The Knitting Fiend

Have you ever noticed most toe up socks patterns short row heel turns? Here’s the reason: Gussets followed by heel turns involve quite a few rows; this adds to the length of the sock foot; for my socks they generally add about 2.5″. In contrast, short row heels add about 3/4″ to the foot length.

So what, you say? In principle, no matter which heel you choose, if you don’t know your row gauge, you can’t know the total length of the sock until after you work the heel turn.

True. But let’s say you know your row gauge but your off by 20%? (This is not uncommon if you knit a stumpy swatch. Ever done that? I have!)

Well, with the slightly incorrect row gauge, you can estimate the length of a short row heel to within (0.2 * 0.75″) = 0.15″. That’s pretty good! But, what if it’s a 2.5″ gusset/heel combination? Well, 0.2 * 2.5 = 0.5″. Being off a half inch may not be a catastrophe, but socks that are 1/2″ too short can be uncomfortable.

Many designers get around this pesky issue by using short row heels. I solve this problem by calculating out the sock using a sockulator.

But, clever readers are saying: But you still need to know the row gauge!

Yep! But guess what? Even if I don’t know the row gauge when I start knitting the sock, I can know it very, very accurately by the time I’ve knit up to the point where I’m supposed to shape the gusset. And, to tell the truth, the row gauge doesn’t affect the directions up to this point. So, I always check it just before working the gusset!

Look to the left, I measured! I also counted stitches. I also recalculated the row gauge! I always do this.

If I find the row gauge is not the same as the value I entered when I created the pattern, I rerun the sockulator! The sockulator is already there at the web. It’s not much work to type in the number and create a fresh pattern at this point, so why not do it?

Ok, you say, “But changing the row gauge changes the pattern.”

Sure. But, if you enter a new row gauge but don’t change directions for the part you’ve already knit. The exact length where you start shaping the gusset may change a little; what you’ll find is a 10% change in the row gauge might make a 0.2″ difference in the length where you need to start working the gusset. A 30% change might make a 0.6″ difference. The details about the heel turn and leg shaping might change– but you haven’t knit them yet, and anyway, now the calculations are based on the correct row gauge. So, you’re good to go.

Now, just follow this new instruction and begin knitting the gusset!

Ok, so how do I actually work the gusset? With magic loop, I organize so all the “instep” stitches are on one half of the circular needle and the “sole” stitches are on the other half. Every other round, I increase a stitch on the right and left side of the sole. This means that, eventually, the “sole” side has quite a few more stitches than the “instep” side.

Now, if all you care about is fit, it doesn’t matter what type of increases when you add the gusset stitches. You can use make 1’s, yarn overs, knit into front and back (kfb) or lifted increases. But, the choice of increases does affect the appearance.

My blog readers will not be surprised to discover I like to use lifted increases. When I work the sole stitches, I write directions as:
“K2, L1A, knit until 2 are left on needle tip, L1B, k2″ then, I do the “magic turn”, which is just reorganizing the stitches on the circular needle to work the other half of a round.

I’ve shown L1A’s and L1B’s before, but it’s worth repeating the directions since some readers like seeing the single colored yarn and some prefer seeing the solid color yarn.

Ok, so the “L1A” side; let me describe how to “K2, L1A”. Examine the photo above and to the left; I’ve just knit the first two stitches. This created the two orange stitches on the right hand needle tip. Notice they were worked into two yellow stitches. Now, I want to work an “L1A” which stands for “Lift One After”; that’s a lifted increase worked into the side of a stitch afteryou’ve already knit it

But, just where do you knit it? The stitch you’ve just knit is the orange one closest to the right needle tip. You can’t work into the yellow stitch below– because you already knit into it. So, you poke the needle tips into the left side of the white stitch below the yellow one; see below center. Wrap the yarn and pull a stitch through; see below right. The stitch I pulled through is sort of orange. That’s all there is to the “L1A”.

Next, I knit across until only 2 stitches remain on the left needle tip; see below left. Notice the two stitches are blue; the stitches in the row below them are white.

Now, I want to work “L1B, k2″. To do this, insert the right tip into the white stitch 1 row below the blue stitch on the needle; see above center. Wrap yarn, and pull through. If you look carefully above right, you’ll notice the edge stitch on the right tip is sprouting out of that white stitch below the blue stitch on the left needle tip. Now, to finish the “k2″ part of the directions, I knit those two blue stitches.

That’s it. I’ve increased on either side of the gusset. To work the gusset, I do this some specified number of times. (The number of times depends on the individual pattern directions. ) After that, I work the heel turn.

I’ll show that later. Meanwhile, you can see how the sock fits after working the gusset.