How To
Socks: Don’t Magic Loop Without This Tip
My mom had this saying. She brought it up in almost every conceivable situation, and she was always right. “With the right tool, you can do anything.” Pencils, shovels, tweezers, typewriters, 1972 station wagons.
A Year of Techniques gives me the feeling of a fresh start each month. Tools? Check! The new pattern arrives. (Rachel Coopey’s Antirrhinum Socks.) The yarn is in. (It’s in the Shop—Rachel Coopey’s Socks Yeah!) Got my needle situation sorted out. It’s Go Fever.
I’ve made socks before, but never with the Magic Loop method (which I learned while making the Hyacinthus Armwarmers, Project 1).
So this has been a new experience for me, this Magic Loop.
It’s very clever. A 32-40″ circular needle can be used to make socks. No double-pointed needles, no two circs. Here’s a quick tutorial that explains Magic Loop. It works best with a flexible cable, I was told.
In my Go Fever, I started these socks using a needle with a cable that seemed OK. Not terrible, not all that flexible, but plausible.
I motored away. (Color note: I went rogue on the cuff—Rachel Coopey’s pattern calls for a clever contrasting color for the toe, but I love the heathered, marled thing going on in her Socks Yeah! gray yarn, so I’m going to use it for the cuff, heel, and toe.)
I have no idea what color this is. gray there, blue here, always beautiful.
Before long, I noticed that the two moments when I shift from one needle to the other were looking bad. Ladders! That dreaded loose part when you haven’t yanked hard enough on your yarn. My cable was so stiff that it fought the yarn when I tugged on it.
Did I rip out all this? I did not.
Mom’s tool rule is a great rule to keep in mind when you’re knitting, because it’s easy to decide, “This seems to be the wrong yarn/needle/pattern/knitting-related gizmo/tool. Why, I think I need to head to the yarn shop for the right tool.”
Which led me straight to Haus of Yarn, where proprietor Meg Strong set me up with a size 1/2.5mm Addi Turbo Rocket, as pliable and agreeable a needle as any I’ve ever seen. It’s so flexible that I can get a tighter yank on my yarn.
It’s all going to be OK. Mom! You’re right! With the right tool, I can make a pair of awesome pink socks.
Finally, as happens whenever I go into that shop, I leave with the right tool. And a Vogue Knitting magazine. And a Quince & Co. pattern for Laila Raabe’s Deschains pullover. And, for absolutely no reason I can remember, this:
Surely this is good for something.
A fat ball of Kauni Effekt, the wonderful yarn from Denmark that shifts color super slowly. I might need this thing. It gets all different colored down in there. Might come in handy.
With the right tool, I can do anything. Once I can think up a use for it.
We’re talking about our Antirrhinum Socks over in the Lounge. Prizes will flow over in the Ravelry group for folks who start a pair of Antirrhinum Socks—enter and you might win some choice swag. Details here.
For your Kauni Effekt yarn, check out Ilga Leja’s Bermuda Scarf. Not only is it one of my favorites, it was such a fund knit. http://ilgaleja.com/IYS-Bermuda.php
Well, that looks like a ton of fun! I am a sucker for eyelet rows.
Back in the day I made a wonderful mitered crosses blanket using Evilla art yarn, witch is basically the same thing as Kauni, and it looks like it’s precisely the same colorway you have there. I love that blanket! Here’s a link if you want to see how it turned out: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/BodilE/mitered-crosses-blanket–for-japan. Also I’m really enjoying all the inspiration I’m getting from the “new” MDK, keep up the good work! Happy knitting from Bodil in Norway.
Truly gorgeous blanket, Bodil. It really has a unity to it, with all those subtle color shifts. Greetings from Nashville—I am going to get to Norway somehow, some way. Thanks for being a part of MDK!
First, Socks Yeah! is some awesome yarn. Second, I looooove making socks with a 9-inch circular needle. No magic loop, no two circs, no double point. One tiny needle and you just go go go. Never any laddering and no wasted time flipping your work and readjusting needles. Yeah, I’ve had some knitting friends complain that the needles are too small or their hands are too big, but they reconsider when they realize that you can make a sock from start to finish on a coast-to-coast flight with this tiny-needle method. A simple sock, no fancy lace or cables, BUT STILL (and yeah, I am a product knitter). But we all have our favorite methods and that’s part of the beauty of knitting. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Which is a truly terrible expression.
Completely fascinating. I have to try this! I’ve made sleeves with a 12-inch circ, so what’s 3 inches less? Will find out . . .
I’m using the 12″ circs for socks as well! I have arthritis in my hands and find the three extra inches give me just enough “give” that my fingers don’t cramp up if I use them for long periods of time. And with these cute socks, it’s hard not to!
