Sock Knitting Guide - Formula Method

EDIT: I am in the process of putting together a series of posts that guide you from needle choice through to the various techniques of sock knitting. As I go I will update this guide to include only the formula itself. Hopefully this will be easier to follow, and will allow me to include more information on all the aspects of sock knitting than I can in a single post.

Well, I caved. I cast on the socks. I kept looking over my shoulder at the beautiful blue skeins and finally I couldn't take it any more - it was time to fire up the swift and winder and get my tiny sock circulars out again. Unfortunately my normal stitch count ended up a little too tight with the stranded colourwork and I've had to rip them out and begin again, but it reminded me of how much trouble I had finding information about how to knit socks to begin with, so I'm going to see if I can collate some of that in here. Read on below for a guide to sock knitting - everything you need to know to make socks (well, my way at least) is included below, as well as a bunch of links to some of the excellent knitting help resources around the web.

When I first started to knit socks I was completely lost. I knew that my weirdly shaped feet and calves meant just following a pattern was not going to work, and I had so many questions that I didn't know how to answer. Everywhere I looked I saw phrases I didn't understand - what was this magic loop everybody kept recommending? How did I know how many stitches I needed? What exactly were short rows, and how did a short row heel differ from a heel flap?

Now I'm only a half dozen pairs in and by no means a sock master, but I do feel confident in the things that I've picked up (even if I do keep learning new things with every pair!). So I'm going to lay out as much of that information as I can, and maybe one day other lost knitters like myself will find something helpful in it. It seems a little intimidating to do all that math and measuring up front but I promise that it's worth it - you'll end up with socks that are a nice, snug fit and just the right shape for your feet!

For yarn information, check out the project page on Ravelry.

Measurements:

I knit socks by a formula that involves six foot and leg measurements, labelled a through f in the above diagram. I've used the same formula on four different people's feet and they've all ended up with a pretty good fit. The important numbers to find out are as follows:

• a - the width around the ball of the foot
• b - the width around the widest part of the heel
• c - the width around the calf at the desired sock length
• d - the length from the tips of the toes to the ball of the foot
• e - the length from the ball of the foot to the back of the heel
• f - the length from the top of the heel to the desired sock height (the place you measured c)
• your gauge

Once you have all of these there's a little math to do - first, take away 2" from measurement e (I'll explain why below), then multiply measurements a, b, and c by your stitch gauge (how many stitches you get per inch) and d, e, and f by your row gauge. In case that sounds a little intimidating, I'm going to walk through each step with my measurements (rounded to whole numbers, no fractions needed here!):

• gauge - 8 stitches and 13 rows per inch, on size 1 (2.25mm) needles
• a - 9.5" around ball of foot x 8 = 76 stitches
• b - 13.5" around ankle x 8 = 108 stitches 
• c - 21" around calf x 8 = 168 stitches
• d - 3" between toe and ball x 13 = 39 rows
• e - 6" from ball to heel - 2" = 4" x 13 = 52 rows
• f - 9" from ankle to calf x 13 = 117 rows

Before we move on - why did I take away two inches from my foot length? That's because most heel types, especially my personal favourite (the short row heel) take about two inches (although if your feet are significantly bigger or smaller this distance will change - when I made socks for my partner I had a lot more stitches on the needle, and that means the heel was bigger and took more than two inches of length. 

Excuse the lint - these Sherlock-inspired socks
have been in storage since winter!

The next thing we need to worry about is ease. Ease is how tight or loose your knitting is - if you were to knit the socks exactly as we've measured them they would have no ease, and would probably slip off pretty easily. But if you were to make them tighter, so the knitting is stretched over the foot while you wear it, they have a much better chance of staying on. The number I found (and have found to work well) for sock ease is - 10%. So go ahead and take (roughly) 10% from each of your stitch counts (the rows don't need to change at this stage, though), and if you need to round anything up or down by one or two to make your life easier then go for it. 

