kniteracy | A Few Words (OK, A Few Hundred!) About Sock Knitting (Reply)

There are a ton of sock knitting resources out there. On the Internet, you can find hundreds of free patterns, along with sock construction guidelines and tips for just about every kind of sock knitting you can imagine. And I only say ‘just about’ because I’m sure someone will think of something new. Maybe they are thinking of it right this minute.

Some of you know that last week’s sock class required me to begin rewriting a sock pattern on the fly, in a class with six students. Other chaos occurred as well, but what I’m now anticipating with dread is the fact that not all my knitters will be able to knit a complete heel flap, plus turn their heels, plus begin their gusset decreases, in two hours’ time. I’m halfway through my heel flap on this sock and intend to stop at the heel turn so I can demonstrate it on Saturday. All but one of the students in this class are relatively new or inexperienced knitters, and we were just getting into the swing of working in the round when it was time to end the class. Most of them are at the stage where they’re just sort of trusting the patterns they knit. They may have reached the, “I don’t like this pattern stitch, so I’m going to substitute another at the exact point,” stage. But nobody here is really knitting fearlessly, at least not yet.

Anyway, because I have to rewrite this pattern for my class, I thought I’d talk a little bit about sock construction, what there is out there, and how to do it without really thinking about it. No reason not to share that here. ;-)

Lots of my knitting friends know these tricks, but the truth is I can explain the basics of cuff-down sock construction in a series of simple bullet points.

Basic Sock Formula

I haven’t given needle numbers, because some of you may prefer to magic loop or work on two circular needles. If you’re using the magic loop or double circular method, be sure to place markers where you need them so you can remember where to make decreases as we go along.

Make a tension/gauge swatch, and find out how many stitches you are getting to the cm/in.
Measure:
- the foot at its widest point (usually the ball)
- the length of the foot
- the circumference of the ankle.
Multiply your stitches per inch times the widest point measurement
Subtract 10% for sock snugness
Cast on that 90% of stitches for your cuff
Join in the round
Knit some ribbing, at least an inch or so
Insert a pattern stitch if you like, and just knit around for the next 5-6 inches
Begin knitting the heel flap on the flat using half the stitches (the other half are for the instep)
- The first row will be on the wrong side. Slip 1, and purl the rest
- The second row will be on the right side. At this point, you can
  - Knit a plain heel flap (stocking or garter stitch all the way, remembering to slip the first stitch on each row)
  - Knit a reinforced heel flap (sl 1, p across on wrong side, *sl 1, k 1 all the way across in pattern on right side)
Knit the heel flap until it is as long as it is wide. Test this by folding up a single corner; when you have a right triangle, you’re done. You can also just knit as many rows as you have stitches in your heel flap (if you cast on 64, you’ll have 32 sts in your heel flap and knit 32 rows down)
Now it’s time to turn the heel. Why is everybody so afraid of this part? It relies on short rows and is like folding a piece of paper. Heel turns, like everything else, have a pattern and a formula.
- The easiest heel to work is the Dutch, or square heel*
  1. Knit across two thirds of the heel flap stitches
  2. Make a simple decrease
  3. Turn your work
  4. Work across one third of the heel flap stitches
  5. Make a simple decrease
  6. Turn your work
  7. Work to the stitch before the gap (made when you decreased)
  8. Make a simple decrease
  9. Turn your work
  10. Continue with the last three steps until there are no more heel flap stitches left to decrease
- Other turned heels have similar styles. As you work this heel, consider what would happen to the heel if you started by knitting fewer, or more, stitches across and worked the percentages differently.
Now you need to pick up gusset stitches. This part is actually more difficult than the heel turn.
Make sure you’re on a RS row after the heel turn (it’s fine to do a plain purl row to make this happen)
Pick up and knit half the number of original heel flap stitches (25% of your original cast on) along the right side edge of the sock. Knit these stitches through the back loop to twist them, which lessens the possibility of holes in the gusset pickups.
Knit across the instep stitches.
Pick up and knit half the number of original heel flap stitches (25% of your original cast on) along the left side edge of the sock. Knit these stitches through the back loop.
Knit across half the remaining heel stitches and place a marker here for beginning of round.
Continue knitting around, working gusset decreases as follows
1. When you get to three stitches before the meeting of gusset and instep, work a right-leaning decrease (k2tog), k1
2. Knit across the entire instep
3. At the point where the instep joins the gusset pickups, k1, then work a left-leaning decrease (SSK, or K2tog tbl)
4. Knit one plain round
Work these two rounds, decreasing every other round as you go, until the number of stitches is back to your original cast-on.
Knit around until the foot length is about 2” shorter than the length of the foot you’re knitting for
Begin toe decreases as follows for a simple wedge toe.** We’ll now be talking about the top (instep side) and bottom (sole side) of the sock
1. From the bottom of the sole, knit to three stitches before the point at which bottom joins to top.
2. Work a right-leaning decrease (k2tog), k1
3. At the beginning of the top side of the sock, k1, then work a left-leaning decrease (SSK, or K2tog tbl)
4. Knit across the top of the sock until three stitches before the join point
5. Work a right-leaning decrease (K2tog), k1
6. At the beginning of the bottom side of the sock, k1, then work a left-leaning decrease (SSK, or K2tog tbl)
7. Knit the next round plain
Work these two decrease rounds until you have about 1” worth of stitches left on each side.
Hold these stitches together on two parallel needles (you may need to transfer stitches if you’ve been working on DPNs)
Snip your working yarn. Leave only about a 6” tail. Thread the working yarn onto a darning needle.
Consider that the needle holding the top stitches is the knit needle and the needle holding the sole stitches is the purl needle.
Graft the end of the toe together using Kitchener Stitch as follows
1. Push the threaded needle through the first stitch on the knit needle as if to purl. Pull it all the way through.
2. Bring the threaded needle up in between the needles, and enter the first stitch on the purl needle as if to knit. Pull the yarn all the way through until it’s snug, but not tight.
3. Push the threaded needle through the first stitch on the knit needle as if to knit.
4. Push the threaded needle through the second stitch on the knit needle as if to purl, and push the first stitch off the knit needle.
5. Push the threaded needle through the first stitch on the purl needle as if to purl.
6. Push the threaded needle through the second stitch on the purl needle as if to knit, and push the first stitch off the needle.
Repeat steps 3-6 until you have only one loop left to push off.
Pull the threaded needle through the one remaining loop and pull snug
Weave in ends.

