Sunday, May 31, 2009

Antepenultimate Toe

Recent experiments in the Evil Genius lab have caused me to contemplate sock toes. My "Go To" toe remains the Just Start Knitting toe, but it's less than ideal in some situations.

I recently encountered the Knitting Swede's Rounded Toe. This is a great method; because the increases aren't stacked on top of one another, it eliminates the visible band, producing a smoother fabric. Because the increase rate is faster than usual -- 8 increases in 3 rounds instead of 4 -- the resulting toe is shorter than most. If you have short toes, you might prefer that.

I wanted something a little longer, so borrowing the Knitting Swede's method of offsetting the increases, I started working from an earlier experiment that produces a toe-up version of the Francie sock. This is the result:


While working on this, I knew it wouldn't be the "Ultimate Toe." I was thinking of it as the "Penultimate Toe," but I still think it falls somewhat short of the mark. Here, then, are the instructions for the...

ANTEPENULTIMATE SOCK TOE

Turkish Cast-on 8. Knit 1.5 rounds (16 sts total).

Begin toe increases:
  1. k1, yo, k6, yo, k1; repeat for top of sock (20 sts total)
  2. k1, ktbl, k1, yo, k4, yo, k1, k-twist*, k1; repeat (24 sts total)
  3. k1, yo, k2, ktbl, k4, k-twist, k2, yo, k1; repeat (28 sts total)
  4. k1, ktbl, k1, yo, k8, yo, k1, k-twist, k1; repeat (32 sts total)
  5. k3, ktbl, k8, k-twist, k3; repeat (32 sts total)
Begin alternate increase rows.
  1. k1, yo, k14, yo, k1; repeat for top of sock (36 sts)
  2. [and all even rounds] knit, twisting the yarnovers as established
  3. k3, yo, k12, yo, k3; repeat (40 sts)
  4. k5, yo, k10, yo, k5; repeat (44 sts)
  5. k7. yo, k8, yo, k7; repeat (48 sts)
  6. k9, yo, k6, yo, k9; repeat (52 sts)
  7. k11, yo, k4, yo, k11; repeat (56 sts)
  8. k13, yo, k2, yo, k13; repeat (60 sts)
I wasn't quite up to my desired circumference at this point, so I continued adding increases to the sides of the sock, as the Knitting Swede does.
  1. k1, yo, k28, yo, k1 (64 sts)
  2. k3, yo, k26, yo, k3 (68 sts)


* k-twist: Slip next stitch knitwise onto the right needle, changing its mount. Slip the stitch back to the left needle purlwise; the front leg of the stitch now lies in back of the needle while the back leg of the stitch comes down the front of the needle. Knit the back leg like it's a normal stitch, which further twists it to the right.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried a toe-up german round toe? I have it on my blog somewhere... I reverse-engineered the german round toe, and have used the same theory for my 'heads are round' hat pattern.