That takes us to:

• a - 70 stitches
• b - 98 stitches
• c - 152 stitches
• d - 40 rows
• e - 52 rows
• f - 116 rows

TIP: it helps if you keep your stitch numbers even, so that you can more easily and evenly divide them on your needles.

Now you can plug those measurements in to the basic fitted sock formula (I knit toe-up, but you can easily reverse the order if you prefer to start at the cuff):

• cast on for the toe
• increase to a stitches over d rows
• increase to b stitches over e rows
• knit the heel
• increase until c stitches over f rows
• optional: ribbed cuff
• bind off!

Which, for my numbers, would look like this:

• cast on for the toe (I use 11 stitches per needle)
• increase to 70 stitches over 40 rows
• increase to 98 stitches over 52 rows
• knit the heel
• increase to 152 stitches over 116 rows
• knit a ribbed cuff
• bind off!

Now that you have your measurements and your formula we can look at the different mechanics - needle options, toe and heel methods, increases and stitch patterns. I'm going to recommend my favourite methods but try to mention some of the other more common ones - try as many as you like, and feel free to let me know what works for you and why. Your socks are going to be awesome!

One of my first pairs of socks is patterned with the very neat
broken seed stitch.

Needles:

There are three main options for the needles you can use to knit socks.

• dpns - a set of double-pointed needles 
• magic loop - one (very) long circular needle
• double circulars - two circular needles (whatever length is comfortable - 24" is my favourite)

Each one has its own benefits and downsides. I, for one, cannot stand using dpns ever - I feel like I'm juggling twice as many needles as I can handle, I always get a ladder join between needles and I'm constantly afraid one is just going to slip out. Magic loop (which involves putting half the stitches on one end of a long circular and half on the other, with the cable looped over itself in the middle - check out this Craftsy.com post for a great explanation with a bunch of pictures) is cool but never quite worked for me. I can't really comment on either of them other than to say that I was not a fan. But dual circulars - where half of the stitches are on one circular and half are on the other - immediately became one of my favourite ways to knit anything too small for a single circular cable.

Here you can see the double circular method pretty clearly, as well
as the other big benefit: you can knit both socks at the same time.

If this sounds confusing, well, it really can be. The first time I tried this method I made a lot of mistakes. I knit with the wrong needle (each 'half' will always be knit with the same needle), I got the yarn trapped between the needles (you want to keep it out, like in the picture), and the two balls of yarn got really twisted (get into the habit of alternately flipping your work clockwise and anti-clockwise to keep things straight).

Once I got the hang of these things, though, I found that it was perfect for me. It feels more like knitting flat, which is so much easier - you just treat the front and back half of the sock as two separate pieces - and the option to knit both socks at once is amazing. No more guessing how many rows each one has, or meticulously counting to get them exactly the same length. No more finishing your second sock only to find the first 'half' of the yarn was actually more than half and now they're uneven. No more finishing one sock and then deciding you'd really rather try a new pattern than make the same thing you just finished (also known as 'second sock syndrome').

Here it is in action - I will knit the front half of sock one, then
drop that yarn and knit the front half of sock two, with the purple needle.
The second needle (the green one), with the back halves on it,
just hangs behind the whole time I work on the front halves.

Toes:

The benefit of knitting from the toe up is that you can try the socks on at every stage and see very clearly how well they are fitting. It's pretty great! It's how I found out, a few inches in, that my current socks were just going to be too tight. There are a lot of methods for casting on at the toe and, as with everything else, this is going to come down to whichever technique appeals to you the most. I've tried a couple (but there are of course a bunch more!):

• provisional cast on - cast on the number of stitches you need at point a onto waste yarn. Then pick those stitches up whenever you like, decrease down to roughly two dozen stitches, and then graft the two halves together (most commonly done with the Kitchener stitch).
• short row toe - cast on provisionally but use short rows to create an oval shape that folds over to become the toe - watch a great tutorial at verypink.com here.
• Judy's Magic Cast On - goodness do I love all of the 'magic' techniques knitters have come up with over the years! This one, a lot like the Long Tail Cast On, involves a bit of memorisation and involves wrapping the yarn around the needles to create a seamless end to your toes. This Knitty tutorial is great, and there are plenty of videos online too if you find that easier to learn from. 

