” sole to fit 0 to 3 months but can easily be resized by adjusting stitches and rows.  

They are just adorable and mom and baby just love them.  The two yarns are Premier Wool Free Sock Stripes which is acrylic and polyester, and Loops & Threads Perfect Pair yarn which is acrylic, polyester and bamboo.  Both are easy knits and soft for baby.   So here we go.

Size: 0-3 mos (3.5” sole)

Machine:  Standard gauge

Tension 6

Gauge:  9 sts, 12 rows = 1”

CUFF:

1.  CO 40 sts in 1x1 ribbing.

2.  Knit 14 rows (or 30 rows for a foldover cuff).

3.  Transfer ribber stitches to main bed.  (or do a mock or latched rib if you don't have a ribber.

ANKLE:

Knit 17 rows total in the ankle. 

BUT if you want an eyelet row,

            a.  Knit 6 rows and make eyelets by transferring one stitch to its neighbor beginning

                with the 2^nd needle from the left.  The eyelet row looks like this after transfers are made:

                  . x .. x .. x ….. x .. x .. x .. x ..  etc,  to end of row.

            b.  Keeping empty needles in work, knit 11 more rows to make a total of 17 rows.

HEEL:

1.   Put half the stitches away from the carriage into hold position.

2.   Make sure there are even stitches in work, put machine on hold and shortrow down to 8

       stitches and back out.

FOOT AND TOE:

1.  Knit 28 rows.

2.  Decrease EON, move stitches together and knit 2 rows at T7.

3.  Gather live stitches and secure.

FINISHING:

Mattress stitch the side seam using the 1/2 stitch on each side.  Use a Bickford seam in the ribbing.  Knit a 2 stitch I-cord at T2 for about 18”.  Weave the cord thru the eyelet row and double knot each end.  Or pompoms or tassels can be added if desired.

Baby Socks

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What’s a gramma to do for a new baby when mom is a Green Bay Packer’s fan and dad is a devoted Minnesota Vikings fan?  She knits a pair of each to wear on football game days during those friendly rivalries.  These socks are knit in the round on my standard gauge machine with ribber with shortrowed heels and toes, but they can be knit flat and seamed up the side if desired.

Size: 0-3 months  (3-1/2” sole)

Machine: Standard Gauge

Yarn:  Tamm 3 ply Astracryl

Gauge at T6:  8 sts, 12 rows per inch

1.     T7, CO 32 sts, 1x1 rib for 14 rows for cuff, 24 rows if you want a foldover cuff.

2.     T6, transfer all main bed stitches to ribber bed, knit 1 row and convert to circular with seam up the back on center of main bed, K to RC014.

3.     Then make an eyelet row for tie as desired, leaving empty needles in work. Eyelets on L6, L2, R2, R6 on main bed; L7, L3, R3, R7 on ribber bed.

4.     Knit to RC013 for ankle. (27 rows total in ankle)

5.     T5, shortrow heel down to 6 stitches and back out.

6.     T6, knit 36 rows for foot.

7.     T5, shortrow toe as for heel. Scrap off both beds.

8.     Graft toe seam, sew ribbed cuff with a Bickford stitch, secure all yarn tails and weave in.

Knit a 2 st I-cord at T3 for about 18” (approx. 260 rows) long and run thru eyelet row. Double knot ends of ties or attach pom-poms or tassels if desired.

This sock can easily be made larger by increasing CO sts and/or rows.

Self Striping Sock Blank

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So, just as I was finishing the blanks in my previous post, ‘Laylor ‘ in the Sock Blank Artists group on Ravelry posted a self-striping blank that she had done and I just knew I had to try to mimic her results.  I like stripes and she produced such nice stripes with her blank.  However, there is a bit of pre-planning involved if you want somewhat precise striping.  If not, just wing it with a 150 stitch width blank knit with double stranded yarn.  Then when dyeing, shade the colors from dark to light or light to dark.  A 150 stitch blank gave me sets of 4 stripes in each color set.  

