# knitting socks flat, on flatbed machine with NO ribber?



## merrym

I am wanting to try this, as I have no circular knitting machine, but several flatbeds...and handknitting socks takes me a day or so each! Any good suggestions for simple but nice socks? Any free patterns floating around that are worth the effort?


----------



## deemail

http://www.toastyfrog.net/2007/12/27/single-bed-machine-knit-sock-pattern/

this sock looks good except i would make the top much longer...just a personal choice, you would have to decide...(4.5 mm)

http://www.hermanhillsknittery.com/hermanhillsknittery/MK_Sock_Tutorial.html

this pattern is for a mid-gauge machine (6.5 mm)


----------



## hobbyknitter

http://www.panix.com/~ilaine/socks.html is a page that you put in your gauge and measurements and the sock will fit you, no guessing if the other patterns are not your size. There is another one out there but cannot find it in my links.
Roberta


----------



## laurelk.

Yes, I knit stockings flat. Sometimes I hand knit the ribbing. Sometimes I add the ribbing after. Whatever, they are fast for me. I have a flat woven seam that I wear to the inside. i got into machine embroidery because I can embroidery all sorts of things of them. I just haven't had time to do it. My husband has been wearing the flat knitted socks for years now as I can make the ribbing not so tight on the cast on or bind off if added at the end.
Laurelk in S.CA


----------



## hobbyknitter

That is how I did them until I learned how to do circular knitting on the machine, I still do both and did come up with how to do the Dutch Heel I think it was on the flat bed machine. I do need to get some made up for brother and his wife but also more for me as i tend to go through lots of the wool socks fast and hate to wash just one pair at a time, although much easier to wash 1 set as those get washed by hand so that I do not felt them. I have seen some patterns for felting for socks, for me it would be easier to just buy the felt and sew them together, but that is me, you choose which way you want to make them. I have also knit the rib by hand and will use 3 needle size higher to get a nice loose bind off. Most people will knit too tight or loose until they get to the point of no return, that is getting the st just right. 
Godspeed Roberta


----------



## oystergirl

Hobbyknitter,
are they truly circular....? no need to seam them? if so I would be interested in a pattern. years ago I recall knitting them that way, but like many parked my machines....now the memory is parked !
Thanks ! Susan


----------



## hobbyknitter

Now the Dutch Heel is done on the flat bed and seam on one side of the sock, but really no one knows that but the person that made them unless they tell the recipient of the socks. Now for my double bed or circular socks that I can also do the Peasant heel, the only seam is the rib. Now this is the normal Japanese knitting machines as well as any machine that can knit in circular or tubular, not those sock machines you may have seen. As for the patterns math and spreadsheet, they go along with my disks I have on making socks. I did see one video on YouTube, I normally don't get to watch them myself, but this one caught my eye, this lady used a flat bed but then took dental floss to sort of thread up the sides and when done, you pull on the floss that got tied to a long tail in the beginning and it magically seams up that side and it looked like no seam at all. Which reminds me, I need to get a swatch done up before I end up putting the bulky machine away to make up some slipper socks, soon will need those to warm up my feet.
Godspeed Berda


----------



## hobbyknitter

I forgot to mention, there should be other videos on YouTube of how to do them on the flat bed, maybe there are some for the double bed as well. I still hand knit some at night or when I am the passenger and can relax doing the Magic Loop Method of toe to cuff socks.

Godspeed Berda


----------



## deemail

hobbyknitter said:


> Now the Dutch Heel is done on the flat bed and seam on one side of the sock, but really no one knows that but the person that made them unless they tell the recipient of the socks. Now for my double bed or circular socks that I can also do the Peasant heel, the only seam is the rib. Now this is the normal Japanese knitting machines as well as any machine that can knit in circular or tubular, not those sock machines you may have seen. As for the patterns math and spreadsheet, they go along with my disks I have on making socks. I did see one video on YouTube, I normally don't get to watch them myself, but this one caught my eye, this lady used a flat bed but then took dental floss to sort of thread up the sides and when done, you pull on the floss that got tied to a long tail in the beginning and it magically seams up that side and it looked like no seam at all. Which reminds me, I need to get a swatch done up before I end up putting the bulky machine away to make up some slipper socks, soon will need those to warm up my feet.
> Godspeed Berda


i think she has invented something that will change our seaming habits on many items... like flat knit sleeves... can't wait to try on more than a sample... i did about 8 inches and it worked like a dream...seeing how she had a little problem with pulling all the length at the end, i pulled some of the excess out of the first rows as soon as the work was long enough to pull them closer...that made it much easier to handle the floss...

I also can't see why this wouldn't work for normal seaming... the floss as a leader would give you a smoother seam...will have to try....


----------



## itzzbarb

Tonight I have been working on making the sock by toasty frog, the first link shown a few posts up. I frogged it, yeah, it is toast all right lol. Anyway, came to the laptop to post here and ask for help.

As instructed, I knitted 10 rows of waste yarn, a row of ravel cord, then the instructions have you begin on the left side working with the left half of the stitches...increasing and decreasing. Once that is completed, it tells you to put all needles back into working position and knit 43 rows. Well guess what? When the carriage hit the right half of the stitches....actually waste yarn and ravel cord, those needles had been pulled back into working position, that half of the knitting came off of the machine. DRAT! It was a mess. Frogged it. Can anyone tell me what to do when I knit that first row of all the stitches, to keep the unworked half from coming off the machine?

EDIT: Now that I am thinking about it, I wonder if the stitches had been pushed back behind the latches when the needles were put into holding position. Maybe that is why the stitches came off the needles? It was only the right side of the work that came off.


----------



## laurelk.

What kind of machine are you knitting on? I knit flat socks on a Studio/Singer 700. Maybe different knobs than Brother.I've never dropped the stitches off.
Laurelk in S.CA


----------



## itzzbarb

Studio 360


----------



## deemail

it sounds like you needed the hold buttons on and the needles in the proper position for when you want them and when you don't.... watch the video carefully...she may be putting the carriage in hold automatically, and forgetting to mention it....


----------



## hobbyknitter

I do intend to try her way of seaming that flat bed sock someday, but other things just get in my way. Maybe this winter I will find more time to do it, I will have to go back and watch her video again as she did mention something of how to hang the floss a little different but I do like your idea to start pulling it up while still on the machine, that does make sense and sure if one has enough of something like floss, that one can sew up their flat bed machine projects faster. I am like her, don't like to sew up the project but had to as had no other way to do it. Some people do have a good imagination and most work out pretty well.
Godspeed Berda


----------



## deemail

I agree...what a creative mind she must have! It's always that when you see one of those 'Why didn't I think of that moments!' .... it seems so simple... and then in no time at all, it becomes a standard technique.... I'm really excited about it and looking forward to finding other adaptations... thanks so much for sharing the site with us....


----------



## itzzbarb

Thank you.


----------



## sweetlilrachy00

Are you machine embroidering on your Handknits?! I also have an embroidery machine and was curious how this works! Would love to hear how it goes?!


----------



## ellenpran

No, I have never tried machine embroidering on my hand knits but having been wanting to try. I have hand knitting, sewing and machine knitting going on right now. I think I am obsessed with crafts.


----------

