A lot of people are taking the opportunity to learn a new skill. With so many people not able to work right now, we need to occupy our time with something right? And keeping our brains active will help a lot with what we are all collectively going through. I have picked up both my guitar and my violin, which I haven’t touched in about 2 years. Poor things. I have them both tuned up and sounding great….until I start to play it and then well, you know how that story goes with a beginner on an instrument. Let’s just say I keep my windows closed when I practice, because the neighbors don’t deserve that. haha! But, a lot of people are picking up knitting and crocheting. Which, I of course, think is a great idea. That raises the question of, where do I start?! You could spend hours just watching You Tube videos, or you could just dive right in. I learned most of the basics when I was a kid, from my grandmother. After that, I put it all away and didn’t pick it up again until I was almost 30. It was like starting over. When I started, I picked up a little “How to Knit” kit from Michaels. It came with a little booklet and needles. Just the basics.

When you are just starting out, it is important to not put pressure on yourself. It can seem daunting. A lot of people will say to start with making a scarf, because it’s just a long rectangle. And while it is easy, it can seem like it is never going to end. Honestly, I prefer to start people off with a dish cloth. Just a little 4X4 square….ish. It will vary depending on how many stitches you want to start with. Really, you just want to end up with something kind of square. No pressure here, remember? Having the knitting needles in your hand, and controlling your yarn can seem very cumbersome at first. Depending on the needles you have, they can get tangled in your clothing, stuck in the arms of your chair, and just make you feel like you are fumbling through things. That is because most people start with those long straight needles. And there is nothing wrong with them, but they are longer than you need. That is because needles have to be multi-taskers to allow you to make a variety of things on them. So, those long needles you are using for your skinny scarf also get used for blankets. If you are using those needles, just be patient, and know that it’s not you. 🙂 I still use them from time to time and they still get caught in my clothes, or on chair arms, or even my own arm. haha! One of the things you will find with knitting, is that there are a lot of things that come down to personal preference. These needles are great to start with, even though they are fiddly, because they are super easy to find at craft stores that sell yarn. As you learn and progress, you can investigate other needle options that could make it much easier to knit, but when starting out you don’t want to have to invest a ton of money to get going. Also, there are a lot of needle sizes, in terms of how big around the needle itself is. You will find that most have a US size and then a MM measurement. When you get to the stage of looking at a pattern, be sure you go with the MM sizing, because the US sizing isn’t as strict. The MM will be an exact measurement and will give you a better result. When you start out, one of the best sizes to buy is the US 8/5mm. This is a very common size, that you will use a lot for larger yarn. It is large enough that you will be able to get a good grip on the needle. It also creates a fabric that is much easier to see the stitch definition, which will help you learn.

Now that you have needles, what yarn should you get? You will find that there are numerous sizes and types. Yarn has improved a lot over the years. Acrylic, while it still has a bad wrap has improved greatly. It’s not as plastic feeling as it was in the 80’s, although some of the cheap ones can still be like that. However, when you are starting out, you don’t want to go super expensive on the yarn. I like acrylic for a few reasons. One is the price. It is much cheaper than a lot of the fancier yarns, which is great if you are doing a large project, like a blanket. Next is that it is super washable. Again, this is fantastic for blankets. If you are able to get in to a store, or when you are able to get back out to one, the best thing to do when choosing yarn is to touch it. Yep, get your hands on it. If it feels scratchy, it will stay scratchy. Walk away from that one. If you touch it and it’s soft feeling, then give that one a try. The feel of it in it’s balled state at the store, is what it will continue to be. You might be able to make it softer by soaking the finished project in hair conditioner, but you will have to work with that scratchy yarn during the entire time you are knitting. In case you are not able to get out to a store, here are a couple yarns I like that are a great price tag: Knit Picks Brava Worsted, is a great price tag. It’s very washable, and it’s soft to work with. I use this a lot for large blankets. This is labeled as a worsted weight yarn, which is a good all around yarn for scarves. It’s a medium weight, and depending on the length of your scarf, you will need 2-3 balls of this yarn. If you are wanting to go with the option of making dish clothes, then a great option is either Dishie or Dishie Multi. The difference between these two are the colors. Dishie is a line of solid color cotton yarns, and the Dishie Multi is a multi colored cotton yarn. One ball of this will get you a couple dish clothes, depending on how big you want to make them.

