I always work row heels and I worked short row toes on a few pairs of socks as well because of their shape, like you said. I have never tried it while doing toe-up, thanks for the suggestion. One reason they are not as popular is maybe the need to graft many more stitches than a conventional toes?
Yes I imagine so. In my experience, keeping good tension on a graft over ~10 stitches can be quite tricky. It's not so bad if it's too loose, but if it ends up too tight it can look pretty awful.
The toe-up version doesn't require any grafting, since you just continue with the stitches from the provisional cast on, which is another divisive technique. I'm actually working on a piece about a very simple provisional cast on method, which should be coming out in a few weeks!
Why bother with a provisional cast on? Cast on the total number of stitches for the sock with JMCO on two needles . For me, this is 64, 32 on each needle. Knit one round across both needles. When you return to the start of the first needle, begin your short row toe. Construct it exactly as you do a short row heel. I use a shadow wrap method. When you complete the short row pattern, simply resume knitting in the round on the second needle. I have knitted dozens of toe-up socks in this fashion. No grafting, no provisional cast on.
Yes, this is exactly how I would go about it if I were using circular needles. I would categorize JMCO as a provisional cast-on, it just uses the needles instead of waste yarn. You can also use the Turkish cast-on as a provisional CO.
I often use JMCO when doing a folded hem on a bottom-up sweater: instead of sewing the cast-on edge, you can just knit the two sets of live stitches together to fold the hem.
One of the advantages of the short-row toe, in my opinion, is that you don’t need to learn any new technique, as long as you know how to do a provisional cast-on and short-rows. Many knitters struggle to learn JMCO, and this puts them off toe-up socks.
Additionally, you can use double-pointed needles or short circulars, but this is extremely fiddly with JMCO or other closed cast-on techniques.
I guess I think of a provisional cast-on as something like the crochet cast-on, where you have to pick out the waste yarn and fiddle with it, whereas with my method, it's just a regular cast-on, but some stitches are inactive until you're ready to use them. While JMCO takes some practice, it's not that different from other CO methods.
A short row toe is just really nice. I like to try new heels on my socks, but I always do a short row toe.
I've been making some Palindrome socks (Knitty) and FlexiFlips. I do a three-needle bind off to finish up the top-down sock and to mirror the look, a row of Vikkel braid on the toe of the toe-up sock. I have become of devotee of the FlexiFlips/Flyers style needles.
Yeah, I’d probably just expand the definition to include any cast-on with inactive stitches that are worked later, whether that’s on waste yarn or a spare needle.
I’m also a big fan of JMCO. I went through a phase a couple of years ago where I tried to use it in pretty much everything: socks, scarves, sweaters, the lot.
Thanks for mentioning the Palindrome socks! I hadn’t come across them before, and the heel looks really interesting. I’ll definitely have to give them a go.
As for FlexiFlips, I do like them, although I managed to lose one of the needles at some point. With DPNs you can just power through with one fewer, four instead of five, but FlexiFlips don’t really cooperate if you’re down to two. I should probably replace it at some point, but I’ve got plenty of 2 mm fixed circulars that I tend to reach for when knitting socks anyway.
I always work row heels and I worked short row toes on a few pairs of socks as well because of their shape, like you said. I have never tried it while doing toe-up, thanks for the suggestion. One reason they are not as popular is maybe the need to graft many more stitches than a conventional toes?
Yes I imagine so. In my experience, keeping good tension on a graft over ~10 stitches can be quite tricky. It's not so bad if it's too loose, but if it ends up too tight it can look pretty awful.
The toe-up version doesn't require any grafting, since you just continue with the stitches from the provisional cast on, which is another divisive technique. I'm actually working on a piece about a very simple provisional cast on method, which should be coming out in a few weeks!
Why bother with a provisional cast on? Cast on the total number of stitches for the sock with JMCO on two needles . For me, this is 64, 32 on each needle. Knit one round across both needles. When you return to the start of the first needle, begin your short row toe. Construct it exactly as you do a short row heel. I use a shadow wrap method. When you complete the short row pattern, simply resume knitting in the round on the second needle. I have knitted dozens of toe-up socks in this fashion. No grafting, no provisional cast on.
Yes, this is exactly how I would go about it if I were using circular needles. I would categorize JMCO as a provisional cast-on, it just uses the needles instead of waste yarn. You can also use the Turkish cast-on as a provisional CO.
I often use JMCO when doing a folded hem on a bottom-up sweater: instead of sewing the cast-on edge, you can just knit the two sets of live stitches together to fold the hem.
One of the advantages of the short-row toe, in my opinion, is that you don’t need to learn any new technique, as long as you know how to do a provisional cast-on and short-rows. Many knitters struggle to learn JMCO, and this puts them off toe-up socks.
Additionally, you can use double-pointed needles or short circulars, but this is extremely fiddly with JMCO or other closed cast-on techniques.
I guess I think of a provisional cast-on as something like the crochet cast-on, where you have to pick out the waste yarn and fiddle with it, whereas with my method, it's just a regular cast-on, but some stitches are inactive until you're ready to use them. While JMCO takes some practice, it's not that different from other CO methods.
A short row toe is just really nice. I like to try new heels on my socks, but I always do a short row toe.
I've been making some Palindrome socks (Knitty) and FlexiFlips. I do a three-needle bind off to finish up the top-down sock and to mirror the look, a row of Vikkel braid on the toe of the toe-up sock. I have become of devotee of the FlexiFlips/Flyers style needles.
Yeah, I’d probably just expand the definition to include any cast-on with inactive stitches that are worked later, whether that’s on waste yarn or a spare needle.
I’m also a big fan of JMCO. I went through a phase a couple of years ago where I tried to use it in pretty much everything: socks, scarves, sweaters, the lot.
Thanks for mentioning the Palindrome socks! I hadn’t come across them before, and the heel looks really interesting. I’ll definitely have to give them a go.
As for FlexiFlips, I do like them, although I managed to lose one of the needles at some point. With DPNs you can just power through with one fewer, four instead of five, but FlexiFlips don’t really cooperate if you’re down to two. I should probably replace it at some point, but I’ve got plenty of 2 mm fixed circulars that I tend to reach for when knitting socks anyway.