*There are many variations on this basic heel, and some that don't bear any resemblance to it at all. If you get a copy of Nancy Bush's Folk Socks, you'll find several variations there, or you can check out the Sock Knitters Tip Sheet for Heels By Number.

**There are also a number of basic toe variations. You can find several of these in Folk Socks.

Using this formula, you can make socks for anybody, using any kind of wool, on circulars or double points; it's your choice.

Please don't be intimidated by the maths. They are really very basic, and after knitting socks for donkey's years, I pretty much just know them off the top of my head.

Great books about sock knitting:

The aforementioned Folk Socks. It's a great resource, although it's somewhat densely written. Like most books that try to do absolutely everything, some bits of it may not appeal to everybody.
Sensational Knitted Socks provides a number of zipper patterns with lots of variations.
Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy is a great resource for short-row heel socks, toe up and top down.
Ethnic Socks provides a great introduction to socks and techniques from Eastern Europe and Turkey. If you like stranded knitting, this is a great one to play with.
Cool Socks, Warm Feet presents itself as a pattern book for socks made from printed and self-patterning yarns, but there are some great technique notes in it as well.
Sock Innovation, my newest acquisition, has already proven to be a great resource, full of fascinating design notes about how to make your socks spectacular and unique.
New Pathways for Sock Knitters, which amazon lists as unavailable in the UK, is actually available. If you're ready to branch out, Cat Bordhi's book explains a number of different ways to handle sock shaping so that you can create some fascinating and fantastic socks.

Great Internet resources for sock knitting:

The Internet Sock Knitters List Homepage. Here you'll find a lot of resources. If you decide to join the list, be aware that it is very, very chatty and high-traffic. I skim the digests when I have time, but I haven't been a regular poster to mailing lists in years.
Knitting Socks provides tutorials and some tips and patterns. Google Ads on front page.
A quick search on Ravelry reveals 557 matches for groups with keyword 'sock'.
Ravelry also has a huge pattern database. The most popular sock pattern on Ravelry is currently Cookie A's 'Monkey', from Knitty. More than 8,000 Ravelry members are knitting or have knitted this sock. Ravelry lists 6,900 sock patterns, nearly 2,500 of them free.