In this tutorial, we're going to run through
the techniques used in my new sock pattern written for flexible double-pointed needles. And really the techniques used in this sock
pattern, you can use any kind of needles, you can use DPNs or nine-inch circulars or
magic loops or whatever but, magic loops, just one magical, but this pattern is written
especially for flexible double-pointed needles, also known as FlexiFlips by Addi, but now
there are other brands. Just last week I released a video on options
for different flexible double-pointed needles and I have two, this, that makes my third
video on flexible double-pointed needles, but the other two are titled FlexiFlips because
up until very recently, Addi and their FlexiFlips are called Crazy Trios outside of North America
were the only needles, we're the only ones available but now other needle manufacturers
have gotten into the game. Anyway, you can use flexible double points
on any sock pattern. My hope is that with the handholding that
I'm going to do and in the pattern I'm very careful about where you are, what stitches
are on what needles, what happens next when you're working the toe and the heel especially
to get you comfortable with using these needles so that you can use these needles with any
sock pattern that you encounter. That's what I'm hoping and I hope you enjoy
the pattern as well, because I did pick a toe and a heel that works especially well
with these needles. Now I don't want to talk a lot about these
needles because I did just release the video last week where we kind of take a deep dive
into them and the different brands but I will say that as a knitter I really like them,
I really like working with them. And as a knitting teacher I really, really
like them because they do solve a lot of the problems that people encounter or complaints
that people have about working with double-pointed needles, working with magic loop, working
with nine-inch circulars. You just don't have a lot of those issues. And you watch that video, I talk about it
more. Just click the little eye in the upper right-hand
corner to see that video, I'll also put a link to it in the video description field. So this pattern is written entirely for flexible
double points, holding your hand, showing you the techniques and how to do it. These are my socks here, finished socks. This pattern is written for both men and women
and it is advanced beginner-intermediate pattern. I'll say this, if you are comfortable with
the basics and you've never knit socks before, this might not be the greatest pattern. I will actually give you a link to a pattern
that I think is maybe a little bit better for your first pair of socks. But if you've knit socks before, that's fine. If you've knit socks, you have some sock experience,
this is probably a fine pattern to use. The last thing that I'll say about these needles
is that we have, you know, different brands coming into it, it's likely the price is going
to drop on these a little bit because they're pretty expensive, you know. A set like these is close to $30. But if you're using them for socks, and really
that's what they're the best for. Their best for knitting, you know, small diameter
circulars, circles, but using them for socks, you're not really going to need to buy the
12 size set of them. there isn't even a 12 size set. But you won't need, you'd maybe just need
one or two sizes for the socks that you're knitting. So they do end up being, you know, not so
expensive when you think about the fact that there are actually six needles here, right? And if you're using a nice brand, they're
well made and you know, probably worth the price. Anyway, that's enough of talking about these
needles, If you want to get your pattern to follow along, you can click the little eye
in the upper right-hand corner to go to my website. I'll also put a link to my socks on flexible
DPNs, a link in the video description field below. And I'm gonna walk you through all the techniques
used. And next step we're going to get started with
the cast on. We are ready to get started with the cast
on for these socks. First I want to give you a closeup, tell you
about an experiment I did while I was knitting these. Let's take a look. Here is a shot of my finished socks, and the
experiment that I did with these is to solve the question over two needle sizes that are
commonly used for socks, 2.5 and 2.75 millimeters, and you're talking about a quarter of a millimeter
difference. I wanted to see what is the difference. And so I knit this pair because there's one
clippy on here. This was 2.75 and this was 2.5, the bottom
one is 2.5. And I'm gonna flip these over and line them
up to show you, I mean, the stripes ended up being different, that's for sure. But we are talking about maybe three stitches,
the whole width, not even that two stitches, the whole width of the socks different. The 2.75 or slightly, slightly, slightly bigger. So when you are trying to figure out what