Any midgauge knitting machines that I know don’t have 150 needles to accommodate knitting a blank this wide.  But I just happen to have an extra KX350 plastic midgauge machine that I ‘robbed’ 2 needle sections and inserted them into my machine.  With a machine and ribber, a blank with this many stitches can be knit in ‘U’ shape, half of the stitches on the main bed and half on the ribber.  The beginning row of ‘U’ knitting will be a zig-zag row as used in circular
knitting which will have to be clipped and removed
before dyeing to let the blank lay flat.

To achieve precise stripes, first off I need to know how much yarn it takes to knit one round in my socks to fit comfortably around my foot. So I knit a few rows in a sock that fits with the yarn I’ll be using. I unravel one row and mark the ends of one row with a washable marker or pencil. Then on my midgauge machine at T7,  I knit a couple rows with double strands of yarn in stockinette and counted how many needles it takes to go from marker to marker on the sock yarn. This will tell how many stitches needed in the blank to make 1 round in the sock.  I’ve made enough blanks and socks to know that it takes approximately 32” of yarn to make one round in my socks, about 40 sts in my blank depending on the yarn and gauge.  With the yarn I’m using now, 37 sts was the magic number.  If you want to be this precise with a different yarn, I’ll have to measure and calculate again.

So with the magic number for one round in my socks, I can now determine how wide my blank needs to be.  For 3 rounds of each color set in my sock, my blank would have to be 112 sts (3 x 37) wide, 148 sts (4 x 37) for 4 rounds of each color, 186 sts (5 x 37) for 5
rounds of each color.  (Round up to an even number).  

Again, using my KX350 midgauge machine at T7, I start my blanks with 6 rows of acrylic or cotton waste yarn, then change to double stranded sock yarn and knit even til the yarn runs out.  Then I knit another 6 rows of waste yarn.  I drop a stitch at the halfway mark and at each color change to keep the dyes from bleeding into each other.  Then I cut a long tail of yarn and run it thru the live stitches on the needles, skipping over the dropped stitches.  Secure the end of the yarn tail.  Run the dropped stitches down to the beginning and remove the blank from the machine….ready for the dye process.

I've detailed my dyeing techniques in a earlier post  on 30 Sep 16, entitled 'Dyeing a Sock Blank'.  You can find it quickly by clicking on the 'sock blank' label.  Keep in mind that my way is not the only way, just the way it works best for me.

So now I have all these blanks knit up and dyed, I'd better get to knitting socks before the snowflakes fly.  

Attempts at Variegated Sock Blanks

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I’ve neglected my blog for far too long but this has been a busy year so far and I haven’t done much crafting.  Tending to garden produce is pretty much done now so I’m devoting some time to myself and some fun times.  Which brings me to….dyeing sock blanks.  I’ve been gathering some ideas and now trying to refine some techniques that’ll give me what I want.  

I like variegated yarns, but only if they don’t flash or pool.  So my first attempt was to randomly place ‘giraffe spots’ on a blank.  The resulting sock turned out interesting but not what I was striving for.  Most likely if I’d used more than just the two colors, I would’ve had different results.  Love the socks anyway.  I cast on 60 sts on my KX350 midgauge machine and knit at T7 throughout with double stranded yarn. 

I always begin and end my blanks with about 6 rows of waste yarn.  This eliminates the tighter cast on edge for better dye penetration and gives me a bit of yardage to ‘play with’ for arranging and hanging on to while painting on the dyes.  At the end of the blank, I also knit about 6 rows of waste yarn and run either a straight knitting needle or a blocking wire through it.  This lets me easily flip the blank over to apply dye to the backside.  

To give a solid color band at the top of the cuff, I knit about 6 rows of waste yarn, 6 rows (or as desired) in double stranded sock yarn, then 6 more rows of waste yarn, then finish the rest of the blank in sock yarn.  The 6 rows of waste yarn prevent the dyes from bleeding together and gives a nice crisp band edge. 

