Respite knitting

My adopted home state of Wisconsin has been rocked by political unrest I would have thought inconceivable a few short weeks ago.  The Japanese earthquake was bad, the tsunami worse, and the nuclear ramifications have me glued to the computer, with three or four news windows open simultaneously. The unrest all over the Middle East brings to mind high school history texts and the year 1848--"the year of revolution" in Europe.

What can I do, as a small person in this sudden upheaval, this messy world?  I read carefully, try to send donations where they will do the most good, maybe volunteer for whatever might make a small difference.

Yet I think the most important thing for me personally is to try to shield my children from this news--one is taking an important math final at University as I write this, one is basking in recent acceptance to the college of her choice, the little one is aiming to aim higher at his next science Olympiad event.

These kids will have the weight of this world on their own shoulders soon enough, soon enough. No need to burden them with all this now--boiling nuke rod pools, the possibility that household income will be substantially cut among their friends and neighbors, the effects on their friends' college choices.

Life is uncertain. On your way to the supermarket in Cairo, the revolution erupts. You wake up on a workday in Tokyo and the ground slips out from under you. The bus going downtown in your quiet Midwestern hometown is rerouted because 75,000 people--nurses, firefighters, plumbers, professors, teachers, DMV clerks--are out demonstrating, and the next day, 100,000 are out in the wind and winter weather. Modeling calmness is hard. I feel like a fake.

Thank goodness for a project in hand, for mohair and beads and lace and yarn.  For community boards and e-mails and questions about the best way to cast off. Thank goodness for knitting.

TK

Going to Yarnover? I'll be the one in a sweatshirt (the consequences of process knitting)

Process knitting

I spend the summer in the garden, but in the winter, I spend a great deal of time knitting--not wardrobe knitting, you understand, but test knitting--trying out ideas.  

Most of the test knitting starts OUT as project knitting, yet test knitting and garment knitting don't intersect around here as much as they should. Once a technical problem has been worked out, the solution turns into a TECHknitting blog post, while the project falls into the UFO pile.

Few items larger than a hat have escaped the gravitational pull of the UFO pile in years--not since TECHknitting blog started in the knitting season of 2006. That gave me an excellent excuse for never finishing anything. Worse than that even. The blog gave me the excuse to start lots of new things to see how they'll work out. Thus adding to the pile. Sometimes on a daily basis. 

Of course, I can't pull the needles out of a work in progress, or re-purpose the rest of the yarn bought for the garment. That would be against the rules. That would be admitting defeat. Consequently, not only do I have a black-hole for garments in my UFO pile, but the pile also eats knitting needles. Meanwhile, its gravitational twin is growing from the ever-increasing stash of no-go yarn.

open loop boucle--what was
I thinking? 

Sometimes, the UFO pile grows because I've made a poor choice. I'm now working with a open-loop boucle mohair, and must have been insane to buy the yarn. WHAT was I thinking? Not that the result isn't lovely--it is, very. Yet boucle is a very bear to knit. The needle keeps catching in the loop, rather than around the strand). And of course, mohair of any kind is a very bear to unravel. Since test knitting requires plenty of both, there is no combination I could have chosen less suitable. Beautiful as it is, this one's headed for the UFO pile, and sooner rather than later.

Sometimes, test knitting goes so well that I'm tempted to recreate the garment several times--the pocket hats were like that, I think there were 7 in a row, and innumerable little felted purses have been worked up around here. Then I'm reminded of a study I once read. Turns out that making faster and bigger lawn mowers didn't reduce the time folks spent mowing. No indeed. Instead, their lawns got bigger, and they spent the same amount of time mowing, or even more. Similarly, test knitting going well translates more FO's of that one pattern, but no more progress on the UFO's, alas.

Project knitting

At the end of April, I am going out to teach my first knitting class in over twenty years--Yarnover in Minneapolis, a project of the Minnesota Knitter's Guild. All my existing wardrobe sweaters are ratty and are themselves experiments--no two arms of any one sweater have the same kind (or even same rate!) of increasing, no two socks in the for-wearing fleet have the same kind of heels, my wardrobe features mostly not-fully-successful garment designs (prototypes of sweaters either improved--long since knit and given away) or abandoned after the one prototype. In short, my wardrobe consists mainly of ratty experimental remnants--great for the supermarket, not so good for the first professional knitting outing in two decades (Lord, where does the time go?)

It is clear, is it not, that I must have a new sweater for the occasion?

I've been rummaging the UFO collection, looking for a sweater pretty near completion. Yet while there are three leading candidates, I don't hold out a lot of hope.

