a mrrp on loom knitting and socks

[ysobel]

When I knit using needles, I generally do the toe and heel one of two ways, depending on which direction it was going. With toe-up, which was my preferred direction (but it depended of course on the pattern), I generally used Turkish cast-on for the toes, which is kind of like figure 8 caston but easier and doesn't involve half the stitches casting on twisted; and then short-row heel, which I didn't really like but I hadn't found a good alternative to. With top-down, I did the heel-flap-and-gusset thing as described here, which I found easier than short-row stuff, and then grafting the toes.

But there's this thing where I can't use needles any more.

(I'm trying to figure out if there's a way I can -- some sort of tong grip I can use with my left hand to hold the needle closer to my right hand, or something -- because I really miss needle knitting. Loom knitting is not the same.)

And the only information I've found for loom-knitting socks?

Short-row heels and toes.

That's it.

*whine*

I can maybe invent a way to do toe decrease and grafting (the graft part will be loose all the way through and I'd have to be careful about how to tighten it), but not the heel flap and gusset thing, nor any equivalent to turkish/f8 cast on, and I just. *whimper* I don't much like short-row stuff, plus it's kind of boring doing the same thing each time.

(my life is hard, woe, etc.)

Comments

[echan]

(Don't know if this will help at all, but maybe it will spark an idea or two.)

When I learned to knit I couldn't figure out how to hold the needles and do a stitch, so I used rather long needles and stuck the left-hand needle in my crotch, so it was competely stationary, and knit entirely with my right hand doing the right needle, and my left hand just looping the yarn.

[ysobel]

The problem isn't really holding the needles, so much as my hands are about eight inches apart, six if I stretch, and knitting kind of involves having hands in the same vicinity, in order to manipulate on-needle stitches and use yarn.

Plus which, I stopped using straight needles a long time ago, partly because they were awkward and partly because a lot of the stuff I was doing was knitting in the round. And the circs I normally use do not have long enough of a needle part that I can hold even the base securely and still have the tip reach my right hand.

(Also, I learned English [yarn in right hand] and cannot do Continental to save my life, which means that I have to be able to get my right hand to loop the yarn around the right needle after it's crossed the left, which ... is tricky when I can't get my hands together.)

[echan]

And about sock heels -- what about an afterthought heel? You knit the sock as a tube sock but you place a piece of scrap yarn at the heel site, then once you're done the tube you go back and knit the heel like a tiny hat, around and around in every smaller circles. (Wait, can you do decreases on a loom? I can't recall. >.<)

[ysobel]

You can technically do decreases on a loom, but if you're working in the round it gets kind of stretched out as you get smaller. And I think short row heels, much as I dislike them, are probably better than attempting decreases. I'm just grumbly about it :)