  

Ok, with that done, I moved on to a technique that I’ve used before and knew that It would not flash or pool.  But this time, I left a bit of white between the strips of color.  These blanks are 100 sts wide and again knit double stranded at T7 on my midgauge machine. I like them lots.

I've detailed my dyeing techniques in a earlier post  on 30 Sep 16, entitled 'Dyeing a Sock Blank'.  You can find it quickly by clicking on the 'sock blank' label.  Keep in mind that my way is not the only way, just the way it works best for me.

Crocheted Sock Blank

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As ya all might have guessed by now that I'm a machine knitter but I learned to crochet long before I learned to knit and I do enjoy a bit of crocheting now and then.  And I love dyeing too so put the two together and came up with a plan for dyeing sock blanks.  The blank didn't take long at all to crochet with double strands of yarn and I really like the results.  I did a bit of calculations for number of stitches per row on my blank to come up with the length needed for a full round of knitting in my socks but was worth that effort.  I got a lot of inspiration from the Sock Blank Artists group on Ravelry and finally took the step.  Here's what I did. 

Sz N Crochet Hook (I crochet tightly)

Crocheted blank

1 skein sock yarn, divided in halves

1.  With a worsted weight acrylic or cotton yarn,

      Ch 200 sts to make the foundation chain. 

2.   Change to 2 strands of sock yarn and work

     shells into loops of chain.

3.   Attach sock yarns and ch 3, work shell into

      next ch, Ch1, skip the next foundation

      chain and work shell into the next chain.

      Repeat til end of chain or end of pattern

Soaked and laid out ready to dye

      repeat.  Turn.

      SHELL:  YO 1x, pull up thru 2 loops,

      YO 1x, pull up thru 2 loops 3 times,

      Ch 1.

4.  Chain 3 to turn and repeat shell pattern across 

      row, inserting the shells into the front loops

      only of the previous shell. 

Determine number of shells:

Approx 2.5 shells (30”) makes 1 round in a 70 or 72 st circular sock.

So for 2 rounds of color in the sock, you’ll need 6 shells in the blank. 

Keep in mind that the end color sections will be doubled when knitting the sock.  

Color Scheme and number of shells

Intended Pattern

Dyeing:

ProChem One Shot Very Hot Pink & Deep Purple

               1 tsp per pint of water & 2 tsp vinegar

Dharma Carribean Blue

               ½ tsp per pint of water & 2 tsp vinegar

Very intense colors at this ratio, maybe use ½ tsp dye per pint, except for purple  which needs the intensity. 

Use a towel/rug as base and foam paint brushes to apply dyes.  Flip blank over onto clean towel and reapply dye to cover any white spots, wrap in plastic wrap, steam for 30 min.  Let cool naturally.

Wash & rinse til clear.



Steaming

Resulting sock in progress



Baby Socks, Midgauge

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These are my most favorite booties of all time.  Moms of babies I’ve made these for say they love them the most because they stay on little feet and aren’t easily kicked off.  I made them on my SK860 midgauge machine with ribber, beginning with an English ribbed cuff and worked down to the toe.  If you don’t have a ribber, a picot hemmed cuff, mock rib, latched rib, lace cuff or any of your favorite cuff styles can be used instead of English rib.  These feature a shortrowed heel and a gathered toe.  Babies don’t care if the toe isn’t form fitting because they don’t do any walking in booties but a shortrowed toe can be used if you prefer.  Also, I mattress stitch the side seam from the public side to give a nice appearance.  Baby yarn is most always soft and again, baby won’t be doing any walking in them so a mattressed seam won’t cut into their little foot.

I’ve given 2 sizes, newborn and 3 – 6 months size in parentheses.  Size can be easily adjusted by adding or subtracting stitches and rows.   I’ve used several of the popular baby yarns for hand knitting and all have work very well.  But all baby yarns are not created equal so size may vary a bit just because of the yarn used. 

