The Knitting Fiend

This article will illustrate how to knit the first “point down triangle” for a seamless Argyle socks. Believe it or not, this is the part that describes the unusual techniques used to fuse different colored diamonds together. (The other parts of the knitting use relatively common techniques knitters use on other projects.)

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How things look before starting

Right now, you should have two point up triangles worked. The point up triangles are worked using short rows and wrapping stitches — both are fairly common techniques that I will show in another tutorial. While working this you should notice that every other stitch on each edge is wrapped. Once you’ve verified the point up triangles look ok, you will need to rearrange the stitches on the needles so you can fill in the “ditches” between the two point up triangle.

How to rearrange
The pattern will tell you how many stitches to have on the working needles. In my case, the sock has 40 stitches, so half plus 1 stitches equaled 40/2 + 1 = 21 stitches.

The instructions also told me to place 11 on the left needle and 10 on the right needle. (No matter how many stitches in your pattern, there will be one more on the left than on the right.)

The outer edge stitches are the “top tip” of the point up white triangles. So, you’ll be able to verify that by checking if they align with the markers the directions have you set when knitting the first row of the point up triangle. (Unless you skipped laying them because you figured that was optional? I did! )

When you have organized the stitches correctly you’ll also notice the stitch nearest the left tip is wrapped with the wrap sort of pulling it to the left; the stitch nearest the right tip is also wrapped, but with the wrap sort of pulling to the right. In the photo above left, I poked needle tips through the wraps to show they are really there.

You are going to start knitting with black; in principle, you pick up the black yarn now. However, in practice, you can leave it aside for a bit while you get ready to “knit through a stitch with its wrap”. (Some of you have done this when knitting short rows however you have approached the wrap from the other side. )

The goal of knitting through the wrap is to produce a nice untwisted knit stitch with the wrap hidden behind. The black yarn will pull through the wrap and the stitch thus preventing holes.

Knitting through a wrap requires five very small steps shown below. First: Insert the right needle tip in the wrap. Second, lift the wrap and drop it to the left side of the stitch. (Note, if it is very difficult to lift the wrap, you wrapped too tightly.)

Third, slip the stitch as to knit.¹ Fourth, replace the slipped stitch on the left needle tip and insert the right tip through the stitch and the wrap sitting behind it. Fifth, pick up the black yarn, wrap it around the needle and knit through. Illustration 6 shows the final stitch.

Work the second row.
Turn the work purl side facing to work the second row.
The first stitch on the left tip will be black, slip it.

Next, work a “purl through wrap”: insert the right needle tip into the wrap circling the stitch on the left tip, lift the wrap over and drop it to the left of the stitch. (See below left.) Then insert the right tip into the stitch and pass on through the wrap. (See below right.) Wind yarn around the needle and work a purl. (Not illustrated.)

When you turn the work examine the two black stitches. Make sure the white wraps are behind them and no stitches are twisted; your work should resemble the illustration left.

Row 3
To begin this row, slip a stitch (purl-wise) knit one stitch. Warning: The knit stitch is worked into the first stitch of the diamond when you had just attached the black yarn. So, the stitch may seem loose; just pull the tail to fix this! Also, if you attached the yarn oddly (as I sometimes do) the stitch may seem twisted. If it seems twisted, unravel the stitch you just knit and slip to reposition the first stitch you need to knit into. Then knit into it again.

Next, you will “knit 1 with float”. To do this insert the right needle tip in the stitch on the left needle tip as shown below left. Then, turn the right tip down and pass it under the float behind the work. (Some digging may be required.) Then wind yarn around the needle and knit the float together with the stitch

To finish this row, knit a stitch with its wrap. This is done exactly as shown for the very first stitch in row 1. So just go look at those pictures again!

Row 4
Turn so work is purl side facing. Slip the first stitch as to purl, then purl 5. You will reach white stitches. You will first “purl 1 with float” then “purl 1 with wrap.”

To “purl with float”, insert the right needle tip into the stitch on the left tip exactly as though you are going to purl. Continue on and pass the tip under the float as illustrated to the left.

After this, “purl 1 with wrap” as you did working row 2.

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Wow, that was a lot of explanation for four rows! Luckily, that’s really it for the point down triangles. Ok.. there is a “finesse” issue on the very last row. When you get to the final “knit or purl with a wrap” you will find the stitch is only sort of wrapped. this is because the yarn tail is hanging down. What should you do: Just pretend it really is wrapped. Lift the yarn over and drop. Then, insert the right tip into the needle and pass under the wrap. Knit through. This interlocks the black and white yarn! (There are other things you can do — like dropping the yarn and actually intertwining like you would if you were knitting normal intarsia, but this method involves the least dropping and picking up of yarn.)

So, what’s next? How to knit upper diamonds! This is very similar to knitting the first white triangle. (That’s why I skipped describing knitting the first white triangles. All the special techniques happen again and again!)

I knit the upper triangle for the diamonds, but as you can imagine writing these is time consuming. So… you’ll see that a bit later!

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1. The purpose of slipping as to knit is to reseat the stitch. My 2001 instructions describing knitting with a wrap didn’t indicate you should slip knitwise and replace the stitch. This is because I said to slip as to knit when working the point up triangles. I’ve decided repositioning when working with the wraps is faster and easier even though the description sounds more involved and technically requires two extra steps for each each “knit 1 with wrap”.