diagnosing unwanted holes in knitting
Is there a way to do Wendy Johnson's double-wrapped short row heel that doesn't result in an ugly mess?
I'm currently working on a pair of socks. My usual go-to pattern is kathrynt's Universal Sock Pattern, but the current socks are varigated yarn (Cascade Fixation #9172), and the darn stuff is insisting on ugly pooling with the flap-and-gusset heel. So I frogged, and went with the short-row heel from Wendy Johnson's generic toe-up sock. Except the results I get from that are fugly in a different way. Far from the "invisible" short-rows mentioned in the knittinghelp.com video, I end up with a clear line of overstretched stitches with holes between them. So I've been fooling around with worsted weight yarn and US 6 needles, to attempt to figure out what the %$#$@ is going on.
short rows, double wrapped, knitwise
short rows, double wrapped, purlwise
Out of curiosity, I tried another sample (also worsted weight on US 6), this time picking up all the knitwise wraps on one row, and all the purlwise wraps on the next row, and I was pleasantly surprised to note that while far from invisible, the results were substantially nicer looking than anything else I've achieved with this technique so far.
short rows, single wrapped, knitwise
short rows, single wrapped, purlwise
I've been using a couple of different references on short rows to try and suss out this mess. First, the the Knitty.com Summer '03 issue for a general discussion on how to do short rows. Then when that wasn't working, I tried the Uniquesheep.com's blog entry on short rows, which suggests that when the wraps are picked up knitwise they should be knit through the back of the loop. Then I went back to the knittinghelp.com video again, which suggested a slightly different method of constructing the wraps (same as the Knitty.com method, but different from Wendy Johnson's), and then finally to this YouTube video on picking up wraps purlwise, which also doesn't seem to have helped any. I'm semi-tempted to give up, but as someone with ... well above C-cup breasts, this technique just seems too potentially useful to consign it to the trash heap.
And as if all that weren't annoying enough, I seem to be doing SSK/k2togtbl wrong, which probably explains why the UniqueSheep.com short row instructions didn't help much. On my flap-and-gusset socks, the k2tog side of the gusset (and both k2tog sides of the wedge toe) turns out beautifully. But the first time I wear new socks, boom, instant ladders on the on the SSK/k2togtbl side of the gusset and both SSK sides of the toes:( Yes, I've tried both variants with the same results. I've even tried picking up the ladders with a crochet hook, but because they aren't actual ladders, they're too tight for that technique to work.
gusset decreases, k2tog side
gusset decreases, SSK side
Geez, that was a lot longer-winded than I thought it was going to be.
please help?
I'm currently working on a pair of socks. My usual go-to pattern is kathrynt's Universal Sock Pattern, but the current socks are varigated yarn (Cascade Fixation #9172), and the darn stuff is insisting on ugly pooling with the flap-and-gusset heel. So I frogged, and went with the short-row heel from Wendy Johnson's generic toe-up sock. Except the results I get from that are fugly in a different way. Far from the "invisible" short-rows mentioned in the knittinghelp.com video, I end up with a clear line of overstretched stitches with holes between them. So I've been fooling around with worsted weight yarn and US 6 needles, to attempt to figure out what the %$#$@ is going on.
short rows, double wrapped, knitwise
short rows, double wrapped, purlwise
Out of curiosity, I tried another sample (also worsted weight on US 6), this time picking up all the knitwise wraps on one row, and all the purlwise wraps on the next row, and I was pleasantly surprised to note that while far from invisible, the results were substantially nicer looking than anything else I've achieved with this technique so far.
short rows, single wrapped, knitwise
short rows, single wrapped, purlwise
I've been using a couple of different references on short rows to try and suss out this mess. First, the the Knitty.com Summer '03 issue for a general discussion on how to do short rows. Then when that wasn't working, I tried the Uniquesheep.com's blog entry on short rows, which suggests that when the wraps are picked up knitwise they should be knit through the back of the loop. Then I went back to the knittinghelp.com video again, which suggested a slightly different method of constructing the wraps (same as the Knitty.com method, but different from Wendy Johnson's), and then finally to this YouTube video on picking up wraps purlwise, which also doesn't seem to have helped any. I'm semi-tempted to give up, but as someone with ... well above C-cup breasts, this technique just seems too potentially useful to consign it to the trash heap.
And as if all that weren't annoying enough, I seem to be doing SSK/k2togtbl wrong, which probably explains why the UniqueSheep.com short row instructions didn't help much. On my flap-and-gusset socks, the k2tog side of the gusset (and both k2tog sides of the wedge toe) turns out beautifully. But the first time I wear new socks, boom, instant ladders on the on the SSK/k2togtbl side of the gusset and both SSK sides of the toes:( Yes, I've tried both variants with the same results. I've even tried picking up the ladders with a crochet hook, but because they aren't actual ladders, they're too tight for that technique to work.
gusset decreases, k2tog side
gusset decreases, SSK side
Geez, that was a lot longer-winded than I thought it was going to be.
please help?