RedHeart Baby Soft yarn

Bernat Softee Baby yarn

Berroco Comfort DK

RedHeart Designer Sport (heavier)

Bernat Baby Jacquard (T1) Size: Newborn (3 to 6 mo)

Gauge: 6.5 sts, 8.5 rows = 1”

Sole about 4” (4 ½) long

  

RIBBING:

1)  Tension R on both beds, ribber at pitch P4, cast on for English rib, 14-0-14 (15-0-

     15) stitches, work 3 foundation rows, as follows or as instructed in your user’s

     manual.

          a.  Select every other needle on both beds, with the main bed needle being the

              outermost on the left, and the ribber needle being the outermost on the right

              hand side.  All knobs and levers set for normal stockinette knitting.

          b.  With COL, knit 1 row to the right.  Hang cast on comb and weights.

          c.  Change the left set lever on the ribber carriage from 1 to 0.  Knit 1 row to

              the left.

          d.  Change the stitch dial on the main bed carriage from 0 to S and knit 1 row to

               the right.

          e.  Change the stitch dial on the main bed carriage back to 0 and knit 1 row to

               the left.   

2)  At Tension 2 on both carriages, change the stitch dial on the ribber carriage from 0

     to ‘the upside down U’ and knit 19 (21) rows ribbing.  End with COR.

3)  Transfer ribber stitches to the main bed.

4)  Lower ribber and remove CO comb and use claw weights hereafter.  

5)  Replace ribber arm with main carriage sinker plate.

6)  T-2, Knit 2 (3) rows.  Work eyelets on this row if desired.

     Make eyelets on needles (working from the L) 4, 12, 18, 24  (5, 13, 20, 26). 

     (….x…….x…...x…..x.…)

7)  Increase 1 stitch on right hand side of ‘0’ if necessary to make an even number

     of stitches on that side.   (Necessary for later heel shaping.)

8)  Knit 8 (9) more rows, (10 (12) total if not doing an eyelet row).  End with COR.

 

HEEL:

1)  Push all needles left of -0- to hold position, 14 (16) stitches in work.

2)  Make sure there are an even number of stitches in work.   Put machine on hold.

3)  * Push 1 needle on cam side to hold position.  K 1 row across.

4)  Repeat * until 6 needles rem in working position.  (Same # of stitches in hold on ea

     side). 

5)  Knit 1 row across. COR.

6)  ** Push 1 needle opposite side of cam back to working position, wrap needle next

     to the carriage, knit 1 row across.

7)  Repeat ** until all needles are in working position, COR.

8)  Take machine off hold.

 

FOOT & TOE:

1)  K 22 (24) rows.

2)  Decrease every other needle, move stitches togther and knit 2 rows across.

3)  Gather the live stitches with yarn and secure. 

 

FINISHING:  Sew ribbing and side seam.  Make a 2 stitch I-cord at T0 for 80 (90) rows or to desired length, about 16" –OR- use a narrow ribbon for tie.  Add pompoms or tassels at each end of the I-cord if desired. 

 

NOTE:  I have an earlier post showing how I sew up the English rib entitled 'Flat & Invisible Seam in English Rib', dated 1 Oct 2012 that will be virtually invisible.   (Click on the 'seams' label to the right.)

 

Team with a hat and/or blanket for a nice gift.

 

 

 

Ribbing Seam in Back of Socks

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After making many, many circular socks on my flatbed knitting machines with ribbers, I decided that I like the seam of the ribbing to go up the back of the leg better than on the side like most sock patterns call for.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the side seam but I don’t like looking at mismatched stripes or fairisle patterns if I don’t have to.  If they mismatch at the seam, someone else can look at them from the back.  ☺

Use whatever ribbing configuration you want but I’ve used a 1x1 in this example.  

I’m showing you 2 different methods of turning your ribbing.  The first is by scrapping off, the second is using a multi-pronged transfer tool, very similar to the Decker comb used on Passap machines.  Check out my post describing the transfer tool here.  http://slisen.blogspot.com/2013/02/diy-decker-comb-revisited.html.  I much prefer using the transfer tool but I used the scrapped off method until I was enlightened about the Decker comb.  It's a great time saver.

So here’s what I do.  

