Hi! My son wants me to knit a tube sock for his canoe paddle. I’ve never knitted a tube sock, and this one seems to need some decreasing since the bottom of the paddle is narrower. Could anybody please share a pattern with me(ideally a fair isle one)?
Thanks!!!
L.:knitting:
Hi!
will that cover the top of the paddle? The blade, I mean?
Then it will need to be taken off for paddeling and will only be a pretty cover for transport and storage?
In that case you can not just decrease on a tube. You could not slide it on or off. you might have to make something open on the side of the decrease.
I do not know if there are ready-made patterns for this.
But I would surely help design one.
(Do you knit continental? Do you weave in your strands in fair isle? That is my pet-project at the moment, that is why).
this would be my proposal, measurements I do not have and no stitch count of course.
But maybe you can design a fair ilse pattern that has his name or the club or team name, anything like that? A team logo?
How big around is the handle?
How long is the handle?
How long is the shaft between the handle and the blade?
How big around it the blade?
How long is the blade?
What is the gauge (stitches and rows) for the yarn you ar using?
Thanks for the comments and great picture! He wants something just for the blade, so my idea was to rib the whole thing. The idea of his name in fair isle is great! (I weave in my strands in fair isle).
I\ll start working on it and see how it goes.
Thanks again!
ps: I’m still too green on how to use this site, so my apologies if I did not follow exactly the etiquette.:woot:
I just want the “sock” for the blade, starting at the widest part (15 cm), to the bottom rounded part (7 cm). The lenth of that section is 47 cm.
The gauge in ribbing (2 purl, 2 knit) I was planning to use for it- but I am open to other suggestions - is:
20 atitches, 16 rows = 7 cm wide, 8 cm long.
Any suggestions are welcome!! Thanks!!
your sock shall be 15 cm wide, tapering down to 7 cm wide (I do not know at what point the tapering starts) and 47 cm long.
20 stitches in ribbing are 7 cm.
so if the ribbing will run lengthwise then you need 15 cm / 7 cm is 2.15
that means you need 43 stitches. But make it 44 to work the ribbing correctly.
Do you want to knit a tube?
then you could start with a figure 8 cast on (you will have no seam on top.) Youtube has videos on different methods for that.
or you can knit flat and sew up top and side in the end.
If you knit flat, you should make the work wider (46 stitches) and start and end with k2 that you sew up in the end, making one stitch on each side disappear in matress stitch. Then you have perfect ribbing all around. (I find it much easier to connect right side stochinette to itself, than to attach right side st st to wrong side st st.)
you knit down the paddle until you have the length of the straight part of the paddle. Then you begin decreases or bind-off on the side. (But I would prefer decreases).
Oh yeah, nice extra: you can change to noticably smaller needles for the bottom ribbing. That saves you some decreases because the knitting gets smaller on its own. And that gives more “spring” to the knitting where it needs to fit tightly.
that seems like a very do-able thing to make.
Just fair isle in ribbing… that is not so easy 
Thank you!!! I’m starting right now…
Hi! :waving:
Why could you not just knit a big tube sock? And then decrease only a few rows at the bottom where the paddle narrows (just like you decrease for the toes in a sock) . Workiing in the round, just cast on the number of stitches you’d need for the widest part, start at the “cuff” and knit several inches of ribbing.
When you’ve got enough ribbing (which will hug the handle) then just knit the rest in stockinette stitch with your fair isle pattern, make some decreases evenly around for about the last ten rows and at the end graft the bottom stitches together with kitchner stitch.
It should pull up over the bottom and hug the handle, just like a tube sock will pull up over the wider foot and the ribbing will hug the smaller diameter ankle. If you need the “neck” a little tighter, threading some round elastic through the stitches at the top should help hold the “sock” in place. Just make sure that it will stretch enough to go over the bottom.
Am I oversimplifying this? Let me know!
Good luck,
Ruthie