I-cord edging by some method
already half-forgotten

The lead contender is a giant gold/green sweater-coat, missing only a bottom trim and a zipper.  This was put aside while I cogitated on zippers and trims--I got zippers figured out, but am still messing around with new ways of attaching I-cord to fabric.  Attaching I-cord to the live loop edges was a snap, but I'm still messing around with a new trick for attaching to bound off edges. 

prototype of pleating

The second contender is a green alpaca sweater lacking only a collar and sleeves--beautiful silky material knit at 7 sts  to the inch (!!) on which I am messing around with pleating.  However, the first few pleats aren't as pretty as the pleats made last, and I suspect that there might be yet an altogether better way of doing this by a completely different method than any yet tried. The idea of wearing this experiment in front of my fellow teachers and eagle-eyed students, well... What I should do is pull out and re-do, but what I will do is probably let this wallow on the UFO pile a while longer. Or forever. As a perpetual UFO, it'd earn its keep being a pleating prototype. Some version of this pleating will probably emerge some way, some day, but this sweater? I wouldn't lay bets on it. And, do you know, I'm not worried about "wasting" the yarn either--it's so pretty that some day it's sure to earn a spot in the "better yarn" box at the estate sale. Just think how happy it will make some knitter yet unborn.

prototype of beading

The third garment is an experiment in beading by a variety of methods. The first beads put in aren't nearly as nice as the end of the job, and again, I expect there may be an altogether better way of doing this, anyhow. It's the learning curve made visible, and so, not really suitable for public wear.

Bottom line: if you'll be at Yarnover, and you see a knitting teacher in a sweatshirt?  Stop and say "hi" to me, OK?

--TK

When two strands of yarn wound together work up unevenly

(A random Ravelry discussion triggered this post...)

PROBLEM 1--Two different fibers which feed at different rates

When two yarns of different fibers are wound off together, they might be the same LENGTH but not work up at the same RATE. A classic example is a woolen yarn wound together onto a ball with a slippery yarn: silk, perhaps. On the ball, the two yarns look fine--they are the same length, after all. Yet, once the knitting begins, so does the trouble. The wool sticks to itself as woolly wool does, while the silk is, well, you know--silky, and does not stick to anything at all.  Excess silk sags throughout the fabric, and pretty soon, a whole length of the silk yarn is sagging to leeward, between the work and the ball.

PROBLEM 2--Fibers which feed at the same rate but are wound at different rates

When two strands of yarn are wound off together but come onto the resulting ball at different tension, it causes the same problem.  The two strands may feed off at the same RATE, but they are not the same LENGTH.  Stated otherwise, they feed off at the same rate but were not put on at the same rate, making one longer than the other.  Result? The shorter strand puckers, the longer strand twists and writhes and sags.

Loose yarn throughout the fabric (loose lengths in pink)

Both problems result in similar fabric, shown above.  The pink lengths and dots highlight the looping and twisting and writhing of the longer/slipperier yarn (thinner in the illustration) throughout the fabric, as well as the uneven feed of the running yarn--an unevenness bound to get worse with every passing stitch. (Click on this or any picture to enlarge.)

SOLUTIONS

If winding were eliminated in the first place--if each yarn were knit each from its own ball--then each yarn would feed at its own natural rate and length, so creating an even fabric.

But what do you do when you already have such a ball of two yarns together, either because it was wound together at a knitting shop that way, or because it came from a manufacturer that way?

You could carefully pick apart the two strands and wind each on a separate ball.  Although this works, it takes forever.  Before going to such lengths (har!) consider the two below options: in the right situation, these might save some hours.

Option 1--Stranding and solo stitches

Remove the excess by looping it up into a solo stitch, stranding the shorter yarn behind.  The loop of this solo stitch has further to travel than the stranding running behind it, so the two yarns catch up to one another.  This is the same sort of idea as stranded or Fair-Isle knitting.

Shorter yarn stranded behind solo stitch of longer yarn

On the illustration above, the thinner yarn is again the longer/slipperier one causing the trouble.  At random places in the fabric--wherever an excess loop of the thinner yarn forms in the running yarn--the shorter thicker yarn has been stranded behind the thinner yarn, and the excess thinner yarn has been concentrated into a solo single-stranded knit stitch. Concentrating the excess of the longer yarn while stranding the shorter evens up the yarns, leaving the other stitches of the fabric even. The thicker yarn, stranded behind, has been colored bright green to make visible how much shorter is its path behind the concentrated excess of the pink loop.


The actual mechanics of creating the solo stitch is simple: grab a loop of excess with your right (working) needle out of the excess longer yarn sagging between the work and the ball and knit one stitch with this excess only.  The shorter yarn will automatically strand behind when you knit the following stitch out of both yarns, although you may have to separate the two with your fingers to adjust the tension.

If a single solo stitch using the excess doesn't do it, alternate this trick with ordinary 2-strand stitches along the row until the two yarns feeding in off the ball are evened up. Alternating gives better tension (and looks better) than stranding the shorter yarn behind 2 or 3 solo stitches of the longer all in one spot.

