Happy Accidents

For those of you who listen to the Cast-On podcast, you might have heard Brenda rhaphsodizing about a tip she got for toe-up socks this week. It was my tip, although she didn't mention me by name (which is fine). Of course, it's always possible that she got the same tip from other people, although mine was the only one in the comments. I've shared this tip before on other blogs, but I've never talked about it here, so I thought I would talk about that today. Here's the tip:

When doing a sewn bind-off (the Elizabeth Zimmerman one) on toe up socks, turn the sock inside-out to avoid getting that ruffled edge that usually results from sewing the  bind-off right side out.

And here's the story of how I figured this out, which is interesting especially since I have never made a toe-up sock before. A while ago, I made Dan a pair of socks that developed a mysterious hole just below the ribbing. I later found out that Cheddar the troublemaker cat had probably chewed the sock, but at the time I had no idea what had caused the hole. The socks had been made from the cuff down, so my only alternative was to cut the yarn a few rows from the top and unravel past the hole, then pick up the stitches and proceed to re-knit the ribbing. Thus, I had to use the sewn bind-off to finish off the sock.

The first time I tried the sewn bind-off, it just looked ridiculous with the top edge ruffling out, in comparison to the other sock. Plus, the sewn bind-off stitches looked very different from the long tail cast-on edge for the other sock. I noticed that the inside  (or back) of the sewn bind-off looked more like the long tail cast-on of the undamaged sock, so I picked the sewn bind-off out, turned the sock inside out, and redid the sewn bind off. The edge looked more similar to the undamaged sock. Like many inventions, I was really trying to do something completely different (match the bind-off on one sock to the cast on of another sock), and the reduction in ruffling was really just a happy accident.

Comments

[ann]

you're famous! I have recently discovered that podcast and have been enjoying the whole podcast scene!!

congrats on your uncredited plug!!

[Kristi aka Fiber Fool]

Ooo, I love happy accidents!

[Rhonda]

Wow, what a fantastic discovery. I usually knit toe up & never did like that ruffling cast off since it was necessary when using larger needles also to keep it from being too tight. I'll be using your hint next time around. Thanks!!