I am starting the same argyle sock for the third time. They keep not being stretchy, because the yarn I am carrying is pulled too tight. How do I keep it looser? Thank you in advance for all your suggestions.
How to carry a color without pulling tight
I would suggest trying to more consciously give some slack to your carried stitches Also try to stretch the stitches a little out as you knit a row. Don’t let them bunch up.
I don’t make socks but I’ve seen that some people make them inside out, the carried strand out the outside has a longer distance to travel between each stitch making them more evenly tensioned.
Have you tried going a needle size up? When I work stranded colours I need a larger needle to get the gauge right.
Try knitting inside out, it gives the floats a little more room.
There’s a few youtubes about it.
Aren’t argyle patterns usually created with intarsia rather than stranding?
Edited to add: Could you tell us which pattern you are using?
I think I will try the inside out technique. I will post again to say how it worked.
Yes, but intarsia in the round is difficult.
I’m sorry my question was unclear.
I was wondering whether it was a traditional argyle pattern, which would need to be done in intarsia, or whether it was an argyle pattern expressed as stranded motifs.
(It’s possible to attempt an intarsia pattern with stranding by mistake, and that could lead to inappropriately long floats, which would make the sock tight.)
I wasn’t suggesting that the person asking the question should knit intarsia in the round.
I would love to know the pattern being used, because I would like to do a stranded argyle pattern and haven’t seen one before.
Anyway, sorry again that this wasn’t clear.
I would love to know which pattern you are using. I haven’t seen a nice stranded argyle pattern for socks and would love to make some.
Could this be a suitable project for the ladderback jaquard technique?
@keira_knitly has just posted about this which is what has brought it to mind. I don’t do ladderback, or socks, or argyle… but maybe this is something to look into as an option for this sock problem.