You can never, never go wrong buying a ball of Kauni. Worst case you can always mail it to me. I have to get my fix when visiting family since my LYS thinks it is too scratchy. Ha! Currently, I’m weaving little squares on my zoom loom. Somehow they all seem to go together. Maybe a blanket in the future? Who knows, but always leave with a ball of Effekt.
Scratchy? Who are these naysayers? I love this stuff! I haven’t even knit with it and I love it already like a fat little baby.
I’m a sock knitting two at a time toe up fiend. I’ve tried a lot of needles for magic loop and the ones I keep returning to are my Zing 100cm.
Perfect point for me and just the right heft. I highly recommend.
Is there a good video for doing two at a time? I just can’t picture how….
I love Staci’s tutorials. Here is her TAAT socks: http://verypink.com/2014/06/04/two-socks-at-a-time-toe-up-magic-loop/
Thank you! I think a worsted weight sock would be a great way to learn.
Addi Rockets were my choice (thank you LYS) for my first pair of socks or else I might have listened to my mom-“quit while you’re ahead!”. I just started Deschain and it is such a fast, lovely knit:)
Deschain is just so interesting–it couldn’t be simpler, yet it ends up looking so distinctive. What yarn are you using?
I had 4 skeins of Juniper Moon Farm Sabine-and it drapes so nicely:)
I love reading MDK! I really don’t knit that much and am a knitter who is just knitting simple things, but I love your writing and stories and comments. At 65, I hope that one day I too, will be knitting some of the beautiful patterns that you post!
Thank you, Cathy! Simple things are the best! I’ve been making swatches of new yarns we’re thinking of carrying, and it is weirdly satisfying to knit a little square, bind it off, and start another one.
I have also found that Chiaogoo circulars have a wonderfully flexible cable for magic loop, if you are a knitter on a budget. 🙂 I love mine. I learned how to knit socks with them last November, and now I can’t stop! I love the contrast cuff, heel, toe with those pink socks. It is simply beautiful. Serious sock envy over here.
I can recall going into a LYS in New York City years ago and asking for a 32″ size 1 needle. The proprietor was curious as to why I would want one that long (she didn’t carry them) and when i explained that it was for making socks, she not only laughed at me but called over a colleague to share in the humiliation. Needless to say, I got the right tool for the job at another LYS (my first Addis) and the other store soon went out of business.Nowadays I get the right tool for the job at my favorite LYS, along with helpful information, supportive comments, and more yarn than I imagined ever wanting. So, when you find a use for that Kauni, let us know. I’m still looking for the right project for mine.
I love the Wiggle Wrap for Kauni http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wiggle-wrap
And keep up the good work MDK! I always find you guys to be inspiring and fun, like we’d be friends IRL.
Even with flexible needles I get ladders or the opposite, I pull the yarn too tight to compensate. So I shift the “transfer point” every couple of rows by moving 2 stitches at the front of one needle to the end of the other. I don’t knit socks much but It works great with sleeves, too.
Yesssssss so much love for the slowwwwwww hypnotizing colour shifting Kauni. Making a project with a lovely yarn like this makes me feel like a super-wizard.
Come back for a second, wonderful, not-scratchy, magical Kauni and you could make this…. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/jostrong/easy-square-scrap-blanket-2
or see the Wiggle Wrap (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/tnhausfrau/wiggle-wrap) in person!!
As a Danish-American and total yarn ‘ho, I heartily commend your purchases.
I use Magic Loop a lot ( for hats, don’t Knit socks) but my favorite most rhythmically satisfying project I remember not for the needle (probably either 40″ Addi Turbos or Clover Bamboo) but for the yarn. It was Cascade 220 for a pair of toddler leg warmers (gifted before Ravelry, unfortunately) and the process was as smooth as silk, so maybe the yarn/needle combination has something to do with it as well. Although I agree a long flexible needle with a good point is vital. And, of course, you don’t always get to work with a “perfect” yarn so then the right tools are even more important. CiaoGoos work great for me too and maybe have a little more grab (? – not sure) when the Addis are too slippery.
The other trick to eliminate ladders is to snug the 2nd and 3rd sts, not just the 1st.
You can actually create ladders by yanking too hard
Try Chiaogoo brand they are much better than the Addis. As much a revalation as your right tool. The cord are ultra soft and the texture of the needles is great it ia a brushed finish….so nice. I used sock rockets for years and addi lace. I now would not use anything but the chiaogoo’s. Happy sock knitting. Try two at a time on one circular needle it is genious as well.
Knitters rule all others drool. Calette.