The Knitting Fiend

I’m writing a “toe up sock-u-lator”. Since I’ve never worked toes this way, I thought I’d better actually try the cast on before posting the calculator. Here’s my demo, which is worked with 4 DPNs. You could easily adapt it to “magic loop” and I’ll place some tips in the footnotes.

Cast on the specified number of stitches using the backward loop cast on. Then, knit one row. Turn the work so the cast on edge faces “up” and the yarn tails are on the right. Now, draw the ball of yarn away, and drop the cast on tail between that yarn and the needle. (See left; notice the needle is blue. I will call this needle #1.)

Using a DPNs and a “helper” DPN, pick up and knit stitches through the “loops” which happen to be the “heels” of the cast on stitches. There will be one loop per cast on stitch, so you are about to double the number of stitches.

For purposes of illustration, I picked up and knit the new stitches onto a red needle, which I will call needle #2. See image to the right which shows about half the stitches knit up onto needle 2. Note that the photo does not show the “helper” needle I held in my left hand to when knitting up stitches. When knitting up stitches, I poked the tip of the helper needle into the hole below the “loop”, then inserted needle #2 into the hole, wrapped the yarn and knit it onto needle #2. Some knitters don’t use this helper needle; that’s because some knitters are more coordinated than I. )

(By the way: I couldn’t take a good photo when I picked up the very first stitch, but I did notice the very first “loop” tended to loosen a lot when I picked up and knit a stitch. This happened because the yarn from the tail tended to want to pull up. I tightened it by pulling on the yarn end from the cast on tail. )

The instructions will tell you to knit up half on one needle, then pick up half on a second DPN. You’ll end up with twice as many stitches as you began with, but distributed on a total of 3 needles.¹

Rotate to start knitting stitches on needle 1; the yarn end is between needles 3 and 1.

You will now begin to knit in rounds, always knitting stitches on needle 1, then 2 then 3, then continuing 1->2->3. (By the way, I find this feels a bit clumsy at first. It feels less clumsy after a few rounds. I do plan to test out other toe up sock cast ons and report whether they are easier or more difficult.)

The first round will be an increase round. You will increase near both edges of needle 1, near the beginning of needle 2 and the end of needle 3. Because this is the first row, I recommend increasing by knitting into the front and back of one stitch as illustrated in this article.

The second round is also an increase round. Starting on needle 1, knit 1 stitch, then work a lifted increase by inserting the tip of the right needle in the side of the stitch below the next one on the left tip. This is illustrated below left. Knit into this, but don’t drop the stitch on the left needle. Then, knit into the stitch on the left needle.

Now, knit until two stitches remain. Knit the next stitch. Now, insert the left needle tip into the bar of the stitch two below the one you just knit. (See below right. The stitch on the right tip was knit into the stitch outlined in blue . I outlined the stitch below the “blue” stitch in green. I stuck the left needle tip into the side of the “green” stitch.) After I inserted the left tip, I inserted the right tip in the hole I created, wrapped the yarn and knit a stitch. That created a brand new stitch. Knit the last stitch.

Proceed to needle 2: begin as you began working on needle 1, then knit all remaining stitches. Proceed to needle 3. Knit until 2 stitches remain; finish the way you finished the stitches on needle 1.

Next work a round without increasing. Then alternate 1 increase round and 1 plain round until you have as many stitches as specified in your pattern. (When working these increase rounds, use the lifted increases. When working a sock, they look better than the knit front and back increases.)

Try the sock on over your toe. Cute, huh?

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1. If you prefer to use the magic loop method, all the stitches on needle #1 will be on one side of the circular needle. The stitches on #2 and #3 will be on the other side. The “loop” of the circular needle will stick out to the left. For later conversions, just rememember that the stitches on needles 2 and 3 are now combined on the same half of the circular needle when using magic loop.

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Filed in Sock Knitting Techniques.