Toe Up Sock Experiment

Laura

Like Sarah, I’ve been playing with some sock ideas, playing with cuff designs, cast ons, bind offs, sometimes working cuff down and sometimes toe up with variations that will appeal to both experienced sock knitters and those looking to become sock knitters.

A lot of toe up sock patterns use a basic Make 1 increase, a less intimidating that a short row toe for many knitters. While I can appreciate the simplicity of this design I’ve never been a fan of using a series of Make 1 increases because in spite of every effort to work the previous knit stitches loosely I find when I work these stitches they are much tighter than their neighbors. And so I decided to try an experiment; working two sock toes (on two circulars using the fabulous Magic Cast on by Judy Becker from Knitty) with just a quick variation in the increase instructions as follows:

Make One Increases:
1.    knit round
2.    [k1, m1r, k to last st, m1L, k1] repeat on other needle

Yarn Over Make One Increase:
1.    k1, yo, k to last st, yo, k1
2.    knit across making sure to twist the yarn overs so the loop is closed.

The difference being an extra length of yarn is added on the prior row via a yarn over so the stitches are not pulled too tightly. And yes, the stitches can be worked leaning to the right and left based on which way the yarn over is worked.

I’m sure some of you may have tried working an increase with a yarn over before, Sarah illustrated the increase here, but I thought that comparing the results of these two types of increasing might prove helpful. Look, the shape of the toe is less distorted in every way:
•    The sides do not bow out
•    the base is not pulled up into a curve
•    the top is flatter
•    and the swatch is a bit wider since it is not constrained by the tight increase.

I have fun with this little experiment, next time I will be more careful working the Yarn Over Make One increases with the correct slant and I think a reverse Star Toe could be interesting.

Comments

[Deb]

I applaud your efforts in seeking the ideal toe for the toe-up sock. I've been looking & experimenting w/the same idea. I have yet to find one that creates "the perfect round toe." Please see my blog: http://luvsknitting.blogspot.com/

Toe-Up Socks....let me count the cast-on ways

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[BlondiKnits]

Thank you for this very timely post! I am working on the Summer 2008 sock pattern by WendyKnits for SOS 2008. I cannot make the M1 increase without splitting the yarn -- and it bothers me. I will rip them out and re-do with the YO increase. Thanks!

[Suzanne V. (Yarnhog)]

Hey, Laura! Are you in San Diego yet?

[Jeri]

If you want a rounder toe that is less wedge-y, try increasing on every round for a while then every other round for a while then for the last increase (or two) do two plain rounds between increase rounds.