The Only Cast-on You Need To Know for Toe-Up Socks...

...is the Turkish cast-on. The others (figure 8, judy's magic) are harder and do not add any additional value, IMO. The Turkish cast-on is ridiculously simple and can double as a provisional cast-on. Why use up valuable braincells on any others?

I've blogged about this one before, but it seems my favorite resources are gone off the InterWebz, so here are some photos and a little "how-to". I had to teach my local knitgroup this cast-on, which resulted in some excellent tips, which have been incorporated into this instruction set.

For first-timers, use a light coloured wool. It's easier to see what you're doing. I'll describe the process for two-at-a-time socks.

1. using one ball of the yarn, make a slipknot on one end of your circ. Hold the needles in your left hand so the tips are pointing to the right and the slipknot is on the bottom needle.  See below.

[slipknot on bottom needle]

2. Now start winding the yarn around both needles, from the back to the front ("like the sun rising over the horizon, towards you", a helpful tip from one of my knitgroup knitters!), counting as you go for each stitch thus wound - ie. cast - on. I usually do 12 to 14 stitches for a pair of grownup socks.

[start winding, up over the top, from the back to the front]

[keep going until you've wound on enough stitches]

3. When you've wound on / cast on enough, trap the yarn between the two needles to hold it while you cast on for the second sock.

[trap the yarn between the needles so you can cast on for the next sock]

4. Start with a slipknot on the bottom needle again. Note: it's a little easier to get the slipknot on if you pull the bottom needle out a little! Then wind on again, the same way as you did for the first sock, and trap the yarn between the needles again.

[slipknot on bottom needle for second sock, pull the bottom needle out a little]

[cast on complete for both socks]

5. Done, that's the cast-on. Unbelievably simple, eh? Now comes the fiddly bit, which is where you start knitting. Free the yarn from between the two needles and make sure it comes up from the bottom needle, behind both. Gently pull the bottom needle out (to the right) and use it to start knitting off the top needle. It should feel quite natural and not hard, the yarn loops should lean the correct way and it shouldn't feel like you're making twisted stitches. If it does, it means you wound on in the opposite direction ("setting sun"), so yeah, you'll need to start over.

[untrap the yarn, keep it behind the needles, and start knitting off the top needle]

6. Once you've knit both socks' worth of top-needle stitches, you'll have all the stitches on the top needle, which is now facing left, and a loop hanging on your right. Your other needle is hanging on the left, and it will shortly be the new bottom needle. Carefully and slowly push the bottom cord into the stitches and pull on the top needle, maintaining that loop on the right, until the bottom needle (rather than the cable) holds the stitches and the top needle is free. It's helpful to maintain the orientation of your knitting, don't flip it around just yet. 

[top stitches all knit, tip of needle is on the left (I'm holding it) 

and loop is on the right; 

push the bottom cable to the right, into the stitches; 

pull the top needle left, out of the stitches.]

7. Now flip everything over (swing the needle tips around 180 degrees) so that the needle holding the stitches is on top and the tip is pointing right. You'll see the slipknots on the top needle, as the first thing. Remove the slipknot. Drop it off the needle. Do not knit it. Being very careful to use the correct yarn - ie. NOT the end hanging off the slipknot! - knit the rest of the cast-on stitches. That's it. You are done, with two rows knit already, and you are ready for the cast-on part of the toe end of your sock! 

[almost ready to knit the other row; 

the slipknot is first on the top needle]

Now just continue as per usual, increasing for the toe of your socks. It's just that easy! Another tip from my knitgroup: use a YO increase every other row - it's much easier to see than a Kfb. On the plain knit rows, you can tighten them up by knitting the YO's TBL. 

Here's a photo of my socks, showing a few rows knit (and increased). You can see the cast-on is basically invisible from both front and back. 

[up close you can't see the cast-on, in the middle of this knitting]

[invisible from the back, too!]

