The Sock Toe...a journey begins!

Hi everyone! Finally...the journey begins...today I am doing a tutorial on how to knit the toe part of your basic sock... you have worked out your sock pattern , based on the measurements you took of your foot earlier this week. Just to re-iterate, it is essential that you know how to do Judy's Magic cast on, as well as Magic Loop knitting...

I am starting the series of tutorials with how to knit one sock on a Magic Loop, ie ONE circular needle. If you have never knitted a sock before, it would be a good idea to cope with one sock initially, until you have the technique down pat, then progress to two socks on one needle.

Be sure that you have a circular needle that is at least 32 inches long (if possible a 40 inch length is even better), or you may struggle with keeping your " loop" between the sides of your knitting.



Ok, start by casting on the required number of stitches onto your circular needle. Remember, that your number of stitches may be different to mine...don't fret...just keep the principles in mind... I needed 14 stitches , which are divided over the two needles as seen above (7 stitches on each needle). Ideally, I would want to start with an even number of stitches on each needle, so could have upped the number to 8 (ie a total of 16 stitches), but I wanted to show you that one stitch is not a crisis...we'll increase to an even number when we increase for the toe.

So...you will start to do the increases for the toe immediately, straight onto the cast on stitches. This is a little different from how some people teach this, but I prefer to do it this way, as I find it makes a nice even slope to the toe edge, and doesn't make a funny little bump at the toe tip edge.

The increase will take the form of a " kfb" . If you are relatively new to knitting, you may not have come across this term. It stands for " knit front and back ", and is a very easy way to make an increase in your knitting. By knitting into the front and into the back of a stitch, you are making ONE extra stitch, so if you have 10 stitches on your needle, and you do one kfb, you will have 11 stitches in total, after you finished the kfb.
Let's walk through it...

In the pic above, you have the "knit" side facing you, and you have inserted the right hand needle into the first stitch.


Yarn around the tip of the right hand needle (just as you would do for a regular knit stitch). Pull through...BUT DON'T drop the loop off of the left hand needle.



Insert the right hand needle into the back of the loop that is still left on the left hand needle. In the pic above , you can see the turquoise arrow indicating the direction of your right hand needle's path, into the back of the red stitch (red arrow).


Above, you can see the right hand needle is now placed through the back of the red loop...now you loop your yarn around it in exactly the way you would for a regular knit stitch. (see below)



Pull the yarn through, and now you can drop the red loop on the left hand needle ( just as for a regular knit stitch). You created a new stitch !


Kfb is completed.


Continue to knit across until you have one stitch left on your left hand needle. You will repeat the kfb as before, increasing into the last stitch on this side of your work.




Ok, so in total you now have 9 stitches on your needle, because you have done two kfb's. Turn your work around and repeat the procedure above on the second side of your knitting. When you have completed round 1 , you have a total of 4 stitches extra.

Continue in this way, increasing into the first and last stitch of each side of your knitting, until you have the total required number of stitches for your sock.


Remember that I had an odd number of stitches to start with , on each needle when I did my cast on...so at the point above (where I have 27 stitches on each needle), if I do an increase into the first and last stitch of each side , I am going to end up with two stitches more in total, than I actually need. If you started with an odd number of cast on stitches, keep increasing until you are just two stitches short of your required total. Then ONLY increase into the first and last stitch OF THE ROUND. I have indicated these stitches in the pic above, by red arrows. Remember that a ROUND of magic loop knitting includes knitting BOTH sides of your work, so the first and last stitches of a round are on different needles.

This added increase will not affect your toe fit at all, and you will have the proper amount of stitches for your sock.


If you look closely at the pic above, you will see that each time I did a kfb, a little "purl-like" bump was made at the base of the increase. This is a nice way to tell where the increase is. Other methods of increasing can look different, so it is quite easy to spot a kfb increase.


