Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Giveaway: Sock Knitting Books

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sock knitting book giveawaySince I’m still thinking about sock knitting this week, I thought it would be fun to give away a couple of sock knitting books.

First is the booklet I reviewed for you last week, Easy Knitted Socks. I’m also going to throw in a copy of Knitted Socks by Anna Tillman, but you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow for a full review on that one. For now let’s just say it has some really creative, colorful and wild projects your whole family will enjoy (she had me at rainbow-colored toe socks, to be honest).

If you want a chance to win these books, leave a comment on this post by the end of the day Sunday, March 22. I’d love to know what experience you have if any with knitting socks, and if you haven’t knit socks yet, why not? (If you need some reasons, check out my great list.)

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing. Good luck!

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Comments

  1. I love sock knitting!!! I have been knitting socks for many years and only wear hand-knit socks. I also make socks for my children and grandchildren and charity. Thank you for the contest.

  3. Much as I love helping my son-in-law Rich in his quest for the ‘Socks of Darkness’, these patterns would make a light-hearted change!

  5. I have not ventured to socks yet, but,…I have attempted (not mastered) the mitten so socks seem the reasonable next step on my knitting journey.

  6. I’ve knit socks before and they aren’t hard. I was afraid to start knitting them because I thought they would be hard to do, but they aren’t. Those penguin socks on the cover are really adorable!

  8. I almost always have a sock on the needles. They’re my goto portable, mindless knitting for all the meetings I have to sit thru.

  10. I enjoy knitting socks! I will sometimes go long periods without knitting any. And then I get in the mood to knit some cozy socks and usually end up making several pairs. Those are the times when family members get socks for Christmas 🙂

  11. I have been knitting for less than a year and have not tried socks yet, but am looking forward to my first pair.

  12. I am very new to knitting but would absolutely love to dive in and learn! I started with crochet and quickly discovered how limited you are for some amazing patterns. Would be delighted to try my hand at some socks! Thanks for the giveaway and good luck to all!

  14. I just finished my first pair of socks and I am hooked! All I want to do now is knit socks!

  15. I love to knit socks, and usually have one that I carry around with me since it’s such a portable project. I have knitted them on the train, in the line at the grocery store, etc. It’s usually a good conversation starter, too, since most non-knitters aren’t familiar with double-pointed needles or magic loop and it looks kind of exotic.
    thanks for the giveaway!

  16. I have only knitted sock-like felted slippers, but bought some gorgeous rainbow yarn at Stitches West that is calling to be knit up. Just need to finish up a couple other projects so I can focus on socks!

  17. I love sock knitting and I am always looking for new patterns and techniques to improve my skills. I enjoy both toe up and cuff down styles and am just trying two socks at a time. I’m trying to improve my sizing ability. It is a work in progress.

  19. Socks were the first real clothing item I kit at age 9! Fo the kid brothers of course, smaller feet and finished quickly. right now I have balls of sock yarn and can’t decide what pattern! And lots of nieces to make socks for!

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!