Reinforced Toe

I've been seeing a lot of sock patterns with reinforced heels. I don't think I have ever worn out a heel on a pair of socks, though, and I have socks that I've been wearing for 20 years. What always wears out on my socks are the toes. Therefore, I've experimented with several different methods of reinforcing the toes on a couple pairs of socks I've been knitting and frogging for a long time. I've tried adding a strand of heavy nylon thread, and working the toe in a smaller needle. I finally took inspiration from Cat Bordhi's reinforced heels, and came up with this method. This is written for a toe-up pattern with a wide, rounded end, but the basic stitch pattern (which is actually called "heel stitch") could be used for almost any toe.

Besides being very sturdy, this is also very comfortable. I love the cross-stitch effect of the slipped stitches, too.

The increases for this pattern are worked along the edges of the foot. These instructions are written for two circular needles, but this can also be used with DPNs. If working with DPNs, you may switch to the full number of needles whenever you want. Just be sure to mark the row's halfway point to separate the instep from the sole. Both are worked the same, so it doesn't matter which is which.

Finally, your gauge in heel stitch will be different than in stockinette or garter stitch. My normal gauge for this yarn and needle (size 1) is about 7 sts. and 11.5 rows per inch. In heel stitch my gauge is about 10 sts. and 16 rows per inch.

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Cast on 14 stitches (or whatever number of stitches you prefer) using a Turkish Cast-on or Judy Becker's Magic Cast-on.

Row 1: *K1, S1 purl-wise.* Repeat to end.

Row 2: Instep (needle 1) - *K1, make one left-slanted increase (M1L or LLinc). K to one stitch before end of needle. Make one right-slanted increase (M1R or LRinc).* Repeat from * for sole (needle 2).

Repeat rows 1-2 until desired number of stitches is reached for sock foot.

Row 1: *S1 purl-wise, K1.* Repeat to end.

Row 2: K to end.

Row 3: *K1, S1 purl-wise.* Repeat to end.

Row 4: K to end.

Repeat these 4 rows until toe reaches desired length.

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We now return you to your regularly scheduled sock pattern.

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Bamboo Vine Lace Socks

I'm making this sock from SWTC's Bamboo, using the pattern for Toe Up Vine Lace Socks. I worked on this for about a week, on my trip to Nebraska for Thanksgiving. Now I think it's another sock that's destined for a meeting with the frog.

I think I cast on 16 stitches using the Turkish Cast-on. I started the vine lace pattern on the instep as soon as I had enough stitches on the toe (56). Now I'm not too sure that's going to be comfortable rubbing against the top of my foot inside shoes. Next, I really started the heel turn too soon. Now the sole is a little too short, and the heel turn row is under the bottom of my heel.

Finally, I increased to 67 stitches after the heel turn to give me enough stitches for 7 repeats of the lace pattern. That is turning out to be just too loose around my ankle. The only solution for that is to frog back past the heel turn, and use 55 stitches for 6 repeats of the lace.

I'm still not at all sure about having the lace on top of my foot, though. I don't know if I should stop frogging at the heel, or just frog all the way back to the toe and do the foot in plain stockinette. I'm afraid that's really what I should do, doggone it.

The good news is that I learned some things. I used Cat Bordhi's short row heel without an arch expansion. I ended the heel after picking up the wrapped stitches, without doing long rows. The increases I put in the last row of the heel for the lace pattern might have made up for not having an arch expansion, though. I think I might try to put some increases in the sole next time to create one.

My Story

I was going to post this in a forum over on Ravelry, but it ended up being more an autobiography than an on-topic post, so I decided just to put it over here.

I learned to knit on straight metal needles, with cheap, 60's acrylic yarn. I didn't knit much after that, and didn't know there were any options until just a few years ago. Then I discovered all the incredible yarns that exist now (what are probably known as "novelty" yarns). I also discovered circular needles, which changed my mind about knitting completely. I switched over to knitting from crocheting, almost exclusively, and almost all on circs. I just discovered I could knit with DPNs a few months ago. Now that I've pretty much got the hang of that, it's okay, too.

I swatch, but don't block. Like I said, I've mainly been using acrylics. But, I might have to block some things I'm working on now. My problem is that 1) I don't iron, 2) I don't have a big enough clear, flat, cat-free surface to lay something on, and 3) I would only be willing to do it once. If something needs this blocking process every time it's washed, I might have to give it to someone who's willing to devote that much work to laundry. My idea of how to treat a hand-wash-dry-flat garment is to toss it in the machine on delicate cycle and hang it upside-down. (Tip: hanging a wet sweater upside-down, clipped at the hem, will avoid the shoulder tumors.)

I've only been inside a non-chain LYS a handful of times. I didn't even know there was a local yarn shop where I live until not long before they closed up shop. I didn't know there was such a thing as a sock-blocker, or a specific thing made just for winding yarn.

I just very recently discovered that there are books about knitting, and they aren't just learn-how-to-knit books, or books of patterns. I've never taken a class on knitting or crocheting, but I have taught many relatives and friends to crochet, and a couple to knit.

I still can't believe that a "steek" is something that people knit deliberately just so they can cut through it with scissors. That makes me want to scream and hide under the bed.