Now that you have the total required number of stitches on your needles (half on one needle, half on the other), you will continue to knit in the round...on and on...until the length of your sock is about 2 inches shorter than to the back of your heel. Measure the sock on your foot as you go along. Just be careful that you don't " undo" your magic loop, by pulling the cable all the way through :)

I have so enjoyed posting these tutorials and knitting with this yarn...can't wait to show you how to turn a heel.... :D

Let me know if there any questions...email me at the following address:
heidibearscreativeblog@gmail.com

That's all for today!
Have a great movie night! (wonder what's showing tonight at 8pm?...will run off to look ;) )
Lots of Love
Heidi :)

Designing a basic sock...Part 2

Welcome to the second part of designing a basic knitted sock! I hope that you are feeling a bit less daunted by the prospect , and are going to have a go at knitting your first sock :) . I am also going to answer a question about the beginning round of Magic Loop knitting. So here goes...

In the last post, you had measured your foot circumference and worked out your stitch gauge. You are now going to work out how many stitches you will need to knit your basic "tube", in order for it to fit comfortably.
Using your calculator (or if you happen to be a math genius...work it out in your head ;) ), subtract 10% of the circumference measurement of the ball of your foot, from the total measurement. So in my example, my foot circumference was 9 and 3/4 inches. 10% is equal to 0.975in, so my math will look as follows:


Since I have 6 and a half stitches in an inch for my gauge, I need to multiply 6.5 stitches, by 8.775in (the needed inch circumference of my foot). This gives me 57.04 stitches, which of course
is not possible, so I have to round this number to 57 stitches.

However, you want to have an even number of stitches , so that you can do a Judy's cast-on, so you have a choice...either round UP to 58 stsitches, or DOWN to 56 stitches. I am going to (arbitrarily), round down to 56 stitches for these sock posts.Right....you have determined how many stitches you need for the sock, but obviously you need to START your sock with fewer stitches...to make the toe. So, how many stitches are you going to cast on? A very general rule is to use ONE QUARTER the total number of stitches required for the sock, as the cast on number of stitches to make the toe.
So, if you need 56 sts in total for your sock, one quarter is 14 sts. Remember that you are going to use Judy's Magic cast-on, and this means that your 14 stitches are evenly cast on over the two needles....therefore you will end up with 7 stitches on each needle.

So lets recap...

Total number of stitches needed to knit the sock = 56sts
Number of stitches needed for the toe cast-on = 14 sts
(you will have half on one needle, and half on the other)
For this KAL, I am using a DK weight yarn, so I have relatively fewer stitches per inch than say someone who is knitting with proper sock yarn (will probably have somewhere between 8 and 10 stitches per inch for gauge). Remember, the formula....don't be concerned if your gauge doesn't match mine. Follow the steps above, and even if your results are different...your sock will still be right for you!

Tomorrow, we'll cast on and do the toe increases...so whip out your measuring tape and start your calculations :)

Magic Loop Revisited...

I wanted to do a quick recap of the first round of the Magic Loop knitting. You will use Judy's Magic Cast-On as the basis for the first round.



When you have cast on the required number of stitches, your needles will still be pointing to the left hand side. Remember to bring your tail yarn towards you and to the right across the working yarn.

Keeping your tail yarn in this position, rotate your needles clockwise to your right.


The pic above is what your work should look like...Now if you look closely, the side of the cast on facing you is actually the knit side....no purly bumps seen...


If you twist your needles over you'll see the purly side with little bumps...remember that the purl side will eventually be on the "inside" of your work as you knit in the round, and all the lovely knit stitches will be facing you (because you are just making "knit"stitches all the time...)


Remember that the needle that the working yarn (the yarn that comes from the ball of yarn) is coming from, is the needle that will be pulled to your right , being the one you use to start your knitting with. Once you have knitted several rounds, a little "pocket" will start to form, with all the purl stitches facing in and all the knit stitches facing out. But...at the beginning of your first round, you haven't yet gotten "sides"of knitted fabric to form the little pocket, so all you have, to guide you as to where you will insert your right hand needle, is the look of the cast on stitches, ie the "knit"vs "purl" sides, as seen above...

