I finished the first Monkey sock last night. In finishing off the toe, I decided to try something new, so I found instructions for the "Russian graft" because I could not remember how my Ukrainian friend showed me to do it.
I did this because my regular grafting does not ever come out right. But next time, I promise, I will use the clear instructions I found on someone's lovely site (where was that again?) and graft. I need to learn, and finally realize what I was doing wrong (so many instructions do not tell you where to hold the yarn as you are "inserting as if to purl" or whatever).
Anyway, I tried to follow the instructions. I put the tail at the end. I lined up my stitches. I started inserting needles as if to purl and as if to knit (hard on a sock). The stitches definitely got cast off, all right, but I ended up with a purl bump, not smooth knitting! Ay, what DID I do wrong? On the other hand, on the inside, it is beautiful, solid reverse stockinette, so it sure won't bother my toes like doing a 3-needle bind off from the inside sometimes does.
Maybe next time I will do it from the inside. That might be my issue. Or, gee, practice on a swatch, what a concept. In any case, the toe does not look "bad," so I'll do the other sock to match and pretend I did it on purpose. And then learn properly for next time!
See, even we "advanced" knitters have our areas for growth!
I made my first sock recently and although I somehow messed up my grafting a tiny bit (I'm sure my son said something) the directions and pictures at this site helped me. http://www.royea.net/sockdemo6.html
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dragonfly. I will indeed check that resource out! I'll get it yet!
ReplyDeleteFunny enough, I saw my Ukrainian friend last night at the LYS Chicks with Sticks night, and she said my graft looked fabulous. So, maybe that is how it is supposed to look. It is very comfortable. I'm more than halfway down the leg of Monkey #2 now.