Option 2--Twisting

Remove the excess of the longer yarn--again, the thinner yarn in the illustration below--by twisting up an extra backwards loop of this yarn onto the needle. This is the same sort of idea as a loop cast-on.  However, since you don't want to actually increase your stitch count,  place a pin or stitch marker at the excess loop to keep track of its location. On the next row or round, eliminate this excess loop by joining it back together with its "mother stitch," using the same sort of idea as a k2tog.

Excess yarn twisted up onto the needle

The illustration above shows that at random places (wherever a loop of excess forms in the running yarn), the excess--colored pink--has been removed from the fabric and concentrated in one spot by twisted up into a loop and placed on the right needle.  On the next round, this excess loop is knit together with its own "mother stitch."  Each of two lower pink excess loops have already been knitted together with their respective mother stitches, while, the new live pink excess loop just formed will be knit together with its mother stitch (the double-stranded stitch at the arrow) on the next round.

The actual mechanics of this trick involve grabbing a loop of the excess out of the running yarn with your fingers, twisting it, placing it on the right needle and marking it.

Twist variations 

The marker is shown as a safety pin, but IRL, far quicker would be several knotted loops of thin yarn kept by, each quickly caught onto the working needle when needed and constantly recycled as each excess loop is eliminated in its turn.

One easy variation to avoid having to making the stitch at all is to simply pass the twisted-up loop over the neighboring stitch to the LEFT as soon as that neighboring stitch is formed. On the downside, this uses up less excess and causes a bump, on the upside it is quick, and in many "art" yarns the bump would pass unnoticed. Passing over is pretty much the equivalent of wrapping the excess yarn around the neck of the newly formed stitch, and you could try it that way, too: passing a newly formed stitch from right needle to left needle, wrapping it with excess yarn, then returning it, wrapped, to the right needle.

A geek variation on the twisting option is to substitute an analog to the "nearly invisible increase" (NII) for the twisting, working the NII with the (pink) excess only. The NII-analog actually gets rid of more excess in each pink stitch than the twist because each excess stitch is longer. Again, though, mark the new loop to avoid inadvertently increasing the stitch count.

Which option when?  

I bought 8 cones (!!) of wool, custom-wound of three thin yarns together.  Although each yarn is the same fiber, the winding machine occasionally skipped, leaving one yarn either protruding or puckering. Stranding is the better choice in this smooth yarn because twisting would have created a lump. Yet, stranding might look odd on a reversible garment, depending on the yarn and stitch.

On an "art" yarn where the manufacturer had wound two different kinds of fiber together,  both options worked.  In fact, there were some places where the feed was so uneven that both options were obliged to be worked at the same time--the shorter yarn stranded behind a combo of a solo-stitch PLUS twisted stitch, and this combo repeated sequentially on every alternate stitch for several stitches in a row, several times a round.

--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on: "uneven yarn feed"

Jogless stripes--pretty picture version (part 3 of a series)

Slip-stitch jogless stripes were the subject of a post way back in January 2007. Then in the spring of 2009, Interweave Knits published an jogless stripe article by me which included the 2007 info plus some new info about barberpole (helix) jogless stripes. The article also came with a video. With the two most recent posts, helix stripes and a link to the video have now been added to this blog, and the only part of the 2009 article not yet reproduced are some pretty pictures of slip-stitch jogless stripes.

These pictures cover the same ground as the 2007 slip-stitch jogless post--identical info--but these new pictures are prettier. Rather than mess with the original post, I'm putting them into a post of their own--maybe these prettier pictures will shed a better light than the old pictures, even though the process is identical.

* * *

Slip-stitch jogless stripes

General directions:

•  *On color change rounds, change colors by simply knitting the first stitch of the new color as you normally would knit any stitch. Next, knit the rest of the stitches to the end of the round.
•  On the next round, slip the first stitch of the new color, then knit the rest of the stitches. On every following round, knit every stitch as usual
•  Repeat from * every time you want to change colors.

Per the illustration below, slipping the stitch at the beginning of the second round (green arrow) pulls that first stitch of the new color up to span both first and second rounds; the last stitch of the previous color gets pulled smaller (orange arrow); and the stitch of the old color in the row below the slipped stitch gets pulled up along with the slip stitch stitch (purple arrow). These forces arrange the stitches into smaller “steps” (black arrows) lessening the contrast between the old color and the new and essentially eliminating the jog.

How the slip stitch makes the stripe jogless

Jogless slip-stitch stripes come in two types: “traveling” and “stationary.” The actual technique is as shown above, and is the same in both, the only difference is the point at which you change color.

TRAVELING stripes

Per the illustration below, if you choose to let the beginning of the round travel one stitch to the left with each color change (orange arrow) then every part of every row will be the same height and have the same number of stitches, and these are the traveling stripes.

