Thursday, January 17, 2008

Circular knitting question!

Hi, everyone!

Looks like I am not going to make it to knitting tonight. It's just too nasty outside for me to make the trek.

But I do have a question that I hope one of you guys can help me with about circular knitting.

So I am knitting my second pair of socks. And I saw a pattern that I'd like to use on the leg part. However, the pattern is written for straight knitting, not knitting in rounds. I learned this the hard way by knitting a few rounds in this pattern and looking at the sock, then going "Um...no."

So, what can be done to adapt this pattern to function in the round as opposed to back & forth knitting?

With a number of stitches that is a variable of 2 +1 (so for my sock it would be either 53 or 55),

Row 1: K1 *YO, K2 repeat until end
Row 2: P1 *P3, PFSO (pass first stitch over) repeat until end
Row 3: *K2, YO repeat until last stitch, K1
Row 4: *P3, PFSO repeat until last stitch, P1

Would it work if I just knit wherever it calls for purl?

7 comments:

Pat said...

Gina,
The trick really isn't knitting where they call for purls; you already knew to do that...it's that you have a k1 at the begining of some right side rows and a k2 at the beginning of others...ok, not so difficult BUT it's the coming back on the purl side - a P1 at the begining of a wrong side row, pushing the pattern one stitch towards the other end...tricky...the only way to understand what is happening with this pattern and be able to knit it in the round is to chart it out. I'll take awhile tonight and try and get it for you and send you a solution in the morning.
Pat

Elizabeth D said...

Gina, something Pat implied but didn't say in so many words is that flat knitting and knitting in the round are different in terms of direction. In the round, you're constantly knitting from right to left. Knitting flat, you do one row right to left. Then you purl back -- essentially changing the direction of your knitting, so that, looking at it from the right side, you're going left to right. Circular knitting is a great big spiral. Flat knitting is a 2-dimensional zigzag. So just changing P to K won't make the stitches line up right.

The best patterns to convert for circular knitting are those with a plain purl row for every even-numbered row.

Also, ignore the "+1" -- that's just to keep your flat pattern centered. For your sock, in this pattern use any multiple of 2.

You're also going to have to convert PFSO to a different decrease that gives a similarly slanted one from the front. . .

Um -- how much, exactly, are you in love with this stitch?

Pat said...

OK, that was a real brain teaser...here's what you have to do:
Row 1: K1 *YO, K2 repeat until end
Row 2: *K3, PFSO (pass first stitch over) repeat until end
Row 3: *K2, YO repeat until last stitch, K1
Row 4: *K3, PFSO repeat until last stitch, K1

This pattern leans in the opposite direction than the pattern your knitting flat - to make it lean the same direction do the K3, then for the "PFSO" part - slip the 3 stitches back to the left needle and take the front stitch over the other two and slide them back to the right needle - much too fiddly to do for real...sorry!

OK, a couple of notes on the pattern - every knit three before the PFSO middle knit stitch is a yarn over.
You will know you need to yarn over as the two knit stitches before and after it will be coupled together. Hey that's all the help I can be - I knit about 3" in this pattern and it works fine and looks pretty.
Pat

Gina said...

Thank you so much, guys! I knew you'd understand the problem.

Well, honestly, I'm not absolutely in love with the pattern. It's the same pattern of that red kimono I'm knitting, if you've seen that. I just thought it might be nice to have something a little sort of lacy, but not too complicated. I don't have many sock patterns in my books, and the ones I do have seem to have way too elaborate lacy patterns or just ribbing.

Thanks for helping me get my head on straight about this!

Gina said...

Awesome Pat!! You were typing all that in as I was responding too! I'll give it a try!!

Pat said...

Elizabeth - you do need the k1 stitch in this pattern or the whole thing doesn't stagger - all the holes stack up in a straight line.
Gina, I had to revise the pattern...sorry here is correct revision:
Row 1: K1, *YO, K2 repeat until end
Row 2: *K3, PFSO (pass first stitch over) repeat until last stitch, K1
Row 3: *K2, YO repeat until last stitch, K1
Row 4: K1,*K3, PFSO (pass first stitch over) repeat until end of round

mellisande said...

gina - i have a pattern for a sock that i believe has a very similar lacy look to what you're talking about here. i'll make a copy and have it with me when we get together next. i've been knitting a pair from the pattern. it's pretty. ann