To use this cast-on as a provisional cast-on (note: it has the same number of stitches in either direction, which is something you won't get from some other provisional cast-ons - like the crochet cast-on, for instance), cast on over a second circular needle, which you simply leave hanging. You can replace it with a holder (ex. string) later. 

Cast-ons for Toe-up socks

Most of the time, I knit toe-up socks. I find the casting on easier, and, especially if I'm knitting with handspun (as I now do at least half the time!), I find it easier to fit -as-I-knit (I don't have to worry about how many stitches to cast on!). Also I never have to fret about having enough yarn, which is a huge bonus with my not-so-consistent yardages of handspun...

So let's review the different cast-on techniques:

1. turkish - this one is the easiest. Basically you wind the yarn (tightly) around both needles and start knitting. Couldn't be easier. You need to choke down on the tension for the very first row, but apart from that, this one is so simple as to be ridiculous. For 2AAT knitting, wind the yarn for both socks before starting to knit. You start knitting the first side of the first one, and then then move on to the second sock, then you turn and do the second side for both. Don't wind-and-knit one on both sides, and then expect to be able to wind-and-knit the second! The link is for a written-up version, which I personally find easier to work from than a video, but I'm sure there are loads of YouTube vids showing this cast-on for those who prefer that medium.

2. figure 8 - this one's easy as well and gives identical results to the turkish cast-on to which it is very closely related. It's more fiddly than the turkish cast-on, because a) it's harder to tighten the loops before knitting the cast-on off of the second needle, and b) you need to knit the second needle's row TBL. In effect, you add the complication of doing a figure 8 to wind on, only to undo that complication when knitting. So, after trying this one once, I ditched it in favour of the turkish method. Again, for 2AAT knitting, make the figure 8's for both socks, then start the knitting.

3. Judy's Magic Cast On ("JMCO") - this one is much more complicated than the two above, and requires some serious studying of diagrams and/or videos. It's like learning the long-tail cast-on all over again. Check out YouTube for videos. In fact, when I use this cast-on, I'm pretty sure I'm doing it "wrong" because my second needle's stitches are all twisted in the wrong direction, so I need to reseat them prior to knitting (or, as is more usual, I simply ignore this and wind up with one row of inversely-twisted sts. Who cares? It's on my toes!). The advantage to this cast-on is that you don't have to worry about correcting the tension before you start knitting off the second needle. I use it quite frequently, although - as I've said - incorrectly.

These cast-on techniques are useful because they can be used as provisional cast-ons as well. In fact, there's an advantage to using them instead of more traditional provisional cast-ons, and that is that they overcome the problem of having one stitch too few or too many. That problem is explained in detail by TechKnitter, here. The JMCO is especially useful for this application, it works better as a provisional cast-on than the turkish/figure 8 because the cast-on stitches are more completely formed and it's easier to keep them on a string for pick-up, later.

But if you're looking for a quick 'n simple cast-on for socks or mittens, Turkish is the one to learn, IMO.

Prepare for Wear

I just finished these thin wool socks:

 

[my new bike socks!]

The yarn is my own handspun 3-ply; southdown fiber. The socks are knit on 1.5mm (!!) needles, and are quite thin. They are extremely elastic and feel almost like store-bought cotton or polyester socks with a lot of lycra in them.

These will be my bike socks; I'll be wearing them in my cycling shoes, which are really tough on socks (the heels, especially, see a lot of friction). Because the yarn is so thin and there is no nylon in it, I have taken some precautions to fend off premature holes.

1. I have done some pre-emptive darning on the toes, which is where my socks usually go first. I've simply done some duplicate stitch over the big-toe area, thusly: I put the sock on one foot, then outlined in running stitch (with needle and black sewing thread) where I expect the wear to happen (which is where my toenail rubs the sock). Put the sock on the other foot and repeat. This defines the pre-emptive darning zone!

2. I have also put in a single row of contrasting yarn right before the toe. If and when the toe goes, I will be able to use this contrast row as a guide to running a lifeline and I'll be able to easily remove the entire toe area to reknit it.

