socks - achievement unlocked! (sort of...)

[ariandar]

Hey all, you might remember that several weeks ago, I was frustrated with trying to use DPNs with my funky hand issues.Well, I took all your suggestions and worked on it and worked on it... and then I was busy driving to and from Houston to see various specialists at MD Anderson for a while... but I had gotten a little further on using DPNs before just putting it all in a shoe box and telling myself I could look at it again later when I wasn't so distracted.  ANYWAY, I decided to try the 2 circular needles method, and went ahead and purchased the needles and then studied some Youtube videos and OMG it's all come together!! I've successfully done the cuff of this Lion Brand Yarn pattern!

Now... I'm onto the leg portion and it says to "work in St st until piece measures 6in from beg." Which is fine, I get that. Except, it just says "work" and doesn't specify if I'm to knit or purl. And so I started to knit stitch, but now it looks like the right side of the sock is *inside* the needles, like it's being built inside-out.  Is that right? Or was I supposed to start purling the whole leg part? I've only done 2 rounds, so it's not a big deal to rip it back, but since I've never watched this sock in progress, it feels like it's wrong.

Any insights? I am having surgery on my spine again on the 20th and it looks like they might have to sever an important nerve to really get the cancer out, but I wanted to have this going so I can keep working my hands. Doc says "use it or lose it."

Thanks bunches!

Firstfall convertible mitts: I haz a confused

[meretia]

I've been working on the Firstfall mittens for a while, and I don't get how I'm supposed to make the flap that forms the top of the mitten. The pattern had me slipping the first and last stitches of the non-cabled part of the glove every other round for the last couple repeats of the cable pattern. Now I'm working the cable panel flat and I'm supposed to "pick up a stitch from the mitt, and knit it together with a live stitch on the needle" at the beginning of each row, and there's a note in the section on making the hand that "You are creating two columns of slipped stitches which you will pick up and knit later for the flap, which makes me think I'm supposed to be picking up the stitches that I was slipping when I was making the hand.

But... the stitches I slipped are below the live stitches. The first slipped stitches are considerably below. I can't figure out how I'm supposed to pick them up. I mean, it seems like I'd eventually have to practically fold the hand flap in half to reach them, but then how would I attach the sides? I'm to the point where I just got frustrated and started on the other one since I know how to do that part.




Also it's purely shallow, but does the garter stitch section in the palms serve any purpose? I like the look of the k2 p1 pattern around the cuff better than the garter stitch, which doesn't seem to do much in the finished projects I've looked at on Rav other than look kind of odd in between the cable and the cuff. If it's not going to change anything important, I'm of a mind to pull it all out and do it over without the garter palms.