So, this is your material basics to get you started. But, now you need to know HOW to knit. I plan to put up a post in just a couple days on the act of knitting. I will be posting pictures, and links to videos on how to knit. For now, you can definitely head over to YouTube, and search How To Knit, and you will find many many videos. My goal is less about reinventing the wheel on the basics, and more about giving you a lot of the details that I found were missing when I came back to knitting. I will continue to get more in-depth on how to knit, to help you progress in your skill.

Thanks for reading!

Well, it has taken me longer than anticipated to get back to my Sock Basics series. Things have been fine here, but quarantine really set me back a bit mentally. I am finally feeling like myself again, and feeling like there is a point to doing normal things again. I hope everyone is well, both physically and mentally. I know what a struggle it is for many people, and it can be hard to keep pushing through. But, the more we can get into a routine, the better. One thing I was finding was that I was unreasonably bored. Like super bored, sit on the couch doing nothing bored. It was bizarre. I was likely having some depression symptoms, which is a very common occurrence for people right now, and is totally understandable. To combat it, I pulled myself up by the boot straps, so to speak to get after it. That meant getting up at my normal time, alarm set and all, making the bed when I got up, getting out of my pajamas, showering, shaving all that. Then I had to find something else to get my brain engaged. So, the hubby and I set about making a music space. We have instruments that have been ignored for quite some time. We were going to have our spare bedroom remade into the guest room, until we got the basement renovated, but since no one is visiting in the near future, we took over that room. Instruments are set up and ready to go, still in their cases as needed for safe keeping, but there and accessible. Music stands are set up, music books are out, and chairs are in place. We can walk into the room, grab an instrument and just play. No having to look for anything. I have moved my guitar downstairs and that is what I have been working on. It’s down here so that the hubs can be in the music room and play, and I can just randomly pick up the guitar at various times of the day, without an extra trip up the stairs. My legs are pretty bad right now, so not going upstairs is a good thing. Fender was offering 3 months of lessons, so I jumped on that. 🙂

But, enough about what is going on. That is for another post! ON to the socks!!

One of the great things with toe up socks is that you don’t have to pick up stitches for the heel. Yay! However, you will find that your edge stitches look a bit loose. So, we’ll try to find a way to fix that. 😀 But, before you get to that, you have the gusset. As I explained in the cuff down socks, the gusset is that triangle on the side of your sock. You’ll see it in store bought socks as well. You will see that about 3/4 of the way up the foot to the heel there starts to be an increase in stitches that will follow your instep up to the top of your foot. It creates a little triangle, which gives you extra room in your sock for the thickest part of your foot. In order to do this, you just need to increase stitches as you go. In my patterns you will see that I specify that you should start your gusset when the foot of your sock is 2.25″ or 2.25″ (depending on the size you are knitting) shorter than your desired length of the sock. This means, that if you want the foot of your sock to be 9″ long when finished, you will start your gusset increases when it measures either 6.75″ or 6.5″, again depending on the size sock you are knitting. This gives enough room for your gusset increases and the heel. The gusset increases are pretty standard. You will increase on the sole of your foot, so only the needles holding your sole stitches will get increases. For example, in my patterns I tend to write for the magic loop method. I will instruct you to knit across needle 1, which is the instep or top of your foot. Then on needle 2, you will knit 1, make 1 right leaning stitch, knit until you have 1 stitch left on needle 2 that is unworked, make 1 left leaning stitch, and then knit 1. The next row will be simply knit across needle 2. I prefer to do the decreases every other row to create an even angle to the gusset. It also helps smooth out the increased stitches, and keeps them from getting too tight.

This sock picture shows that triangle of the gusset:

If you are unfamiliar with how to make the right and left leaning stitches, it’s actually pretty easy, and I’ll walk you through it now. The right leaning stitch, often written as M1R, means that you will pick up the bar that is between two stitches. Insert your needle from the back to the front, picking up that bar onto your left needle. Knit into this thread as you normally would, going through the front. When you do this, you want that bar to twist on itself. That will close up any holes that could have been created. The left leaning stitch, often written as M1L, means that you will pick up the bar that is between the two stitches, going in with your left needle from the front to the back, this time. To knit this stitch, you will be knitting through the back loop. Again, this will twist that stitch and close the hole. If you need to have a visual aid for this, Purl Soho has a great page on these stitches, with pictures and videos. They have some great resources. I highly recommend checking out their website!