1.  After completing the ribbing, I end with the carriage on the left (COL).  But which side you end on is totally your call and dependent on your pattern; you’ll just have to change my instructions to be worked on the opposite side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Transfer all the main bed stitches to the corresponding needles onto the ribber bed.  (Increase or decrease stitches to make an even number, if necessary.)  At main body tension, knit 1 row across to the right hand side.  Lower the ribber bed one notch.  Remove ribber weights and cast on comb and replace with 4 claw weights, evenly spaced across your work.  

Now it’s time to do the math.  Divide your total number of stitches by 4.  The middle 2 forths (half) will remain on the ribber bed.  The outer forths will be turned and rehung onto the main bed in a tubular fashion.  For this example, I’ve cast on 70 sts in my ribbing but disregard that.  For sake of ease, let’s assume that I cast on 72 stitches.  Divided by 4, leaves me 36 center stitches in the center and 18 sts on each side.  For my 70 stitches, I would have 18 sts on one side, 35 in the middle and 17 sts on the other side.  Never fear, 1 stitch off center up the back will not be a deal breaker.  Just make sure to have the same number of stitches on each bed.

 

3.  This is the scrapping off method.  I prefer to scrap off by hand but you may use your machine if you like.  Just remember to put non-scrapped off  needles back into working position, take your carriage off hold and reset the part levers before resuming circular knitting for the ankle.  Some ribbers don’t like to knit by themselves so proceed with caution here if you choose to use your machine to scrap off on the ribber bed to make sure everything is knitting properly.  So firstly, select and raise the 18 sts up into hold position.

 

4.  Then, manually knit and scrap off the 18 stitches for at least 8-10 rows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.   Remove the stitches from the needles.  Turn and fold the scrapped off section between the beds and in front of the main bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

6.  Rehang the scrapped off stitches to corresponding open needles on the main bed.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Be sure to have a weight on your work.  Raise that side of the ribber up into working position and make sure the stitches on the ribber bed are still intact.  You may need to realign the needles on the edges a bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

8.  Remove the scrap yarn when transfer has been completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9.  Now we move to the other side with 18 sts that need to be removed from the ribber bed and transferred to the main bed.  You can scrap off as we did the other side but I’m going to show you how to use the multi-pronged transfer tool that I fondly call the Decker tool.   

With that side of the ribber bed still lowered, raise the 18 needles that need to be transferred and insert the prongs of the Decker tool into the needle hooks.  Keep slight upward pressure so your tool stays in place.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.  Do a quick inspection to make sure you have

a prong into each needle hook, raise up each latch, push down on the 18 needle butts to transfer the stitches to the Decker tool, making sure there is a stitch on each prong.  Slightly lower the Decker tool so it can easily be removed from the needles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.  With downward and backward pressure on the back bar of the tool, move the prongs of the Decker tool forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.  Place a Scunci hair band around the tool in front of the stitches.  A heavy rubber band works too but they’ve been known to break easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13.  Move the Decker tool with stitches intact and let it flop between the two beds.  Turn it so it forms a circular tube, pick up the back of the tool and lift it so it lies on top of the ribber and in front of the main bed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14.  Raise the ribber bed, remove the Scunci band and place the prongs of the Decker tool into open hooks of corresponding needles on the main bed.  Transfer the stitches to the main bed. This task is made a bit easier if you use your other hand to pull down a bit on the work between the beds.

 

 

 

 

 

15.  Note that the stitches meet in the center of the bed but the yarn is in the middle of your work now, so unravel the yarn tail back to the carriage.   

 

 

 16.  Place the yarn back in the carriage arm and set the carriages for circular knitting.  The yarn is coming off the ribber bed stitch, so the next row knit should be on the main bed.  So flip the right part lever up on the main carriage and the left part lever up on the ribber carriage.  Make sure your tension is set properly, the row counter at 000, weights are hung and knit away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I usually work a Bickford style seam to sew up the ribbing.  It's not totally invisible in a 1x1 configuration but it's not offensive either and gives a nice, flat seam with no bulk, as found in a mattress stitched seam.