I have had the happiest knitting project on the go for the past two weeks. I took Pete to the friendly local yarn shop and we had ourselves an efficient and socially-distant but also thoroughly enjoyable browse through the German sock yarn. (German sock yarn = the BEST sock yarn.) He chose one I'd never seen before, a Schoppel-Wolle Jeans Ball. It's great to work with, it wouldn't dream of splitting, the color ranges from fully saturated to pleasingly speckled, and it's substantial but not scratchy. All the thumbs up on this yarn. Look, I am almost done with his socks, which are a nicer purple than this picture suggests:
I am a recent convert to toe-up socks. I'd made them before, but only recently did they become my go-to pattern-free pattern. Would you like a toe-up sock recipe? We aim to please around here. This recipe assumes you are using magic loop or two circs, but you can certainly adapt for DPNs if you prefer.
Using Judy's Magic Cast-On, start with 20 stitches divided across two needles. Increase every other round, one stitch in from each edge of each needle, until you have 60 stitches divided across two needles. Work in stockinette until this fetal sock is about three inches shorter than the foot for which you are knitting it. This is the part that used to worry me, but fear not-- it is not an exact science. Now make your gusset. Is there a side that is less pleasing to you? Make that the sole side and increase every other round on that needle, one stitch in from each edge of the needle. For an average-sized woman's sock, keep going until that needle has 48 stitches (78 in total across both needles). If you're working an average-sized men's sock you'll want about 54 stitches on the gusset needle, or 84 in total across both needles.
Next comes the only fiddly part, the heel. You're going to work a little tongue of fabric on the middle 16 stitches (or the middle 18 stitches for a men's sock; that's what all the parenthetical numbers in this paragraph and the next one are for). So knit 32 (or 36), turn, slip 1 and purl 15 (or 17), turn, slip 1 and knit 15 (or 17), and keep going just like that on the middle segment for 8 (or 10) total rows. Now for the curved bit: knit until you have two stitches left on the needle, then wrap and turn, slipping the stitch right next to the wrapped one before you start purling your way back to the last two stitches. Here again you will wrap and turn, and again you will slip the stitch right next to the wrapped one. You'll keep going in this fashion, each time wrapping the stitch right next to the one you slipped last time, until you have 3 (or 4) wraps in each direction. Knit across, working each wrapped stitch together with its wrap. Pick up and knit 5 (or 6) stitches in the slipped stitches at the edge of your fabric tongue. Slip 1 and purl back, working each wrapped stitch together with its wrap. Pick up and purl 5 (or 6) stitches at the opposite edge of your fabric tongue. Phew! That's the end of the hard part!*
Now you'll make your heel flap, working back and forth across the middle 26 (or 30) stitches and gobbling up gusset stitches as you go. Alternate slip 1, knit 1 across all of those middle stitches until you get to the last stitch before the gap, and SSK across the gap. Slip 1 and purl across to the last stitch before the gap; p2tog across the gap. Repeat these two rows until your decreases have consumed all of your gusset stitches. I like to scoot a stitch from each end of the other needle over to this needle and work one last pair of heel flap rows, because gusset holes make me sad.
And now! Tra-la-la! You're back in the round. Work one plain round and then work the ribbing of your choosing until the length is right for you. Bind off and wave your sock around for all to admire. Bind-off note: for my big kids I use JSSBO and I go up a needle size. For my own socks I just use the stretchy bind-off. Bigger feet seem to require a looser BO.
*If my instructions are confusing, it may help to read the pattern from which I learned to knit a toe-up flap heel. If you're still confused, I've also had success with this toe-up short-row heel.
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