The gusset may feel a bit fiddly as you start to get to your stitch numbers. You will be increasing on the sole of your foot until you get to the required stitch count, but needle 1 will just be worked as normal, either in pattern or plain, depending on the pattern you are following, and will not get increased. This means that as you work between the needles, you will want to take a little extra care to tighten up that second stitch. Just to make sure you don’t get extra gaps at the needle ends. I like to keep my needles very close together for the first 3 or so stitches, which helps keep your stitches more even.

As with the cuff down socks, you do have some heel options. There are a number of them that you can purchase the patterns for, such as the Fish Lips Kiss heels, that can be substituted into a pattern. However, keep in mind that you will need to know how much space this heel will take, because this will change when you need to start your gusset. The gusset I described will go with the heel flap, which tends to only take up about 1/2-3/4″ of space. If you are using a heel that will create more space them that, you’ll have to calculate accordingly. I will give you the details on the heel flap, which is very commonly used.

The first part of the heel is the heel turn. This is what creates the little triangle pocket for the back of your heel to fit into. It gives it a little cup. 😀 This will be worked on just that second needle, with all those extra gusset stitches on them. You’ll pretty much ignore needle 1 for a while. You are going to be working back and forth as if this is a flat piece, so you will be knitting one side and purling the other. The knit side is going to be the right side, as this is the side that is going to be facing out to the world. The purls are inside the sock, and are the wrong side of your work. You are going to be working fewer and fewer stitches on this needle, and you will be creating wraps. These wrapped stitches are what will give you a little pucker to make that little cup.

Here is how you wrap and turn:

w&t – wrap and turn. Right side (knit): Bring your yarn to the front of your work. Slip the next stitch purlwise onto your right needle. Move your yarn to the back of your work. Slip the stitch back to your left needle. You can now turn your work, and the yarn is in position to purl.
Wrong side (purl): Bring your yarn to the back of your work. Slip the next stitch purlwise onto your right needle. Move your yarn to the front of your work. Slip the stitch back to your left needle. You can now turn your work and the yarn is in position to knit.

Knitting wraps -Right side (knit): Insert your right needle into the wrap from front to back, as if to knit, and then into the stitch as if to knit. Slip both onto the right needle together. Reinsert your left needle into the stitches and knit them together. Wrong side (purl): Insert your right needle into the wrap from back to front, and then place the wrap onto the left needle. Knit the wrap and next stitch together.

These instructions are the ones I use in my glossary for every toe up sock. They look intimidating at first, but once you see them in action, it’s awesome. From here, you will be working the heel flap. This is what will get rid of all those extra gusset stitches! You will still be mostly working on just that second needle. Although, you may find that you have to work across needle 1 to just get everything set up and aligned. Your pattern will specify if that is necessary for those socks. The heel flap is a pretty simple construction. The first row will have you knitting across a particular number of stitches, then doing a decrease. Some will have you turn here, which is what I do. Others will have you knit 1 after the decrease. Once you turn, you will knit a specified number of stitches, then again decrease. After this, you simply knit or purl to the gap, which you will find at your decrease. The decrease causes just a little gap between the worked and unworked stitches. Also, you will find that after your second row to get this all set up, you will always be working the exact number of stitches that you are going to be ending with. For example, if the sock you are working has 28 stitches on the instep, and had 28 stitches on the sole (before the gusset), you are going to have 28 worked stitches in your heel flap. That way, when your heel flap is done, you can transition right into the leg with the exact number of stitches you need. This will give you the little flap at the back of the heel, while finishing off the triangle of the gusset.

The beautiful thing about the heel flap, is that you can make it as decorative as you want. Since you will have a specific number of stitches, and a decrease on each side, you will always know where your pattern will be. A popular design is Eye of Partridge, which is a repeat of slipping a stitch and knitting a stitch, then purling across the wrong side. Again, since you know exactly where your stitches are, it can be easily worked across the flap. The first row would be “sl1, *k1, sl1; repeating from * to the last stitch and then decrease”. The second row would be “sl 1, purl across to the gap, decrease”. The third row would be “sl1, k1, *k1, sl1; repeating across to the gap, decrease”. And the forth row is “sl1, purl across to the gap, decrease”. Many people find that this does actually give a bit of extra strength in the heel, which is very important for wearability.

