Toe up socks

So, one of my resolutions this year was to decrease the number of ongoing projects I have. In an effort to complete this I have been finishing up socks that I have had cast on for the past 4 months. Well, I hurt my back Thursday sliding around on some of our wonderful ice we get here this time of year, and haven't really been able to get off the couch since without lots of pain. All this rest is helping, but it's taking it's sweet old time.

So anyways, I decided it's a perfect time to work on some of these old projects, namely socks, Light weight, normally requires a decent chunk of uninterrupted time, and I can't go anywhere, perfect! Well, I get to the bind off on a pair for hubby, but the first bind off I did was WAY to tight, he couldn't even get it over his heel. So I looked up an elastic bind off online, and did that. It was plenty elastic but it just didn't bounce back, so he has this frilly ring around the top of his sock now. Would be REALLY cute on a little girls sock, but not on someone who looks like they should be a linebacker for the pro's.

Frilly top, and I kinda made the cuff about 2 inches too short.

I followed the bind off technique I found at Slip Slip Knit for this. Not so great for me for socks, but I think it will work beautifully on some lace patterns I also have on needles waiting to be finished.

I have a second pair of socks on the needles for hubby, and a pair for myself (my first attempt at designing my own!) and I really wanted to find a nice solid, easy to do bind off that would be stretchy enough to accommodate a large foot sliding into it, but resilient enough to spring back. Back to the interwebs we go.

I made up four swatches of different bind offs, to see how they responded to being tugged, and stretched and all that. One stood out as a simply amazing sock bind off.

 These samples here are following the bind off on Slip Slip Knit's page. A little slouchy at the top, but definitely stretchy.

 This one worked up great, a little time consuming, but very stretchy, and very resilient as it would snap back to shape after being stretched. I found this one on Knitty.com. I completed a sock with this, and it turned out well, but I had to slightly alter it for 2x2 ribbing, as this was written for 1x1.

I tried a few others that were equally as stretchy, but not nearly resilient. They are a k1p1 invisible bind off I saw on Pinterest a while back, from Cranky Girl on wordpress.

k1p1 invisible bind off

I'm not sure what one I would use this for in the future. I used this for one of the sock, and it ended up kind of frilly. Once I got the hang of it, it was quick work, but just not what I was looking for. It might make a nice edging on a hoodie around the hood, it's less noticeable, especially if in a solid color, and won't be stretched out too much. I'll have to keep that in mind for a project I want to try.

The last one that I thought even worth mentioning is Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off. This is VERY loose, but I was disappointed in how it stayed stretched out. It'll be great for that cowl neck sweater I want to make though! This one is pretty simple. Just take a threaded tapestry needle, and go from right to left through two stitches, turn around, skip first stitch, and go left through right through the second stitch, and pull it off the needle, over and over.

Here is my finished sock, the first of my own design, with a 1/2 inch 2x2 ribbed cuff. You can't really see it too well, but I put 5 columns of three stranded braids across the top of the sock. It made it a bit more snug, which I like, but also much more time consuming. Happy Sock!!

Well, I do believe that is all for tonight, tomorrow I hope to get the last three inches of another sock for hubby done, I'm driving myself nuts with the 1x1 ribbing, of course I started this sock throwing, instead of picking, and my tension is too different to switch now. Bleh. Well, I know better for next time, and what is life if not one giant learning experience, especially for those of us who are creative!

Good night, and Happy Stitching!