Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 4 - Toe

The toe is pretty easy, and I don't really think I need to do pictures of how to do it, but I can always add some later. All the things you need to know, except the kitchener stitch, which I will explain below, I have already explained in other posts. You really just need to know K2tog and SSK. So for the toe:

Round 1: (Needle 1 – K to last 3 st, K2tog, K1); (needle 2 - K1, SSK, K to last 3 st, K2tog, K1); (needle 3 - K1, SSK, K to end) – 4 st decreased

Round 2: K all st

Repeat rounds 1 and 2, 8 times (32 st remain)

Repeat round 1, 4 more times (16 st rem)

And that's it. You will be left with 16 stitches. Put all the st from needle 3 onto needle 1, so that you have 8 st on each needle. Then to close the toe, you need to do the kitchener stitch. It's a little complicated but not really difficult.

You need to cut your yarn end. Give yourself about 12-18 inches of yarn still attached to the sock. Using a tapestry needle, you are going to weave that end in the stitches in order to close up the hole.

Kitchener stitch (this is not socks that I am working on, but it's the same technique, so disregard that!):

Here's what you have so far

Step 1 - Insert your tapestry needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit, meaning from the front to the back. Pull the yarn all the way through, and then slip this stitch off your needle.

(Yours might look a little different because it's socks, but it's unimportant and not worth explaining why, haha.)

Step 2 - Insert your tapestry needle into the next stitch on the front needle as if to purl, from back to front. Pull the yarn through, and leave this stitch on the needle.

Step 3 - Insert your tapestry needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl, back to front. Pull the yarn through, and slip this stitch off.

Step 4 - Insert your tapestry needle into the next stitch on the back needle as if to knit, front to back. Pull the yarn through, and leave this stitch on the needle.

Repeat these 4 steps until you are out of stitches. It sounds complicated, but as long as you keep track of where you are, it's not difficult to do.

After you finish that, it will look something like this.

Now just weave in any loose ends, and your sock is done! (I'm going to write up an actual pattern and post that soon also, with links to each post for reference.)

Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 3.1 - Gusset decreases

Ok, I realize I have not finished my sock knitting instruction posts! I got side-tracked with baby stuff and dyeing and sewing and so forth. So we got as far as picking up stitches for the gusset. You should now have a triangular set up going on. Now we have to decrease some stitches. The gusset is the wide part and your foot gets smaller from here, so you need less stitches. We are going to decrease until we again have 64, which is the number we originally started with. Right now, you should have about 80, if you picked up the same amount as I did (see the last post for more details!).

Starting at the heel, where we left off, you're going to knit all the stitches on the first needle up to the last 3. So if you have 24, like I have, knit 21. Then K2tog, to decrease one stitch, and K the last stitch. Basically, in pattern form: K to last 3 st, K2tog, K1


The next needle you don't have to decrease, just knit straight across.


On the third needle, K1, SSK (I explained that here), and K to end.


Now you have decreased one stitch on needle 1 and one stitch on needle 3.


The next round, just knit the whole round without decreasing. Every other round will be a decrease round, followed by a knit round. So:

Round 1: (Needle 1 - K to last 3, K2tog, K1); (needle 2 - K); (needle 3 - K1, SSK, K to end)
Round 2: K all stitches

Repeat these two rounds until you have 16 stitches on needles 1 and 3. You will have a total of 64 stitches (there should be 32 on needle 2).


From here, you just have to knit around and around without doing anything fancy, until your sock is about 2 inches less than the length you want it. Try it on as you go and check the length, and when you are about 2 inches short of the final length, it is time to do the toe! That will be the next sock post!

Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 3 - Picking up stitches for the gusset

The gusset of a sock is the area just after the heel, which is wider to accommodate the larger diameter of your foot. It is wider and then decreases down in size as your foot needs slightly less room. What we have right now looks like this:


So before we actually get to the decreases, first we have to connect the last stitch we knit at the heel to the sides of the heel flap. A closer look at the side of the heel flap shows all the stitches we slipped while knitting the flap. They look like regular knit stitches only they are twice the size because instead of knitting them on every row, they were slipped every other row. So they look like nice big V's.


What we need to do to turn those V's into actual stitches on our needles (so that we can once again knit around and around) is to "pick up" stitches. This is not too difficult. You are going to take your empty needle and insert it under the very first V.


Then wrap the yarn around as in a normal knit stitch.


Pull the wrapped yarn through as in a normal knit stitch. You have now picked up one stitch. Since you were not knitting from one needle onto another, you don't have to slip the stitch off onto the opposite needle; it just stays on the single needle.


Then move on to the next V and repeat by sliding the needle under the V, wrapping the yarn, and pulling through.


Continue picking up stitches along the entire right side of the heel flap. You should end up with around 15 stitches, although if it is a few more or less it's okay.


