My yarn has finally arrived!! I’ve been waiting to start these socks because I want them done before Christmas. I’m going to do a simple stockinette toe-up sock (really, I’m doing a toe-up sock voluntarily) with a traditional afterthought heel to properly place the heel within the self-striping yarn.

Summary

• Starting weights: Vintage Christmas-102 grams; Brown- 26 grams.

• Ending weights: Vintage Christmas- 45 grams; Brown- 6 grams.

• I am using a modified version of A Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel Technique

• I split the yarn and wound it into balls with the stripe orientation going the same direction in both balls. From outside to in, I will have: Green, white, red. (If you knit from the same end of one ball, you won’t have this problem, but because I split my yarn into 2 balls, the second ball gets inverted when it is split off. To fix this I have to rewind one of them to get the same orientation.)

• My Toe: Cast on 28 stitches using JMCO. Round 1: K to end of round. Round 2: K1, KFB, K, KFB, K3, KFB, K, KFB, K2. Repeat rounds 1 & 2 until I have 64 stitches on the needle. Since my toe is dark, I can get away with using the KFB as the increase. The purl bumps won’t be visible. Knit 3 more rows in the contrast color for a total of 21 toe rows.

• Starting Main Color. One ball started with about 8” green and then moved into the white. The second started with a full green repeat. I decided I wanted to start with white, so I started at the very end of the green to begin my tube.

• Length of striped tube from toe to top (not including cuff) is 14 1/8”.

• Heel location. My “toe” is 1 1/2” long in its decrease section and I need an 8 3/4” foot length. Measuring from the tip of my toe to 8 3/4” - 1 1/2”; place a marker.

• Heel Pickup: My sock is 64 stitches divided across 2 circular needles. My heel opening will be 32 stitches - 2 edge stitches for 30 stitches. Mark the 2 edge stitches so the yarn unraveling doesn’t include the edge stitch. Mark the center stitch and clip it. Using 2 circulars (or double points, pick up the stitches on each side of the opening as the stitches are “freed”. After the completion of one side of the heel, slide the needles to use the other point and repeat the process. There should be 30 stitches on each needle. (Note: this would be easier to do if the sock were blocked, but I need the heel to determine leg height. Also, its easier to pickup stitches if you use a smaller needle size to pick them up and then switch back to the needle size you are using to knit the heel.)

• Heel, begin knitting: I’m going to begin knitting in the middle of the sole so I don’t have an end to weave in at the heel/sock corners. I will reset the start of round at the end of the first round: Join yarn at middle and knit to corner; pickup 2 stitches in the corner; knit to other corner; pickup 2 stitches in corner; knit past middle and knit to corner resetting start of round. Begin knitting “toe” as follows: Round 1- k1, ssk, k to 3 stitches before end of first needle, k2tog, k1, k1 ssk, k to 3 stitches before end of second needle, k2tog, k1. Round 2 - K. Repeat rounds 1 & 2 6 times, then repeat round 1, 7 times until 4 stitches remain. Knit 2 stitches on next needle and rearrange by moving 2 stitches from the end of each needle to the front of the other needle. Graft closed with Kitchener.

• Cuff: I started the cuff with 1 round of stockinette in the contrast color and then knit 16 rows in 1x1 rib. I bound off using Jenny’s Super Stretchy Bind Off.

Journal

2013-12-14: Cast on 28 stitches (14 per needle) using Judy’s magic cast on. I’m going to knit a wide toe for this sock. Right toe complete.

2013-12-15: Complete second toe. Align Vintage Christmas so that both socks start at the same point in the colorway. Complete 15 rows in Vintage Christmas on both socks. (4th picture from the bottom.)

2013-12-19: Complete 11 1/2” from toe, right sock. My initial goal was 12” from toe, but I think I will need to make the sock longer. I’m going to move on to the left sock.

2013-12-20: Complete 11 1/2” from toe, left sock. I have different row counts (off by 3) in the striped section, but the length is really close. I’m having a hard time determining the correct height of the leg without having a heel. So, I’m stopping at 11 1/2” and I’m going to put in the heel now.

2013-12-21: Set heel location and pull out 30 stitches, picking up with needles. PU 2 stitches at each end of each needle. Complete heel. See summary for details. Knit 30 more rows (10 stripes) on leg. Complete cuff and bind off using Jenny’s Super Stretchy Bind Off.

2013-12-22: Complete left heel, leg and cuff; weave in ends.

Next Time

• Shorten foot length by 1/2”

• Knit a longer toe.

• knit a longer heel

• add an extra contrast stockinette row before start of cuff ribbing.

• Heel stitch back side of heel.

First Time

• Tube sock with an afterthought heel.