Hose knitting and other knit bits

[sydnie7]

I'll echo the advice about online video tutorials -- some are better than others, but they are head-and-shoulders above trying to decipher the illustrations in "learn to knit" books! I like the site KnittingHelp.com and some of its videos have a link that lets you skip right to the "meat" of the stitch without having to listen over and over to the sometimes rambling commentary.

[Tobus]

Here's a question. Or two.

How much experience is going to be required to get to the point of knitting a pair of plain kilt hose? I know it will vary greatly depending on the person. But is it reasonable to expect to do it within a few weeks? A few months? Years? Or is a newbie pretty much relegated to pot-holders and such for a while?

Also, for someone experienced enough to knit a pair of hose, how much time does it take, assuming a reasonable working speed? 8 hours? 60 hours?

Lastly, for now, what is a reasonable start-up cost or investment I'd need to make in needles or other equipment to be able to knit simple stuff like kilt hose?

[Hothir Ethelnor]

I bought nylon yarn and needles for around $40.

I believe a pair of hose could be your first project if you're determined and stick to it (they won't be the best hose and the two might not match perfectly but they would be wearable.)

(from the newbie who decided to knit hose first and still hasn't finished them after a week and a half of intermittent work...)

[piperdbh]

Here's a question. Or two.

How much experience is going to be required to get to the point of knitting a pair of plain kilt hose? I know it will vary greatly depending on the person. But is it reasonable to expect to do it within a few weeks? A few months? Years? Or is a newbie pretty much relegated to pot-holders and such for a while?

Also, for someone experienced enough to knit a pair of hose, how much time does it take, assuming a reasonable working speed? 8 hours? 60 hours?

Lastly, for now, what is a reasonable start-up cost or investment I'd need to make in needles or other equipment to be able to knit simple stuff like kilt hose?

Experience: after a few potholders and a scarf, you'll be ready. I'd suggest you make a Christmas stocking first. That way, you can learn how to do it using big yarn, and the heel won't be as "ticklish" to learn. Then you can graduate to smaller yarn and smaller needles.

Time: with worsted-weight yarn on size 5 needles, I'd think 8-hours should be sufficient. One pair I made, with small yarn, small needles and cables, took about 22 hours for the pair.

Cost: a ball of worsted-weight yarn can be had for +/-$5, depending on the fiber and store where you buy it. Double-pointed needles are between $5-7, again depending on the store.

Chas:
If your mother would be willing to make the leg of the hose, she could mail the completed part to me and I'd make the heels and then mail them back to her. A UK knitter would be closer to you, and there's probably someone here who would be willing to make a silimar arrangement. There's probably someone who lives near her who could do this, too.

[Pleater]

For my rather square feet I knit a little rectangle, then pick up the edges and begin to knit in the round, adding stitches until it fits over my toe.

I then knit a tube until it fits over my foot back to where the top bumps into my ankle.

Then I knit a tongue shape to go under the heel, pick up stitches around it - so I am going from knitting horizontal to knitting the vertical around the back of the heel.

I do a knit 2 together or purl 2 together at the edges of the heel and that joins up the heel and the sides of the foot.

The tongue and the heel are done by knitting to and fro, then when you have the st for the heel plus one half the st for the foot left, you go back to knitting in the round as you have got to the ankle level.

It sounds really complicated, when read all at once, but when knitting it, taking it one stage at a time, it becomes clearer, and the shaping required to narrow or widen is obvious too - it makes socks which fit, and they are so comfortable. Wearing socks with those horrible ridges over the toes is incomprehensible.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Bugbear]

I think it's too complicated for me.

[Tobus]

I've been looking at knitting websites for a few hours, and it seems simple and straightforward enough that I'll give it a shot. Unlike all my other hobbies, at least there's not a huge investment in equipment.

I'm sure the confusing parts of it will start to make sense once I start doing it. And you folks will help me if I have questions, I'm sure.

[Bugbear]

I'm going back to bonsai trees. I don't think you can stand at the ball of yarn, knitting needles poised, for an hour, then walk away having done something by not doing something. Now that's a hobby.