Yes, I have a knitting blog. However, it's more an old-fashioned "journal" than a blog. It's much more for my own use than for the entertainment of anyone else. I'm not sure anyone else is even looking at it. I'm using it, though, to keep track of what I'm working on, and what I want to remember about things I've learned or problems I've run into. This link thing I've created in the right frame is also extremely handy, and I use it more than I go to my bookmarks directly on del.icio.us. I do love del.icio.us, but when I specifically want to find that tutorial on the Turkish Cast-on, for example, it's just so much easier to find it here.

Wool Good

I love me some Yarn Harlot. I need this on a t-shirt. "Wool Good." Yes, yes it is.

clipped from www.yarnharlot.ca November 9, 2007 One for the geeks I would like a wee virtual button for my desktop that says SMACK MY SERVER. It doesn't even have to have a script attached to it that actually does anything to the server....it would just be like the buttons at crosswalks. We all know they don't do anything except for give you something to push while you wait for the light to change anyway. I could call tech support, they could work on the problem and I could sit here and push the button (perhaps it could make a nice firm "thwack" noise) and I would feel like I was doing SOMETHING VENGEANCE BASED AND HOSTILE TO MY *&^%%$!!!!&&ING SERVER instead of just sitting here waiting for it to release me from its digital hades. Never mind. Look at wool. Wool never break down. Wool never need upgrade. Wool have no port settings. Wool have no hostname or DNS. Wool Good.

Baby Socks

I have been trying to find a workable pattern for a pair of baby socks for Nicky's baby shower. I started with Cat Bordhi's Little Sky socks. The first problem I had with them was that even after reducing the number of stitches by about a third, the sock was just was too big. When I got almost down to the toe, it was also really strangely shaped. I didn't even bother taking a picture of it at that point - I just frogged it and started over with Charlie's Wiggle Room socks.

The first problem with this next pattern was the Wiggle Room toe. The book describes it as having "gently rounded corners". I worked this two different ways, and both times ended up with a toe that is pointed on each outside corner, and concave in the center.

At this point I'm just going to frog it and start over with the Little Coriolis pattern again. It's going to be too big for this gauge, but hopefully I can adjust it and make it work, since I had good luck with it the first time.

Oh, the one positive thing is that this pattern had cables! I did the cables with no problem. Too bad that my first really successful cables have to be ripped out. Oh, well.

Like a Pig in Mud

Yesterday several packages of stuff came in all at once. I got yarn, books, and needles! The first thing I ripped open was Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. More about that later. I also got the Backstrap Weaving book I ordered. It's an old library book, but it's in excellent condition. As I hoped, it includes instructions on making your own loom. Yay!

The order of yarns and needles from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn came in, too. Oh my goodness! The pictures on their web site don't do justice at all to these beautiful yarns. I am so in love with the bamboo! It's silky, shiny, and strong. Now I am dead to make my next pair of socks out of bamboo. This will surely be the most decadent pair of socks I've ever owned. I'm much happier with the color than I thought I might be, too. There are more shades in the actual yarn than you can tell from their picture. The same goes for the Amerah silk. I'm tempted to get another bag of the silk, but it isn't as soft and scrumptious as the bamboo. I'm afraid I am going to have to get another bag of the bamboo - in purple!

The needles I got are addi Naturas. I have been hearing about addis on different knitting groups, but I had never seen any in real life. They're circulars. They compare to my Clover bamboo circulars the way a Hersey's chocolate bar compares to a Lindt bar. I may never be able to buy the cheap ones ever again.

Where the Clovers are connected by a plastic line that's very similar to stiff weed-whacker line, the addis are connected by something like a gold plastic cable. They're unbelievably flexible, and also thinner than the Clover lines. Instead of just being glued to the bamboo needles like the Clovers are, the addis have gold caps that secure the cable to the ends of the needles.

Now I just wish I'd gotten two pairs of each instead of one. They're no longer available on the web site in those sizes. Oh well, I probably won't be doing many more Turkish Cast-ons in size 7 or 8 needles, anyway. I might get them in 9 and 10, though!

Rippit, Rippit

On Wednesday I worked the sock up to the last row. Yesterday I got a lot of good info from folks on the group forums at Ravelry. I learned that I had basically only done half the heel turn. After doing more web research and pondering this, I ripped the sucker out. There's no sense finishing one sock that had such major things wrong with it, when the whole point of this pair is to learn how to do it right.

So, I started with the Turkish Cast-on again. This time, though, I used Hellchick's toeupsocks Toe Shaping. The only difference is that she uses the figure eight cast-on. This gave me a really lovely rounded toe. The before picture is on the left, and the after picture is on the right.

This toe makes me really happy. I think it's going to be well worth it to have frogged it. I also discovered the rest of Cat Bordhi's videos on constructing a short-row heel.

I stumbled across the Universal toe-up sock formula on Knitty.com, too. I had a lot of fun creating a spreadsheet and plugging the formulas in for this. I haven't followed it exactly so far, but it will make a very helpful guideline for the rest of the sock.

The tedious details are: Cast on using Turkish Cast-on with 8 wraps (16 sts per circular needle). Worked 8 rows with increases every other row, making 32 sts - 11 sts on each of 1st 2 DPNs, 10 on 3rd DPN.