Eureka! The cure! In the past, I’ve attempted to cure my “Second Sock Syndrome” by a variety of means up to and including allowing a year to pass before finishing the second one. Only modestly more successful was my last method of knitting two pair at a time alternating the style and yarn. Lately, I’ve been reading quite a lot about knitting two socks at the same time and, I must confess, I thought it was a bit of a cheat…until now.
Though I don’t always write about it, I try each weekend, when I tend to have large blocks of knitting time, to experiment with a particular yarn, project or technique. This past weekend, I decided to put my head around two socks simultaneously on two circular needles, a bit of a stretch because I tend to be a traditionalist when it comes to socks. Since I have no fewer than three sock projects going, two sample pair for the shop and one pair in Misti Alpaca Hand Painted Sock yarn promised to dear Hubby, I really needed to speed the process up.
I’ve been knitting on two circulars quite a bit lately so the mechanics were not a problem. I found a couple of video tutes online to help deal with the cast-on; the best of the dubious bunch was Liat’s Limitless Cast-On which focuses on the magic loop method. Since I favor a tubular cast-on for socks, I wound up casting on with dp’s, then knitting the stitches over to circulars once the tubular cast-on was complete.
I must say, my experiment has been a huge success! I worried at first that the time I spent fiddling with the position of the needles and yarn would offset any gains I’d made but not so. I found myself cruising along at speed in no time. I can see myself using this method for knitting sleeves in the round as well. A big bonus to knitting two of anything at a time is that both items are exactly alike 🙂
For anyone who’s interested, here is my method for working a Tubular Cast-On in the round. I use it for socks, cuffs, hats and more. I’m sure I did not invent it, but it’s an easy method to learn and to memorize. Happy Monday!
lagrancostanza
Oh, I’ve always wanted to try this! It’s encouraging to hear that you had such a good time with it, I might try it for my next sock project!
Pearl
I can’t believe how much faster it is! You can also use magic loop if you’re more comfortable with it.