Ladder along gusset of socks

I’ve knitted several pairs of socks and have noticed that along the left side of the gusset on every pair I have a “ladder”. It happens between the K1 and SSK stitches. On some pairs it’s not as noticeable, but on others it’s just awful. I searched all over last night trying to find a solution, but so far have come across nothing.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

The only think I can think is that you might not being knitting the first stitch of each needle tightly enough. :?

Hope that helps…

:?? I see you’re not having that problem on the rest of the sock. It must have something to do with your decrease not being worked tight enough. I had that happen when working a decrease at the very beginning of a new needle. Wasn’t a problem doing the decrease at the end of a needle, just at the beginning, for me anyway. Because you already have to work it tight, being on a new needle as EK is referring to, but then you’ve got even more of a potential gap, due to the decrease. You need to tighten the stitch as if it’s stretching to the second stitch on the new needle, because really that’s what it has to do, when you’ve decreased the first stitch. Hope that makes sense! :??

Was the decrease being worked at the beginning of a needle by any chance? That would definitely increase the likelihood of it happening; in which case you just need to tighten up that decrease in this circumstance. If it’s not at the beginning of a needle, it must just be the way you’re working the decrease in general, and you need to be conscious of tightening it up in general.

Hope that helps!
Amy

P.S.

You might be able to fix it on those existing socks, by redistributing the yarn on those rows, by tugging on that stitch to tighten it, then tugging on the adjacent stitch to move the slack over, and then the next stitch, etc, to distribute the slack over several stitches.

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The decreases are at the beginning of a new needle. The last sock I did I tried to tighten up those stitches, and it did help some. I’m going to start another pair in the next couple of days, and this time I’m really going to pay attention to that trouble spot.

I’m also going to see if I can fix the existing problem socks with your suggestion Amy.

Thanks both of you for your help!

Aha! Then that’s got to be it! Yeah, I guess you really have to work that decrease extra tight in that situation. If you’re a tight knitter to begin with, this might be part of the challenge, to get that stitch “extra” tight would mean to REALLY tighten it.

Good luck!

Ahh, reviving an old post from the dead…
I’m having the exact same problem–my holes/ladders are in the same place as on pixie’s sock. However, where my holes/ladders appear is where I picked up stitches. I noticed as I was picking up the stitches that the number the pattern called for seemd like too few stitches to pick up if I didn’t want holes/ladders in my oh so stretchy Cascade Fixation yarn. I would post a picture but I’m at work, but again, my holes/ladders are in the exact same spot as in the above picture. If it were just a beginning of the needle thing, you can slip some stitched onto the other needle and knit them to prevent that jump between needles, and then just slip them back to where they’re supposed to be.
My question, however, is this: Would it harm anything to pick up more stitches than what a pattern tells you to? I know that if I had picked up more stitches, I would not have had this gap. Would doing that change the size or shape of the knitted item?

For what it’s worth, I ALWAYS pick up more stitches on a sock gusset than the pattern requires and I find this helps elimante holes quite nicely.

Most patterns will call for you to pick up just the slipped stitches from the heel flap. If you do this, you’ll definitely end up with holes along your gusset (at least that’s what I find with my knitting).

Some people also recommend that you swap down a needle size when picking up those gusset stitches and then switching back to your normal needle size to continue the gusset. This is also supposed to help with the holes.

I get this too and sometimes worse than others. It’s not in picking up stitches but in the decease along gusset. I’ve been trying to pay attention on that left side and it is somewhat better. I think removing marker helps too.

I assume you are talking about a classically formed heel gusset flap & not short rowed heel?

I had that problem. Even giving the yarn an extra tug when I changed needles. I solved it by simply slipping the first stitch on the new needle & then on the next row making a new stitch from the slack yarn behind the stitch at that point. That is taking the yarn that is behind the slipped stitch through the stitch (still on left needle) & then slipping that one. The new stitch is the ‘slipped stitch’ for that row. It really snugs it up.

On the gusset part you are often increasing (half moon shape right under the heel) or decreasing at that point so it is possible you could be dealing with two stitches. But it is clear enough, I think.

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