SOCK-IT Knit Along - #SockItToED #EDAW2016
Put your best sock forward
For Eating Disorders Awareness Week (#EDAW2016) Charlotte's Helix is once again supporting the international initiative designed to "Sock It to Eating Disorders".
You can read more about the origins of Sock It here (our supporting page from last year)
which explains in whose memory and for what reason this initiative was created.
This year we are also staging a "knit along" to show our support.
Nothing too taxing, and nothing that will involve the average knitter (with average amounts of bits of balls
of yarn "left over") in anything expensive or time consuming. Something, in fact, to be completed in an evening or two in front of the telly. My first attempt took up all of last week's episode of "Happy Valley"
- without having to look away from the screen, but handy excuse should I have felt the need - my second was finished during GoggleBox, where I knitted along with Mrs Michael (I probably need to get out more!).
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If you have never knitted before, this is an opportunity for you to learn the two basic stitches - knit and purl - to cast on and off, and to do a bit of basic seaming
(if you haven't chosen - very sensibly - to knit, sockwise, in the round). There are a host of YouTube expert tutorials that can teach you the basic skills. Code/Pattern |
What kind of sock are we knitting?
A phone sock! Remember those? To keep your phone free from harm and scratches and those nasty cracked screens that we know all too well. Or be more ambitious, and stretch the project (almost literally) to an e-reader or a tablet. Our devices don't actually need to be kept warm, but protection from the thrills and spills of everyday use is always a bonus.
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So on to the code: how to create your sock?
Choose some yarn and some suitably sized needles for that yarn. Measure your device and calculate your gauge in rib. Cast on enough stitches to measure the same as your device plus about a quarter again (eg - if the device is 4 inches wide - and take account of any depth especially if it is significant - the knitting will need to measure about 5 inches when NOT stretched to its full potential) The finished item must fit VERY snugly if your device is not be vulnerable. Use your judgment - and please do improve on my basic coding!
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I knit both mine with laceweight yarn and to fit an iphone 6 (smaller version), and my pattern was as follows.
Cast on 44 stitches with 2.75mm needles (size 2 US, size 12 UK) and knit in rib (either knit one purl one, or knit two purl two) until the knitting is 1 inch long (2.5cm). I knit on two needles and sewed up the seams at the end; if you have a suitably small set of double pointed needles and want to knit in the round, use them instead - it saves time on seaming and probably looks neater. Either will work. Now change colour (you have just knitted a "collar" to hold in the phone) or change your rib (if you have been knitting in 1x1 rib, you can change to 2x2) to mark a contrast. If you are a super knitter, you may choose to knit in Helix cable - the instructions for which are, at time of publication, still a mystery to me (but watch this space - I am hoping to add them!). Continue knitting until the stretched rib fabric is the same length as your phone or device (remember that first inch that you knitted is additional to this length - ie if your phone (as mine does) measures 5.5 inches - your knitting should measure 6.5 inches including that first inch of rib, and that first inch of rib does not require stretching as you measure it) Either cast off the knitting and seam all the edges, or use kitchener stitch to graft the top end of your knitting together (there is a YouTube video here to show kitchener stitch for 2x2 rib). Sew in all ends. You can (and I hope you will) use brighter colours than I had available - use more stripes, channel your own creativity, vary your needle sizes on the various bits of rib; SHARE! |
Snug as a Bug, and ready for travel
Your sock is now ready for use.
Gift it (mine have both gone already - I am going to knit another one this week for myself); use it; share your pictures with us - as you start, in progress, finished items - tag us on twitter (@HelixAN25), flag us on Facebook; if all else fails, email us on info@charlotteshelix.net. Use hashtags when you share on social media (#sockittoed #EDAW2016 …), but make sure to TALK about the why and the what of the knitting - as a code breaker for eating disorders. Put your best sock forward and help to #SockItToED 
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