I do end up looking up Judy's Magic Cast On just about every time I start a pair of socks - I always seem to forget exactly which hand is meant to move where by the time I'm ready to cast on again. It's not quite as difficult as it looks, though, and once you get the hang of it I think it's great to have a method that's so easy to transition from. Once you've knit the first row on each needle you're ready to move on to the rest of the sock - no extra finishing or further steps are needed after that point.

The stitch rows seamlessly carry on from the front half to the back half
using Judy's method. No uncomfortable toe seams!

Heels:

There are so many more heel methods than I could ever mention, and this is one thing I've really not been adventurous about - my first heel was a short row heel and I haven't bothered to branch out (although, of course, I really should - there are some really cool options!). This is mainly because I hate picking up stitches, which a lot of other methods (heel flap type heels, for example) require. I also like that you can, if you're confident that everything is going to fit and you don't need to try it on as you go, insert one half-row of waste yarn when you would normally knit the heel and easily add it in later, so you don't lose your flow as you're knitting.

I do recommend that you put in a life-line for your first heel, though. It can be an easy spot to mess up, and it isn't a part that will be forgiving when you wear them. If it's too tight the yarn will pull really uncomfortably and you'll want to redo it. I learned the short row heel (and a lot of other tips about sock knitting, too!) from Silver's Sock Class. It uses short rows (where you turn your knitting before you're at the end of the row) to create the heel, well, almost seamlessly too.

You can see the part where the rows 'turn' - this is
where the foot stitches become leg stitches! (please
excuse the pilling - they're pretty well worn)

Increases (or Decreases!):

There are what, like, a dozen types of increase? Some are more ornamental and others are designed to blend in with the background but it's up to you what you want to do. More obvious increases can be integrated in to the pattern, and less obvious ones can be used to 'hide' the increase in the overall work.

• m1R/m1L - the 'make one' increase involves picking up the 'bar' between stitches and knitting that. The twist of the yarn and which way you knit into it will make the increase appear to 'lean' either left or right - such as is shown here at Twist Collective.
• yo - a simple yarn over will leave a visible hole in your knitting, usually used in lace designs.
• kfb - by knitting in to both the front and the back of the same stitch you turn one into two.
• twisted yo - my go-to increase: on the first row, yo where you want the extra stitch. On the next row, knit that yo through the back loop - this twists it, closing the gap. It's a good increase because, since you added yarn with the initial yo, it doesn't pull on the surrounding stitches.

Patterns:

The good part about this sock formula is that, just like with all of the heel and toe options, you can plug in any pattern you want to make. Every sock in the pictures above was made the same way - sometimes using a stitch pattern (like the broken seed stitch), sometimes an arrangement of cables (like the Elementary Watson socks) and sometimes with a basic pattern of ribbing to give it some extra snug. You can knit the whole thing in one colour or mix it up - I like to knit the toe, heel and cuff in a complementary or contrasting yarn (like the teal in the measurement guide picture). The new socks are going to have a stranded colourwork pattern for everything except the toe, heel and cuff which will be plain/ribbed in the darker colour to give the pattern extra contrast.

I like to knit my socks with ribbing along the top half - it helps them
fit better and it also looks cool when you're wearing them while being
simple enough that you can easily keep your place just by looking
at the rows that have come before.

The most important thing is to take notes about what you try - what works, what doesn't, what needs adjusting. Adding project notes in Ravelry is a great way to document your knitting and lets you easily look back at the results of your experimentation. A knitting notebook is great too, and gives you a place to scribble down that bit of math (and keep a record of it, especially if you get measurements to knit for other people).

Have I missed anything important? Do you have a favourite method for any aspects of sock knitting? Finished a pair of socks you're especially proud of? I'd love to hear from fellow sock-knitting enthusiasts.