How to avoid sock "ears"

Sock toes!!

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, whether you are doing your socks toe-up or cuff down, you sometimes end up with a little 'ear' or bump of fabric on the side of the toe? Here are a few tips you could try to avoid this happening.

Sock tip #3 How to avoid little sock ears.

Cuff down socks: before you start to graft the toe slip the first stitch on needle 1 over the 2nd, and slip the last stitch on needle 1 over its neighbour. Then repeat on needle 2.

This helps to draw the sock fabric in slightly at the sides and eliminates any excess bulk.

Toe-up socks: It sounds counterintuitive but a tight cast on can make the problem worse. If you are using Judy's magic cast on it is easy to work this quite tightly and this gives the central stitches of the toe very little give - hence the fabric can bulge slightly at the sides.

1. Try casting on with a needle 1 size larger and then switching up to your normal size.

2. Try working a yarn over increase (knit the you through the back loop on the next round). This type of increase can eliminate the slight lump that a Kfb increase can cause.

3. Try increasing on the 1st round after the cast on rather than knitting 1 round plain. This can help to loosen up the cast on slightly and give the stitches a bit more room.

Why not experiment the next time you come to do a sock toe and see how you get on. Alternatively you could decide that who the heck sees your sock toes anyway and go and get some cake instead.

As I've often repeated - There are no knitting police here.

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Be a rebel

There are alternatives to Kitchener Stitch

When it comes to sock knitting there's no need to follow the rules unless you want to. So many knitters I know hate doing Kitchener stitch to close the toe of a sock. So much so that some chose only to knit toe-up socks to avoid the dreaded K word.

Whilst that's a perfectly reasonable strategy there are other ways to close the toe of a sock that don't involve our friend Mr Kitchener.

Sock tip #2: You don't have to use Kitchener stitch

Alternative No. 1 is simply to carry on the toe decreases until you have 8 stitches in total. Then cut the yarn, with a tapestry needle draw the yarn through the remaining stitches and pull tight before weaving in the end as normal. This gives a nice rounded, roomy toe that some people prefer - and it's super simple. Worth a shot to see how you like it.

Alternative No 2 is to work a knitted version of the Kitchener stitch. There is a great tutorial on how to do this here.

Both of these are well worth a try if you really can't get on with Kitchener. You never know, you might find a new favourite.

February Sock Challenge

Welcome to the 1st February and the first day of our #februarysockchallenge. However you are choosing to take part please just jump in over on the Ravelry group or in the Everyday Knitter Facebook page and let us know what you are working on.

It turns out that I'm having way too much fun with this daily blogging malarky to stop now so I thought it would be fun to try and blog a short sock related tip every day this month. So if there are any burning questions or things that you've always wondered about now would be a great time to ask.

To start with, this is a simple thing but is often overlooked in our haste to cast on.

Sock tip #1: Use a smaller needle size than you think. Click to tweet.

When it comes to sock fabric it's always best to go for a slightly denser fabric than you would do normally as this will vastly improve the fit and longevity of your socks. After all your hard work and all that pretty yarn no one wants to see holes appearing. Not all sock yarn is created equal and you might find that your standard choice of 2.5mm needles just isn't the right size for some of the finer or more tightly spun sock yarn on the market. If you find that you tend to wear through your socks quickly, or if your loved one is particularly hard on their socks, you might find that switching down a needle size could make all the difference.

10 things I learnt by blogging every day

Before this 31 day challenge I would have described myself as a fairly reluctant blogger. I wrote a post once or maybe twice a week but to be honest I always saw it as a bit of a chore. Challenging myself to write (and post) every day has completely changed my mindset and encouraged me to see my blogging and writing in a completely different way.

1. Contrary to previous beliefs I am not as much of a planner as I thought. I like to get up and write whatever is in my head rather than planning ahead.

2. I can blog from my phone. A total game changer as before I always had to use my laptop.

3. A blog post doesn't have to be meticulously crafted to be readable. Sometimes the comments that most strike a chord with readers are the off the cuff comments which I've thrown in at the end.

4. Personal is good. Sharing more personal stories and emotions, whilst a little more difficult, generates a lot more interest and comments from readers.

5. A blog post can be just as long or as short as I want it to be. No more stressing about it being the 'right length'.

6. I really am a morning person. I tried to write my blog posts at night and it didn't end well. Maybe that's the reason I've never managed to keep a journal going longer than a few weeks.

7. I can procrastinate for England. OK, I knew that one already but this challenge just reinforced it. If I didn't blog first thing it simply wouldn't get done.

8. I really can stick at something if I put my mind to it. At the fine age of 45 this is the first time I have successfully done something ( anything) for 31 straight days. Last year's attempts at a dry January were pretty pitiful, for example.

9. I have found other bloggers. Blogging more has encouraged me to read more blogs myself and I've found some brilliant new blogs and writers I had no idea about before. 

10. My blog is not dead ( or even slightly ill). It has hit the ground running in 2017 and has no intentions of giving up now. Given an infinite supply of hot coffee I reckon I could just keep going and going.

Let's banish winter gloom

Type #knityellowsocks into Instagram ....

I posted an image the other day of a few of my recent finished items which all had green in them and someone made the very apt comment that it showed a longing for Spring. A few of you said the same and it got me wondering about the impact of colour on our mood.

On these darker mornings in the northern hemisphere colour can really have an impact on our mood. I think it might be time to dust off last year's #knityellowsocks initiative. 

February is all about socks anyway over on our Everyday Knitter Facebook group so you could double dip and make your challenge socks in yellow yarn or go wild and knit a second pair.

There's something about working with a bright yellow yarn first thing in the morning to really perk you up - well, that and a strong coffee.

Having to be a grown up

Sometimes being an adult isn't all its cracked up to be. In fact sometimes it's pretty pants.

For some weeks now I've been refusing to admit the blindingly obvious but now, hunkered down with my knitting and the first time alone with my thoughts all week, the blindingly obvious has finally made itself felt.

I can't go to Edinburgh Yarn Festival this year. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

DH needs to have a knee op (scheduled date also coincides with Unravel - but I'll gloss over that). His recuperation (and no airline travel) period means that he won't be able to fly with us to Edinburgh and I would have to take the boys on my own. He won't be mobile enough to take care of them at home and my parents are away on holiday that week.

I was fully intending to make it work but this morning I've realised the futility of what I'm trying to do. We would spend the weekend trying to cram in all the sightseeing the boys want to do and all the yarn shopping/sniffing/chatting that I want to do and in reality no one will probably get to enjoy themselves very much at all.

Far better to be sensible and grown up and admit that this year it just isn't going to work. And if we want DH to get his knee sorted so that we can carry on doing team things we want to do as a family then we just need to accept that this year, we can't do some of the things we would like to.

It's the grown up and sensible thing to do, but right now I feel like being 5 and having a full on tantrum. I want to go! But there will be other years and other shows.

At the very least I need to plan a yarn shopping outing for that weekend as a treat. I may have to take a short trip down to Loop as an alternative.

I know it's the right decision but right now I'm just going to hide out under my blanket, eat chocolate and indulge my inner 5 year old in a full on sulk.