I just finished knitting the Turkish Bed Socks. They were a fun knit and are very comfortable to wear. I think they would be a great gift. The yarn I used is Louet MerLin, because I thought the linen in the yarn would make them sturdier, since I had planned to wear them as slippers around the house.
Changes I made:
(I am sorry, apparently I am not good at following instructions and make changes to almost every pattern I knit.)
Instead of casting off the stitches I ignored them and worked the heel on the middle stitches only as instructed. Later I used those live stitches and knit them together with the heel stitches. This way I avoided any seaming.
The other change I made is the toe. I don’t know what it is called, but it is very similar to decreasing for a hat. I used it because last month I talked socks with my MIL. She said that the toe I used to make is sturdier, because the band of decreases in a traditional toe tends to have gaps and get holes quickly. The funny thing is that I could not remember making the decreases that way. An old pair of socks that I had knit for my husband proved me wrong. This is how I made it:
Divide the stitches evenly onto 4 needles.
Decrease round: *knit every stitch until you have 3 stitches left, k2tog, knit 1* , repeat 3 times
- 1 Decrease round, knit 3 rounds even
- *1 Decrease round, knit 2 rounds even* repeat twice
- *1 Decrease round, knit 1 round even* repeat three times
- Decrease every round until there are 8 – 12 sts left
- Close the opening with kitchener stitch
I like the Turkish Bed Socks very much. They are cozy, cute and quick to knit. Next time I would like to make the instep a bit higher for even a better fit. I can also imagine playing with different colours or adding a stitch pattern to the top of the foot.
But the best thing about these socks is that froggyster gifted the pattern to me. Thank you, that was so very kind of you!
Hi – I am in the process of knitting these but I am stuck at the heel flap where it tells you to increase 6 stitches evenly on either side….can you explain how this is done? I am not a very experienced knitter and am stymied. Otherwise, everything is going well.
Sure! You are at the stage where you have a rectangle with a square on top. You only have live stitches on the top of the square. Now you are supposed to pick up and knit 6 stitches each on both sides of the square.
On a right side row you knit all your stitches, then pick up 6 stitches going down, turn, purl all the stitches and then pick up the stitches going down the other side of the square. This is a bit tricky, because you want to come in form the right side of the work, otherwise you end up with a little ridge showing. It helps to use a crochet hook to pull the yarn through the fabric.
Here are great instructions with photos:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATwin04TT.html
I agree about the seaming, pain in neck. Will do it your way. Thanks for the tip.
You are welcome. Happy knitting!