Socks

You should have the public side of the knitting - the side that'll be OUT - facing you when you work. I do know a couple of people who knit their circular colorwork inside out because it gives them slightly longer floats but that's the only situation I can think of in which having the work inside-out would be of any benefit.

Have you got anything going right now on a circ? Turn it inside out, the needle tips will be on the opposite side of the work, and you can knit with the work inside out. Handy if you're a tight floater (which I'm not)...

Circular stockinette inside out means you have to do it all in purl stitches, right? Purling seems like so much more work to my arthritic fingers than knitting, I'd avoid this whereever I could, personally.

Georgia

On the other hand, I can purl without ever looking at my needles, which means it is good for doing while helping dh to watch tv.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I actually knit all my socks with the wrong side facing out as I find it easier to manipulate the needles (could be a left handed thing). When knitting socks this way you still only have to do the knit stitch for stockinette stitch. Also to finish off a sock I actually use 3-needle bind off because I still haven't mastered kitchner stitch. I will do this when I finish my current sock.

It is easy to change the sock from inside out to right side out and vice versa on the needles. All you have to do is pull the sock through the center of the needles. I spend a lot of time doing this so I can check that the right side looks good as well as when people ask me what I'm knitting.

I've found socks are a wonderful item to take along to waiting rooms and meetings. They are small, there are some fabulous yarns (check out

) and you don't have to worry about poking your neighbour with your needles.

I've finished many a sock with the 3 needle bind off, as long as you do it nice and loose so it doesn't irritate your toes. I still haven't mastered Kitchener in that I have to have the instructions right in front of me. And sometimes, I still manage to screw it up so the stitches don't line up properly. ;>)

Shelagh

No, it is always just knit whichever way I have done it. If the purl side shows the unused needles are at the front, if the plain side shows the unused needles are at the back.

Yes, I am working on a sock now and this is the first time I have tried with the public side showing, and I seem to be able to do it better and so far do not have any noticeable tension problems where the needles change. Not going to think about more than one colour yet.

Helena

Hebrew is way older than Latin, and totally unrelated (as far as science can tell, anyway). I think Mirjam is right that it is a translation error--though from what language it is hard to say. Words for "right" (as in righthanded) are homonymous with words for "correct" or "upright" in many languages (English is a prime example, but French also, even though the English and French words are not related), possibly even unrelated ones. Likewise the word for "left" (as in lefthanded) and words for "dark, evil, wrong"; here French and Latin (again with unrelated words) are good examples, but not English. Chalk it up to naive prejudice against lefties, I guess.

Georgia

Shelagh,

has an excellent video on the kitchener stitch. It is much easier to understand (and remember) than written instructions. Marilyn

I haven't heard of it in knitting terms, but I've heard that there were some old English expressions about directions that assumed you were facing East; North was "left", South was "right".

Nowadays just for fun some people (assuming you are facing North) refer to the US west coast as the left coast. This gets confusing when some other people, also for fun, refer to the entire American continent as "left of the pond" (meaning the Atlantic ocean).

=Tamar

Whenever i knit anything in the round i work on the outer side . unless i need to do some inside thing... By the way in Hebrew the outside is called the Right side and in side is called the Left side ,,,,, I think it happened by some weird translation mistake ,, i really should reseach that once [ i. ask the academy for Hebrew language...] i can`t recall any other language calling the inner side the left side ???? can you all tell me about your own languages? \and speaking of knitting .crochet Anyone of you knits/crochets art? I mean not useful things but really artistic / decorative artifacts ,, if so could you let me know ? mirjam

Georgia , i understand your remark , and indeed knitting seems easier at times than purl , but i find that it is better for my kind of problem , to change the stitch from time to time , this helps the stifness, not to settle in. mirjam

Mirjam, I would have to agree with you. I think it's because I knit more slowly when ribbing (for instance), and my hand changes position more than when I just knit. My hands ache a little today because I was knitting a mitten (it got COLD here!) doing plain knit. But I'm past the thumb!

ALis>Georgia , i understand your remark , and indeed knitting seems easier

OH NO DA !!! Hebrew is a Semitic language !!!! but we have some Greek words , from the time Alexander the Great conquered the country , than we threw the Greek Out and that is why bext week we have HANUKAH ,,, While Latin we met when the Romans Conquered us ,,, But i think Knitting expressions were partly translated, since knitting wasn`t invented in those time, while weaving terninology is very old ,,, Thank you mirjam