 [kind of hard to see, but duplicate stitch across the toe, 

plus the contrast thread row to help with remove-and-reknit]

3. similarly, I've put in a contrast row right at the beginning of my afterthought heel. If and when the heel gets a hole, I'll be able to pick it out quickly and reknit it! (note: I put in a bunch of rows of plain stockinette above the afterthought heel, before starting the stitch pattern again. This helps with the fit: starting the pattern too soon tends to make the sock ride down.)

 

[afterthought heel with contrast row]

Now, let's see how long these socks will last!

My other Southdown socks are not showing any signs of wear at all. They aren't even pilling.

My realization: handspun, no-nylon, non-superwash downs breed socks OUTLAST millspun, nylon-enhanced, superwash merino.
Update 2015: ah, sadly, no. Certainly my thin handspun, no nylon, non superwash downs breed socks DO NOT outlast millspun-with-nylon. Not by a looong stretch. The thick handspun socks, sure. They last better than commercial hiking socks. Dress socks? Nope. So far (two years into the spinning adventure), I'm better off with nylon in there for thin socks like those in these pictures, which after 6 months developed holes. I still agree with myself for these last two statements though...

This amazes me. I am officially no longer a fan of merino yarns for "everyday" socks.

For non-spinners: you can enhance longevity for millspun if you avoid the stuff advertised as "merino".

Stripes, Heels and Toes

I've been knitting with a lot of self-striping yarns lately, exploring different design options - I must say I'm not overly fond of letting the yarn do all the work; I get too bored! But in any case, there's always thinking to be done at the heels and toes when using self-striping yarns (or indeed, when making any kind of striped sock). The thinking is required because the stripes in self-striping yarn are affected by:
1. changing the number of stitches you are knitting (ie. increases or decreases), and
2. knitting back-and-forth rather than in the round

Of course, toes and heels are where these two things happen, so you are guaranteed to "destroy" the stripe pattern when using self-striping yarns, at these places.

The easiest design solution is to make the heel and toe out of some plain yarn - either contrasting or co-ordinating. Then you can put in whatever heel you please because it won't interfere with your striped pattern. The photo below shows a flap heel done in one colour (green/camo); I continued in that colour for a couple of rows before the heel to make the same stripe go around the front of the sock).

[striped sock with flap heel in solid colour]

If that's not what you want, here are some ideas:

At the toe, the stripes will naturally get wider, because you are knitting over progressively shorter rows. This can be prevented (ie. make the stripes the same size as on the rest of the sock) by cutting your self-striping yarn and "skipping ahead" to the next colour change, as required. Lots of ends to finish when you're done!

 For the heel, I think the best solution is a "forethought" heel. To make it fit better, don't use little gussets; instead, increase the number of stitches on your heel side by 20% or so evenly on the first row you knit of the heel (if your total number of stitches is divisible by 4, this is easy: k2, [m1 k4] until the last 2 sts, k2). This makes it easier to control the stripe width. You can control the width of the stripes on the heel the same way as you did for the toe, above. The result will look something like below, with a kind of bull's-eye at the heel; the stripes will line up all 'round the heel. (The sock in the photo was made with 2 balls of yarn of different colours, so not really self-striping, and I did use gussets on the forethought heel. But you get the idea.)

[forethought heel with gussets - nice bull's-eye heels]

Heels that really play with the self-striping nature are:

• anything with slipped stitches - slipping stitches changes the striping design completely.
  
  
• any short-row heel, including the Sweet Tomato, because you aren't guaranteed the stripes will line up:

[short-row heel with self-striping yarn -
note stripes do not line up around heel]

• any flap-style heel (which involves back-and-forth knitting) - this includes the Fleegle/Strong - this will insert an area of different striping at the heel. Additionally, because of the gussets usually involved, the rows leading up to the heel get longer, and this will also change the width of the stripes. What you get will depend on the "rhythm" of your self-striping yarn, and is hard to predict. With "busier" yarns it isn't so noticeable, while with simpler stripes it can be quite obvious. You can "fix" this by doing surgery on your yarn to pick out the colours you want.

