Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Ding!

Round 3 of the Ent pattern-writing bonanza has begun. Round 1: frogged. Round 2: frogged. Round 3? Going to be reknit, possibly tomorrow.

Things it needs - a tighter castoff, 2 rows less of thumb ribbing, and some decent increases in the gusset. I think on top of all that I am considering going off on a total tangent and knitting them using the diagonal rib stitch pattern instead of cables. The cables are just...chunky. I'm thinking something more svelte.

The stretchiest bindoff I've found so far is this - beginning with the first stitch of the row, p2tog, slip back to left needle, bring yarn to front, p2tog with the next stitch. You keep slipping the p2tog stitch back to the left needle to p2tog with the next stitch (try it!).

The trick (I think) is in the way you move the yarn forward again after the p2tog. When you slip that first p2tog stitch back, you're also moving your working yarn so that it comes off the left needle. Slip, bring it to the front and then p2tog - it's almost like a mini short-row wrap. It makes the edge VERY pretty. It's VERY stretchy. Maybe too stretchy for this. Stretchy enough for a pair of toe-up socks or wherever you need a loose bind off edge that hangs together better than casting off on #35 needles.

1 Comments:

Blogger Chris said...

I've tried that bind off before, but I don't like how it looks with ribbing when binding off toe-up socks. I always switch to needles 2 sizes larger than the sock is knit (so if I'm knitting with 0s, I switch to 2s), knit a round in pattern with the larger needles, then bind off in patter. Works like a charm.

7:57 AM  

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