A study in beige
Apr. 28th, 2019 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readerjaneI knit my own socks. Partly because I love having socks that fit me exactly right. (My feet are short and wide; I spent most of my life wearing socks that either dangled in the heel or toe, or were painfully tight.) Partly because I've learned how to make socks, and I like doing things I'm good at. And partly because I find knitting soothing.
It bugs me just a little that the knit pattern in the heels and toes, which are knit back and forth, doesn't quite match the arch and ankle, which are knit round and round. So I decided to do a study, making six swatches, to try to find a way to make those sections match exactly.
This first swatch is what I'm trying to match. This is knitting round and round, always knitting in the front of the stitch. I like the perfectly even rows of little "V"s, where the left side of the V is the same length and opposite angle to the right.
The second swatch is also knit round and round, always knitting in the back of the stitch. That method is a little easier for me than knitting in the front, and it goes quicker, so if I could make it come out as evenly as the first method does, this is what I would prefer.
Then there are four back-and-forth swatches.
Knitting in the back and purling in the front is the easiest of the four, but the stitch doesn't come out evenly.
Knitting in the back and purling in the back is also kind of chicken-scratchy. Besides, purling into the back of a stitch is a pain and quite slow.
Knitting in the front and purling in the front is reasonably easy, but you can see how the right & left sides of the V are not evenly aligned.
And finally, knitting in the front and purling in the back was the most difficult of both worlds, though it did produce a really interesting basket-weave pattern. The stitches were so twisted that it almost looks as if they're woven rather than knitted.
In conclusion, I haven't really found a way to make the sections which are knit in the round look identical to those knit back and forth. Which is disappointing, but the question had been bothering me so long that I'm glad I at least investigated. Now I'll know that my socks (and mittens!) don't have different-textured sections that I could have avoided.
It bugs me just a little that the knit pattern in the heels and toes, which are knit back and forth, doesn't quite match the arch and ankle, which are knit round and round. So I decided to do a study, making six swatches, to try to find a way to make those sections match exactly.
This first swatch is what I'm trying to match. This is knitting round and round, always knitting in the front of the stitch. I like the perfectly even rows of little "V"s, where the left side of the V is the same length and opposite angle to the right.
The second swatch is also knit round and round, always knitting in the back of the stitch. That method is a little easier for me than knitting in the front, and it goes quicker, so if I could make it come out as evenly as the first method does, this is what I would prefer.
Then there are four back-and-forth swatches.
Knitting in the back and purling in the front is the easiest of the four, but the stitch doesn't come out evenly.
Knitting in the back and purling in the back is also kind of chicken-scratchy. Besides, purling into the back of a stitch is a pain and quite slow.
Knitting in the front and purling in the front is reasonably easy, but you can see how the right & left sides of the V are not evenly aligned.
And finally, knitting in the front and purling in the back was the most difficult of both worlds, though it did produce a really interesting basket-weave pattern. The stitches were so twisted that it almost looks as if they're woven rather than knitted.
In conclusion, I haven't really found a way to make the sections which are knit in the round look identical to those knit back and forth. Which is disappointing, but the question had been bothering me so long that I'm glad I at least investigated. Now I'll know that my socks (and mittens!) don't have different-textured sections that I could have avoided.
