Johnson - Socks from the toe up: essential techniques and patterns from Wendy Knits

Copyright 2009 by Wendy D. Johnson

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.pottercraft.com

POTTER CRAFT and colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Wendy D.
Socks from the toe up : essential techniques and patterns from Wendy Knits / Wendy D. Johnson.1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-58700-8
1. KnittingPatterns. 2. Socks I. Title.
TT825.J647 2009
746.432041dc22
2008030250

Photography by Alexandra Grablewski

Illustrations by Kara Gott Warner

The author and publisher would like to thank the Craft Yarn Council of America for providing the yarn weight standards and accompanying icons used in this book. For more information, please visit www.YarnStandards.com.

v3.1

Once upon a time, I was just a girl who wanted to knit socks. I started knitting socks after I was seduced by the self-striping yarns that first appeared a few years back. Anything that appears to work by magic amuses and entertains me, so I was hooked after my first peek at some sock yarn that knit up into tiger stripes.

I decided then that I wanted to knit my socks from the toe up. The most compelling reason for this is that I have always loathed grafting. Another reason is that its ideal when you have a limited quantity of yarn. With a toe-up pattern I can knit until I run out of yarn, thus eliminating any anxiety about having enough to finish the sock.

I commute to my office by train, and sock knitting seemed like the perfect way to occupy my travel time. I wanted to make the process as simple and easy as possible, so I did some research on knitting socks toe-up and settled on the techniques that seemed the simplest: a provisional cast-on, a short-row toe, and a short-row heel. I worked up a pattern incorporating these techniques and memorized this pattern.

I later refined and wrote up a generic pattern for toe-up socks that could be used as a formula for any sock at any gauge and posted it on my website. Hundreds, if not thousands, of knitters have used that pattern, altering it to suit their gauge and foot size.

I fell out of love with socks for a year or two, until a friend requested a pair of hand-knit socks. I whipped out my generic pattern, knit the socks, and once again found myself hooked. I happily knit socks using my formula for another year.

A couple of years ago, all that changed. I became bored with my short rows and started experimenting with other toe and heel techniques. I worked up a couple more generic patterns with two different gusseted heels that mimicked the look of top-down socks but that were knit toe-up. And I started knitting all my socks using those generic patterns.

Shortly thereafter, I heard about a project that was forming in the online knitting world: the Summer of Socks 2007. The idea was to spend the summer focused on knitting socks. Whether to knit socks exclusively or mix them in with other projects was up to each individual participant. There would be contests and games and other assorted high jinks. Because it sounded like fun and there were very few rules, I decided to join in.

Hey! Just for fun, lets see how many socks I can design myself and knit up during the Summer of Socks, I thought to myself. I got out the graph paper and pencils and got to work.

At the end of the summer, I had nineteen pairs of socks completed. Out of those nineteen pairs of socks, eighteen were my own original designs.

But I was not done with sock design. I kept writing toe-up sock patterns and knitting them. And that is how this book came into being.

The patterns Ive included range from easy to challenging and include lace, cables, and texture. Ive also included plain basic sock patterns with the three different heels that I like best, which you can use as a starting point to create your own original sock designs. In designing the projects for this book, my goal was to create patterns that are fun to knit and pleasing to the eye while still being comfortable to wear. I hope you enjoy knitting them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

PART 1: TOE-UP ESSENTIALS

SO YOU WANT TO KNIT SOCKS? TO START OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT, YOU NEED THE RIGHT STUFF. YOU WONT NEED MANY TOOLS IN ORDER TO KNIT SOCKS AND THEY NEED NOT BE EXPENSIVE, BUT YOU WILL WANT TO CHOOSE CAREFULLY TO AVOID FRUSTRATION DOWN THE LINE.

The most important and the only really necessary tool for sock knitters? No surprise there: knitting needles!

Knitting needles are available in a variety of materials, including bamboo, wood, metal, and plastic. Which material you choose is part personal preference and part practicality. Are you a new knitter or new to knitting socks? Try using wooden needles, as they have a bit of grab to them and will cling to your stitches. If you are using a particularly slippery yarn, such as some silk blends, a wooden needle will be less likely to slip out of your stitches as you work. As you gain experience and want to speed up your knitting, you can switch to faster, metal needles, which, because of their smooth surface, allow stitches to slide off the tips quickly and smoothly. If you are using a yarn with some texture, such as some cotton/lycra blends, you might want to use metal instead of wood needles because the yarn wont cling to the smooth surface of the metal needles. If you have a tendency to snap wooden needles, try using metal needles. Youll be hard-pressed to break those. Do metal needles seem too cold? Try needles that warm up with your body heat, such as wood or plastic. Theres no rule that says you have to use the same needles for every sock you knit; knit with the needles that work best for the yarn you are using.

There are three ways to knit socks in the round: on double-pointed needles, on two circular needles, or on one circular needle employing what is called the Magic Loop technique. These different needle methods are described in detail in the .

Double-pointed needles used to come in sets of four in the United States but, happily, have popped up in sets of five in recent years. Double-pointed needles have typically come in sets of five in other parts of the world, so perhaps we have the Internet and easier global communication to thank for making them popular in the United States as well. I think a set of five works better than a set of four. Using a set of five double-pointed needles, you have your stitches divided over four needles and use the fifth needle to knit. Not only does this make it easier to differentiate the sole stitches from the instep stitches, but having your stitches divided over four needles rather than three reduces the chance of ladders, or loose stitches at the junction of the needles, because less strain is put on the stitches at the joins. Double-pointed needles are available in a variety of lengths, from 4" to 10" (10cm25.5cm) long, with lots of length choices in between. I happen to own several sets of 14"- (35.5cm-) long steel double-pointed needles in very small needle sizes that look particularly dangerous. I wouldnt recommend using these to knit socks, unless you want your needles to double as weaponsyou could easily injure anyone who gets too close to you while you are knitting!