My grandmother used a contrasting piece of yarn. It’s floppier, but works just as well. She’d have a darning needle threaded onto the top end and if the pattern called for picking up more stitches than one every other row, she’d often use that darning needle to pick them up along the way. That way, she’d already have her stitches ready and picked up whenever she needed them. It’s especially useful when doing decorative borders on shawls and wraps. The wire of interchangeable knitting needles works too. They’ll often come with screw-on ’stoppers’ that are quite useful. Once you’re ready to use the stitches, you can even simply screw n the needle tip you need.
Better late than never! I'm a bit over a quarter of the way through a mitered-square afgan that requires A LOT of picking up stitches. I ordered that tubing so fast, my keyboard was smoking'. Thank you!
Mind blown! I've never even heard of stitch saver, and I just recently learned about using lifelines! Thank goodness for artists like you who share your expertise with the rest of us on RU-vid!
Yes! Thank you! I buy it by the 50 foot spool, which is alot of stitch saver for very inexpensive! I always forget it is also called Pony Bead Lacing Cord!
I hate st pickups. HATE!! I avoid patterns that require it. Well avoid no more! You have just changed the way I knit. Thank you from this new subscriber
Using the small needle on the sides of a heel flap is genius - will create nice smooth even edge -thanks! I am always adjusting lengths etc, I will try this for larger pieces with the saver. But, I may wrap every row and adjust the 3st-4rows on the first row by knitting 2 together or ssk. great tips!
Since you work the wrap at the start of every row that automatically means you have one wrap every other row on the sides, I'm not sure how you would work it so you have a wrap at each end of every row... let me know if you find a way to do that?
J’ai compris. Quelle discussion interessante ! Vous êtes géniales et j’adore l’émulation que vous suscitez. J’espère Lola, que vous allez donner votre nom à cette technique qui en appelle d’autres ! Je vais aller acheter votre patron de chaussettes. MERCI ET BRAVO !!! Marielleknit
This is fabulous! No matter how often I have tried to learn to pick up stitches and make them look tidy, I haven’t been able to master it! This technique solves that, and I no longer need to cringe when I have to pick up stitches! Off to buy your sock pattern so I can practice this. Thank you!
I loathe picking up stitches to make a heel and currently have three pairs of socks that are stalled at this point. I really have to be in the mood to do it. This is a genius tip! Can’t wait to try it and finish my socks!❤
This is brilliant! I have been liking garter stitch toes for my socks. I watched videos on how to pick up around the edges in garter stitch, but the video has bulky yarn in a light color. I always seem to be using dark yarn for my socks, so I can barely see the stitches, let alone the bumps on the side. The small circular needle variation will be perfect for that.
Thank you for this Terrific technique! I can see this method of using Stitch Saver will work beautifully for making my “ Boxy Toes” method that I have used for years on socks. This method I use involves knitting a 6 or 8 stitch length of stocking or garter stitch on a provisional cast on, then picking up 14 or 16 stitches along each side to form a rectangle. By increasing at each of the 4 corners, you get a tremendous roomy toe, great for comfort and diabetic feet. Can’t to try out this technique with Stitch Saver!
You wouldn't believe after many years of knitting and picking up stitches I think I actually finally figured it out and then I see your video, like a few minutes too late, as always. However, I did try your method after I finished the first sock, but not using the 'line' that you used, instead I used a short double ended needle that is used to make a piece round (sorry I cannot remember the name of the needle) so you have no seam to sew up, like for yokes, guess what it worked perfectly. I left the needle end at the end of the row being knitted, however, there could be one side one way and one side the other, but it worked yay. I realise not every knitter has these needles, I just happened to acquire some passed on from a friend, who doesn't knit. Therefore if my method works and yours does too, we are both winners. I am one of these people if I haven't got the right thing I will find something that does work, must be the country ole girl coming out in me. Thank you for your idea!!!
