Alice Curtis - Knit Your Socks on Straight: A New and Inventive Technique with Just Two Needles

To my father, Eric Walter Eliasson, who instilled a love for books and reading at an early age and encouraged me in any and all of my needlework interests.

To my husband, Jim, for being my support and putting up with me working into the wee hours of the night many times.

And to my class of intrepid beginner knitters, without whom this book would not have been.

One of my earliest memories is of carefully threading a shoelace through the holes in a stiff card to outline a colorful picture. Since then, embroidery, sewing, and yarn crafts have been a source of entertainment and comfort throughout my life. Part of the fun lies in shopping to pick out new materials to play with: the crisp new fabric, the smooth hanks of embroidery thread, and the skeins of soft, squishy yarn in all the colors of the rainbow.

Eventually I learned enough to begin to share my experience and knowledge with others. Whenever I hear the wistful cry, I wish I could do that, Im happy to say, Let me show you how! The sense of satisfaction that comes from enabling another fiber lover to master a skill is second to none.

As a yarn shop owner, I encouraged lots of experimentation. Knitting and crochet are for slowing down and taking a break from the hectic pace of our busy lives and for playing! I believe strongly that there is no one right way to do things, as long as it looks the way you want it to and the project gets finished. That should be the goal: to have a finished project, yes, but especially to have fun while youre making it.

In the process of teaching beginning knitters, the subject of socks came up, and everyone clamored to make them. They were interested and enthusiastic, but I had a dilemma. They were emphatic about not wanting to tackle double-pointed needles. Socks are almost always knitted in the round what was I to do? I looked at patterns for easy two-needle socks that could be knitted flat, and I tried several. The results were nothing I would ever want to wear! They neither looked nor felt good. Most often the seam went down the back of the leg and heel and under the foot. One even involved a complicated seaming plan that placed a seam sideways across the top of the heel. Ouch! It really hurt. There was no choice: I had to design something that my students would be proud to wear. Well, the class was a success. We had fun, and they each went home with a pair of socks.

I continued looking for patterns for simple, flat-knitted socks for my shop and was disappointed to find that few books or patterns (aside from some reprints of vintage booklets) even mentioned two-needle socks. When they did, the terminology and supplies were outdated. I find that old instructions assume knitters possess certain skills. They do not explain how to seam the sock so it is flat and comfortable. And if the seams are flat, they are still quite visible. Patterns for two-needle socks can be found occasionally on the Internet, but they are often extremely plain, and unless you are willing to take the time for skillful seaming, they are not comfortable, and the seams are obvious and unsightly. Flat seaming is a skill that does not appeal to most of todays knitters, due to the time and patience it requires.

In short, I was left with the impression that two-needle socks are a make-do, work-around solution for second-rate socks. But this does not have to be the case! Knitting socks on straight needles is a viable design alternative. I developed new designs for socks that are easy to knit, comfortable to wear, and attractive to the eye.

Here they are! The more I knitted, the more fun I was having coming up with new ideas, which is why, you may notice, all the socks have leisure-time themes, starting out with Jelly Beans (). All the socks are knitted flat on straight needles (or going back and forth on circulars, as if they were straight). These patterns range from very basic beginner socks to more advanced. My only design criterion was to knit them flat. This took some creative thinking, but the result is socks that are satisfying both to knit and to wear.

If you feel that you have been missing out on sock knitting because double-pointed needles seem fiddly or intimidating or you just prefer to use straight needles you are not alone. Using my seam technique, there is no sewing involved, and the seam is an integral, flexible part of the fabric of the sock. The seam is easy to do and fairly quick to finish. All patterns are carefully planned to integrate the seam into the overall design. The finished sock comes off the needles and onto the foot with the same joy and comfort as a traditionally knitted sock.

This book was written specifically for those who like and prefer to use straight needles. All the patterns are knit on only straight needles. They are knitted from the top down, meaning that they start with the cuff and end at the toe. The leg is knitted to a length specified by the pattern and then the heel is worked. The heel is generally worked on half the stitches of the sock.

Because these patterns are knitted flat there is a seam. (Obviously!) I have located the seam most often on the side of the leg and foot, which results in a right and a left sock. Since the heel flap is usually not centered, the number of unworked instep stitches on each side of the heel flap is different. These instep stitches may be placed on waste yarn or a stitch holder while working on the heel, or simply held in reserve on the needles. After the heel is knitted and the gusset brings the stitch count back to the original number of stitches, the foot is knitted. The pattern suggests a length, but it is a good idea to fit them according to the intended wearers foot. The sock is then finished with the toe.