Traveling jogless stripes

Here are complete step-by step directions for this type:

•  On the round before you intend to change colors, insert a stitch marker at the place you intend to change colors.
•  *On the color change round--slip the marker, then change colors by simply starting to knit with the new color.
•  On the following round, when you come to the marker, slip it. Then, slip the first stitch of the new color from the left needle to the right needle purlwise (ie: not twisted). Knit all the rest of the stitches of the round.  

 Knit as many rounds as you desire for the stripe, knitting every stitch. One round before your next color change, shift the marker over one stitch to the left. Make more stripes by repeating from *.

Stationary stripes

If you choose to hold the beginning of the round in the same place, then in the color-change column (orange arrow) each stripe will be one stitch shorter, and these are the stationary stripes. 

Stationary jogless stripes

Stationary, closeup

 Here are complete step-by step directions for this type:

• On the round before you intend to change colors, insert a stitch marker at the place you intend to change colors.
• *When you come to a color change round, slip the marker, then change colors by simply starting to knit with the new color.
•  On the following round, when you come to the marker, slip it. Then, slip the first stitch of the new color from the left needle to the right needle purlwise (ie: not twisted) Knit the rest of the stitches of the round.

 Knit as many rounds as you desire for the stripe, knitting every stitch. Make more stripes by repeating from *.

Which stripe where?

 The advantage to traveling stripes is that every part of every round is the same height; the disadvantage is that the round beginning "travels" one stitch leftward with every color change (illustration 10) Also, with traveling stripes, a faint spiral pattern will develop along the diagonal of the color change. This spiral pattern is more obvious in heavy fabrics and less obvious in thinner fabrics, so the traveling stripes are better for thinner stripes and/or thinner wool.

 The advantage to stationary stripes is that the color change remains in the same place; the disadvantage is that at one part of each round, that round will dip one stitch lower. (illustration 12). With thin stripes, and/or in thin wool, you'd soon have substantially fewer stitches along this column, so the fabric might start to "pull" along that column of stitches. However, with thick wool (5 st/in or fewer) and/or thicker stripes, this isn't an issue because knitting stretches enough to solve the problem. Therefore, stationary stripes are best for thick wool and/or thick stripes.


-TK

Helix (barberpole) stripes, part 2 of a jogless stripe series

Helix or barberpole stripes are completely jogless, and, unlike nearly every other method of jogless stripes* may be made as narrow as a single row. Although this makes them incredibly useful in the right situation, they are somewhat of a pain to knit, which is why they probably aren't seen more often.

In their classic form,barberpole stripes are 1 row high, and usually 3 or 4 colors. Each stripe starts at a different point on the garment, then the stripes chase one another around the spiral architecture of the knitted garment, like the stripes on an old-fahioned barber pole. Because of this arrangement into spiral layers, the colors never meet on the same level, so there is no jog.

Barberpole stripes are usually made on double pointed needles (dpn’s). Here’s the ...

How to

• Suppose we want three single-color stripes, as in the above photo. For three stripes, we'll use three needles for the work and a fourth to knit around. 
• To determine the number to cast on, divide the total number of stitches by the total number of colors. Example: our little tube has 36 stitches and three colors, red, white and blue: 36÷3=12 stitches of each color. 
• Onto needle 1, using white, cast on 1/3 the total number of stitches (12, in our example) Repeat onto needle 2 with blue and again onto 3 with red: 36 total stitches cast on, three needles with 12 stitches on each. If your total stitch count is not evenly divisible by your number of needles, no big deal—within a couple of stitches is OK. 
• Choose your color arrangement: once chosen, it can never change--the same colors will chase one another around and around the spiral for the entire knitting of the garment. 

• In the above illustration, the work began with each needle cast on with a different color.  Then, the white yarn was knit over the red, the red over the blue, and the blue over the white. In the next round the blue yarn was knitted over the white, the white over the red, and the red over the blue. Once the order is established, you simply pick up the yarn at the beginning of each needle and work until you come to the next color.

Tips and tricks 

• No need to twist the stitches together: the different colors lay over one another, not next to one another

• Consider using bobbins to avoid tangling

• In theory, you can make spirals of more colors by using more needles. In practice, the steepness of the spiral and the tangling of the running yarns makes 4-5 colors the utmost practical limit, and really, two or three colors will prove challenging enough.
• For a fabric with a single contrast color stripe, say, white with every 4th row blue (photo below) here’s how: Prepare 3 white bobbins and one of blue, then knit the whole works off 4 needles, working around with a fifth.  Knit each bobbin of white sequentially and individually, just as you would if using different colors. 

Better transitions using a"transition needle"

The above instructions segregate each color to its own needle, and this is easy to understand (and illustrate!) However, in real life, having several bobbins hanging off at different place would lead to tangling. Also, always changing colors at the same spot might create ladders. Finally, dropping the yarn and picking up a new one at the end of every needle makes for a very choppy knitting rhythm--not restful at all. In order to avoid these problems, here is a trick--

• Once the pattern is established, choose one needle to be the “transition needle.” Knit each color almost all the way around the round, stopping three stitches from the previous color, on the "transition needle." 