@@LauraNelkin yes I had the cord attached, it was much easier than the needle and gave the stitches 'weight' so at least those ones didn't fall of the needle. The cord is not screwed in, they are I suppose glued in and are quite annoying as that is where I totally lose everything as it comes apart, or is hard to get the stitches over the needle and stitches get snagged, if that makes sense. When making socks I used five needles, and often lose needles off the end, so I thought just using the one double ended with the cord would work, it didnt as I had to spend each row wriggling the stitches so I could knit them, so five needles it is. Thanks for your reply.
Love your t-shirt! Where can I get one, please?! This technique looks fantastic! Going to try it on my next sock project! Thank you so much for sharing!
I stopped knitting because I couldn’t grasp picking up stitches, and no one could tell me how it was done. I think I may have to pick up my needles, and my stitches, to knit again. Thank you!
Is there a thinner version of stitch saver available? I’d love to use it for socks, but I ‘m a loose knitter and use 00 (1.75 mm) and the loops would be too large.
Ah, I talk about this in the second half of this video! The trick is to use a small gauge (like 1.75mm) circ ndl! The silicone tubing doesn't come smaller than the 2mm that I know of!
Brilliant... a sock i'm working slips first stitch every heel row. Feels to me that since the carried "stitches" are actually "between" rows, it isn't necessary to slip those first stitches.. but that'll change texture so i won't try this for second sock ... nonetheless, this is brilliant! Thank you
@LauraNelkin sometimes picking up that slipped stitch feels like it's thin (one leg or both, as discussed above).. if we're in between rows, it'll maybe be a more sturdy base for gusset row? Will try... thanks!!!
That is one way of picking up sts, what I do with this technique is wrap it so that the leading leg is on the left and you work it through the front which twists the st. Try some swatches with the same yarn both ways and tell me what you think!
So if I understand correctly, there would be no need to slip the end stitches on the heel flap? I think that is just done to make it easier to pick up the stitches later?
I still slip those stitches, I haven't tried it without doing that... the other thing the slipped stitch does at the edge is tighten up the row gauge a bit. You'll have to experiment with that!
I am fairly new to knitting sweaters and socks, this looks awesome! Being a semi-newbie, would this work for picking up stitches at the underarm to knit the body of a top-down sweater??? I am very poor at visualizing how this would work. Thank you for the fabulous knowledge that you share!
I find myself wondering if there is a way to use this with the after thought heel in a sock. Like could you use the stitch saver as the waste yarn or something like it.
This is awesome! I don’t like picking up stitches so will have to try this technique. I’m working on a shawl pattern that will pick up stitches for the border. The designer has you slip the first stitch on every row to facilitate that. Can this method be used if the first stitch is slipped? Or would you even need to slip the first stitch with this method? I’ll do a swatch to test it if you haven’t tried that yet.
This is a wonderful video, a very ingenious twchnique! You have definitely covered some issues I hadn't thought of. But I do have one question. How do you handle projects with thicker yarns? How does one get those ~2mm size stitches onto 5mm cords? Also, you mentioned you twist the stitches when knitting them from the picked up side of the heel flap. When I twist stitches, I knit through the back loop. I did notice that the yarn is placed over the cord in the opposite direction of the normal yarn-over method. I imagine it would be easier to twist stitches by knitting tbl rather than trying to knit through the front the way you did, hence wrap the yarn around the cord in the normal yarn-over direction. I'd love to hear more about this!
As for the orientation of the stitches, you'll see that i wrap the yarn so that the left leg of the wrap is to the front of the ndl. So, if you work into that front leg it will twist the stitch and tidy things up. Try it out!
I stole a Scoubidou cord from my kids, works fine with needles up to 5 mm. If used again with thinner needles just trim the edge. For DK yarns I use some scrap yarn as a lifeline and pull it through a drinking straw!
Very nice tutorial. One petpeeve: people make the intro's way too long. Just get to the point with what we really are waiting for. Other than that a splendid tutorial. Thank you.
I hear you, I find when I don't do them I get lots of questions as most people need some information at the beginning... but what we do is timestamp the chapters so you can scroll through and jump to the different sections. They are also linked in the video notes so you can click on them there!