In order to insert your right side needle into the "knit" side of your first stitch, you will need to slightly twist your work , so that you are looking square onto the "knit " side of your cast on.


Things should look like the pic above...


Here, in the pic above, I have now knitted two stitches, and you can see that the "knit" side of the cast on is still facing me.

Once you have done enough rounds to form the pocket of knitting , it will be obvious where you need to knit into...but in the first few rounds it may be a little confusing, so just walk through the pics above step by step...if you start seeing purl and knit stitches on the SAME side of the fabric, you have gone wrong somewhere...

I hope that makes things a little clearer...

Have a good evening folks!
Lots of Love,
Heidi :)

Designing a basic sock...Part 1

Hi all my blogfriends! I finally got a moment to blog...not that I have been snowed under by quests tedious and draining...au contraire! Our knitting group decided to do a travel-get-together today, to test out and become familiar with the new Gautrain here in Johannesburg. Now, for all the readers who do not live here in South Africa, you may not have heard of this new-fangled thing... we have a veritable fledgling public transport system now!!!!! It may seem like nothing to be very excited about....but, when you realize that there is no safe, affordable public transport at all in South Africa, then truly this is a wonderful thing! The Gautrain was fabulous :) Clean, safe, efficient, on time (!) and comfortable and user friendly....I mean, what can one ask for more than that? We went to a local bookshop, ate cake, chatted (and it must be said...I actually did do some knitting!), bought some beautiful books...and came home happy and amazed! Well done to the Gautrain people! And now onto the blogpost...how to design a basic sock for yourself...

Requirements

Obviously...your foot
A tape measure
Pins
A knitted gauge swatch in your chosen yarn and stitch of choice (I am going to do a basic, stocking stitch sock pattern to start with...)
Note pad and pen
Calculator
Ruler with inch/cm lines

Ok, lets start at the beginning...

What is a sock really? If you break down the fancy patterns, stitches, different toes, heels, cuffs, and so on, what you have is a tube with a little sticky-outy bit for the heel. This is wonderful, because if you've looked at your foot lately, it isn't really much of a tube at all. And yet, if the tube is appropriately sized, and the sticky-outy bit for the heel is the correct size...it fits! So....if you can design a knitted tube with a closed end, that fits the circumference of your foot well, all you need to add is the heel bit, which wonderfully, will be determined in part by the very number of stitches you use to knit the tube! Ok, I know that there may be people out there (perhaps like Shrek...), who have feet that may be a little different in proportion...I am merely attempting to explain how to make a sock for a normal, average person's foot... :)

An ideal sock is seamless, with no lumpy bits that make wearing them uncomfortable, so knitting them in the round is ideal. I know that there are people who knit socks flat and then seam them up, but when you see how easy it is to knit them in the round on a Magic Loop, you'll never knit them flat again!

Yarn and needles

There are obviously endless possibilities in choosing a yarn for your socks. That being said, it is generally a good idea to stick to sock weight yarn, or a double knit weight (or something in between...) If you are seriously intent on creating your life's work sock wise...by all means use a lace weight...but if you actually want to end up wearing your socks some time this century, choose a yarn that will knit up relatively fast. The yarn manufacturers will give you some indication on the ball band, what size needles to knit on. This recommendation is not terribly helpful (in my opinion...), when it comes to knitting socks. In reality, needle size is not that critical...how it feels and looks when you've knitted a swatch, is more important.

Let's discuss an example...

I am going to be using a DK weight yarn (100% superwash merino) for the sock demos in the subsequent posts. The general indication would be to knit this on needles ranging from 4-5mm. I knitted a swatch on size 4.5mm needles, and found that the resulting fabric was too loosely made and hole-yish (?is that even a word)...it wouldn't be snug and warm. When I knitted a swatch on size 3mm needles, the fabric density was perfect. So, play around with some swatches (they really don't take that long to knit...), until you are happy with the way the knitting feels and looks. I am only referring to a stocking stitch socks folks...obviously a fragile, pretty lace designed sock is going to be loose and hole-yish... :)

Right...yarn and needles chosen... now to start with the real work...