• In the above illustration, the blue stripe has just been finished three stitches from the end of the previous white round. Similarly, the white round finished three stitches from the red round, and the red, three stitches from the previous blue round. Now find the running yarn “lowest down and furthest out,” here, the red yarn picked out with the green arrow. Drop the blue running yarn to the front of the work, then slip the intervening stitches (black arrows) from left needle to right, purlwise (not twisted). 

• The above illustration shows the six marked stitches as they have been slipped onto the right needle.  This frees the "lowest down and furthest out" yarn--the red running yarn--so you can knit the next almost-complete round with it. 
• You would now knit with the red yarn, stopping three stitches from the end of the blue round. After knitting the red yarn, the next following round would be a white round, to be knitted with the white running yarn picked out by the green arrow in illustration 7. 
• This transition shortcut works on magic loop and circular needles, also. 
• Because the stopping point of the yarn is always moving backwards in your knitting, you avoid the ladders which would form if you always switched at the same spot, and you avoid the need for markers in magic loop or circular knitting. Of course, with dpn’s, you will have to re-arrange the stitches by slipping them around on your needles every few rounds in order to keep a roughly even number on each, but this is all to the good, as it also helps avoid ladders. 
• As you can see from the comments, some knitters do not stop short, but knit all the way around to the very stitch where the previous yarn ended.  When I try that, I get tension strangeness, but knitting is SO different in different hands, so experiment: try stopping short as illustrated, but maybe also try knitting each round to the bitter end, and see which way works better for you!
• When you end the work, space the colors out again as you did at cast on (one color per needle, lined up over the original round) so that the bind-off matches.

* * *

This is part 2 of a TECHknitting series on jogless stripes, based on an article which originally appeared in "Beyond the Basics," Interweave Knitting Magazine, Summer '09

The first post in this series, which features a video of various stripes, including barberpole stripes, is here.

If you would like to see a different blogger's take on barberpole stripes, have a look at Grumperina's posts on the subject featuring, among other things, a pair of helical-knit socks. 

Good knitting--TK

*Addendum 2016:  If you need to knit SINGLE ROUND STRIPES where each stripe is a DIFFERENT COLOR, then a different technique will work better: have a look at this post on "Smoothed Circles." 

Article and video on jogless stripes, part 1 of a series

Circular knitting, as you know, is actually a spiral.  Therefore, if you change colors to make stripes, the knitting will "jog."

Jogging stripes

A couple of years ago, in the summer 2009 issue of Interweave Knits, there was an illustrated article by TECHknitter (that's me!) about avoiding this problem with two different kinds of jogless stripes:

• barber pole (helix)
• slip stitch jogless (two variations)

Under the contract signed with Interweave Knits, the copyright reverted to this blog after a time.  TECHknitting blog is now free to re-publish the article as it was originally written and illustrated for submission.  However, the article was rather long, so it will be run as three separate posts.

Today's intro installment contains two things:
First, here's a link to a previous post in TECHknitting blog covering the slip stitch variations.  This post contains everything about the slip-stitch jogless method which was found in the Interweave Knits article--only the illustrations are different.

Second, here is a link to a video done by Interweave Knits' editor Eunny Jang, showing how the TECHknitting jogless stripes are done.  The video covers one of the slip stitch variations (stationary style jogless stripes), as well as the helix (barber pole) jogless stripes.  Unlike later videos done by IK, this one does not mention then (then-concurrent) TECHknitting article, but it IS based on the article--the techniques are identical.  I think Eunny does a great job of showing the techniques (and even if you already know how to make these stripes, the video is worth watching to see how incredibly fast Eunny knits, and using a unique style, too).

The next post in this series contains that part of the IK article relating to barberpole (helix) stripes.  This is all-new material for TECHknitting blog because there has never been a post on barber-pole stripes before.  Helix stripes can be made as narrow as a single round, and are therefore very useful for narrow jogless stripes.  (Click here to be taken to the second post.)

The third post in the series will contain that part of the IK article relating to slip-stitch jogless stripes--the material which is identical to the previous TECHknitting post mentioned above.  The only reason to reprise this material is the different illustrations.  In other words, although the previous TECHknitting post on jogless stripes and the third part in this series are to cover the identical ground, yet each has different illustrations, and sometimes a new and different illustration is capable of shedding new light.

* * *

This is the first post in a series: the second post is: Helix (Barberpole) stripes.

* * *

-TK

Socks falling down? Consider elastic

Socks won't stay up? You're not alone. Socks are a very popular item to knit but recurrent discussions on Internet knitting forums show falling-down socks are a problem to many.