Now, I mentioned earlier about loose stitches on the heel flap. As you work across those decreases to make the flap, the last stitch on each side, where the decreases are can look a bit sloppy. One way to remedy that is to make sure your pull your yarn a bit tighter after you turn. After you work the decrease, you will be turning your work, and then slipping that first stitch. This action can loosen that stitch, and the one that was before it. So, before you slip the stitch, make sure that yarn is nice and snug. Then slip the first stitch, and when you knit the next one, give it a little extra snug to keep that first stitch from looking sloppy. Also, many times the purl side decrease is a purl 2 together. This can create a looser looking stitch as well. If it suits your knitting style better, try doing a slip slip purl. This can help with creating more pull on your stitches and helps cinch things in better.

That wraps up the gusset and heel section of our socks! You are in the home stretch now!! Very soon, I will put up the final details on how to work the rest of your sock, and how to finish your cuff so that it is comfortable.

Thanks for reading!!

Update!! I found a discussion a little while ago about decreases being sloppy, especially on the gusset. A video was mentioned about an alternate way to do the SSK. It’s worked more like a Slip 1, K1, PSSO, except that after you work the K1, you do not slip that stitch off your left needle, until you pass the slip stitch over, then you let it fall off the needle. Holding that stitch on the left needle pulls everything tighter and creates a very crisp decrease. Here is the video for you to watch and see what is being done! Another option that was given was to Slip one knitwise, slip one purlwise, then knit them together as a normal ssk. This twist in the stitch helps it to lay flatter. I hope these tips help!! Personally, I’m going to try the alternate SSK that is in the video on my next socks. I’ll be sure to post when I do, to show you the difference between the two options!

It’s finally time to move on to our next phase of Sock Basics! We have covered all the basics of the Cuff Down Socks, but now it’s time to go the other way. How do you make socks starting at the toes?! That means another Toe lesson, along with the details of the Toe Up Socks.

So, why Toe Up socks? Why not just do them all cuff down? There are a couple big pro’s for Toe Up. First of all, is that when you start at the toes, you will not need to do the Kitchener Stitch to close it up. The Kitchener Stitch is a problem for a lot of knitters. I know a few left handed knitters that struggle a lot with the Kitchener Stitch. That’s not to say that the Toe Up cast on isn’t a pain in the butt, but some people do find it easier. Another perk to toe up, is the ability to use up all the yarn you have. If you have the ability to split your skein of yarn into two equal balls/cakes, then you can knit the socks until you get to the end of the yarn, and make use of as much of the yarn as possible. When you are working cuff down, it is possible to run out of yarn before you get to the toes of your second sock. Unless of course you have all your measurements down and have done it enough times to know exactly what you need. Starting out, I liked the toe up to be able to make use of the yarn going up the leg. I could make a longer leg or cuff, to use up what I could. On average, I use about 380 yards of sock yarn to make a pair of socks, so I normally do have yarn left over. That is because I have a particular height that I like my socks now, and I just knit to that. Toe up socks does have different construction compared to cuff down as well. You will not have to pick up any stitches with the toe up construction. Instead, you have a gusset, which is a series of rows where a stitch is increased on each side of the foot. If you look at your store bought socks, you will see this triangle of fabric on the side of the foot, near the ankle bone that connects to the heel. This is your gusset. This post will only cover the toes. We’ll move on to the gusset and heel in the next post of this series. 🙂

There are a few options for casting on Toe Up socks. One of the ways that I usually use for my socks is Judy’s Magic Cast On. This cast on involves the yarn being wrapped around alternating needles (usually circulars), switching from the tail to the main yarn. You then have loops that you can knit into. This will give you a smooth toe, with no seam at the end. Very Pink Knits has a great youtube tutorial on how to do this cast on. When you finish your cast on, you will have loops sitting on each needle, waiting to be knit. If you are looking to have 24 stitches total, you will have 12 stitches on each of the needles. Because you are going back and forth on the needles to cast on, make sure you count the stitches on both needles, so you are not short a stitch on either needle. I find this to be one of the easiest cast on with this type of wrapping method. One of the biggest learning curves with this type of cast on, is keeping the yarn taught as you work through. The first few times you work this, you might have to redo it a few times to get the stitches to be tight enough. You don’t want to have your first row of stitches to be loose and droopy. Another way to help tighten them, is when you knit your first row of that cast on, needle 1 is knit as normal, but when you turn to knit needle 2, knit those stitches through the back loop. This will give your stitches a proper orientation, and will tighten them a bit. I find if I don’t knit the needle 2 stitches through the back loop, then look twisted.

