What is your favorite sock knitting method?

JaimeG wrote

on Aug 30, 2010 9:26 AM

How many ways can you knit a sock? More than you might think! There are at least nine different ways to shape heels and seven ways to shape toes. You can knit socks from the toe up, the cuff down, two at once or one at a time, with the heel and instep knitted separately, on short circular needles, one long circular needle, two circular needles, or using traditional sets of four or five double-pointed needles.

What is your favorite sock knitting method. Answer our quick poll right here.

Elaine Homestead wrote

on Jan 8, 2011 12:21 PM

JaimeG,

Are there videos out there that show toe-up socks on circular needles??? There are plenty of videos for toe-up socks on dpn.

Elaine

Zoe wrote

on Jan 8, 2011 1:28 PM

Elaine Homestead:

Are there videos out there that show toe-up socks on circular needles???

Hi Elaine,

There are thousands of sites about this.  Some have videos and others just explanations with photos.  I just typed in the words "toe up socks circular needles" into my web browser/search engine.  There are far too many for me to even begin listing them so I thought I would just tell you how I got the results.  (I thought we had covered this topic on the SOCKS thread??)

Good luck with this and happy knitting, Zoe

Tephra wrote

on Jan 9, 2011 1:01 PM

The poll has insufficient options, it should have had:

Cuff down, one at a time, DPNs

Cuff down, two at a time, DPNs

Cuff down, one at a time, short circular

Cuff down, two at a time, short circular

Cuff down, one at a time, 2 circulars

Cuff down, two at a time, 2 circulars

Cuff down, one at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)

Cuff down, two at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)

Toe up, one at a time, DPNs

Toe up, two at a time, DPNs

Toe up, one at a time, short circular

Toe up, two at a time, short circular

Toe up, one at a time, 2 circulars

Toe up, two at a time, 2 circulars

Toe up, one at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)

Toe up, two at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)

And that doesn't even get into the odd constructions of heel out and instep out. :) And the two circular and magic loop "two at a time" entries could be split into "side by side" and "nested" as well.

I tend toward "Toe up, two at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)" (side by side) though I voted toe up on DPNs since that is how I generally do single socks when for some reason I'm not doing both socks of the pair at once.

Grace Bj wrote

on Jan 9, 2011 5:50 PM

Tephra:

I tend toward "Toe up, two at a time, long circular (Magic Loop)" (side by side) though I voted toe up on DPNs since that is how I generally do single socks when for some reason I'm not doing both socks of the pair at once.

Hi Tephra,

I love doing cuff down on dpns (5).  I started out knitting socks on dpns about 40 years ago.  Mom taught me (I am over at Mom's right now so her avatar comes up).  There is always a pair of socks on the go on my needles.  I totally agree that there should be a lot more options than the ones given.

Happy knitting, Zoe

Tephra wrote

on Jan 9, 2011 6:55 PM

Grace Bj:

I love doing cuff down on dpns (5).  I started out knitting socks on dpns about 40 years ago.  Mom taught me (I am over at Mom's right now so her avatar comes up).  There is always a pair of socks on the go on my needles.  I totally agree that there should be a lot more options than the ones given.

I love knitting on DPNs, I use them for doll clothing a lot. The reason I knit socks two at a time on a circular is entirely due to getting very bored after I finish one sock and putting off knitting the other. I'd do the two at a time on DPNs thing (you can see how here at Knitty if you don't know it) but I just know I'd end up knitting them together at some point since you're knitting one inside the other.

Anne Merrow wrote

on Jan 10, 2011 11:09 AM

Tephra:

The reason I knit socks two at a time on a circular is entirely due to getting very bored after I finish one sock and putting off knitting the other.  

I do the same thing--plus it saves me from making socks of two different lengths!