size needle to use, I will, both of these socks fit me, they are a legitimate pair,
no problem. They both fit me. But if you want a slightly wider sock, use
2.75, you want to slightly narrower sock, use 2.5 or you can use one size on each sock
like I did here. I don't recommend it. This is another pair that I'm knitting. I actually, this colorway is a from Turtle
purl and it's a Christmas colorway and I cannot think of the name of it right now. It might actually not be for sale right now
since Christmas is over but I know this one is from Turtle purl and is called Tickled
Pink. This is the socks that I'm getting right now. So first up we need our flexible double-pointed
needles and our yarn. I'm going to be using bigger yarn and thicker
yarn and bigger needles to demonstrate this so that you can see what I'm doing. We're gonna start with Judy's Magic Cast-On
which is perfect for these needles. We're gonna start at the tippy tip of the
toe, Judy's Magic Cast-On. First thing you want to do is make a slipknot
and get one of your needles in there. And then take a second needle and line it
up with the first. And you don't have to leave yourself much
of a tail, you do want to leave, you know, I'm gonna leave about 10 inches here, it's
gonna be way more than I need, but that's fine. So you'd want to set yourself up like this
and you want to have your left-hand fingers in the yarn like you're doing a slingshot
cast on, and I'll demonstrate that slower for you. The two strands are hanging there, take your
pincher fingers and put them between and open your fingers and then grab those two yarn
strands with your other fingers to create some tension. Okay. Judy's Magic Cast-On. Actually, you know what? I've released a slow-motion version of Judy's
Magic Cast-On. If you are just doing this for the first time,
I'll give you a link here. Just click the little eye in the upper right-hand
corner or look in the video description field to see my slow-motion Judy's Cast-On. But here, I'm willing to show it slowly, but,
I mean, the other video's dedicated to this. So, the Slipknot is on what I'm going to call
the back needle and we need to put a stitch on the front needle. To do that, we're going to reach the front
needle up to grab the yarn coming from my index finger and now we need to put a stitch
on the back needle. We're gonna reach that needle down to grab
the yarn from my thumb then back to the front needle, reach to grab that yarn from my index
finger, reach. I don't think I ever thought reach while I
was doing this, but it's actually easier to do faster than slower. I'll slow it down again though, I'm actually
doing it tight. I'm going to use the yarn on my thumb to put
a stitch on the top needle or the back needle, the yarn on my finger to put it on the front
needle. Okay. And you'll follow your pattern for the size
you're knitting to get that number on the correct number of stitches, and that's what
I'm gonna do for now to demonstrate this. I'm gonna turn the work. And we already have a right and a wrong side
to our work. You see here, this is smooth and you see here
we have what looks like purl bumps. This is the wrong side, this is the right
side. I have my working yarn and my tail over here
on the side of the work earth, the not left side of the work because I just use right
to mean not wrong. Okay. I'm just going to twist these two yarns together
a little bit, secures it just a tiny bit, and then pull the bottom needle to the cord. We aren't going to be using our needles like
this for very long but just this very tippy tip of the toe, I want those stitches on the
cord. And now we're going to knit across the stitches
here and this is the very, very fiddliest part of the whole sock, the first few rows. All toe up socks I think are like this. But it does get easier. It's kind of slow going because you saw how
tight I did this cast on. I think I do it a little bit looser when I'm
not trying to do it so slowly. When you get to the end, turn the work. Again, slide these bottom or front stitches
to the cord, and we're just going to knit across these stitches on this needle. Knit that stitch. And then from here on, the rest of the stitches
on this needle are all twisted, so we're going to knit them through the back loop. Instead of putting our needle in like this,
we're going to put it into the back loop just for this cast-on row. Everything is different for the very tippy
tip of the toe. And then this last stitch is the slip slipknot. Okay. The very fiddliest of the fiddly things is
behind us now, still a little fiddly, not quite as bad. We want to keep these stitches on the cord
and you can see now even better like this is definitely the right-hand side of the work,
this is definitely the wrong side. Right? Correct? Right means too many things, now that I think
about it. Okay. We want to start increasing, and this first
stitch and the last stitch on the needle and the first stitch on the next one and the last
