:: My Urban Eyes ::
All that I see, and then some.
:: Thursday, November 01, 2007 ::
Of the Horrible Ends
Beadknitter left me a comment on the last post asking if I had any advice for dealing with the awful number of ends a striped sock creates. After weaving in all those monstrosities (and how did I spell that correctly on the first try?!) I couldn't help but have a tip or two.
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Unless you only use two colors and carry each as you go there are going to be a lot of ends. There's no avoiding it. But fear not--it's possible to minimize the number of beasties you have to weave in. The first one is obvious: if you change colors less you'll have fewer ends. Wide stripes are the order of the day. Second, if one color pops up every other row (like the gray on the ball of the foot on the Random Stripe Socks) and the stripes aren't too wide you can carry the yarn from one stripe to the next without breaking it. It does add a little extra bulk, though, so beware.
Take careful consideration of where you place the seam. I started with my seam down the back of the socks (least visible, I thought), but after turning the heel I had a minor dilemma--do I place the seam at one edge of the sole so I don't walk over it, or do I put it smack dab down the bottom of the sole so it's completely invisible? I went the invisible route--the yarn I used is really grabby and tends to felt, so I figured that any discomfort from woven in ends would flatten/melt away after a wear or two.
There's also Meg's Jogless Jog to help prevent unevenness where you change colors. The website says that the seam will lean left with time, which is true if you're doing colorwork with a vertical element like checks or fair isle. With simple stripes, though, it's easy to keep the color change at the beginning of a needle and truly straight.
And then, when it gets down to it, there will still be pesky ends to deal with... but think of how much worse it could have been! -_^
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I'm tempted to write more, but I should really be in bed--I open the store tomorrow. Just know that I (and my knitting/crocheting) are going well, and next time I post hopefully I'll have pictures of some amazing タワシ to drool over. (You'll see once we get there.) ^_^
Labels: Knit
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 9:55 PM [+] ::
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