I know everyone is excited to start on their scrappy, helical socks. Let’s see what scraps you have gathered for your April socks.
April 2021
Theme: Helical knitting
This month will be a chance to learn something new. We will be discovering helical knitting to create blended socks using yarn scraps.
Color: Scraps of any color. Use up bits and pieces of yarn you have left over from other projects. Be sure to take a picture of the scraps you use in your socks (not your whole stash) before you use them. It’s fun to see how the colors blend together.
This month’s prize is an Original PurlgirlButtons Sock-it! Bag, donated by PurlgirlButtons. The bag is 100% cotton tie dyed by PurlGirlButtons with Dharma wash fast fiber reactive dyes. Dimensions of the bag are 9" H x 9"W at top x 4" deep and it comes with a small carabiner clip. Thank you PurlGirlButtons for donating such a beautiful project bag.
My scraps. I had used these three colors for short cut socks so I still have plenty leftover. I divided them in half and this is one sock’s worth. I think I have enough to make a full height cuff sock. If not, I have some more blue yarn I could blend in.
I did confess on our Zoom call today that I have started on my scrappy socks. It’s not cheating! I didn’t have any other knitting projects to keep me busy. I won’t be able to post my first finished sock as a prize entry but as long as I do my other sock in April, I can post finished pair, theme and color.
Here is my Scrappy Stash and the Ugly Sock Yarn that I dyed in order to pull it all together. Not that Scrappy socks have to look pulled together…I haven’t made a final decision!
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@PurlgirlButtons - I’m frogging my sock so it turns out it was just a practice run. I’ve never done helical knitting so I followed the directions (or at least I thought I did) of one video I watched. The video did say not to twist different strands together. It said just pick up the next strand and go. I ended up catching floats to carry the strand but that left funny marks on the front.
So, I watched a different video. This technique has you divide your sock in thirds. Knit the first third with one color, add a second color and knit next 1/3, add third color and knit remaining third. After that, you just pick up the new strand when you get to it and start knitting, dropping the previous strand. This seems like a better technique.
The way described about dropping and picking up the next one sounds right, there is no need to twist because if you just give a tiny tug, it should be fine.
This looks like fun! I’ve made a couple of Helix hats which was a neat way of using up scraps. I’ll see what I have in the way of sock scraps, we know there are scraps
The problem with this method is that you are supposed to advance three stitches forward from you last change. With three colors, that means the color I want to use is 6 stitches back. I captured it and floated it forward but that left this trail inside and you could see it on the front. I like the technique I linked that has you start the three colors in different places. That will be much easier.
I’m trying to remember where I learned the technique I used in the baby hats if you remember from our hat making marathon. It’s very uncomplicated and you don’t advance any stitches or knit below or anything, you just pick up the color when you come to it. It’s actually important that you DON’T twist the yarns and you never carry along more than one color at a time - not even for one stitch… I learned on hats but if you recall I used it on socks a couple of months ago as well. It is applicable to however many colors you are using. I’ll see if I saved the video in my craft videos on youtube but it was several years ago so I don’t know if I can find it.
I found the one I learned from i think… I know I’ve seen others on the same technique but this one was pretty clear to me. I’m pretty sure I found that VeryPinkKnits had a video on this method too and, of course, hers are always very clear and understandable. And she makes an important point in saying that for the first few rounds you’ll think it doesn’t look right but if you keep going after a few more roundd it suddenly looks great. It’s the strangest thing! https://youtu.be/yMvRafcvTvM
ETA VPK video:. https://youtu.be/wm4TPNwaOKw
@lovestostitch and i had a conversation about the helix techniques because she frogged her first sock starts. I tried two ways,
CO 36, knit 1 whole row of pink, then 12 more pinkstitches, added the red for 12 stitches and then the green for 24 stitches, then picked up the pink where the red started for 12 stitches, then the red for 24 stitches, then picked up the green for 12 stitches. The rows all came out in order from the start, however the pink looks wonky at the cast-on edge in picture 1 (I didn’t weave the end in yet, though)
Cast on and knit two rows of teal, added the mint at the start of the round and knit 15, added the dark blue, and knit 15. This is where it went wonky because I was back at the beginning but if I picked up the teal it would have been out of order, so I kept knitting with the dark blue until i got to the mint. somehow it magically got in the right order.
I have come to one conclusion. I am only going to use 2 colors at a time!!!
@PurlgirlButtons On our Zoom chat today, PurlgirlButtons and I were discussing how to set up for helical knitting with three colors. I had previously watched a video and made an attempt to do the Helical with three colors. I divided my sock in thirds. So for 60 stitches I put markers at the beginning of the round, at 20 stitches and 40 stitches. I had knit the cuff in one of my three colors so I used that yarn as my first color. I placed marker #1 at the beginning of the round and I knit the first 20 stitches in that yarn. At marker #2, I added yarn #2. I knit to marker #3. At marker #3, I added yarn #3. What I discovered is this doesn’t work as you get to a spot on each round where you have to knit double the stitches. It was very hard to describe so I made a diagram to explain it.
We have a blue yarn, orange yarn and purple yarn in the three positions. (Diagram #1). We take the blue yarn from the start and knit to the second marker (diagram #2). We now pick up the orange yarn and leave the blue behind. We knit to the 3rd marker. Look ahead. There is no yarn waiting at marker #1. Solution - next post.
When I say this is a solution, I want to clarify that I am brand new to Helical knitting and there may be some other way to do this. I just know that dividing it in thirds didn’t work. Dividing it in half does work.
If you use the yarn from your cuff as yarn #1, you can either add yarn #2 at the start or the end. The effect will be the same. Let’s say you add #2 at the start. You knit half the stitches. Add in yarn #3. Knit with yarn #3 back to the beginning. Yarn #1 is waiting for you. If you look at the diagram, you can see you always have a yarn waiting for you.
I was busy typing my posts while you posted so I hadn’t seen yours. Please look at my diagrams. I will post a picture later of what it looks like. I have to knit some more to make it show up well.
I divide mine into 3 or 4 sections all the time. Not sure where the problem is arising for you. Bear in mind that when you knit past the beginning of round each round, you don’t change colors there. Did you watch the video from Very Pink Knits? She explains it better than I could. I am getting sleepy and don’t have the brain power to make sense of the drawings but I’ll look in the morning.
This is a 3 color hat I made using the technique as in the videos I linked up above. It is hard to make sense of at first but if you go on with it, it comes right. Make sure you only change colors when you come to the next dropped strand. You will go past the beginning of round WITHOUT changing colors. You never carry along a second color at any point. I’ll show the inside of the hat too in case that helps in any way.
I watched verypink’s explanation and she does clarify that when you come back to your starting point (on every round), you will not have a yarn waiting for you and you will need to knit two sections with the same yarn. This means you would set it up as I described in post #8 and you will expect to do two sections with one yarn.
Two of the three yarns I’m using have drastic color changes so I won’t be getting a striped look and it’s why I couldn’t tell if my first attempt was right or wrong.
This is what I’ve gotten from doing it with dividing the sock in half and switching yarns at each half. I’ve invented a new blender method! I’m showing you both sides since the color changes are so different. I think I’m going to finish sock #1 like this and then try sock #2 with verypink’s method and see if they look different.
I really like how they are blending, though! I will probably start tonight and put my handspun sock on hold now that I’ve turned the heel. ( it’s so fun to look at, it will be difficult!)
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I won’t be able to post my first finished sock as a prize entry but as long as I do my other sock in April, I can post finished pair, theme and color.
