How to Adapt a Sock Pattern to Your Favourite Needles
Since I started knitting socks a couple years ago I have almost exclusively used double pointed needles. A lot of people think I’m crazy for doing this and I have definitely scared the occasional newcomer at knit night with my many needles, especially when a 5th is in play to cable.
Most of the first sock patterns I made didn’t specify what kind of needles to be using in the sock pattern. As I’ve branched out and tried patterns from more designers I’ve noticed that a lot of patterns are written for magic loop. I have never tried socks on magic loop, but I have tried sleeves and I HATE this method. Which means I always adapt. I don’t know how many people are turned off by this, but I thought it could be helpful for some to have a guide for how to use patterns for your favourite needles.
First of all, the ways I’ve seen sock patterns written have talked about:
- Magic loop
- Double pointed needles (DPNs)
- 9″ circular needles
- 2 circular needles
I’ve also tried Circular DPNs a little bit, though I’ve never seen a pattern suggest those in the materials section.
What to do if you don’t want to use Magic Loop
Sock patterns written for magic loop will talk about Needle 1 and Needle 2. Usually this means that the total number of stitches will be divided in half, but not always, so make sure you double check!
If you want to use DPNs or 9″ circulars I recommend using a different coloured stitch marker from your beginning of round (BOR) stitch marker to mark this, as different stitch patterns and potential increases or decreases may be referred to in relation to Needle 1 or Needle 2. If there are stitch markers that mark pattern repeats I recommend choosing your halfway marker in a different colour from those as well.
If you want to use Circular DPNs then it can be a straight swap. These needles come in sets of 3. Two needles are on the work and you knit onto the third needle. I used a progress keeper clipped onto my work so I knew which one was needle one.
What to do if you don’t want to use DPNs
There are lots of reasons people don’t like DPNs, I think the main reason is the potential for ladders appearing between needles. Lessening these can be done most easily by using 9″ circulars, which also make it easier with lace, cables or other patterning to make sure the stitches don’t get divided between two needles.
If you would rather use magic loop, in most cases you can simply divide the total number of stitches in 2 so you have a needle 1 for the first half and needle 2 for the second half of the stitches. Just be sure to pay attention to how many stitches are worked with any front patterning as I have seen it sometimes be one more or one less stitch than half of the total.
This strategy also works for using circular DPNs as described above.
Are there other strategies you use with sock patterns on different needles?