The next 32 stitches we had left on two needles. Just knit across those stitches normally. You don't have to do anything fancy with them. I usually knit them all from two needles onto one, but that's up to you. (Hahaha, I also switched to yellow notes here because it's more visible against the red sock.)


Now you are at the left side of the heel flap. You will work this side the same as the right side, by picking up 15 (or whatever amount you did on the other side) stitches in each of the V's along the flap.



Now you should have 15 picked up on each side, 32 on the front or top part, and 18 left from the heel.


Knit half of the heel stitches (9) onto the same needle you just picked up the left stitches with, and transfer the other half onto the next needle. That leaves 24 on the first and third needles and 32 on the second needle.



Next post will be about the gusset decreases!

Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 2.1 - Turning the heel

(I corrected a number in this pattern on the first row of the heel flap.  Change is reflected in pink.)

Okay, so I didn't have time to finish explaining the heel the other day, but here is the rest of it. So far we have the heel flap done, but we have to "turn the heel." Basically we need to make it continue perpendicular to the heel flap, so that we can knit along the bottom of the foot now rather than up and down the leg part. That is confusing. Pictures will clarify, I hope.

This is what we have so far:


To get the heel to "turn" we need to do short rows. A short row is when you only knit part of the row (making it shorter than a whole row). Again, I think it's going to make some more sense with pictures. We want to start with a purl row. We ended our heel flap with a purl row, so we need to knit one more row. So S1, K31 one more time. Now we are ready to start turning the heel. For this row, we will again S1 (slip 1) and now P16. You should now have 17 stitches on your right needle. Now, we want to P2tog. Purl two together is done the same way as K2tog, only you purl instead of knit (obviously). So instead of purling one stitch now, you insert your needle into two stitches and purl them as one.


So you now have 18 stitches on the right needle. Purl 1 more stitch (19 total on right needle). Instead of finishing this row by continuing purling, we are going to turn the work around and knit back across those stitches. This row, not knitted completely across, is a "short row."

Now we are going to again slip the first stitch (ignore where the picture says 20 stitches; it should be 19)


And knit only 3 more stitches.


On the last row, we did P2tog to decrease. On this row, we will do SSK. That means slip, slip, knit. What you want to do is slip 1 stitch knitwise. Previously we have been slipping purlwise, which I think I explained in the last post means to slip it by inserting the needle back to front, as if you were going to purl but without actually purling. Slipping one knitwise means to insert the needle front to back as if to knit, but without actually knitting. This will twist the stitch as you move it to the right needle.

So, again, slip 1 knitwise:

And then slip another 1 knitwise (that completes the "Slip, slip" part of the decrease).

Now those two stitches are on your right needle facing the opposite way than they would normally face (twisted around). You want to insert your left needle into the front of these stitches and knit them together as one stitch. This might seem confusing and like it is not different from K2tog, but because you twist the stitches before knitting them together, the resulting stitch will slant in the opposite direction than K2tog. That is the reason we are doing SSK instead of K2tog, so that it angles to the left rather than the right.




After the SSK, knit one more stitch and then turn your work around.

Next up is another purl row. Slip 1 and purl until one stitch before the gap created by stopping in the middle of the previous row (you will see it). You will have one slipped and four purled at this point.



You now want to do a P2tog of the stitches before and after the gap. This will decrease one stitch and also close up the gap left by the short row. Then purl one more stitch on this row, and turn your work.

You will continue to do this until you have 18 stitches left on the needle. So basically:

S1, P to one stitch before gap, P2tog, P1, turn
S1, K to one stitch before gap, SSK, K1, turn

And so on.

When you finish that up and have 18 stitches left, your heel will look like this:



Ta-da, your heel is turned! I will let you digest this before moving on to the next step, which is the gusset.

Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 2 - The heel flap

First of all, I would like to brag that I am now an aunt! Kelly had her baby, surprisingly a BOY when we all expected a girl, Christian Sheldon, at 2:06 today, and they are both doing really well :D I am going to meet him tonight. In the meantime, while I wait for my mother to get ready for our trip to MD, I will do sock knitting part 2.

There are different ways of doing heels. I think the easiest to learn for a first time sock knitter is the heel flap heel. (The only other way I know is a short-row heel, but there are probably even more out there that I haven't learned.)

Here are two previous projects to show the difference. The heel on each of these is done in a different color than the main sock. That is not necessary, but it shows off the heel better for my teaching purposes!

Heel flap heel:


Short-row heel:




Ok, here is my sock so far:

Now to do the heel, we are going to work on half of the total stitches. We have 64 total, so divide that in half for 32. Place 32 stitches on one needle. These will be our heel stitches. We are going to knit back and forth on these 32 stitches, rather than around in a circle on all stitches.