stitch on the next one, we're going to KFB or knit front-back. So I put my needle in, wrap it, and then don't
take this stitch off the left needle. Put your needle into the back loop of that
stitch and give the working on a tug because we're switching from one needle to the next. Wrap it and pull it through. And that's a KFB, we're gonna do it again
here at the end of this needle. The last stitch, work a normal knit stitch
but leave that stitch on the left needle. Get your tip of your right needle to the back
loop of that stitch, wrap it and pull it through. Now we flip our needles around and we do the
same thing on the other side. Again, keep those stitches on that cord just
for now. It's making our first and last stitch is pretty
tight but we just want to make it, I just did a KFB there. Yes, I just want to make sure that we have
really good tension with no loose stitches in the tippy tip of the toe and we have so
few stitches. Again, KFB here. And now the next round we're just going to
net and the way that we know that we're at the beginning of the round is that our tail
end is here next to the beginning of our round. The space between these two needles is the
beginning of our round and our tail end is right there. So I'm just gonna knit across these stitches. That first stitch, really give it a tug to
eliminate any extra yarn between the two needles. Turn the work and same thing on this other
side. Extra good tug on that yarn on the first stitch. We aren't even using FlexiFlips the way that
they're intended to be used yet because we have so few stitches, but we'll get there. Okay. Turn the work. We're gonna alternate the KFB rows with a
plain knitting row. So this is a KFB row. You can go ahead and leave your stitches on
the needle. This time we don't have to have it on the
court anymore. See, it's already getting less fiddly. And KFB, and turn the work. Okay. KFB. And KFB. And KFB. Okay. Now we're getting to a place where it's actually
starting to take shape like the toe of a sock, right? You can see that? Just barely but it's there. And so there are a few things we can do. Before we get much more knit, you can go ahead
and weave in this end so that you don't have to do it later and it's kind of out of the
way, you don't have, fewer things flopping around. And then take a marker or a safety pin and
put it here at the beginning of your round so that you know that the spot between these
two needles is the beginning of your round. And you're going to keep alternating increased
rows with plain knitting rounds, just following your pattern for your size, how many of these
rounds that you're gonna knit and your stitch count and everything else. And when you finish the toe, I'll use this
as an example, I take a tapestry needle and a little piece of thin yarn and put it in,
after the last round of the toe, just put it in the, you know, one of the stitches in
the last round of the toe to mark it so that I know exactly when the tow was finished so
I can count these rounds to make a sock to match, right? Now in my socks here, I did the tone, a different
color, so I didn't have to mark the rounds, it's obvious as soon as the pink starts, that's
where I started the foot, I stopped knitting with the grade, the last round of the toe. And then I just was able to count the stitches
to make this the socks match. It's actually really easy to make socks match
when you have this self-stripping yarn that lines up so perfectly. But if you're just using one color, you definitely
want to mark that. And before we finish up with this section,
I want to demonstrate to you like using these needles and going around and around and what
it's like because we don't have enough stitches on here for me really to show you on the sample,
so I'm gonna show you on my working sock, my sock in progress and how knitting with
these works. So I have my, this is the beginning of my
round here, my working yarn is coming from the back needle. I'm gonna squish my stitches on the front
needle up close to the tip, working yarn here. I have my back needle with a strong bend in
it like this You see how that? With regular DPNs that aren't flexible, you
have to have three needles to make these shapes, but with flexible needles, you just need two. And so just start knitting across. And you see this last stitch over here where
the working yarn was coming from it, unlike magic loop, it's on the needle and not on
the cord. So it keeps you from getting ladders in your
work. These needles help you to not have ladders
in your work the way that you can get them with magic loop. This is how you're going to knit the foot
of the sock as well as the cuff of the sock, just going around and around. Okay. Then you turn your work just like we did with
the toe, squish the needle, the stitches to the front, to the tip of the needle, ready
to work it. The working yarn is coming from the other
needle. You put your needle in, wrap it and give it
a tug so there is no drag between the two and then just keep knitting. You know, you might have your hands different,