[Heming]

Wow, this thread is really popular!

Here's a question. Or two.

How much experience is going to be required to get to the point of knitting a pair of plain kilt hose? I know it will vary greatly depending on the person. But is it reasonable to expect to do it within a few weeks?

To knit a pair of basic socks, you must master these stitches:
- casting on
- the knit stitch
- the purl stitch
- the slip
- casting off (also called binding off)
- securing loose yarn ends (from where you start a new ball of yarn)

Depending on what kind of heel you knit, you will need to master one or both of these:
- the wrap and knitting a wrapped stitch
- picking up stitches along a previously worked edge

This may look like Greek, but they are the most basic and most useful knitting techniques, and also the least complicated!

Also, for someone experienced enough to knit a pair of hose, how much time does it take, assuming a reasonable working speed? 8 hours? 60 hours?

That depends on your gauge, i.e. how thick your yarn is, what size needles you're using and how tightly or loosely you knit. This varies from person to person. A pair of socks is relatively little work compared to other projects such as sweaters and baby clothes, but more work than a stocking hat or a scarf. Using standard sock yarn on 3.5 mm needles (US size 4, UK size 9/10), I can knit a pair of normal socks in an evening (3-4 hours) and a pair of kilt hose in two evenings. I do this while watching Star Trek!

If your a beginner, you may spend most of your time working out the instructions rather than actually knitting on the first sock, so you should at least double those estimates.

Lastly, for now, what is a reasonable start-up cost or investment I'd need to make in needles or other equipment to be able to knit simple stuff like kilt hose?

Keeping in mind that I'm in the most expensive country in the world, these are my estimates:

A pair of kilt hose would require 4 to 5 standard balls of yarn, depending on what yarn you use. For regular socks you'll probably use slightly less than three balls per pair. You would also need one set of double-pointed needles (often shorthanded to dpns). One set is five needles. Do not buy sets of four needles, they are utterly useless.

A ball of cheap sock yarn costs me about US$ 1.5, and a set of good needles about 6 to 7 dollars. Try getting hold of bamboo needles, they are easier to work with than metal ones. So for a beginner's pair of "normal" socks the investment is about 10 to 11 US dollars if you're shopping in Norway (add cost of plain ticket and hotels if you're not already in Oslo).

The needles are of course good for use for many years, my oldest set of needles have been in the family since the early 1960's and are still good.

More luxurious yarns will easily cost up to ten times more than basic sock yarn, and different yarns need different size needles.

If you're just learning to knit, I recommend trying your hand on this scarf first:

Get som very chunky synthetic yarn, about four or five balls. This should be very cheap. Get one circular knitting needle in a gauge appropriate for the yarn (at least 5.5 mm - US size 9, UK size 5). This is not as cheap as the yarn, but you'll be using the same needles for a sweater next year.

Ask the staff of the yarn shop (or your favourite mother) to cast on for you. Depending on gauge, ask them to cast on about 30-40 stitches. Less stitches for chunkier yarn. Now, here's your pattern:

Slip the first stitch (this means moving it from the left needle to the right without knitting it at all). Knit to the end of the row. Turn your work around, making sure that all the stitches are on your left hand needle and the yarn is away from you (we call this behind the work, or in the back). Now repeat what you did for the last row.

Do that for every row until you've used almost the whole ball of yarn. When there's about 6 inches of yarn left, let that end hang loose and pick up the end from your next ball of yarn. Let about 6 inches of that hang loose as well, and keep knitting with the new yarn. There will be a small gap where you started a new ball, but after you've secured the yarn ends (when all the knitting is done) the gap disappears.

Keep going till all the yarn is gone, get the person who cast on for you to bind off, and ask them to show you how to secure loose ends. Now wear your scarf with pride!

Next up is a matching stocking hat and sweater.

[Heming]

Addendum:

It's possible to knit socks without turning the heel at all, but that requires sewing up a few gaps in the heel area where you would otherwise knit the shape into the heel.