FOOTED, TOE-UP SOCKS THAT FIT WELL ENOUGH
You can include this gift in your web page. Please keep the attribution
as is.
Manny Olds
oldsma@clark.net
Berwyn Heights, Maryland, USA
While I wouldn't exactly call this a "pattern", it does describe a
comfortable sock.
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FOOTED, TOE-UP SOCKS THAT FIT WELL ENOUGH
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By Manny Olds,
who stole the foot part of the idea from Liz "I spill things" Sommers,
who was inspired by some ancient Knitter's magazine
CAST ON
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Figure out how many stitches to make the ball of the foot.
[example number: 48 stitches]
Cast on 1/3 of that number with a double knit cast on. [example number:
16 st] I use Royce "Invisible cast-on 1" from _Notes on Double Knitting_.
Knit 1 round plain.
TOE
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Shape the toe as follows, leaving a 2-stitch band between increases ("x"
marks an increasing point.)
o x ooo ... ooo x o
o x ooo ... ooo x o
Footed toe
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Increase at all 4 xes, on every row, 2 times
[eg: up to 24 st]
Increase at 2 xes on one side only, on every row, up to total minus 6
[eg: up to up to 42 stitches]
Increase at 2 xes on one side only, on every other row, up to total
[eg: up to 48 stitches]
Note: the idea is that you fool around with the proportions for these three
parts until you get a shape that fits your very own toes.
Round toe (handy for gifts to mystery toes)
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Increase at all 4 xes, on every row up to 1/3 total [eg: up to 32 st]
Increase at all 4 xes, on every other row, up to total [eg: up to 48 st]
FOOT
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Now knit the foot. If you want, put heel stitch all along the sole. (The
trick is to make sure that you orient the sole of the sock with the toe
correctly so you get a left sock and a right sock.) When you get to the
junction of the arch and the heel, stop doing the foot and start doing the
heel. This is easy to check because you can stick your foot into the sock
and see how far you are.
HEEL
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Do a regular Dutch Heel around 1/6 of the total stitches. [eg: 8 st] You
are starting from the opposite end than most books show, so you get the
big heel flap under the heel and the little band part going up the back.
Pick up, do the gusset, all just like the books say. Decrease until you
get the correct number of stitches for the ankle [eg: 48 st again].
Then continue knitting around plain, except maintain the heel stitch on
the stitches [eg: 8 st] above the heel band. Go up to total height of 8
to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) above the sole.
LEG
---
Now, if you want a perfect sock, you have to do some arithmetic to figure
out the exact sock shaping. You have to use the stitch gauge, the row
gauge, the ankle diameter, the calf diameter, and the desired sock height
to figure out how many times to increase, every how many rows. And if you
are super precise, you do this in two steps, from the ankle to the
beginning of the fat part of the calf and then from there to the top. And
remember, you want stitches that work out to about 90% of the calf
dimension, so the sock is snug enough to stay up.
I say, yeccch to this.
So if you want a good imperfect sock, here's what you do.
Convert the heel stitch band to a ribbing band: above the stitches that
were slipped, knit. Above the stitches that were knit, purl. That way
the ribbing looks like a spindly continuation of the heel stitch. Knit
around this way for 4-6 rounds.
Now begin to increase for the calf. Increase on either side of the
ribbing, in the ribbing. This way the ribbing band gets wider as you go up
the leg. You should do this about every 6th round. If you want to make
sure this is right for your leg, you can slip the sock on and check.
Increase more or less often if you need to.
The ribbing can hide imperfections in the rate of increasing, so don't
obsess. If you want to get an idea of how many stitches to aim at, use
0.90 times the size of your calf at the approximate height that you want
the sock to go, times the stitch gauge.
Example: Gauge 5 st/in; calf is 13 inches around where I want the sock to
stop. 0.90 x 13 x 5 = 58.5 stitches, call it 58 or 60. So I would aim at
58 or 60 stitches (depending on how sproingy the yarn is).
Keep ribbing up the heel cord and increasing until you have the sock
almost as high as you want it. If you run out of increases before the
sock is high enough, you can continue the ribbing band as it is or you can
keep widening the band without increasing by converting the neighboring
stitches into ribbing gradually.
Then put a 1x1 ribbing band all around the top as wide as you like.
BIND OFF
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Use a sewn tubular bind off for 1x1 ribbing. There is an excellent
explanation of this in Hiatt's book (and many others no doubt), but she
calls it something else. And my note of what that something else is is
missing. If I give a crude description, you will be able to find it.
Basically, you cut off the the end of the yarn very long and thread it
into a darning needle. Then you take the sock off the knitting needles.
You see that the knit stitches make sort of an outer circle and the purl
stitches make an inner circle:
k1 k2 k3 k4 k5
p1 p2 p3 p4 p5
Go through k1 and k2, p1 and p2, k2 and k3, p2 and p3, ...
Anyway, look this up in a book with pictures that show exactly how it
goes. I think it is best if you make it looser rather than tighter.
And if you have any complaints about this pattern, blame Lizzie.
Manny Olds
oldsma@clark.net
Berwyn Heights, Maryland, USA
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