you might hold the needles a little bit different but you'll get into a swing of it and how
it works for you. Okay. So we went through the techniques in the toe
and that's how you're going to use these needles for knitting around and around and around. And next up, we're going to talk about the
gusset, which is really easy. We'll cover that next. Once you finished the toe and the foot, the
pattern will tell you exactly where to stop knitting just the regular plain knitting foot
part of it to start the gusset increases. The pattern will tell you exactly for your
shoe size, the length of your foot, where to start doing that. And actually this is a pretty easy part of
the video. Let me go ahead and show you. Pretty easy part of your sock knitting. So toe, foot. You see this line right here? We increase stitches. A lot of people say that this is what makes
a really well-fitting hand-knit sock is to have a gusset like this. So we're gonna increase to accommodate the
widest part of the foot which is the, you know, the heel here and that's what we're
gonna do in our socks. Again, I'm using thicker yarn and bigger needles
to demonstrate so you can see what I'm doing. Here is my, beginning of my round is here
between these two needles, that's the marker for where I finished the toe. I can also add another marker here to show
where exactly where I'm starting the gusset increases tip so I can make the second sock
to match. That's actually what I did here. Okay. First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to
start with a make one, right. So I have this bar between the two stitches,
I'm going to pick that up and put my left needle in back to front and then put my needle
into the front loop of that stitch to knit it. And if you need a slow review of make one
stitches, I'll give you a link here and also in the video description field below. We want to use make one right and make one
left in the gusset increases, because you saw how nice that line of stitches looks? Yeah, that's what we're after here. And here we're going to do a make one left,
I'm gonna pick up the bar between those two stitches and put my left needle in from front
to back and the knit that through the back loop. And then just knit across the stitches on
the sole. All of the action for the gusset increases
is on the first needle. I don't normally knit over a table like this
with the needle tapping on the table. Okay. That was the first round of gusset increases. The second round of gusset increases is just
a plain knitting round which you don't have to watch me do, but I'm gonna show you. We need to add a marker to our work, we need
to add two markers so that we separate what is the instep of the sock from the gusset
increases so you always know where your gusset increases are. And I didn't have you place a marker on the
first round just because we had enough going on with making one in between the two needles. So this time, we're just going to knit, this
is like round three of the socks. You knit one. And we're going to make one right again, which
is hard because I just didn't make one right on the last round. It won't be this hard when you have actually
I can't even do it. You're gonna make one right and once you work
a plain knit round between the two, it's a breeze. And then you're gonna place a marker and knit
across the instep stitches, and you have an exact stitch count in your pattern and then
you're gonna place some marker, make one left and then knit one. And what you end up with, as you keep working
the increases, this is the beginning of my round, you end up with a lot of gusset increases,
your marker, your instep stitches, your marker, and more gusset increases, and the sole of
the sock just continues to be just playing knitting. And that's how we end up with that awesome
line of gusset increases on both sides that make such a nice fitting sock. As you would expect, your pattern tells you
exactly what to do on each row and you'll finish the gusset increases. And next up we will start the Flegal heel. Once you've finished the gusset increase rounds,
we are ready to work the Flegal Heel. And I will mention again if you the pattern
and tells you exactly where you need to be and if you're switching colors for the toe
and the heel, the pattern also specifies exactly when to switch colors from your main sock
color to your toe-heel color and back to your main sock color. So do pay attention to that in the pattern. But we're gonna get started on the Flegal
Heel which is kind of not kind of, it really is ideal for these needles, I'm really happy
with how it works out. So let's take a look. Here we are with our gusset increases finished
and again I'm working with much thicker yarn and bigger needles so you can see what I'm
doing. And this is just, I'm only working with a
few stitches. This is the beginning of my round I've knit
across the gussets increases, knit across the instep stitches and knit across those
