I did something really silly a few nights ago. On a whim, I tried to Kitchener that sock closed. Dumb, dumb, dumb! It was late, I was tired and the light is never great in my apartment at that time of night (I still have a deep hankering for a really bright floor lamp).
I ended up tearing out several rows and reconstructing the toe of the sock. This terrified me at first, but I was able to get back to my starting point: 10 stitches on each needle. Then I left well enough alone! I was entertaining fantasies of a handy Kitchener Booth at the mall, where you can pay someone else to finish your problem socks. It felt overwhelming, but really, 10 stitches is a tiny piece of knitting-real-estate to graft. I think I can suck up and do it myself.
And I did. Last night, I spent a happy evening teaching myself Kitchener stitch by knitting up scraps time and time again until I had the hang of it. I'd watched a couple videos to get the gist, but the best tutorial, in my opinion, is the one by Theresa Vinson Stenerson on Knitty.com.
In terms of learning this, I can't emphasize enough how helpful it was to practise it several times with contrasting colours of yarn. By using a different colour for the graft, I was able to better understand how it worked and how to tighten the graft to the correct tension for my knitting. The other tip (which was offered in the Knitty article) was to leave the graft loose and tighten it up every inch or so.
It took me a few tries to get the knack, but before long I was ready to debut this new skill on Festive Red Sock #1. As you can see, it turned out great and I'm a new convert to the Kitchener!
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