There are many, many ways to solve this problem, but one of the most direct is elastic. Here are four different methods.

Elastic garters inside the sock 

TECHknitting blog has already shown how to make knitted hems, both sewn shut and knitted shut.  If you create one of these hems at the top of a sock, you can insert an elastic garter into the hem, thus turning the hem into a "casing" ("casing" = a fancy word for a hem which is encasing something: a hem with something inside of it).

wear the garter around
the house for a while checking
for circulation problems

A few tips:

• Make the garter out of non-roll elastic because if it gets twisted inside the casing, you'll have a hard time straightening it.  I use 3/4 inch wide non-roll, but some prefer one-inch wide.
• There are various weights and strengths of non-roll elastics--try to feel of them before you buy because some are quite thick and stiff.
• Make up the garter by cutting the elastic longer than you think, then pin or tack it down (tack = sew quickly with a couple of big stitches) into a circle of approximately the same diameter as your leg, sock-top-high.  Leave some overlap so you can adjust as needed.  WEAR the pinned/tacked garter around the house for a while, trying it on both legs before you sew it down permanently.  Elastic garters need not be very tight to do their work--your underwear elastic doesn't bite into your flesh and neither does the elastic on store-bought socks, yet they both work.  By wearing the garter around for a while, you can adjust it until it is as loose as possible while still doing its job.  Also, remember--it will be slightly tighter inside the casing than around your bare leg, since it has to stretch slightly further. 
• You can insert the garter into its casing at the sock top either by sewing the casing shut over the elastic as the last step in finishing the sock, or--for a top-down sock--knitting the casing shut as-you-go with the garter trapped inside.  
• Elastic can loose its oomph long before a handknit sock wears out, so if you do sew the casing shut, use a contrasting color yarn--that'll make it easy to snip and resew a new garter in.
• An elastic garter sewn into a casing often makes the sock top stand out because the unstretched garter is larger than the unstretched sock top, but when you put the sock on, all will be well. 

...the sock top stands out because the
unstretched garter is wider than the
unstretched sock...

...but when you put it on
all will be well

Thread elastic added afterwards

Another method to make your socks stay up is to use thread elastic, threading this onto a needle and working this around and around the inside of the sock ribbing in a spiral.  The easiest way I know is to catch the elastic under ONE arm of a knit column on the inside.  This is a (receding) purl column on the front of the sock, which helps hide the elastic. Don't over-tension the elastic as you sew it in.  In fact, don't tension it much, if at all--the inside of a sock is a lot smaller than the outside of your leg, so an elastic worked into a sock top must have enough slack to stretch as the sock does.

thread elastic worked into the ribbing at the top of a sock

Working thread elastic into sock ribbing is an good solution for already-made socks.  The only drawback to thread elastic is that it doesn't last very long--a few years at most, whereas a hand-knit sock might last many times that.  However, it is no great chore to snip out the old elastic and insert new.

Knitting in elastic as-you-go

It is also possible to knit in elastic as you go.  This trick is possible with thread elastic, but, unless the thread elastic is the same color as your yarn, there is the possibility of the elastic peeping out when you wear the socks. Plus, you know, thread elastic loses its oomph pretty quick. A better sort of elastic to knit in is a European product called "knitting elastic" which is invisible. (And that's why there's no illustration--it is literally hard to see this stuff even when it's in your hand.)

The trouble with knitting in elastic is knowing how strongly to tension it as you knit. Start by tensioning as little as possible, rather than trying to stretch it as you knit, then tighten up from there if that's unsatisfactory. I haven't used the knitting elastic product very extensively and so don't know how long it is likely to last.  If you have more experience, maybe sing out in the comments? I will say that the stuff has amazing stretch and feels very sturdy, at least when it is new.  It also washes up OK, but I haven't yet tried it in a dryer.

Elastic garters worn outside the sock

The first three methods of adding elastic all work on the inside of the sock.  However, traditionally, it was understood that socks and stockings were likely to fall down, and that's why many ethnic and historical costumes include socks and stockings held up with garters worn OUTSIDE the sock.  (aaand, for history buffs, these garters were traditionally knitted in garter stitch,which is why...)

My maternal grandparents (born 1896 and 1902, respectively) wore ordinary business attire, not ethnic costume, but they did keep their socks up with elastic sock garters every day of their lives--grandpa used the men's version, grandma used an elastic garter at the top of each thigh-high nylon.  Retro-style garters like this are still for sale on-line, and the men's version has always remained part of a formal-wear outfit.

The cheapest modern equivalent to outside garters are rubber bands. Snap one around each sock top, flip the ribbing down, and you've got a garter.

