Exactly. She’s using straight needles (with a knob on one end) instead of double-pointed needles. DPNs are also straight I guess! But “straight needles” specifically means the ones with one point and a knob.

More info: https://creatingruth.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/do-you-knit-like-miss-marple/

There was a bizarre movement in the Victorian era to get people to knit with their needles held with tips pointed down because it’s “more ladylike” but it’s also very difficult and irritating to knit that way so it didn’t catch on.

I don’t think there’s any way to knit a tubular sock on straight needles; the geometry doesn’t allow it. You can knit a sock flat and then sew it up into a tube, but it would look different from the comic.

Edit: actually now that I’ve thought about it more, I think there is a way but it would be super annoying (slip every other stitch so you’re knitting the back and front of the tube at the same time, that might work…). Basically the equivalent of writing a letter by writing every other word and then going back to fill in the rest. Possible, but no reason to do it.

That’s called ‘frogging’ (because you rip-it, rip-it), and you don’t use needles to do it.

He also made him a buff/hot space traveler who fist fights the devil and wins (the protagonist of Out of the Silent Planet/Perelandra is based on Tolkien).

Artists. I beg you. Do any research into what knitting looks like before drawing someone knitting.

Patriarchy oppresses us all.