KingToon
I want to start knitting socks, and i dont know what to do with the fourth needle, and it is rather confusing. I tried the sock101 site but that didnt help me very much at all. All help would be loved.
Okay, so when your knitting with two needles, you start with all the stitches on one needle, right? Then the other needle is empty. You knit with the empty needle, right?
So when casting onto DPNs, you have your stitches spread evenly between 3 needles (or 4, depending on if you have a set of 4 or 5 needles, and which one you prefere, the only important bit is to have 1 needle without stitches)
You take your last needle, your empty one, and you start knitting off of the needle with your first stitch on it, so that it forms a loop.
When using straight needles, you get to the end of the needle, and suddenly the one that used to have stitches is your empty one, right? and you knit with the empty needle.
So when using DPNs, when you finish the stitches on one needle, it becomes your empty one and you use it to knit the next needle-full.
On straight needles, you've finished a row when you've knit or purled into each stitch, right?
So on DPNs, when you've gone through all 3 (or 4) needles that orriginally had stitches, you've completed a row. All stitches have been knitted or purled, and your ready to start a new row. (I'd highly recomend a stitch marker to keep track of the begining of your row, btw)
I hope i helped some! If you're still having trouble and nobody manages to clear it up, i might be able to make you pictures.