I posted this at Ravelry. I think it’s worth a blog post, since I may need to remind myself of what I know, some day.
The thing with toe up socks is that you have to know your 1) row gauge and 2) how many rows it takes for the gusset increases and the heel cup. With those two pieces of info, you figure out how long to knit the toe before you start the gusset increases, based on the length you want your sock to be.
So, if you’re knitting a sock with 32 stitches per side, and you generally double that number, increasing every other row for the gusset, that’s 32 more rows, til you get to the 64 needed, to complete the gusset.
The number of rows for the heel cup = the number of stitches on one side of the sock (half the total sock stitches), divided by 2, minus 1.
Edit: I realized I should add a note that the heel cup I use is from Melissa Morgan-Oakes’ Toe Up Two at at Time Socks there’s more than one way to make a heel cup, so I should specify that.
So, 32 divided by 2 = 16, 16 minus 1 equals 15 for the heel cup. Thus, the gusset and heel cup will be 47 rows.
Based on your row gauge, figure out how many inches that will be. Meaning, divide 47 by your row gauge number, let’s say it’s 12 rows per inch. So, that is 47/12 = 3.9 inches.
Take that number and subtract it from how long you want your sock to be. It should be 10% shorter than your total foot length. My foot is 9.25 inches long, minus 10% is 8.325.
8.325 minus 3.9 = 4.425 so, I would round up and knit the toe 4-1/2 inches, before starting the gusset increases.
4.5 plus 3.9 is going to give me a sock that is about 8.4 inches long…or about 10% shorter than my foot length, which is what we’re after, for negative ease and a snug fit.
And that is probably more than you wanted to know about it. Heh. But you do that, you’ll get a sock that fits.
Oh, and you know you’ve got enough stitches around when the toe cup you’re knitting covers your first 4 biggest toes. It should just sit on top of the pinky toe. At that point, it’s big enough to cover your foot. So, that’s how you judge what size sock to knit.
And after you’ve knit about 3 inches, you can take your row gauge, and do the calcs outlined above. No time wasted swatching.
Entry 0 27. 05.11
