Standard Socks II

This is the second post on this series. On the previous post, I've briefly discussed yarn, needles and gauge. Now we're going to actually start knitting, yuppie!

As I mentioned before I am going to follow a standard cuff-down, flap-heel recipe. Before starting, one must decide how many stitches to cast-on. Needless to say, this will obviously depend on the circumference of the wearers ankle and the gauge one is knitting with (remember that, as discussed in previous post, you'd want to knit in a finer gauge than usual, because you want a firm fabric). I'm lucky to have pretty average feet and I'm using 2.5mm needles which is the most standard size for sock knitting, so I'm good to go with most sock patterns.

Pro tip: You can make a more elastic cuff, by casting-on extra stitches and making a decrease row half-way through the cuff ribbing. For example, if using a k2p2 rib, cast-on 5 stitches for every 4 and start knitting a k2p3 rib. Then, after about 1 cm (1/2 in), do a k2,p2tog,p1 round in order to decrease the extra stitches. After that, continue knitting in k2p2 ribbing. You'll see that this little trick results in a nice elastic cuff, and the decrease in stitches is nearly invisible.

Cast-on: Cast-on the number of stitches corresponding to the circumference of the foot (just bellow the toes, where the foot is wider) or around the ankle. Funny enough, for most people, these two are about the same and thus most ankle-long sock recipes use the same number of stitches for the foot and leg region. Remember that, as discussed in the previous post, you want to use a fair amount of negative ease. Use long-tail cast-on or another elastic cast-on (this is very important because the cuff must be able to go through the ankle which is much wider than the leg). Join to knit in the round.

I've cast-on 64 stitches. I think this is a bit too few, too much negative ease, but I can easily put on the part of the cuff I've already knitted, so it is not too bad.

Cuff: Cuffs always use ribbing in order to improve elasticity. The ribbing pattern is a matter of personal taste: k1p1, k2p1, k2p2, k3p1, k3p2 are all pretty standard and attractive. The cuff should be about 2.5cm/1in, but this again is a matter of personal taste.

Leg: Note that calf-high socks require shaping the calf and for that you need to follow a completely different recipe. For ankle-length socks the leg region is a simple straight cylinder. The length of the leg should be about 10cm/4in, but this is a matter of personal choice. The pattern used on the leg is again a matter of choice (sorry if I'm repeating myself so often, I probably should start using an acronym, MOPC or MOPT). There are a lot of lovely knit-purl stitches you can use, lots of pretty cables that look good on socks, lace patterns idem. The choice is practically infinite.

I'm knitting some pretty standard ribbed socks in k3p1 ribbing. This means that the cuff and leg are the same. I'll knit a little more than the 12cm/5in recommended because the length decreases when stretched and my cast-on was a bit short on stitches (which means I have quite a bit of negative ease).