Answering Some Questions

Ok here's a post on some of the questions I received about Kaity's Magic Loop socks. Lets see if I can be a good blogger and answer them all. :-)

First Up are the answers to RC's comment:
"you did cuff down? what size foot does she have? how did you figure how many to cast on?"

I knit these socks from the top down, the first inch is a 2x2 ribbing and then the rest is Stockinette. My daughter were's a US 10.5, I believe they still consider that toddler shoes. Her foot is about 6.5 inches long and the circumference around the ball of her foot, the widest part of her foot is about 6.5 inches. These socks are a little snug so I may try to work in a few more stitches to loosen them up a little. I think I cast on 36 stitches so I may shoot for about 40. When I knit with Acrylic I don't put in any negative ease because the acrylic doesn't stretch as much as wool and wool blends. I've figured out what works best for Kaity mostly from trial and error but I've also found that the article from Knitty worked great. You can find it HERE. The calculations work pretty good. Basically you multiply how many stitches you get per inch by the foot circumference minus 1 - 1.5 for negative easy. So for my foot and fingering weight it would be: 9(sts per inch) x 9.5-1 (my foot size minus 1 for negative easy) = 76.5. Which is about right. Then you fudge the numbers around a little to make it work in your pattern. The article also describes about dividing up the stitches and all. I'd recommend it for a good read and reference. I've got it printed out so I can refer back to it.

Now We Come to Tammy's question:
"I've never tried Magic Loop - do you prefer it over dpns?"

This was my first shot at Magic Loop and I didn't get it completely right. I've found the way to do the gusset correctly so I will be trying it here in a few days with the next set of socks. The way I did it still produced the same results. But I digress....back to answering the question.

I like Magic Loop and I can see doing more plain socks this way but as for patterned sock I will probably stick with my beloved DPN's. I just love my little wooden sticks. :-)

I haven't tried Magic Loop with fingering weight yarn because I don't want to pay $13 + shipping for Addi needles. Nothing against Addi needles, I'm just being a stubborn cheapskate. I'm holding out till Knit Picks releases their longer cable classic circulars. I've been told they'll be out later this year. Yippy! I think I could make a pair for Kaity using the 32" length they have out right now. I may buy a pair the next time I order.

I'll be posting more on Magic Loop soon. I'm going to be working through my pattern again before I post it out for anyone who wants it. I want to make sure I've gotten all the rough patches worked through. I may ask anyone who uses the pattern to send me feedback on it.

Hopefully I've been a good blogger and answered everyones questions. I would reply to everyone individually but blogger doesn't make that easy. If the person doesn't have an email linked with their account that is visible in their profile I can't reply back to the comment I get in email. I wished they'd make it like Typepad and some of the others I've seen where you can put in your email but it isn't visible to anyone except the owner of the blog. *sigh* Maybe we all need to bring this up to Blogger.