----------------------------------------- FOOTED, TOE-UP SOCKS THAT FIT WELL ENOUGH ----------------------------------------- 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 [Distribute freely as long as you keep the attribution and don't charge anything for it.] CAST ON ------- 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 --- 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 If you like instructions instead of pictures, imagine that you are working on 4 needles (5th working needle). On a round that increases only on one side, here is what I do: k1, m1, k to end of needle #1. k across needle #2 and needle #3. k to 1 stitch away from end of needle #4, m1, k1. So that first k1 and the last k1 make two plain stitches between the increase lines. When you are done, this appears as a narrow band along the edges of the toes. It makes the increasing easier to have some plain stitches in between & I like the way it looks. Footed toe for extremely pointy feet (Lizzie and Me) ---------------------------------------------------- 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. Footed toe for normally pointy feet (Cloud Man and probably you) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Increase at all 4 xes, on every row, up to 2/3 of the total. [eg: up to 32 stitches] Increase at 2 xes, on one side only, every other row, up to the total. [eg: up to 48 stitches] Round toe (handy shape for mittens, for peasant heels, and for gifts to mystery toes) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---- 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 ---- Do a regular heel. 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. The heel flap will end up a bit longer than square--try it on to get the correct length. I usually use a Dutch (square) Heel turned around 1/6 of the total stitches [eg 8]. I have also used a Dutch heel turned around just 4 stitches. The main feature of this heel is a band of plain knitted stitches between the decreases. (Actually I continue the heel stitch on this band.) (Other heel shapings might work better for other feet--I use a Round Heel for myself.) So suppose you are using 48 stitches for the foot. Then you have 24 stitches in your heel pad and are turning around 1/3 of those = 8 stitches. I put markers around the middle [8] stitches of the heel. Knit across the [8] stitches at the beginning of the row (to get ready to do the actual turning.) K across the [8] middle stitches, ssk. Turn the work. Sl a stitch (The one that came from the ssk). P across the [8] middle stitches, P2tog. Turn the work. Sl a stitch. K across the [8] middle stitches, ssk. Turn the work. And so on, until there is only one stitch on each side outside the two markers. Then 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 -------- 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. I have also had good results using a single crochet bind off. And if you have any complaints about this pattern, blame Lizzie. Manny Olds Riverdale Park, Maryland, USA "Fear not, fellow knitters. We are going to show the world that once again, knitting is fabulous. Especially when sitting and chatting over coffee or lemonade." -- LAW (Leigh Witchel)