The Knitting Fiend

Natasha left a question in comments, and the answer is a bit long, so I’m putting it here. This is the question:

there is a pair of geisha socks, that is to say, socks that you could wear with flip flops that i want to make…on two circulars…i have no clue how to convert the pattern, this is my first sock…any ideas?

First, I can’t believe you asked this while I was watching “The Mikado”. Needless to say, “Yum Yum” wore Geisha slippers for her wedding!

To answer your questions, it should be pretty easy to add a toe. The method is similar to working fingers on gloves, only easier because you only make one toe. Here’s what I would do. It might involve a bit of experimenting to get the “perfect” dimensions, but not a whole lot!

If you knit from the top down, you’ll knit the sock exactly mostly as per directions until the foot is about 1″ or 2″ short of the total length required. The perfect length depends on the length of your big toe; you could try the sock on and see when the foot length reaches your toe. At this point you are going to want to work the split for the toe.

There is only one possible modification to the directions before you reach the toe split. I would guess that the “right length” will come before any decreases to shape the toe in the original sock pattern. If the shaping starts before you need to split for the toe, you’ll notice the pattern probably has shaping on two sides on the foot. Work the shaping on the “non-big toe” side, but skip the shaping on the “big toe” toe”edgeedge.

Now, to work the split for the toe, we are going to guess a bit. I laid a ruler across my toe. I found the width across the top of my foot is about 4″; the width across my big toe is 1″. So, the big toe is about the width across my foot. So, I would budget 1/4 the stitches on the needles for the toe and the rest for the side of the foot. So, say there are 40 stitches for the foot. Then in this example, for a first try, budget 10 stitches for the toe. (The reason this is a guess is that, later on, you may wish you’d had 8 stitches or 12 stitches. I can’t say for sure because I haven’t made these things!)

Now, I would figure out where the “big-toe side” of the foot is, and identify the “big-toe stitches”; half are on the top of the foot and half on the bottom. Then, I’d put the non-big-toe of the stitches on a string.

I’d put the 10 toe stitches on dpn’s or, if you prefer, use two circulars. Now, for comfort between the big toe and the other toes, you’ll want to add some stitches in the “gap” between the toes. I’d probably add 1/3 the number of toe stitches, but I might round up or down. (I am totally guessing the 1/3rd fraction. Maybe you need fewer, but you do need some since your foot and toes aren’t flat like pancakes.) Using the 1/3, if I had 10 before, I’d add 3 or 4 stitches in the gap between the toe. For comfort, I’d cast on using a provisional method, I don’t think you want a sort of “cast on line” here. I discussed that in cheaters provisional cast on and later showed how I used it for an underarm when knitting my “Mary Ann”, a top down seamless raglan. The underarm trick what I would use when adding stitches between the toe and foot.

Now, I’d knit around and around on these 13 or 14 stitches until the knit toe was just shorter than my toe. Then, I’d k2 tog all around the next round. (If there’s an extra stitch don’t worry.) Then, I’d knit another round. Then, I might k2tog again. Then, I’d break the yarn and pull it through the loops and draw tight. (I don’t need to do anything more comfortable because you’re wearing flip flop type sandals, right?

I’d try the toe on at this point. Decide if you like the length and width. That way, if 10 stitches were too many or too few, you can rip the toe back and reknit; it’s only a small amount of knitting.

Once I was happy with the toe, I’d pick up the stitches on the string, and also pick up the heels of the stitches from the provisional cast on. (I show how to pick up on the page I linked earlier. You’ll notice you might end up with 1 less stitch when you pick up the heels of the stitches. Don’t worry about that.) I’d knit around and around, following the regular shock shaping directions on the “pinkie toe” edge, but skipping the ones on the big toe edge.

Let me know how your sock works out!