How to Get Started Knitting Socks

First, let’s get the obvious question of why knit your own sock out of the way. I will just say that those who wonder why knitters put so much time, energy and devotion into knitting socks have never worn a pair of hand knit socks. They are snuggly, comforting, and a bit of extravagance for your feet. Hand knit socks are also lots of fun to make, and easier than it looks. If you already know how to cast on, bind off, increase and decrease, then you are ready to take on the challenge of knitting your own socks.

Socks are also a fun, portable project that you can carry with you and work on while you wait in line at the bank, for your doctor’s appointment, or while your kids play soccer. Let’s get started.

Gather your tools:

Socks are knit using either four double-pointed needles, or one or two circular needles. Which method you choose is up to you. I don’t think that one method is necessarily any easier than another, but each knitter usually ends up developing a fondness for a particular method and then sticking with their favorite.

The size of the needles are determined both by the weight of the yarn that you will be using, and the gauge that you are trying to achieve. Because socks take a lot of wear from friction, you will be trying to achieve a tighter, firmer gauge than you would if you were knitting a sweater from the same yarn. The pattern that you will be working from will specify the size of needle and the weight of the yarn.

Choose your yarn:

Now we’re getting down to the fun part. There are so many beautiful yarns to choose from to create your hand knit socks. There are warm and cozy wools, cool cottons, luxurious silk blends and many other fibers to choose from. There are also a wide variety of colors to choose from. There are space-dyed yarns, which create different patterns with the color changes, hand painted yarns with their beautiful combinations of colors. These beautiful yarns do al of the work for you, so you can take a plain sock pattern and make a stunning pair of socks by using one of these fabulous yarns. Solid yarns allow lacey and cabled patterns to show up nicely. When you are planning your first pair of socks, its usually best to stick with a light, solid colored yarn.

Toe up or cuff down?

There are basically two major methods for hand knitting socks: cuff down, or knit from the toe up and cast off at the cuff. As in with their choice of needles, most knitters have a preference as to which way they knit socks. I use either method. One of the advantages of knitting socks from the toe up is that if you are knitting socks for your own feet, you can try them on as you go.

Here you will find some free sock patterns

Wendy’s Toe-up Sock pattern

This is an excellent pattern to use for your first foray into toe-up sock knitting: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/FEATtiptoptoes.html

http://wendyknits.net/knit/sockpatterns.htm

http://www.woolworks.org/slippers.html

Other tools:

When you sit down to work on your first pair of socks you’ll want to gather a few items together and as socks are so portable, you’ll want to carry these items around with you in your sock project bag so that they will be available when you need them.

A bag to hold your yarn, needles and other supplies

Paper and pencil for taking notes

Stitch markers

Stitch holder

point protectors

Small scissors

Get started:

Once you have your yarn, needles, pattern and other supplies together you can go ahead and cast on.

Here are some online videos that show knitting on double-pointed needles, and knitting on two circular needles.

http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/advanced_techniques/

Here are some more online sock knitting resources that you might find useful:

Knitty Socks

Knitty.com, one of my favorite free online knitting mags, is replete with sock knitting pattern fabulousness.

http://knitty.com/archiveFEET.html

Lucia, The Knitting Fiend’s Sock Knitting Patterns, Tips & Tricks

http://www.thedietdiary.com/blog/lucia/556

Silver’s Sock Knitting Tutorial

Here is a free sock knitting tutorial with step-by-step photos and thorough instructions for knitting your first sock. This tutorial has the most clear instructions that I have ever seen for grafting the toe of a sock.

http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/SockClass_Beginning.htm

Socknitters Home Page

This web site is a great resource for knitting patterns, they have an email group, and online sock knitting classes: http://www.socknitters.com/directory.htm

Sock Wizard

When you are ready to design your own sock patterns, you’ll want to take a look at this software: http://www.knittingsoftware.com/sockwizardpc.htm

Knitting socks is both relaxing and fun, but be careful. Many a knitter has become addicted to sock knitting and they find that many of their other knitting projects have fallen by the wayside.

Happy Sock Knitting!