So to start, slip the first stitch to the new needle without knitting it.


Then knit the other 31 stitches left on the needle. You have this:


Turn your work around to the purl side.


Again, slip the first stitch.

Purl the other 31 stitches.


We are going to do these two rows (S1, K31 and then S1, P31 - S meaning slip) a total of 14 times (28 rows total). Just slip the first stitch, knit the row, then turn, slip, purl, etc.

When you have finished that, your heel flap will look like this:


And I don't have time today to add directions on turning the heel, so our heel is not complete...Part 2.1 will have to wait until after the baby visit!

Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 1 - Some information and knitting the cuff/leg

Most of my how-to posts are for my cousin Alex whom I am teaching various knitting techniques to long distance through blog posts since we don't live nearby. Most of these things, Katie probably already knows how to do and Gina doesn't really care how to do since she doesn't knit and is just stalking me, hahaha...and I don't think anyone else reads this, haha. But if there are any knitting techniques anyone wants me to do a how-to post about, let me know!

Alex asked if I could show her how to knit socks, so I am going to do a series of sock knitting posts, starting now! I wasn't planning on knitting socks any time soon, but apparently I got all caught up on everything that I had planned and am now at a total loss as to what to knit next. So the old standby, socks, it is.

I want to do just a generic sock pattern, plain stockinette, nothing fancy, just to show how it's done. It also shows off colorful yarn nicely to knit it in plain stockinette. (Stockinette in flat knitting is done by knitting one row and purling the next, but when you are working in the round, you just keep knitting around and around with no need to purl, although we will do a ribbed cuff which requires purling.) I'm going to do a top-down pair, since I think that is easier to start with than a toe-up pair. (That's pretty much just what it sounds like - starting at the top and working down, rather than starting at the toe and working up.)

Things we need for these socks are sock yarn (any fingering weight yarn will do) and a set of size 1 double pointed needles/DPNs. You can knit socks on circular needles, but I like my DPNs, so I've never bothered to learn the other methods. The yarn I'm using is Bare Merino Wool Fingering Weight from Knit Picks, which I dyed a while back with Kool-Aid. I named the color Paramour because a friend of a friend of mine refers to her boyfriend as her "paramour," and Gina and I think it is really lame and funny, hahaha. It's kind of a pink and purple Valentine-y color, so Paramour it is. (I don't know, it's probably not even that funny, but I know Gina will think so. We are dorks, haha.)



This is just going to be my generic sock pattern, the way I knit socks if I'm not doing a special pattern with definite instructions. I normally cast on 64 stitches. (I usually place stitch markers every 20 stitches while I'm casting on since I have a terrible short-term memory and lose count easily! That way, I only have to count back from the previous stitch marker, rather than having to start over at 60 or something.)



Then you need to join these in a round. You will do that by slipping stitches off onto several needles. I put 8 on the first needle and 16 on the next two, leaving the rest on the original needle. (You can take out the stitch markers here if you used them - ignore that one still left on the one needle, I will take it off when I knit past it.)



And then start the round by knitting the very first stitch that you cast on. You want to make sure that the stitches are not twisted around at all. The cast on edge should be facing the same direction all the way around. (For the first few rounds, I usually like to have the first stitch in the middle of one of the needles rather than at the beginning. It's easier for me to keep it from being too loose at the beginning of the round. I just use a stitch marker to mark where the beginning is. It will still be a bit loose, but you can tighten it up later.)


Then you are going to do a ribbed cuff by doing K1, P1 all around. So knit the first stitch, purl the next, knit the next, purl, knit, purl, etc., all the way around. I had only 8 stitches on my first needle, so I knit and purled 8 more onto that needle. Now all of my needles have 16 stitches. (You can really split it up any way you want, though. This just works nicely for me, personally. I like symmetry.)



To knit the next needle full of stitches, you need your empty needle (DPNs generally come in sets of five - four for the stitches and one to knit onto). So you will knit and purl everything from the second needle onto this needle. You will again have four stitches with 16 on each and one empty needle. Just continue this way, knitting all the stitches from the next needle onto the empty needle, around and around, basically creating a tube.



I usually do the K1, P1 ribbing for about an inch, which usually is between 10-15 rounds. It doesn't really matter how many rounds you do for the cuff, whatever works for you. Just make a note of how many so that you can do the second sock the same way. I did 13 here.


Once you finish the cuff, you are just going to knit every stitch (no more purling), around and around, until you get the leg to the length you want. Everyone has different tastes, so it's up to you. A lot of patterns will say 6" from the top (including the cuff), but I usually go for 8" since I like higher socks. It's your call. Just keep knitting until you get to a nice length (and keep in mind that there will be about 2" added onto the bottom when we do the heel, which is not included in this length).



I'm going to leave it at this point, and when I get to the heel, I will do the next installment!