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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

What's going on here?

So I started a toe up sock with Wendy's Generic toe up pattern with some Koigu that I ordered awhile ago. With Koigu's limited yardage, and my large feet, I decided it would be a good opportunity to learn a toe up pattern. I also figured that since it's Koigu KPPM that it would be a good reason to just do some simple stockinette socks to ease my mind after running around like an idiot spring cleaning the house and the garden, and planting like a maniac.
So I began on Sunday and after having some issues with the crochet chain provisional cast on and having to redo it three times, I got it rolling, and I was good to go. (Note to self: if you crochet the chain backwards by pulling the yarn to the other side of the hook when you pull it through the loop, it will not unzip. Ooops). I figured out the short row shaping thing after watching Heather struggle with it on her purse, and I didn't have any problems until I went to do the other half of the toe. The first half is just wrapped short rows, which now make sense to me, but the other half was double wrapped rows and involved including the wraps and the stitch and k3tog. I understand this and didn't have any problems on the knit side as you can see above. It's a little choppy (and a crappy picture. Daylight savings ruined my morning light), but I think for a first try it looks good. But when you look at the other side (this picture) of the toe where it was P3tog, it looks like poo. I guess I'm just not sure how you P3tog with the wraps. I'm able to put my needle in the wraps from the left side then up through the stitch when I knit, and get the yarn through, and it looks fine. However, when I do the purl I have to lift the wraps up onto the left needle in order to convince the yarn through. I think this might have been what made those little bumps there, but I can't figure out another way to do it. I can't insert my needle from the left or the right through the wraps then through the stitch and pull the yarn through all three peices. I thought about using my current nemesis the crochet hook, but at the time, I didn't realize that what I was doing was creating these bumps, so I didn't look for an alternative.
So at this point, I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm totally willing to frog this little bit of a toe, especially since it's got its fill of mistakes - not big ones, mind you, but together they make a bit of a mess - but I'm not sure that I'd be able to fix these bumps by simply doing it over. I need another plan of attack. So, what do you think? How can I fix this mess without trying a different sort of toe? I like the shape of this toe and what little there is feels good, but this wrapped short row thing is kicking my butt.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, these pics and article at knitty are really helpful, but they don't explain how to do the purl side of the short rows. It does clear up the toe up stuff. Just note that the amount of sts she uses in the article are for demonstration and not necessarily to size.

2 Comments:

  • No matter who the knitter is, both sides of the short rows always look different because one is executed on the purl side, one on the knit (even with yo short rows too!) Frankly I can NEVER get wraps to look good :(

    How about trying the Turkish Cast-On? Easy,, fun, no waste yarn and loads of fun at parties :)

    MUCH easier than wraps, baybee!!

    By Blogger Debi, at 8:38 PM  

  • Hmmm, that does look a little sloppy. I would say try a different toe because you're not going to get p3tog to look nice.

    Pretty yarn, how do you like the Koigu?

    By Blogger Heather, at 1:03 PM  

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