For a better-fitting version, you can make custom elastic garters, as in the first part of this post.  However, because these are now meant to be worn outside the sock, under the flip of the ribbing, use narrower elastic.  There is no need to use non-roll elastic either, since you can easily reach the elastic to straighten it. One pair of custom garters will work for all socks of the same length--a time saver over knitting a pair of garters into each pair of socks: easier and less clunky, too.

If you do opt to make elastic garters, you can gussie these up by sewing a ribbon onto the garter, arranged such that the ribbon peeks out from under the folded-down sock top. This trick makes it look as if the ribbon itself is holding up the sock, while the elastic remains hidden. These little ribbon ends are called "garter flashes" and they can also be made out of woolen fabric--particularly for wear with kilt hose.

ribbon-end garter flashes

 (We'll end with a link to a handsome fellow wearing kilt hose held up with garters showing garter flashes. Remember to look at his socks, OK?)

Good knitting, TK

ADDENDUM September 2014: Too-loose ribbing can be recalled to sense of duty by smocking, which adds a surprising springiness. Although is not traditional to smock sock ribbng, it can be done, and would perhaps look particularly well on a cabled or texture-knit sock with a deep top 1/1 or 1/3 ribbing.  Here is a post on invisible after-thought smocking which could be applied in that situation.

ADDENDUM 2: November 2015:  IF YOU HAVE ANY CIRCULATION ISSUES (or even if you don't) remember to experimentally wear external garter bands at home before heading out, just as you would with an internal elastic garter you were planning to knit into a sock. Why the capital letters? A lady just wrote to me  saying that she tried rubber bands and they held her socks up, alright; didn't hurt, even.  Yet, she wound up suffering from varicose veins as a result of the interference with her circulation.  Now you know--try this at home first to check the effect.  Better to let your socks fall down than suffer like this.
You have been reading TECHknitting blog on what to do if your socks fall down.

Linky for KD readers (Fixing errors at the side edges of your knitting)

Here is a handy link for readers coming from Kathleen Cubley's dropped-edge-stitch article in Interweave Knit's web site, Knitting Daily.  Kathleen's article covers the ground admirably, while this link takes you to a TECHknitting article about the same problem, which offers a similar, yet not identical slant on the how-to of fixing these kinds of errors.

These sorts of dropped stitches at the edge are quite terrifying looking, no?

(And the reverse is true too--if you've already read TECHknitting's article on this subject, go on over to Kathleen's article to see a different illustrated take on fixing this same error).

Good knitting--TK

Horizontal fold lines in knitting, part 2: purl sides out, knit sides in the fold

As shown in the previous post, it is easy to make a stockinette fabric fold along a horizontal line so the smooth knit side of the fabric is out and the purl sides of the fabric (the reverse stockinette) are trapped inside the fold. This is done by simply making a row or round of purls on the smooth stockinette face of the fabric, and voila: the stockinette then folds smoothly at the purl line, smooth knit side out; bumpy purl sides, back-to-back, inside the fold.

As strong as this structure of this fold is, however, no immediately obvious counterpart exists to make a fold line on the purl side, so that the bumpy purl sides face out and the knit sides are trapped, back-to-back, inside the fold.

Here is a little "unvention," the result of fooling around over a couple of years, which I believe does fit the bill.  It is WORKED from the smooth (knit) side but, when FINISHED, causes the fabric to fold so the purl (reverse stockinette) fabric faces out while the knit side of the fabric is trapped inside the fold.

Step 1: On the stockinette fabric, with the smooth (knit) side facing you, locate the stitch TAIL, illustrated in RED, below.

Step 1

Step 2: Draw the tail up and place it, right arm forward, on the tip of the left needle.

Step 2

Step 3:Insert the right needle tip into the next ordinary stitch on the left needle (illustrated in dark green), then into the loop made by the tail (red), as shown below.  Knit the two loops together from this position using the running yarn which is shown in lighter green.

Step 3

Step 4: The final result will be an assembly of two loops worked together, looking remarkably like a k2tog (Knit 2 together). If you look at the below illustration and all the previous ones, there are several stitches already worked according to this trick, with the tail-loops being illustrated in pink, the main stitch in green and the running yarn in lighter green.  The upcoming tails to be worked in this trick are also illustrated in pink.

Step 4

Here is a photo of the finished product, as seen from the purl side, with the fold line at the bottom of the photo.

The finished result

I think it makes a pretty nice fold, especially for a purl fabric.  Try it, and see what you think! 

* * *

A big thank you! to the three test knitters: Anonymous (you know who you are!) Christina and Tatterbat, not only for trying this out but thanks, too for your ideas: one test knitter plans to use this for the hem of a reverse stockinette sweater, and another mentioned a set of square baby blocks--some to be made knit-side-out, using the ordinary purl-on-stockinette fold of the previous post, some to be made purl-side-out using this new technique. 

