Knitting Two Socks at One Time

You have gotten into the rhythm of knitting two socks at one time working across ½ of 1st sock, ½ of 2nd sock, turning work, working across other ½ of 2nd sock, last ½ of 1st sock.

Now, what to do about the heel??? Your stitches are divided, all the instep stitches are on one side and the all the heel stitches are on the other. And just like when you are knitting a single sock, you will ignore the instep stitches until you have completed the heel flap.

Work back and forth on the first sock to complete the heel flap and heel turn and pickup gusset stitches on one side before moving on to the other sock.

After completing the heel flap and picking up one side of the gusset stitches on the first sock, move to the 2nd sock and work the heel flap, heel turn and pick up gusset stitches on one side. Turn your work. Knit across the instep stitches of sock 2 and then sock 1. Turn your work again and pick up and knit the stitches for the other side of the gusset on the heel needle for sock 1. Knit across stitches on heel needle. Do the same for sock 2, picking up the gusset stitches and knitting across heel.

There will be a lot of stitches on the heel side but only for a short while. Work your heel as you would a single sock. After picking up all the gusset stitches, knit one round plain (heel and instep stitches) and then begin your gusset decreases as usual - you will do your gusset decreases on the heel needle (K2tog on one side, SSK on the other) until there are the same number of stitches as on the instep needle.

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Have you tried the new Addi Turbo Lace Needles. Not being a lace knitter, I didn’t think I would have any interest in using them. But AHA! Had the opportunity to try them when knitting the Swirl Shawl with Melody yarn and found that I like the long points. Wonder how they would work for sock knitting…well they’re great for that too. That extra pointy tip is really good for the fingering weight yarn used in socks also. Picking up stitches along the gusset, not a snap, but a little easier.

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 For SoXperience this year, one of the classes was an original sock pattern from Edie Eckman. She incorporated a crochet motif into the pattern, beginning our socks as usual and then adding the motif (which we completed in the morning class) as we went along.

Not being a skilled crocheter, I cheated and had my flower motifs made for me! (isn’t that just awful? But I really would still be working on that thing now as we speak!) It worked up rather quickly and it was exciting to fit this squarish lacey flower thingy into my sock. I’m excited to see what the results will be, once I’m done.

To give you the details. . .the yarn is Claudia’s Handpaints - Blue Ridge Blue, and the solid is a coordinating color from Claudia. Another fun tidbit from SoXperience - mom tries to feature local businesses and people - Claudia is from Harrisonburg - just over the mountain from the farm - I’ve used her yarn before and it’s wonderful to work with!
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Knitting Two Socks on One Needle

When we finished with the last post illustrating knitting two socks at one time, we had all the stitches cast on the Addi Turbo needles. Next we need to knit across the first sock, drop the yarn from that ball, knit across the second sock, turn your work, knit across the other side of the second sock and knit across the other side of the first sock. The socks can get pesky at this point, trying to flip around, so that you are looking at the yarn on the needles wondering which end is up and where do I knit now?

 Look at these photos to help you with the sequence of knitting the stitches. 

• Knit across sock one
• Drop that yarn

• Pick up the yarn from the other ball 
• Knit across sock two.

• Turn your work,
• Knit the rest of the way across sock two,
• Drop your yarn, pick up yarn from sock one,
• Knit across sock one.

Now you have finished one round on each of the socks. You could try this once or twice just to familiarize yourself with the flow of knitting across and turning your work. Otherwise, you should be doing the ribbing, K1 P1, or whatever ribbing you desire. On such a small sock, K1 P1, seems the best. A rib of K1 P1 has the greatest amount of draw-in as described by Ann Budd in her book, Knitting Socks. She likes to actually work a K3, P1 which she says gives the look of plain stockinette knitting, but still flexible. For me, on an adult sock, I like the K2, P2 rib. Everyone develops a favorite.

Here is the ribbing of the two socks

as it appears on the one set of Addi Turbo needles. I like to continue the ribbing down the front of sock onto the top of the foot. It makes for a nice fit.

See that little blue safety pin type dealy. Those are nice to put on your socks when you first are doing the rib. They keep your stitches from twisting all around the needles. I only have one left on here because I needed the other for another pair of socks, of course.)

The next installment will be the heel of the two socks on one needle. Stay tuned!

Summer, now you see it, now you don’t. Knitting projects that have been languishing for months, waiting for summer and all its free time. What happened? There’s the shrug out of Grace yarn started, embarrassingly, last summer for a quick project. And then there is the moebius out of Interlacements Toasty Toes yarn, the Swirl Shawl out of Melody, the socks out of everything it seems. Someone asked me when I joined Ravelry whether I was going to put my stash on. Well, that could mean the shop. It is thoroughly decadent to have a yarn shop at your disposal and perfectly understandable why I have so many ongoing projects. The actual size of this “works in progress” is clear when everything has to be gathered up into a VERY large bag (make that TWO bags) and stored away when the grandchildren come. You definitely don’t want them skewered by a knitting needle while leaping from the couch. (Yes, sorry, Sarah, Melissa and Christian, your children do do that when they are here.)

Back to projects, I dearly love to knit two socks at one time. When you’re finished, you’re finished. No second sock to knit! The last ones finished were out of Tofutsies yarn for baby Caroline. A little pressure there because her Mom says her feet are growing faster than she is and they might not fit. Picked out this lovely girly color (#785) for the grandbaby and off we go. I used the Addi Turbo 40″ size 3 (probably would have used a size 2 for adult socks, but the baby is not gonna be walking in these) and the Ann Norling pattern Baby & Kids Socks (#26).

For the cast on, cast on half the stitches of
sock #1(which would be 20) and all the stitches of sock #2 (40 sts).  

Slide all the stitches onto the cable of the needle.On sock #2, the one that you cast on all the stitches, count off half the stitches (that would be 20) and pull the cable through these stitches making sure you don’t crimp the cable.

So now you have half the stitches of sock #2 on one needle and the other half of #2 plus half the first sock on the other needle.

  Now cast on the rest of your stitches for sock #1 on the needle. This is the awkward part. Now you have your needles set up with half of sock #1, half of sock #2 on one needle and the other half of each on the other needle.

That’s enough to absorb for today. Check back for the next installment.

in the meantime use our coupon and save a $1.00 on each ball of Tofutsies yarn. Just enter blog1 in the coupon box on your order form. This coupon expires on August 26th. The fine print says this is not in addition to any other sale that you might be taking advantage of. Thanks!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Carodan Farm Blog.

We have so much information to share on knitting tips, techniques, yarns, not to mention our sheep and farm, that we decided to start our very own blog. We plan to include all that, plus the projects we are working on - knitting projects from our daughters, Sarah and Melissa, and myself, Caroline, as well as from our knitting buddies Michelle, Debbie and Gerry. You’ll see them all here along with our comments, suggestions.

New yarns and books are arriving all the time, and you’ll get news of them here before they even hit the store. Featured products will make you aware of different aspects of our store. And of course there’ll be the special coupons just for our blog audience. And last but not least, your input will round it out to perfection. We learn from each other the best. So, here we go into this new phase of Carodan Farm knitting! Hope to see you here!