Monday, April 24, 2006

Two socks (or sleeves) on two circular needles

It turns out that when I have a three-day migraine, I'm not smart enough to read directions on the internet. Then again, the directions weren't the clearest things I've seen. So, just in case someone else is trying to figure out the 2 socks on 2 circular needles or the 2 sleeves on 2 circular needles, I'll give you a quick runthrough using two different coloured needles and two different colours of yarn so you don't have to keep asking "you knit who with the what now?" If you don't care how to do this or already know how, just ignore this post.

I'll refer to my needles as wood and plastic (Denise), and I'm using red and yellow yarns (why yes, they are leftovers from a massive Gryffindor scarf). I'm sorry about the photo quality, but I took these when the sun wasn't really up yet, so I didn't have much light; they should be clear enough to show what I'm doing. They're all shown in small-size here, but you can click on them for a larger version.

This tutorial shows how to cast on two tubes on your two needles. Just for clarity, I'll repeat the steps with my needles/yarn:

  1. Cast on all red stitches (for first tube) onto the plastic needle.

  2. Slip half of the red stitches to the wood needle.

  3. Push these stitches to the other end of the needles.

  4. On the same side as in step 1, cast on all yellow stitches (for second tube) onto the plastic needle.

  5. On the same side as in step 2, slip half of the yellow stitches onto the wood needle.



Now, to knit the tubes. There is a tutorial for this, but I found it unclear until I figured out what the heck I was doing. Then again, this might have had something to do with the migraine, but I hope these pictures will get the point across more clearly. (Then I'd check back with the other tutorial, because she has a lot of tips in there.) The big idea is this: switch yarn, then switch needles, then switch yarn, then switch needles. It's kinda like the KP-PK mantra for Kitchener stitch. Whenever you're knitting with one needle, just ignore the other one (leave the stitches on the cord).

  1. So, we start with the red tube. Knit the red stitches with the plastic needle,

    ending up in between the red and the yellow stitches.

  2. Switch yarns: knit the yellow stitches with the plastic needle.

  3. Switch needles: knit the yellow stitches with the wood needle.

  4. Switch yarns: knit the red stitches with the wood needle.


There, now you've completed a round on both tubes.

Keep doing that until you're bored. (Don't forget to pull your yarn snug every time you switch yarns or needles, so you don't end up with a ladder!) Good luck!

1 comment:

  1. Very nice job with your 2 circ tutorial. My sympathies to you on the migraine and happy birthday.

    ReplyDelete