Good knitting! --TK

Horizontal fold lines in knitting, part 1: knit sides out, purl sides in the fold

Just as the universe folds and twists in accordance with laws of interest to physicists, so knitting curls and folds in accordance with laws of interest to handknitters.  For example, the tendency of stockinette to curl purl side out is well-known and many excellent knitting designs take this into account, working with the roll, rather than going all out to conquer it.  Perhaps less well-known is an equally strong force of knitting, which can equally add a structural design element: the tendency of stockinette to fold along a purled row.

purl-line on the knit face of stockinette, unfolded (left) and folded (right)

Specifically, when you want knitting to fold back on itself along the row-line, such as at a hem or cuff, it's easy to make the fabric fold sharply by running a row of purl on a stockinette background.  This strongly forces a stockinette fabric to fold in half with the knit sides out while the purl sides are trapped in the fold, back-to-back, as shown in the photo above.

HOW-TO

flat knitting

If knitting stockinette back and forth, you simply knit on the purl side for one row, then return to pattern.  This means that you will work 3 rows of knit successively and the center of these three--the one that looks like a purl line, but is located on the smooth knit side of the fabric--will be the fold line.

circular knitting

If you are working in the round, it's a little different.  As you know, when knitting stockinette circularly you're always working on the knit side, so you'll simply purl a single round to get the same effect.

This is all very simple, but there is one little wrinkle to getting a neat fold line when knitting circularly.  As you know, however, knitting in the round creates a spiral.  This means that the beginning of each round is stacked above and one stitch over from the end of the previous round.  In the context of a fold line, this means that the beginning and end of the purl round "jog," they won't line up because they aren't actually in the same round at all. The discontinuous purl line is highlighted in pink in the photo below.

discontinuous purl line "jog" when worked in the round

To avoid this "jog," use the same trick as for avoiding color jogs:

• work the entire purl round as usual.  
• on the next round, where you would set off knitting in the ordinary course of things, simply SLIP the FIRST purl stitch you worked instead.  In other words, at the end of the purl round, instead of working a knit stitch as the first stitch of the next (knit) round, simply slip the next stitch on your needle INSTEAD of knitting it. 
• All further rounds are worked normally, and this is the only stitch slipped.  

This slipping trick drags up some stitches and squishes others, aligning the beginning and end of the purl round, and essentially eliminating the jog.  As seen in the photo below, the resulting purl line, highlighted in pink, is waaay better than the jogging line of purl in the photo above.

discontinuous "jog" alleviated by slip-stitch method above

In sum so far: the introduction of a purl row/round on a stockinette ground will cause the fabric to to fold very sharply along the purl row, knit side out and with the purl side of the fabric trapped inside the fold.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

As with many things knitting, there are some neat variations.

beefier fold line

For a beefier thicker fold very suitable to utility wear, consider a double purl-line fold.  Although this looks like (and is!) the surface decoration called "welting" when seen on unfolded stockinette, if you fold the fabric at this welt-line you will find you've created a thick, pleasant, sturdy edge--much more substantial than a single purl-line fold line, and very suitable to outerwear or rough use or heavy yarns.

beefier double purl-line (aka "welting"), unfolded (left) and folded (right)

contrast-colored fold line, method 1

There are two ways to make a contrast colored fold line, a gold fold line on a green fabric, for example.  The classic method is done in three steps:

• On the row or round BEFORE where the fold is wanted, work a row or round in contrast color, but keep to your stockinette pattern (knit if in the round, purl if working back and forth)
• On the row or round where the fold is wanted, return to the main color and purl
• On all following rows/rounds, return to the ordinary pattern of the stockinette fabric

contrast-colored method 1, unfolded (left) and folded (right)

When folded, this single line of contrast color yields a fold with a pleasant "stitched" sort of appearance--the main color (green) shows in little dots below the gold contrast color fold, per the above illustration.

contrast-colored fold line, method 2

For a more consistent-colored fold line (no "stitched" appearance) two rows or rounds are worked in the contrast color, as follows:

• On the row or round BEFORE where the fold is wanted, work a row or round in contrast color, but keep to your stockinette pattern (knit if in the round, purl if working back and forth)
• On the row where the fold is wanted, remain in the contrast color and purl a row or round
• On all following rows or rounds, return to the main color, and work in the ordinary pattern of the stockinette fabric

contrast colored method 2, unfolded (left) and folded (right)

Note--although two lines of contrast color have been worked, this is nonetheless a single purl-line fold, because only one row has been purled.  If you wanted to combine the beefy double-purl line fold with the contrasting color trick, you'd have to work THREE lines of color and two lines of purl.

* * *

This is the first post in a two part series about horizontal folds in knitting.  The next post will be about getting stockinette fabric to fold the other way, so that the PURL (reverse stockinette) sides are out, with the KNIT sides trapped in the fold, back-to-back.

Until then, good knitting
--TK
PS: Why yes, I am from Wisconsin.  Did my green and gold color scheme give it away?