The Knitting Fiend/ Diet Diary

Ok, the as yet unnamed sockulator sock will be knit toe up and have a “round toe”. I haven’t written my new sockulator yet, but I started knitting it anyway!

How could I do this? Well, first, I used one of the other sockulators to figure out how many stitches I needed in around the foot. I need 40 stitches. (This is thicker yarn than used for any other of my socks.) Once I knew that number I followed the recipe to create what is called a round toe.

Why a round toe? Because I’ve never knit one, which means I can write another lesson. It also looks pretty easy, provided I cheat in my well known fiendish ways. But I always cheat to make things easier, so that’s nothing new.

Ok, the round toe.

I read a simple formula for creating a round toe. I realized I was going to have to cast on 8 and begin knitting in the round, being careful not to twist, yada, yada. Yikes!

Ok, so I decided to cheat! Using a 29″ circular needle, I cast on 8 stitches using waste yarn with a weight similar to the sock yarn I was planning to use. I knit a few rows working back and forth. I broke the yarn. See above left.

Then, I began following the directions.

With knit side of waste yarn facing, I attached sock yarn and knit 8 stitches. See above right.
Now I fiddled to start working circular!

Here’s how: Slide all eight stitches to the center of the circular needle. Spread the stitches a little, then grab a bit of cable with 4 stitches on one side and 4 on the other. Draw the cable out to create a loop as shown below left. Don’t slide the work all the way to the tips yet, just make the big loop on the right leaving some extra cable on the left side.

Next, fold the knitting with purl sides together. Hold the knitting in your left hand with, open edge at the right and the big cable loop on the left. Slide the four stitches on the front needle to tip of the front needle as shown below right.

Now, grab the other needle tip in your right hand. There should be a long bit of cable there. (If you look carefully, you can see the black cable. I emphasized this with red.) Now, we’re ready to knit round 2. The instruction is:

Round 2: *kfb in next stitch; repeat from * 7 times. (Notes: 1) kfb means “knit front and back”, it’s a type of increase; 2) you’ll work kfb 7+1 = 8 times. )

Ok how?

Insert the right tip in the first stitch on the left tip as to knit. Wrap yarn and draw a loop through to knit but don’t drop the stitch off the left tip yet because you are going to knit into the front and back of this stitch on this round.

So, I should have a photo showing how to knit into the back of the stitch, right? Ok, I screwed up the photo of knitting into the back of this stitch. So, I’ll show you how to knit into the front and back of the second stitch!

Examine the image above left. The two blue stitches to the right were just created by knitting into the front and back of the first stitch in this round. Now, I’ll illustrate how to do this with the second stitch in this round. Insert the right needle tip into the second stitch on this round; (the second stitch is yellow.) Wrap the yarn, pull the strand through as in the center photo, but don’t slide the yellow stitch off the left needle tip. Instead, insert the right tip into the back of the yellow stitch. Wrap the yarn and pull the strand through. Now slide the yellow stitch off the left tip.

Voila! Two blue stitches were there once was one yellow stitch.

Now, knit into the front and back (kfb) of the remaining stitches on the left needle tip. When you are done, you will have 8 stitches on the right needle tip There will be four additional stitches sitting on the cable somewhere in the back. You will need to rearrange the tips to knit into the front and back of those four stitches.

To rearrange, pull on the cable to the right as indicated by the red arrow. As you do this, slide the 4 stitches over to the left tip. (You can’t see these four stitches in the photo because they are hidden behind the 8 you just created.) Next, pull the right tip to the left, sliding the 8 stitches down the cable.

Now, knit into the front and back of the next four stitches, creating 8. You have finished the first round. There are a total of 16 stitches on the needle.

Guess what? You just did “magic loop”, knit into the front and back of stitches, and are now knitting in the round. And notice I didn’t have to say anything like “avoid twisting” or “carefully” or anything like that? That extra waste yarn really helps make the first round easy for the uncoordinated. (That would be me.)

You’ll see what I do with the waste yarn later on. I find using the scrap yarn actually results in a nicer tighter close tip for the top of socks, hats or anything else I knit in the round from the center of the hole out!

Ok, what next? Well, when I finished the first round, I hung a safety pin to mark the beginning of the round. Then, I knit a round plain. Then, I knit a round where I did this:

Round 4: *kfb, k1; repeat from * 7 times. (I now had 24 stitches.)
Round 5: knit all stitches.
Round 6: *kfb, k2; repeat from * 7 times.
Round 7: knit all stitches.

(Of course, when reading these instructions, it is understood that you have to reorganize the tips halfway through each round. )

I worked in the pattern established increasing 8 stitches every other round until I had 40 stitches which happens to be a multiple of 8.

Ok, some of you are wondering: What if I’d needed some number of stitches that was not a multiple of 8? Say, I’d needed 44 stitches? Well, once I had 40 stitches, I’d have worked a plain round, and then done this:

Round N: *kfb, knit 19; repeat from * 3 times. (- – 44 stitches.)

After that, I began to work plain rounds, and I’ll continue to do so until I need to begin working the gusset increases. Naturally, I tried the toe on to see if the sock was going to fit. Looks fine!

Oh, that little nipple at the top? That’s the waste yarn. I’ll show you how to remove that later on — but sometime before I actually publish the sockulator.

Meanwhile, I wish you all,

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