Easy Steps to pick up stitches in the middle of your knitting.
When I was knitting the Pin Drop socks, I wasn’t sure how I wanted the toe to look. I definitely wanted the cuff and heel in the contrast grey. So, I knit one sock with a contrast toe and one continuing with the main striping yarn.
Ultimately, I really liked the striped toe! With self-striping yarn the stripes (obviously) get thicker when the stitch count decreases. But with the round toe in this pattern it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I rather liked how it came together.
Changing Toes
I’ve swapped out toes many times. Sometimes because of the yarn choice and other times because I’m playing with the type of toe I like for the pattern or the person that will be wearing them.
It’s relatively easy to do! Follow me on this one and you can do it too…
Picking Up Stitches in the Middle of Stockinette Knitting
When you look at stockinette the V’s are a stitch. (I used to think the mountain peaks, like the upside down V arrows, were the stitches… nope, it’s the Vs, not the mountains).
To pick up stitches, slide your needle into the right side of the V. So, it goes under the / leg, skip the \ leg and under the next / all the way across.
These pictures show the front of this sock. You can see where there were purl stitches, they hop back onto the needle exactly as they should!
Here’s the back of the sock (the underside of the foot) where it’s all plain stockinette. See all the / right leg V’s back on the needle? It’s really easy to see when you’ve gone wrong and maybe picked up a \ left leg by mistake. No worries, just pull the needle back out and try again.
Ripping back
This is the BEST part of having this skill… Once you’ve got your needles into the stitches, check two things: double-check your stitch count to make sure you have everyone, and pull the yarn a bit to make sure all the stitches are from the same row.
Now, you can start ripping back (unraveling the yarn). It’s very satisfying ripping back your knitting with no concern about it going too far! Once you’ve ripped back to the needle, it’s all secure and ready to start knitting again. Like magic (and a whole lot less scary and stressful).
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