This is amazing, i stumbled across a picture on flickr and eventually was led to this blog:
http://big-sock.blogspot.com/
They’re trying to knit a new world record, The largest hand knitted sock. The blog says that they have to knit 4 meters of sock before they can turn the heel.
You have to see the pictures… its INSANE!! they’ve been knitting for just over a year already!!
here is a quick youtube video which seems to be the latest pics of it:
Cool!
I wonder how they’re doing it, exactly. At first they said they wanted to create the largest circularly knit… thing… but in the videos and pics it looks like they have multiple knitters working on the sock at one time.
So it seems to me they’d be working in sections, right? And kind of joining them on either end in a sort of faux intarsia-style?
So that would be knit flat, really, right? Lots of individual flat sections being joined at the beginning and end of each row to create a round…
Four meters. Boggles the mind. :oo:
Wonder if they’ll make a matching 2nd sock? :roflhard:
Well that would be the best excuse for Second Sock Syndrome I’ve seen!!!
I still can’t figure out how they’re doing it. The blog sort of explains casting on, but I can’t envision how it’s worked and connected.
Someone posted about this last month and I didn’t get it then either. I can’t figure out why they want to expend so much time and energy and resources on something so unusable.
they are not working in sections, they are spiral knitting.
try it at home.
take a set 5 dpn’s cast on and make some ribbing
then take 3 more balls of yarn
Knit needle 1 with Yarn A (cast on yarn)
knit needle 2 with yarn B (drop yarn A at end of Needle1,)
knit needle 3 with yarn C (drop yarn Bat end of Needle2,)
knit needle 4with yarn D (drop yarn C at end of Needle3,)
you’ve knit 1 round.
Now you are back to needle 1 (and there is no yarn available to knit with except yarn D (at the end of Needle 4.)
Knit needle 1 with Yarn D
At the end of Needle 1, there are 2 yarn–D that you just used, and A from previous round. Drop Yarn D
knit needle 2 with yarn A
At the end of Needle 2, there are 2 yarn–A that you just used, and B from previous round. (Drop Yarn A)
knit needle 3 with yarn B
At the end of Needle 3, there are 2 yarn–B that you just used, and C from previous round. (Drop Yarn b)
knit needle 4with yarn C
At the end of Needle 4 is NO YARN Except C and you have just completed round 2–
start round 3 with yarn C, (d, a, end wtih B
start round 4 with B (c, d, and end with A)
Round 5 starts with A (it take 4 ‘rounds for yarn A to work
’round’ to being in the starting position!)
(its sound harder than it is…)
you get spirals of color, and no jogs, (and no really 'carries" of yarn either)
continue this way, and you can make a sock out of 4 mini balls of yarn-- (or you could make a tubular scarf, or a hat, or anything knit in the round.
to go a big sock, sub Circular needles for the DPN. (and think about it, circ’s are DPN’s!)
assign 1 knitter to each Circular needle.
Knit with not a set of 4 DPN’s but a set of 8 (circular needles being used as DPN’s)
(you can use any number, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… but even number are easier (and if you are making an ‘8 hand shawl’ (knit in the round, with 8 increases every other round, 4 or 8 knitters/needles make it easier to keep track of pattern!)
use 8 balls of yarn --1 ball of yarn for each knitter/needle.
i suggested in the 'try it" --each circ has its own ball of yarn, and the yarn moves round and round.
(but since 8 knitters are working at once, as knitter 1 finished stitches on Needle 1, (with yarn A!) Knitter 8 is also finishing stitches on Needle 8 (with yarn H!)
and knitter 1 can start to knit the stitches on her ‘needle’ with yarn H! It would take 8 round for Yarn A to come back to Knitter 1
this won’t make sense if you don’t understand the spiral part with 4 DPN’s! (which is why i say try it!)
here is an image of socks made with 4 solid colors of yarn
(white/yellow/green/blue) knit spiral. (for a image of finished sock find link on my blog to sock album (page 5 of album!)
Hey, thanks for sharing that technique!
I like the results. Looks like a variegated yarn, only you have control over the striping. 
yes, and you can use up lots of bits and ends and make a sock of many colors… and even combine spiral rows (X) with a single yarn bunch of rows (say a varigated yarn) and end up with jacob’s coat of many colors (matching socks!)
Its easiest to learn with stitches on 5 dpns/4 yarns… but once you get it… you could have more (or fewer!) yarns…
and you can knit shawls this way (knit in round, with 4 or more knitters… and many yarns… its a fun thing to do at a knit out…
(1 person starts, at some point (when its big enough) 3 join in (with needles and yarns… when it gets a bit bigger, add more needles and yarns… --its starts a bit cramped (every one is pretty close together) but every round becomes more relaxed!)
every one who can knit can join in and do a row…
The pattern is similar to the ones used to knit circular spiral arm wash cloths–
with 8 knitters/8 balls of yarn/8 circ’s. the pattern is
R1: K1, YO, knit remaining stitches
R2 Knit every stitch
to make a lacier shawl, Knitters 1, 3, 5, 7 follow simple pattern
Knitters 2,4,6,8 knit a more complex pattern:
R1: K1, YO, *K2tog, YO, (repeat till 1 or 2 stitches remain (do not end row with YO.))
R2: Knit every stitch
this can be a fun shawl to knit!
Thanks for explaining that! I wasn’t getting it at all until I read your post. :teehee: I agree there isn’t much point to the sock but if they can use it to raise money for charity, and then maybe frog it when they are done to reuse the yarn? Otherwise it does seem like an incredible waste of yarn. :chair: