A Little About Sock Knitting

I knit socks. Lots of socks. I don't usually knit anything else, unless there is a need for mittens, scarves or hats. I have had a sweater in progress for so long that I can't get the yarn anymore and I didn't get even half way through before realizing I didn't get enough yarn. I'll end up frogging it someday and doing something else with the yarn.

But I love to knit socks. I knit mostly for myself. I haven't found many others who understand/care about the time and effort that goes into a pair of rockin hand knit socks. I knit socks for my husband and occasionally my kids. I do have a pair of bike socks on the needles for my husband that I work on a few rounds each night as the elbow will allow.

I have a pattern for toes, heel and cuffs that I do with most every sock. I knit toe up, two at a time, on two circular needles. There are plenty of books on this now, though when I started doing it there was only one or two. For the toe I cast on between the two needles and increase as I need to. I do the heel that same way each time, too, the Strong Heel, named after Geraldine Crawford-Strong who is credited with inventing it. It was published in the 2003 Winter Knitter's Mag. I prefer this heel to all other because there is no picking up stitches with it.

On the heel needle I just do M1 at the second and second to last stitch until the number of stitches on that needle is double the original. So if I start with 26, I end when there are 52 and then I turn the heel. Simple and it looks like a regular gusset, but no heel flap. For the cuff I generally do a 2-3 inch 2X2 ribbing. I do different patterns on the top of the foot and leg.

I used to take pictures of all my socks but stopped doing so a few years ago.