[flap heel on self-striping socks -

 note flaps have wider stripes due to decreased width of knitting]

[Fleegle/Strong heel on self-striping socks -

while the stripes continue across the gussets, note the small blue triangle

at the base of the heel, due to back-and-forth knitting]

You can always play around with this by putting in a lifeline before you start your heel, so if you don't like the result, frogging it is easy.

Asymmetric Wedge Toe

The standard "wedge" toe doesn't fit me too well. My big toe points straight out, so a toe like this tends to pull my sock over.

[standard "wedge" toe]

Not everyone's foot is like this. My DH's foot resembles one of those Dr. Suess characters, so a wedge toe fits him perfectly.

I prefer an asymmetric wedge toe. Using one of these, though, makes your socks "footed", so you can't wear them on the other foot. So they will wear faster.

[shape of an asymmetric wedge toe.]

[asymmetric wedge toe in action]



These toes are easy to do. Here's how:

Toe up:

1. cast on as many sts as you usually do.

2. initially, start increasing every row by KFB'ing on both sides of the sock (increasing 4 sts every row). Do this for about 1cm (1/2 inch).

3. now stop increasing on one side of the sock altogether (the "big toe" side), and continue KFB'ing every other row on the other ("little toe") side only, until you have the right number of sts for the sock body. Keep your wits about you if you are doing two-at-a-time, you don't want to end up with two left socks!!

Cuff down:

1. start your decreases at the usual time (I like to start when the sock is just at the bottom of my little toenail).

2. Decrease (K2tog/ssk) every other row on the little toe side only, until the sock is about 1cm (1/2 inch) shy of the total length. For me this is at the bottom of my big toenail. Again, be vigilant that you are not creating two of the same foot!!

3. Now start decreasing on both sides of the sock, decreasing faster - 4 sts every row.  Do this until you think your sock is long enough - for another 1cm  or 1/2 inch. Usually you wind up with about a dozen sts in total on your needles. Kitchener together.

Easy, eh?

A study in Short Rows - Shaping Methods

In this installment, I'm going to discuss the shaping methodology of short rows. The last post covered hole-hiding techniques.

The usual technique of short rowing a heel or toe goes like this:
- you divide your stitches into 3 parts,
- knit shorter and shorter rows, with the edges being progressively left unknit, while the middle section is always knit. You end up knitting a trapezoid, if you like (although it doesn't look like this since the sides are on your needle, too)
- knit progressively longer and longer rows, knitting those sides up again (the middle is again always knit). You knit an upside-down trapezoid, eating up all the wraps/YO's that were made on the previous trapezoid.

 

[ knit two trapezoids... the sides will be attached so it looks like a toe!]

The result looks like a toe, folded one way, or a heel, folded the other.

[here's what the trapezoids look like: a toe!]

[...but if you fold it the other way, it's heel with the classic diagonal line]

The disadvantage of this basic construction methodology is that on the upside-down trapezoid part, you are actually also doing more short-rowing (although the rows themselves are getting longer), resulting in double-wrapped sts or double YO's, which you have to knit/purl together (as in, k3tog, or the hated p3tog, tbl). This results in an unsightly ridge of loops on the inside. OK, I'm picky, but I don't like this.

Another technique (called a "boomerang heel") is the following:
- divide stitches into 3 parts,
- knit a trapezoid as per the usual method,
- knit a so-called "boomerang" row (or 2), where all the wraps/YO's are dealt with, leaving only normal sts. The boomerang row comes in two varieties:

1. knit back and forth over all the heel sts, to one end and then back (one knit row, one purl row, so that all the wraps/YO's are finished), or
2. knit completely around the instep as well, so that the "corner" sts between the heel and instep are dealt with. In this variation, you of course have to continue your instep stitch design.

- now knit an upside-down trapezoid, where each successively larger row immediately "eats" the wrap/YO left from the last turnaround.

