I’ve knitted lots of pairs of top down socks, but I want to make Skew from Knitty, so it was time to learn how to knit socks from the toe up. Just to complicate matters, Skew uses either two circulars or Magic Loop. I use dpns normally, so I needed to learn one of those techniques too.

I found a demo on YouTube by Cat Bordhi, showing how to knit socks with two circulars. This really helped me, and I liked her description of one needle ‘napping’ while the other needle is working!

It didn’t take long to get used to this method; I think using two circulars may well replace dpns as my favourite method for sock knitting. The advantages are it’s quick, both needles are anchored in the stitches (so no chance of losing a dpn on a train as I’ve done previously) and I’m not jabbing myself with the ends of my Knit Pro wooden dpns as I knit.

Toe up socks: work in progress

I found a good introduction to knitting toe up socks, Amy Swenson’s universal toe up sock formula from Knitty (seriously, where we would be without Knitty?).

The first step is to knit a gauge swatch. I used two 2.25mm circular needles and Kaffe Fassett for Regia sock yarn in ‘Fire’ (in typically understated KF colours…). I got a gauge of 8 stitches per 1″. Next, you measure the circumference and length of your foot. Then, you perform some calculations based on the gauge and measurements to get the ‘recipe’ for your toe up sock. My sock is based on a 64 stitch round.

I found the short row toe and heel difficult to get my head around, mainly because I’ve never liked wraps (and this pattern uses double wrapped stitches, eeek!). However, after a few false starts, I got there. I knitted a plain stockinette foot and cuff, ending at the top with 1″ of 2×2 rib. I used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off to give the top some elasticity and thus prevent it from cutting off the circulation in my leg.

The finished socks

These socks were meant as a practice run for new techniques, but I think they’ve turned out well and they’re a good fit. I prefer the short row heel to picking up stitches for a heel flap and toe up is definitely better than grafting stitches. I want to explore different cast ons and heel constructions for toe ups socks now…