Sock Workshop Required Skills                      

Long Tail Cast On:

It is called the Long Tail because you have to place your slip knot so that you have enough yarn to knit on your first row of stitches. The general rule of thumb is that you will need to leave approximately three times the width of your project, plus 5 inches (to be woven into your work). This method produces a very even stitch with just the right amount of elasticity.

Two common methods of Long Tail Cast On:      (They produce the same exact result)

1)                The Continental or sling-shot method.    This method is demonstrated on www.knittinghelp.com and many other web sites.

2)                  The index finger method.   Hold the needle with the slip knot on it in your right hand. Place your working yarn to the right and the tail to your left. Use your left index finger as a knitting needle. Wrap your tail around your left index finger as if you were scooping up peanut butter out of a jar. (Point your index finger away from you. As you bring it toward you, scoop up the yarn.) Treat the yarn on your finger as a stitch you are about to knit. Go ahead and knit it. This is also demonstrated on www.knittinghelp.com, however the thumb is used instead of the index finger.

You do not want your cast on stitches to be too tightly.  How tightly or loosely your cast on will be is determined by how much tension you put on the tail. Don’t tug the tail too tightly.   Just tug it enough to close up the gap between the tail and the working yarn.

Slipping Stitches:   Slipping a stitch means transferring the stitch from the left needle to the right needle without working it. You don’t knit or purl it, you just move it over to the right needle.  There are two ways to do this: 1) as if to knit; or 2) as if to purl.  The general rule is that unless your pattern states otherwise, you should slip your stitch as if to purl.  By doing this, you are slipping the stitch without twisting it.

SSK:  Is the abbreviation for ‘Slip, slip, knit’.  It is a method of decreasing one stitch; the decrease slants to the left. It is done as follows: Slip two stitches knitwise, one at a time, from your left needle to your right needle. Take your left needle and place it through the front of the slipped stitches from left to right.  Knit the slipped stitches together.

K2 Tog:  Is the abbreviation for ‘Knit 2 together’. It is a method of decreasing one stitch; the decrease slants to the right. “K2tog” means exactly what it says:  Insert your right needle into the first two stitches on the left needle, just as you would do for a single knit stitch.  Knit these two stitches together.

Garter Stitch:                     Straight Knitting:          Knit every row.

                                                Circular Knitting:          Knit one row, purl one row.

Stockinette Stitch:          Straight Knitting:          Knit one row, purl one row.

                                                Circular Knitting:          Knit every row.