Simple socks knitting tutorial on LK150 knitting machine - women size
/Simple socks knitting tutorial on LK150 knitting machine - women size
You can use sock yarn on the LK150 knitting machine. There are many different ways to knit socks, and this is a simple and straightforward construction to knit socks on a flatbed knitting machine without a ribber.
You will need to sew up the side seams and hand-knit the ribbing. Other ribbing options are making a mock ribbing or making ribbing with a standard gauge knitting machine and a ribber, and then sew it to your socks. Or you can do hand manipulation to drop down every other stitch (or every third stitch) and latch-up to form purl stitches.
Short Rows
In this video, I use a basic short rowing technique for both heel and toe. The common rule is to short row down to 1/3 of the stitches, and then reverse short row back to original stitches. You can make the center part of the 1/3 one stitch more or less to match your pattern and size. It does not have to be exactly 3 equal parts.
Watch part 1 and 2 of the sock knitting on the LK150 machine
I struggled with socks knitting on the machine for several years. Not because it is hard to knit, but I was looking for the perfect technique to make it looks like hand-knit socks. And I had trouble setting up my ribber properly on the standard machine. So I always end up with just one sock or half-done socks and got frustrated. Now LK150 is a simple machine with a bigger gauge, I can see what I am doing and manipulate stitches easily. a pair of socks will take less than 40 minutes to knit on the machine. The seaming and hand-knit ribbing will take longer, but still can be done in a day.
Basic stitch count for different size socks (pattern)
Here is a list of stitches to cast on and short-row for different size socks. Apparently everyone has a different size and shape, but it is a starting point to knit the first pair. And you can adjust from there. For kids socks, it looks better with a tighter tension, maybe tension 2 on the carriage.
I did not show the row count here. When you knit down from cuff, it is like a sample swatch and you can measure from there. The row counts from the cuff down until the heel short-row can be the same row numbers from the heel short-row to the toe short-row. It does not have to be the same numbers, but I find it makes a simple balanced socks shape.
Man’s socks: Cast on 24 stitches (this is only half, 46 stitches for the whole round), and short row to 8 stitches (8, 8, 8)
Woman’s socks: Cast on 21 stitches, short row to 7 stitches (7, 7, 7)
9-13 years old: Cast on 19 stitches, short row to 7 stitches (6, 7, 6)
5-9 years old: Cast on 18 stitches, short row to 6 stitches (6, 6, 6)
1-4 years old: Cst on 15 stitches, short row to stitches (5, 5, 5)
Baby: Cast on 14 stitches, short row to 4 stitches (5, 4, 5)
