Toe-Up Socks

In my last post about socks, I talked about different ways to make a heel. In this toe-up pair that I've just completed, I did the heel two different ways.


On the first sock, I used a regular short-row heel, the kind which, if laid flat, would have an hourglass shape.


On the second sock, I used the method employed in some of the sock patterns in the latest edition of Knitty.

You knit the toe and foot, then increase for the gusset on half of the stitches. The way you do this is: you isolate half of the stitches with markers. As you knit around: slm, k1, inc1, knit until 2 sts before marker, inc 1, k1, slm. Work even on the other half of the stitches, and work the next round even. Repeat until you have a decent sized gusset, adding about 1/3 of the total number of foot stitches.

Then you short-row the heel. Within the markers, isolate the original stitches. Place new markers around them. Short-row (work back and forth) within the new markers: knit until there is 1 stitch left, wrap and turn; purl until there is stitch left, wrap and turn; knit until there is 1 stitch left before the wrapped stitch, wrap and turn; purl until there is 1 stitch left before the wrapped stitch, wrap and turn; repeat. Continue until you have about 5-6 sts left, then work around once, knitting the wraps with the wrapped stitches as you go. Remove the new markers.

Now it's time to work the heel flap between the old markers, which you can do in plain knitting or use a heel stitch. I did mine plain so it would match the first sock. Knit around, and when you get to the old marker: slm, k1, ssk, knit until 3 sts before second old marker, k2tog, k1, slm. Work even on the other half of the stitches, and work the next round even. Repeat until you are back to the original number of foot stitches, and then it's just a matter of working the leg and cuff.

The socks turned out okay, but I think that's pretty much the end of toe-up pairs for me. I liked not having to do ribbing or grafting, but I really disliked having to do wrap and turns on the short-rows.

I gave this pair to my sister who is staying with us for six weeks along with my 3 year-old nephew and 1 year-old niece.


She put on the first sock while the second one was in progress, and that transformation you read about when some people first try on hand-knit socks happened: she was amazed, declared them to be very comfortable, and thereafter took a keen interest in the completion of the mate.