| The First Socks | | |
| The First Socks -- Easy to knit, Comfortable to Put on. | ||
On the tail end of the Kitchener stitches, bind the new working yarn on. Come to the ready as shown below.
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As shown the picture above, insert the needle very near of the tied yarn, over the working yarn, and drag it out. It makes one stitch on the needle. This method is called 'picking up stitch'. It is common to use thin needle which is used picking up the stitches. On occasion, you tend to continue knitting with the same thin needle at fault. So, you can start to pick the stitches up with the same size needle to avoid the risk. Anyway, you have to keep attention not to make the stitches loose. And you have to always insert the needle along the same distance from the edge of the fabric. The edge stitches curl to wrong-side and they don't look like complete stitches but like half stitches.
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Pick up 14 stitches(17 stitches) from 18 rows(22 rows) fabric. This means you have to skip the row sometimes.
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At the end of back and forth fabric, insert the needle from back of the sinker loop, and make a twisted loop as shown above. You can use a crochet hook to support it.
Then, put the stitches on a holder back to a needle. Knit on the first stitch with the first needle(#1). Knit next stitch with the next needle(#2). Continue knitting until the last stitch. Even you pick up the stitches with thin needle, you have to use the usual needle as (#1)
After all stitches picked up, count the stitches on the needles. 16 stitches(19 stitches) are on #1 and #3, 20 stitches(24 stitches) on #2. If you work with a circular needle(or two circular needles), place the markers at the blue arrows.
Restart circular knitting. On the first round, knit until the last 2 stitches remain and knit 2 stitches together. Knit all on #2 needle. Slip knitwise the first stitch on #3, and slip next stitch knitwise again. Knit on the two stitches together. Knit all stitches. On the second round, knit all. Repeat these two rounds 3(4) times. (8 rounds(10 rounds) on total.) It makes the stitches as: 12 stitches(14 stitches on #1 and #3), 44 stitches(52 stitches) on total. Knit straight 28 rounds(36 rounds).
The toe shaping is as same as the heel shaping. The two differences are (1) decreasing 2 times(4 stitches) per round , (2) the decreasing positions are at the sides of the sock.
| Women's toe |  |
| Men's toe |  |