I like this technique better. The wraps/YO's are never doubled in this technique, so you'll never be asked to execute a p3tog TBL, which is a good thing, as that lady who went to prison for insider trading used to say. The unsightly ridge inside is also lessened.

The final technique is as follows:
- divide stitches into 3 parts,
- knit a trapezoid as per the usual method,
- knit a boomerang row (or two),
- knit the same trapezoid as you just completed
- knit another boomerang row (or two).

[if the trapezoids face the same way, you will get multiple diagonal lines along the side of the heel]

Again no k3togs here, but in this case the two trapezoids face the same way, so that you are in fact making 2 little "diagonal" lines (not just one), and the heel curve is a lot slower and rounder. Also this construction cannot double as a "toe" because it isn't symmetric (it won't fold in half nicely).

There are clearly many variations possible on this last theme (trapezoid orientation, how long the successive short rows are,...). Cat Bordhi's "sweet tomato heel" is an example of such a variation. If you watch the video you'll see it's just a series of wedges. Her variation has no middle third - the short-rowing extends over the entire heel - and she short rows at a different angle by making the rows shorter, faster. She also shows how to incorporate slipped stitches into the work - easier to do if you make the short rows decrease by two stitches at a time. Cat uses the "dig-n-lift" technique of closing the gap, although, true to her style, she's renamed it and speaks in terms of daughters, mothers, and horses.

Right. Enough background. In coming posts, I'll send y'all some heel recipes. I'll do a mix 'n match so you can get a feeling for combining different hole-hiding techniques with the different construction methods. Oh, and after that, we can discuss how to improve the fit. So stay tuned!

Reinforcing Socks

There are 2 popular reinforcement options:

1. "beilaufgarn" - use a tough (typically thin nylon blend) thread together with your yarn to add strength to areas of high abrasion. Lang Jawoll includes a small spool of thread dyed to match for just this purpose and sometimes you can buy neutral colours in spools from yarn stores. You can, in a pinch, use "wooly nylon" thread meant for sergers, or, even better, buy a spool of polyester (not cotton!) sewing thread in a matching colour. Just hold your chosen beilaufgarn together with your yarn and knit as one. Beilaufgarn is knit in all around the sock, so it's usually limited to heels and toes (and not, for example, if it is required in patches at the ball of the foot, or in the middle of the sole somewhere).

2. slipped stitches - as you knit the heel flap, slip every other st on either the RS or the WS. Knit (or purl) the other side as per usual. If the sl sts line up, you get attractive ridges. If they don't line up (ie. you alternate sl 1 k1 on one row with k1 sl1 on the next k row) you get a honeycombish pattern known as "eye of the partridge". Either way, the resulting knit fabric is denser than usual and stands up well to abrasion. Typically, patterns call for slipping the sts on the knit side (or RS) of the work, and purling all the way back. I like to do it the other way, sl 1 p1 on the backside and knitting all the way back on the front. This makes my purl rows go faster! You can also use the linen stitch, which uses slipped stitches on both RS and WS.

Traditionally, only the heel flap is treated in this way. But there is no reason why you can't reinforce, in advance, any spot that you know will wear faster.
For myself, I need to reinforce the toes (toenail side), so this can be done by knitting slipped stitches there. My mom wears out her socks aournd the balls of her feet, or under the heel - this is a "patch" problem and I prefer darning in beilaufgarn after the sock is complete so it is almost invisible - but darning, as we all know, is kind of a pain. Slipped sts can be "applied" anywhere, but are quite visible as the texture of the stitch is quite different from stockinette. They pull in and make the work narrower where used.

If wear is really an issue, consider the Old World technique of a separately knit sole and top of the foot. You can use a hard-wearing fiber for the sole, heel, and toe (ie. a high-nylon blend). You can also then reknit the whole thing if you do get holes, later. Favourite Socks contains a number of sock models that use this technique. The technique basically involves knitting the top and sole of the foot flat, and then either sewing the two halves together, or knitting them together by picking up sts at the edges. I have used it for alpaca socks where the heel, sole, and toes of the piece have to be of a different type of fiber.