and I finished that ahead of time so you wouldn't have to watch me do it. And I'm here at the sole stitches, the bottom
of the foot and this marker is there as a favor to myself because I can't count and
talk at the same time. You're going to follow your pattern up to
the middle of the heel stitches. And you'll be counting to get there, I don't
have to because I have a marker that I've placed there for myself. And then you want to place a marker, I'm gonna
use this little ring marker and then follow the rest of the pattern for shaping this heel. I'm going to knit two together, knit one and
turn the work. Now this is where it gets really different
from anything else we've done to this point. We have the wrong side of the work facing
us. We are working on purl stitches and we aren't
going to be working all the way around on all the stitches in the sock anymore, we're
just gonna be working on just this heel section, so we're gonna turn the work each time. You want to slip one purl five. Little awkward, you'll get the hang of it,
it's not very many stitches. purl two together. Whoops, purl one, turn work. Now we're back with the knit side of the work
facing us, right? Slip one, knit six, knit two together. And you'll see there's a big gap between those
two stages, that's how you know you're on track. If you're knitting two together at that big
gap, you're on track. Knit one, turn work back on the purl side. Slip one, purl seven. There's a big gap, purl two together, purl
one turn work. And with these decreases on each row, we're
eating up all of these stitches, right? And let me show you what this Flegal Heel
looks like. We are still down here but we're eating up
these stitches and making this shape at the back of the heel that looks so cool and shaping
the whole thing. And eventually, you're going to keep working
back and forth until you don't have any stitches left on this needle or on these two needles. We need to start eating up stitches from this
needle, from the gusset increases that we did. And that's the next thing I want to show you
because this is what I recommend doing. It's pretty handy with these needles. I have shaped the back of my heel and this
marker at the center back of the heel is the new beginning of my round. And I need to keep working the, you know,
slip one, knit however many, knit two together, knit one, turn work but I don't have any more
stitches left. I need to use these. This is what I'm going to do. I'm gonna take my third needle and transfer
those stitches before the marker onto my third needle. And you can go on and take that marker out
because we're finished with it. And then transfer those stitches onto the
heel we've been working on, this heel. Yes, the heel we've been working on, the needle
we've been working on with the heel stitches, because we're gonna eat all of these stitches
up with these decreases that we're doing. And we'll do the same thing on the other side. Transfer all of these stitches to the third
empty needle up to the marker. Remove the marker and then transfer them. I like to transfer them to the right. Well actually no, we're gonna leave those
there because we're gonna come back to... To we're not, we're gonna transfer. Actually I think it's easier to transfer them
from the other side at the end of the row. It doesn't matter, we'll get there. I might have to transfer them back. I will have to transfer them back to my working
ones here. No problem. Sometimes you think you got it 100% right
but it's easy enough to fix, right? It's knitting. That's an awesome thing about knitting. Okay, now I'm ready to work the next row. I'm gonna slip one and knit across and then
I'll be eating up these stitches over here. You can just leave them on the third needle. And so we have the instep stitches, we're
not going to work. We're going to keep following our pattern
to work across the heel stitches. Keep decreasing at the end of each row until
we get the Flegal Heel shape. And then once we get, we'll pull my working
sock back in here. Once you get the heel finished and here's
my finished heel, you're going to just keep working around and around and around again. Again, the pattern is very clear about where
to change back to your main color if you changed color for the heel. Around and around and around again and because
these are toe up socks, you can pretty much keep going until you're just about out of
yarn and then work some ribbing which is all laid out in the pattern and a stretchy bind
off and you're done. Now I'm just looking to see if... That seemed really easy, it was really easy. We did, we knit the whole pair of socks. Anyway, this pattern, like I said, is written
for these needles. My hope is that it will get you comfortable
with the needle, so you continue to use them in all kinds of patterns. But maybe I'll have more patterns in the future
that are written specifically for these needles. See how you guys like this one and go from
there. I hope you enjoy the knitting. Good luck.
