knitting socks, a pair at a time

So, If you are not a knitter, you may just want to admire my pretty colors and move on. Unless you are an engineer like my husband, who was intrigued by the whole process, or just acted like he was, seeing as how he's my husband.

This is a combination of the knitting small diameter projects on two circular needles technique published by Cat Bordhi, and the knit two socks at once technique by Barb. I'm sure that other people also do these things, but I'm crediting the people who I directly looked up.

First of all, the benefit of using two circs. For me, the benefit over using DPNs is obvious, as Cat points out in her book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles , using her method will save about 300 intersections vs. using DPNs. I was a little skeptical, having been taught by my mother how to do small diameter circular knitting on one circular needle and never having any trouble with it (this method is commonly called "magic loop"), why I should need two circs. I have found that there is the benefit of not having to ever rearrange your stitches, you put half on each needle, and that is where they stay. Of course there is a time for magic looping, but I do think that for projects like socks where you are going to stay in a small diameter the entire time, the two circ method is more efficient.

The benefit of knitting both socks at once... well, I have to admit, that I am often a "one hit wonder" when it comes to projects. I made it, great, now I'm done, I move on to something else. This presents a difficulty in items such as pant legs, socks, mittens,... you get the idea. Doing both at once is not necessarily faster, but when you are finished, you have your pair of socks. I know myself and myself would be highly likely to only ever make one sock.

I'm not going to attempt to fully explain these techniques, there are other websites that go into great detail and/or, you can buy the book. Mom wanted to see my projects and so did a few other people so here it is.
Cast on your stitches, then put half on each needle, join, work a round. I started my two socks separately then put them on my needles with about three rows each. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! Ok, there are going to be several important parts, but this is the first one. Your working yarn must be coming off the same side for both socks! Pointing the same direction. In the following picture, my live yarn is coming off the top needle/top facing side of the socks, and as you can see, they are both pointing "north". I lost count of how many times I put the stupid socks on and off the needles before I figured out this rule. Apparently it's either so obvious the instructions didn't say so, or I skipped that page. If your yarn is not going the right way, you will knit one side and then be stuck. You will have no needle and live yarn adjacent to each other. You will be caught on one of those mobius strips and have no where to run. You will take the project off the needles, turn it, put it back on, anxiously counting stitches to make sure you aren't dropping any, knit one side and be back in mobius hell again.

Here is a view from the "top", the socks are not connected, they are just slid together. So, straight position looks like this: you have working needle (green) which you will slide the stitches up to the point and knit them in a second, and you have resting needle (red) which just dangles there. Your working yarn is going to come off the resting needle and knit into the live side.You must use the front and back of the SAME needle, don't get sidetracked and knit off onto the resting needle. If you do so and attempt to just slide the stitches back onto the correct needle, I bet $5 that you will put them on the wrong direction and, you guessed it, be back in mobius hell.
Personally I am going to look for two different colors of the same gauge needle, or try using one metal and one wood, I really think that having two colors would free up a lot of brain space, and since knitting is supposed to be relaxing, not having to think too hard is a good thing.

So, you have the projects on the needles correctly and you knit with the correct needle, and now you are faced with this: It looks nothing like my neat "straight position" illustrated above.
Don't worry, you are looking for an end that has a needle point on one side, and a working yarn coming off the other side. If you did everything right, it's there. Again, take your working needle, bring your yarn off of your resting needle, and knit.

That's it. Each round you do will both sides of one sock, then the other sock will have mysteriously made it to first position and be waiting there for you to knit it as well.

I am also working on a pair of mittens like this... not only will I end up with two mittens at once (a handy little side effect...) I won't have to remember how many round and increases and decreases I did so that I can make the other one identical. It will already be the same. WHOO HOO.

Ok, I'll post pictures of the socks and the mittens when they are finished. Of course that assumes that I will conquer heels, toes, and thumbs.