This was not my first time knitting two socks at once. I've used two circular needles, cuff down more than once. As long as you don't have a pattern that shifts and eventually you have to knit two together at the point where you stop knitting on sock 1 to knit sock 2, then it isn't bad. Yet instead of choosing this method, I picked up the double pointed needles because I heard it was possible to knit two socks simultaneously with this new-to-me technique.
Unless you want to drive yourself crazy, you'll need two sets of double pointed needles to cast-on. If you are going to be ribbing, I suggest doing the ribbing for each sock before setting up your stitches on one set of needles. Cleverly, I just started knitting as I set up the stitches. This was challenging and didn't save any time. Plus, ribbing both socks took a lot more concentration than just straight stockinette stitch. Whenever you decide to combine, I suggest slip a stitch from sock 1, slip a st from sock 2, and repeat until you are good to go.
Once you get to the stockinette stitch, it is easy if you can knit Continental and American-English style. There is a wonderful rhythm to the knitting. If you can't do both, you'll have to constantly drop one yarn and pick up the other. It is a fantastic project to practice the technique, but it will require concentration, especially if you are using just one color of yarn.
So, what could possibly go wrong? One of the problems I was having at the beginning of the project was the yarn snagging. It meant there were little strands that connected the socks. Now, as long as the strands are not substantial, you can just pull the two socks apart with no real damage done. But if you get a good portion of the strand you'll have to rip out or drop a stitch to correct it. Even worse, you might start knitting sock 2 with the yarn from sock 1 and not realize it, like I did. Just dropping a stitch will only frustrate you; you'll have to rip it out. The good news is that this provides the perfect opportunity to just knit the socks one at a time. Or you could be like me and put the socks back together. Persevere!
The heel was interesting. Turns out purling is not as smooth as the knitting, and since I used a slipped stitch in my heel pattern I found myself trying to correct the slipped stitches when I got to them. When you get to decrease, you have to do the heels separately anyway, so there isn't a need to knit them at the same time.
The toes are the fun part because you get to pull those socks apart and see if you've don't it right. One of my socks was slightly smaller than the other, but not drastic enough to call them different sizes. I knit a bit more snug American-English style. I had suspected this, but now I have proof.
Here are some tips if you'd like to try two socks at once on double pointed needles.
- Different colors will make it easy to see which yarn belongs to which sock. Use a nice striping yarn and compare a good amount to make sure you won't end up with too much same-color overlap. If you use the same color, always put the yarn for the inside sock on the same side every time, and tuck that yarn inside the project whenever you take a break. Marking the label is a good idea as well.
- Stockinette stitch was the easiest and fastest for me, so I'd recommending doing the ribbing first and then set up both socks on one set of needles. If you are doing toe-up you'll have to do the toes separately before combining.
- Consider doing an afterthought heel. Remember to use two bits of scrap yarn, one for each sock.
- Make sure the yarn you pick doesn't split. One of the biggest problems I had was little strands connecting the socks because the yarn split. Once I had the technique down this did not happen, but I sure wish I had used a less finicky yarn for my first try.