Another option that is very similar to Judy’s Magic Cast on is the Turkish cast on. Instead of wrapping the yarn around alternating needles, then yarn is wrapped around both needles at once in a big loop. I find this cast on has a tendency to be more loose than Judy’s, so I don’t typically use it. However, if it is the cast on that you find works best for you, then definitely use it. Jane Richmond has a great Youtube tutorial on how to work this cast on. This can also have a similar learning curve to get it tight enough, but it’s a fast and easy way to cast on. The only thing to remember when doing this cast on is that each loop represents 2 stitches. So, if you are casting on 24 stitches, or 12 per needle, you will only need 12 wraps. You knit into that loop on both needle 1 and needle 2, so you will end up with 12 stitches on both needles at the end, or 24 in total.

Yet another modification of this same cast on is the Figure 8 cast on. In this cast on, instead of wrapping the yarn around both needles with one loop, you will go over one, and under the other, to make a figure 8 shape. This is a bit of a blend of the first two cast ons. This works very similar to Judy’s cast on, but uses just a single strand of yarn. As I look through these cast ons, this one actually catches my attention as a very simple cast on. It is worked just like the others, by knitting into the loops that you have created. The Figure 8 is similar to Judy’s in that you will have 12 loops on each needle waiting to be worked when you finish this cast on. And just like in Judy’s, you will want to count the loops on each needle to make sure you have the correct number on each. It is easy to be short one loop with this cast on. Roxanne Richardson has a great Youtube video showing this cast on.

The last cast on that I’ll mention is the traditional Long Tail Cast On. You can use this to cast on for your toes! This will still leave you with a sealed toe, with no seaming needed. It’s a great cast on to get you started. Like the other cast ons, you have two needles held together (again, I prefer circulars for this, and you can switch to double pointed needles later, but if you only have double pointed needles, then you can use them. It will feel odd at first, but any toe up will start out as cumbersome regardless of the needles you use.), and you will cast on a normal Long Tail stitch on one needle, then the next, then needle 1 again, then needle 2 again. Dee Yee has a great Youtube video for this. Her video also shows how to do the cast on if you want to do Two Socks at a Time (TAAT) on one set of circular needles. I will go into more detail on that as we get to the end of the tutorial. You can skip that part of her video if you want, and just tuck it away for later. 🙂

Now that we have our cast on, we can now start working on the main part of the toes. Normally in my sock patterns, I have you cast on 24 stitches total, which is 24 per needle. I will label the needles in my pattern as either Sole or Instep, so that you will know which needle is the bottom of the foot, and which is the top. This is important if there is a pattern on the top of the foot, and when we get to the gusset. After the cast on, I will say to knit the first round, with Needle 1 being knit and then Needle 2 being knit through the back loop. Needle 1 is always the top of the foot (instep) in my patterns, with Needle 2 being the bottom of the foot (sole). Other designers will label these differently, so be sure to pay attention to how they label things. After knitting one round, it’s time for the increases. I tend to do a gentle increase of the toes, that mimics a store bought sock. The increase row has an increase on both ends of Needle 1 and Needle 2 (you increase 4 stitches per round…2 per needle), and then you will knit a round. These two stitches are alternated until you have increased to the number of stitches needed. After these toe increases are done, you simply knit the foot (working any design that the pattern calls for), until it is time to start on your gusset. Typically I will work until my knit sock is 2.5″ shorter than the length I want for my foot. Also, for a better fit, I typically take my actual foot length and subtract a half inch to end up with a better fitting sock for my foot. My foot is 9.25″ long, so I will subtract a half inch, to get 8.75″ for a total length, and work my knit sock to that measurement. This gives me a nice fit, without some of the droop that a hand knit sock can have.

Here is a picture of a sock that I am about to send to my Tech Editor. It shows the toe shape that my designs typically have. I used Judy’s Magic Cast On for these socks.

As with the cuff down socks, you can also modified your toes to be similar. Simply work those cuff down toes that I mentioned in the last post, backwards. When you would have worked a decrease in the cuff down version, work the increase for the toe up. You can modify your toe up socks to be foot specific, or a more rounded toe. That way, no matter what your personal foot structure is like, your knitted sock can be worked to fit you perfectly. 😀 And don’t forget! There is nothing wrong with trying a new toe structure and having to rip it out and start again. When doing it for a toe up sock, you don’t have long to go before you are right back where you were before! There is no worry of needing any lifelines or anything. Just jump right in and have fun with it! Learn from it! And most importantly, make notes of what you have done. That way, when you get it just right, you will be able to do it over and over on not just future socks, but you’ll be able to do it again for sock number 2. 😀

Thanks for reading! Next time we’ll talk gussets and heels.