Because you are knitting the sock from the toe up, you are able to periodically measure the sock on your foot, and by how it fits, decide if your tube is long enough. So in reality, the length of your foot is only critical in determining if you have enough yarn for your project, however I will walk you through the process... ( If you are knitting a sock for someone who hasn't handily left their foot in your keep, you will have to take into account the length of the recipients foot.)

Firstly, measure your foot around the widest part of it...this will generally be around the ball of your foot. Secondly, you need to measure the length of your foot. Stand with your heels against the wall, and ask someone to place their finger at the tip of your big toe. Note the point, and measure the distance from the wall to that point. (If your big toe is not the longest toe in your foot, mark the point in front of the longest toe). Measuring your foot with a ruler while contorting your leg into an unnatural backward bend, is certainly going to give you an erroneous result ;)

Ok, you have your two measurements... now subtract 10% from each...this is to allow for so called "negative ease"...which really means that you want your sock to "hug" your foot, and to achieve that , you need to have a sock that is slightly smaller than the actual measurements of your foot. This is the reason why is is advisable to knit the sock in a yarn with some elasticity (or springyness)...wool is probably the best or if you are allergic to wool, a cotton/bamboo/linen etc that has some elastic type addition to it. If your ankle is a lot bigger than your foot circumference, you must measure this as well. You will need to increase the number of stitches you have as you get to the leg portion of your sock, or it will not go over ....

It's a good idea to keep a small notebook with details of your sock...note the yarn brand, yarn weight, needle size you've decided will work best for your sock, as well as your foot measurements.

Swatching

Yes, the dreaded word.... this is really important...trust me it will take a lot less time to knit the swatch and work with accurate measurements, than it will take to frog two socks and re-knit them (by which time you will probably never want to see a sock again!)

You have got to make a gauge swatch, folks!!!! Because the actual row gauge(the number of rows you have in an inch) is not as critical as the stitch gauge (the number of stitches in an inch), I tend to knit a swatch that is wider than it is long. In an ideal world, one should gently steam and block the swatch...but since life is too short, I just make sure that the work is on my cable rather than the needle (this allows the swatch to "relax" and contract to it's natural wannabe state...), and then measure my number of stitches in an inch. In the pic below I have indicated the stitches in a red "v". If you look at the stitches between the pins indicating the inch, you will see 6 and a half stitches. The half stitch is actually important, so don't fudge it at this point...count the half...

Ok, to recap...

-Choose your yarn
-Using needles slightly smaller than the recommended needle size on the yarn ball band, knit a swatch to see if you like the density/look of the knitted fabric
-Measure your foot length, and the width at the widest part of your foot (usually the ball of your foot), and if necessary, the ankle/leg width
-Determine your stitch gauge by measuring the number of stitches in an inch of your swatch
-Write it all down...you will need them for the next post....

If there are any things you are uncertain about in this post...please sen me a mail...I will try to clarify... :)

Have a great evening,
Lots of Love,
Heidi :)

Anatomy of a Sock

Howdy friends!

Today was a warm day in Johannesburg. Winter here has been really cold and unpleasant...although nothing compared to some of the snowy/icy countries, we are not really geared for very cold weather, as central heating is very, very uncommonly found in houses here.
So, the girls and Mr P and I went off to have a brunch at a small cafe nearby. It was a lazy Sunday...not a lot of productivity... We had supper with some close friends last night (a rarity as Mr P seldom has time off from the hospital :( ), and we had a wonderful time, catching up, chatting, laughing... The girls and their friends were so involved in their own discussions, we almost didn't notice them... all in all , a lovely evening!This week was also a fantastic learning week...my dear friend Dana, taught Linda and myself how to hand-dye/handpaint yarn! I feel like a whole world has opened up for me...suddenly all I want to do is DYE! Morning, noon and night...the kitchen smells like vinegar all the time ;) It's like painting with watercolours...addictive :) Thank you Dana ♥ If anyone is interested, Dana has her tutorials on how to dye, available on her website...


