How I Closed the Gap After Binding Off Toe Up Socks: A Tutorial

You know how you get that unsightly gap when knitting in the round? It appears at the top of the cuff on socks whether they are knit toe-up or cuff-down. When knitting socks from the cuff down, I always knit the first 3-4 stitches with both the working yarn and the tail. The extra bulk eliminates the gap, and the top of the sock appears symmetrical.

Take a look at my first picture. Don't be afraid to look. Just look at that ugly gap that would want to make your lovely hand knits socks look retarded and make the non-knitters in your life prefer store bought socks. When binding off toe-up socks, (I used Jenny's surprisingly stretchy bind off), all you have is the working yarn . You might find yourself in a dilemma. I know that you want to prove to all of your non-knitting friends that hand knit socks are something to drool over and not cringe at. I'm here for you and here is my solution. It is a common crochet technique.

Once you have fastened off your yarn. Leave a tail as long as desired for weaving. If this is new to you--about 5 inches.

Next, after threading yarn into your tapestry needle, you will insert the needle under both loops of the second bound-off stitch to the left . Note the helpful numbers that have been inserted into the picture--thanks Picasa. Draw the yarn through from front to back.

Now you will bring the needle back to the front and insert it under both loops of the last bound off stitch (also front to back). This stitch is actually where you fastened off.

This is how it looks before tightening--kind of like the number 8 if you were looking down at it.

There you have it! After pulling the yarn through, you will have a gapless, symmetrical end to your toe-up sock. All of your friends will marvel 'cause you are a toe-up sock knitting wonder!

I hope this little tutorial is helpful. If you have questions, leave a comment. Have a GRRRREAT Day!!!

Jazz-Up a Bag

This simple tutorial is being provided as a boost to get back to blogging. I've never been a wishy-washy kind of person, who says one thing and does another. Running a business sometimes causes me to look at say "what am I doing" "is this working" " is anyone reading", does anyone care" and then I think "maybe they are , maybe they do"-- and so I'm back.

Embellished bags make a quick and fairly inexpensive gift that is easily received. Before you begin, check around your house and see what you already have and make a note of the items that you need. You will need:

1) A denim bag

2) Heat Bond (No Sew)

3) Fabric (scraps work great for this)

4) Letters in the font that you prefer

5) Scissors

6) Pencil

7) Iron

Trace the letters on the wrong (bumpy) side of the Heat Bond. Make sure to copy them from the opposite side of the print-out, if you did not print them as a mirror-image.

Iron the Heat Bonded letters onto the fabric following the manufacturers directions and cut out the letters. It is much easier to cut the letters with exactness if you leave a bit of unused space around them.

Peel off the paper backing and arrange letters to your specifications and iron them on following the directions on the Heat Bond.

That's it! You may further embellish however you would like. I had some crystal letters and decided to bling it up a little bit. Disclaimer--this was not made for a child under the age of 12 CPSIA people!