Needles and knitting sheaths for sock yarn

 I have knit dozens of pairs of socks from "sock yarn" on 6" - sock needles.  I wore out Addi Turbos knitting socks. I broke lots of little 6" wooden and bamboo needles. I listened to the conventional wisdom in the Social Media, and I tried diligently to implement it. 

However, most of the socks I knit were boot socks on 8" or 9" steel  US1 needles supported by 10" knitting sheaths. This brought the tip of the working needle up, into a space where I could see the knitting without hunching over, and without getting a sore neck.  Good posture is essential for sustained knitting.

Recently, as I have been seriously exploring serious knitting of sock yarns (worsted spun, high twist, 1,600 - 2,000 ypp).  I went back to making small swatches, on 6" - US 000 needles - pointy sock needles.  (I did not bother to test circular needles.)  This is not technology or technique that would ever get me to fine sweaters knit with such yarns -- e.g., Gladys Thompson's Sheringhams.  This tack was to eliminate the "impossible".

As a baseline, I am working with the 6-ply (3 x 2-ply cable) that I make up from commercial mill ends.  The commercial 2-ply has consistent grist, and I can cable it at consistent twist, to give me a uniform test yarn with minimum cost and labor. The labor (and cost) is in knitting the experimental swatches, otherwise called "socks". The faster the knitting, the lower the cost for the socks made!

My boot socks from gansey yarns have about 15,000 stitches in them. My sock-yarn-socks of the same size and height have about 32,000 stitches in them.  Ummm! Many of my test socks are only ankle high ~ 20,000 stitches  -  I think that is enough to test technology and technique. Compare that the number of stitches in a 4" swatch.

With all due respect to "sock needles",  I am back to knitting my standard 1,680 ypp sock yarn at a gauge of  12 spi x 14 rpi on 12" long needles made from AWG 14 music wire (spring steel, ~1.5 mm, 0.059 in.). The needles have blunt ends, which are almost flat, but are very slightly domed. I keep another 2 very fine, pointy needles handy for picking up stitches and a very fine crochet hook for fixing stuff.  The blunt needles are not good for picking up stitches or fixing dropped stitches, but they make up for those lacks with knitting speed and consistency.  I optimize my tools for their routine job, and make plans for - user errors. This allows knitting an object faster;  a couple of extra fine pointy knitting needles and a fine crochet hook do not take up much space in a knitting bag. The down side to this kit is that it needs a knitting bag that will hold 12" needles.    (I really do like the the compactness of  sock projects on sock needles, but the 12" needles let me knit much faster and much better.)  (Rutt also has descriptions and pictures of a "Terrible Knitter" swaving with short needles and Yorkshire Goosewing sheath. With fine sock yarn that technique leads to poor ergonomics. I believe that the purpose of knitting sheaths was and is, sustained knitting; e.g., good ergonomics.)

I think, the last couple of months recapitulating knitting tools and techniques for use with sock yarns and fine knit fabrics has been very worth while.  The best techniques that I found were remarkably similar to the best techniques I had found for gansey knitting, but had never made the effort convert to sock yarns. Thus, with sock yarns, I am back to 10" knitting sheaths, but because the forces are less, the sheaths can be finer, more delicate, and be held in place with more comfortable cloth tapes.  For sock yarns, I put the sheath under my right elbow, a few inches forward of where I place sheaths for 18" gansey needles.  The 12" by 1.5 mm needle arches forward under my right arm, and I rest my right wrist on it.  The knitting is in front of me, in easy view, while maintaining good posture.

This answers one of the questions left hanging by Brears in The Knitting Sheath published in Folk Life Volume 20.  Different knitting sheaths are of different sizes depending on the forces generated in producing specific kinds of fabric. Knitting weatherproof gansey require stronger (and larger ) knitting sheaths than knitting finer Sheringham style ganseys.

A knit stitch is comprised of 3 motions. 1) Pushing both needles forward and down with both hands. This also pushes stitches along the left needle toward the working tip with the next stitch(s) to be worked released by the left index finger.. 2) The right hand continues down so the right index finger can loop yarn over the tip of the working needle. 3) Pressure is released on the right needle and it springs up and toward the body, while the right hand moves stitches away from the tip of the needle. The motion of the right needle allow it to pop out of the last worked stitch leaving the just formed stitch on the right needle. Both needles continue their motion (mm). The working needle is ready to be popped into the next stich to be worked. Needle motions are small and can be wicked fast.

This provides feasible tools and technique for knitting Sheringham style objects. Such objects were knit and can be knit again. My fiber bins are overflowing, while my mill spun bins are near empty. Any large object I knit will be - hand spun. 

I start off with 4+1 needles, and switch to 3+1 needles as soon as I am past the heel. If I was knitting hose, I would likely knit the legs on 3+1 needles for greater speed.  I admit to still using 6" sock needles and 9" tubular needles on the fingers of gloves, thumbs of mittens, and such.

Both purl and knit stitches can be quickly made with blunt tipped needles supported in a knitting sheath. The direction of motion reverses, and the angle between the needles changes but in both cases making the stich is faster than with hand-held (pointy) needles including circular needles. Decreases and increases can be knit with blunt needles, but it is slower than with pointy needles. If most stitches in a project are increases or decreases than the project should be knit with pointy needles. My US 000 needle case contains both pointy and blunt needles. I switch back and forth depending on what I expect to knit the next half inch faster.  

One way or another, pointy needles require larger knitting motions. The flat tipped knitting pins or "pricks" can work with small motions, which can be much faster.  And the pricks can be easily made from a bit of music wire - one does not need to carefully grind points. And, it is easier to make knitting sheaths for blunt needles.