I have decided to do a series of posts on how to knit a sock. When I first became interested in learning how to do this, I was overwhelmed by the variety of ways there are to knit a sock...top (cuff) down, toe up socks, countless ways of casting on, using double pointed needles, two circular needles, one circular needle, numerous options for knitting the heel...it was truly confusing and I struggled to find information that took me through the process step by step. I am quite sure that there are probably MANY references that I just didn't come across, that you may be aware of, but it was a long journey, learning and adapting what I found , to what worked for me.So, I will be doing a bunch of "walk-you-through-a sock-KAL" posts, specifically in the way I like to knit a sock. By no means is this the only way...just the way I like to do it :)

I am assuming that you are able to do Judy's Magic Cast-on, as well as Magic Loop knitting. Really friends, this is essential...you must be comfortable with these techniques if you are to reach the end of this quest...I knit my socks from the toe up, using a Magic Loop technique, and I prefer the look of a short-row heel. OK, if you haven't ever knitted a sock, this will all sound Greek...never fear friends! All will become clear as we go along... I will stick to the kind of sock I like in terms of explanations, and if there is any interest, I can do some posts later on the other options for heels, toes etc.

Firstly, let's look at the anatomy of the humble sock (Mr P's cycling sock ;) ).

The toe is ...well...the toe! This is where I start my socks, as I find the advantages of working "toe-up", outweigh the "cuff-down" method. At the end of these sock related posts, you will be able to knit two sock at the same time, on one circular needle, toe-up, with short row heels) Wow , you might say...me? Yes, you will be able to do this magical thing!

This way of knitting socks, allows you to measure the sock on your own foot (or presumably the foot of the intended recipient) so you end up with socks that actually fit properly, you will have the same tension throughout your socks, as you are creating both at the same time, you will not suffer from the dreaded "second sock syndrome" , and you will be able to use up your yarn to the last bit...because you just keep knitting up to where the yarn starts running low...then you cast off! Voila, socks a-la-deux!So, (I get easily distracted...) the sock starts at the toe (1), you then get the sole and the upper foot (2), the heel (3) , the leg section (4), and finally the cuff (5).



We will be knitting the sock in the order shown in the pic above. First the toe (1), then the sole and upper foot (2), then the whole of the heel (3), then the leg (4) and finally the cuff (5).

Let's break it down a bit...

I use Judy's Magic Cast-on method for casting on for the toes. If you are unfamiliar with this technique, you can find a tutorial here. (In this post, I am merely giving you an overview of the process...the details will follow in the subsequent posts). This method of casting on, will give you a set of stitches on the one needle of your circular needles, and stitches on the other needle. The number of stitches will be the same on the two needles.


If you look at the pic above, you will see that I have divided the sock into two coloured halves...the rose coloured part which will be knitted on the back (or farthest-away-from-you) needle, and the turquoise coloured part which will be knitted on the front(or closest-to-you-needle). If you are unfamiliar with Magic Loop knitting, look here.

Because of the nature of Magic Loop knitting, you will work a round of knitting in the following order:


-knit all the stitches forming the sole-side or underside of the toe (1a), then knit all the stitches forming the upper-foot side of the toe (1b) until the toe is complete (ie alternately 1a, 1b, 1a, 1b etc in a continuous spiral, until the toe is the desired length)

-then stitches forming the sole of the foot (2a), alternating with the stitches forming the upper foot (2b), in the round (2a, 2b, 2a, 2b etc again, in a continuous spiral) until the sole and upper foot sections are the correct length.


Up until this point of knitting , you are essentially creating a long tube, with the number of stitches on your front and back needles being the same (you haven't any need to shape your sock with decreases and increases for this part of the foot...it will fit :) )


-then you will knit the whole of the heel on the front (closest-to-you) needle, starting with section 3a (you finish knitting this completely before you move onto section 3b...this is different from the previous sections of the sock where you are alternately knitting " a " and " b " in a continuous spiral ), then knit section 3b .

