I posted some facebook photos of my finished socks a while ago. I had fun making them and definitely will be making some more as I have a tub of sock yarn that I have been collecting over the last couple of years.
In case you are wondering, I do collect yarn just because it is beautiful but these particular yarns were collected to make shawls, scarfs, and sweaters. I used this yarn double for the white lacy cardigan that I had to repair (and posted about). I used this same grafting technique to rejoin the pieces that I cut.
However, I was writing about socks. I struggled with grafting stitches off the needles to complete the toe of the socks so I went to a technique that I learned a number of years ago when I belonged to a machine knitting group. To hold live stitches off the knitting machine, it is common to use waste yarn instead of stitch holders. You knit a few rows in a contrast yarn (so that you can see the live stitch loops) and then take the piece off the machine. You can cast off or not depending on how big a risk taker you are. I always cast off so what does that say about me?
When you finish your sock toe, you will cut the end of the working yarn leaving a long tail to graft with. I use about five to six times the length of the row to graft as I hate running out before I finish. Knit three rows in a contrast colour yarn the same or finer weight than the yarn that you knit your socks with. Cast off these stitches to hold them securely while you graft. Now the live stitches that you want to graft are not being held by a needle, are easy to access, and still at the same tension as the rest of the work. My socks were plain stocking stitch so grafting from the right side, in my opinion, would result in a wrong side (purl) row or will be very awkward to execute.
Turn your sock inside out and thread the long tail of your sock yarn onto a tapestry needle. I like to use a tapestry needle as it has a blunt tip so you are unlikely to pick up any strands of the waste yarn. Make sure that the waste yarn knitting is tucked inside the sock. You will see a row of bumps that make up the live stitches of your sock toe.
Hold your two sock edges together and pull the needle through the first stitch on the right hand across from where your knitting ended. Make sure that you go through the stitch from the bottom and not over the top. Pull your needle through the next stitch on the same side from the back so that you are going back toward the edge where your working yarn came from. Pull your needle through the first stitch on that side and around through the next stitch on the same side from the back away from the waste yarn. Going back to the second side, pull your needle through the same stitch that you last used and around through the next stitch. This is all shown in the photos above and below.
Go back across through the same stitch that you last used on the first side and around through the next stitch on the same side. Make sure that you pull your yarn up to match the tension of the sock knitting as you will not be able to tighten or loosen the tension once you have made a few stitches. You can see in the finished toe after the waste yarn is removed that I didn’t follow my own advice and pulled the grafting yarn too tight on the right side of the toe. You should see the stitches that you are making mimic the purl rows of the sock. Keep going across all of the toe stitches then fasten off by overcasting once on the last stitch and weaving in the end.
Now you just need to remove the waste yarn. Unravel the yarn from the cast off edge and pull it out of the work. You will see a closed toe that looks like it has no seam! Pretty neat and very easy once you get into the rhythm. You can use this technique to close any horizontal join that you want to be invisible. You do need to be careful that you don’t pull the stitches that you are creating too tight. You can see my mistake on the right side of the toe where I got carried away with tugging on the yarn! If I was making these socks for someone else I would have redone the seam before taking out the waste yarn but I am not too concerned as they will be stuffed into my shoes.
