i’m learning double pointed needles to start working on socks and as i go along i can see a “seam” of where each pair of needles meet. i’ve tried pulling the string tight enough that i worried about it breaking and i’ve left it loose enough that i might as well just not held it at all, but i still get that infernal “seam”. is there some trick i’m not getting or are my socks doomed to have seams?
Yep, it’s called ladders and is very frustrating. For some people, the problem somehow resolves itself with enough practice. Personally, I never found that working those stitches tighter or looser made any difference. Then I read this tip: When you reach the end of a needle, before you take your empty needle to start the next one, continue on with the same needle that you just finished knitting onto and use that needle to knit the first 1 or 2 stitches on the next needle. Then take your empty needle and finish the rest of those stitches with the empty needle. When you reach the end of that one, do the same thing as above. This rotates the ‘join’ stitches around the sock so they aren’t all in the same column and it actually eliminates the ladders problem, believe me!! The only thing that is VERY important is that you place a marker where your beginning of round is, because that will rotate too.
Hope this helps.
sounds like a good idea, have you tried doing the first couple stitches, then slipping them onto the empty needle and continue knitting like that? that way you don’t rotate your starting point. i’ll just have to experiment with it. thanks for the help and have fun. :cheering:
[color=indigo]I’ve been making Christmas stockings this week and have found if I knit the first stitch on the new needle, then insert the new needle into the second stitch and give a yank before finishing the second stitch, it tightens up the gap between the last stitch on the old needle and the first stitch on the new needle very nicely. This technique works very well on st st but not so hot on ribbing. [/color] :??
i went a bit farther with that, i’d make the last stitch tight enough that the yarn creaked and threatened to break, and then made the first stitch on the new needle just as tight, and kept the two needles butted up against eachother while i did it. i did try that rotating starting point thing and it’s working well. i went with stealing 2 stitches from the next needle that way i’d have one that is set well the other can be sacrificed to the ladder.