During this heel knitting adventure, the back needle stitches go into hibernation..they're quite happy..don't worry about them :) .



Once the heel is completed, you will have ended section 3b at the point where section 4a starts. This is the beginning of the lower leg part of the sock. Once again, you will knit the leg sections in the round, alternating the stitches of sections 4a and 4b in a continuous spiral, until the leg part is the desired length. You are now again basically knitting a tube in the round, as you did for the foot part...

Finally , you will do the cuff and when that is finished, bind off.



Let's take a closer look at the heel business...in the pic above, I have coloured the spiral arrows in two colours: red for the part of the sock facing you, and lighter blue for the part of the sock facing the table. These are meant to schematically represent the knitted rounds as you would do them. As you can see, the direction of the knitted rounds form the oft' mentioned continuous spiral up the length of the sock...

However when you get to the heel, you are no longer working in the round, you are knitting and purling back and forth (firstly section 3a, then when that is completed, you knit and purl back and forth on section 3b).

This back and forth knitting creates so called short-rows, ie you are not knitting all the stitches on the front needle when you do section 3a, you are actually knitting less and less of them, each time you turn your work around to knit or purl. This shapes the heel section 3a into a triangle. When you start knitting section 3b, you are (totally my own words...) essentially making " long-rows", the opposite of short rows by " picking up " the un-knitted stitches ( left out in section 3a, every time you did a short row.)

I will do a post devoted entirely to the short row...don't worry about scary words, like wrapping etc that will all come later :)

Ok, once the heel is finished, you continue knitting the long tube, just as you did before when you made the foot section, all the way up the leg to the desired length.

Easy peasy....

If there is anything in this little post that doesn't make sense, please let me know...it's late and it's been a long post...I am off to bed now...

The next post will be how to custom design a sock pattern that will give you a perfectly fitted sock!

Have a good evening,
Lots of Love,
Heidi :)

Absence recap...

Hellooooo friends....yes, it has been long! The last two months have been a very busy time (thankfully almost all good :) ), and I have sadly neglected my blogging duty... there have been so many happenings and travels (and a serious absence of 3G coverage in some places!), that blogging went to lie quietly in the corner and hibernated for the winter...in addition , renovations in two places, a set of exams, two trips, the Soccer World Cup, The Tour de France, school holidays....the list goes on! Today's post will be a quick photo overview of the last two months activities :)


Straight after the school holidays here in SA started, we flew to London for a week, to finalise our GMC registration, which thankfully went well, so if all else fails at least Mr P and I can work in the UK :) We stayed with our dear, dear friend Pete in Kensington, and (coming from cold, cold South Africa), summer in London was almost tropical! Our girls enjoyed seeing little Joshua (who is a seriously adorable child...we are godparents and besotted with the little fellow!), and of course...couldn't resist a visit to Hamleys...(with an all too enthusiastic dad in tow...wonder who enjoyed it more?) They had recently seen Sherlock Holmes (with the equally adorable (if that is the right word...I can certainly think of other , perhaps more appropriate adjectives... ;) ) Robert Downey Junior), so of course a quick trip to Madame Tussauds, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum also happened.

We had a wonderful time in London, loved seeing our friends and shopping, sight-seeing...I paid a very happy visit to Liberty, and was overjoyed to see that their Rowan yarns were at half price, so I bought 3 suitcase loads of Milk Cotton...I mean what is a girl to do? I squeezed yarn into everyone's suitcases, until I thought they would all be over the weight limit :0






After returning from London, we went down to the Wild Coast, where we had been doing some additions to our house. It has been a bit rocky, but I am very pleased with how everything turned out. It must be said however, that I never want to do any kind of building , ever again! Not for the faint-hearted...







Well, a whirlwind tour of the holidays...more to follow...
Have a wonderful evening friends!
Lots of Love
Heidi :)