Helping specialized knitters branch out
FIBER ARTS
by Michele Goldman
I was teaching sock knitting at Common Ground Fair last September when an older man sat down, pulled out his set of well worn double pointed needles and said, “I make mittens. Teach me socks.” I have encountered many older men from large, French families who had been taught to knit by their memeres and I assumed, correctly, that he was one. He told me he and his nine siblings were taught to knit a particular item, filling the endless need of a large family in Maine for knitwear. He was in charge of mittens, as was his older sister and it had never occurred to this mitten-knitting brother to knit socks until he saw my class description.
I have never taught anyone to knit anything as easily as I taught this powerfully built man to knit socks. He quickly understood the mechanics of turning a heel and went off after two hours to knit socks for his children and grandchildren.
Here is a pattern for warm boot socks with an easily replaced heel, named for my son. They knit up quickly in worsted weight yarn and will keep your feet warm and dry through a long Maine winter.
Isaac’s Socks
Cast on 40 stitches with a worsted weight wool yarn. My favorite is Briggs and Little, “Tuffy”. Gauge is 4.5 stitches/inch. I use size 5 double pointed needles, but you may need a different size. Check your gauge!
Row 1 – *Knit 2, Purl 2. Repeat from * to the end.
Repeat Row 1 for 6 inches, or as long as you’d like.
Using a piece of scrap yarn, knit across 20 stitches. Return to working yarn and knit the scrap yarn stitches with that. Continue knitting around for the foot and toe, continuing in ribbing pattern over 20 stitches for the instep. Knit the other 20 stitches plain for the bottom of the foot. You are knitting a tube sock.
Continue in this manner until the distance from the scrap yarn is 1.5 inches shorter then the length you’ll need.
Toe – Row 1 – decrease at the beginning and end of each group of 20 stitches, so that you have 4 decreases/round. You’ll be knitting every stitch now – no more ribbing. Row 2 – Knit. Repeat these two rounds until you have 20 stitches. Decrease every round until 12 stitches remain. Bind off.
Heel – remove scrap yarn and pick up 40 stitches in the resulting gap. Knit three rounds plain. Now, decrease exactly as you did for the toe, except you’ll knit 2 rounds plain between each decrease row until 20 stitches remain, then decrease every round until 12 sttiches remain. Bind off. When the heel gets worn, simply ravel it back to the original gap and re-knit it. No more darning! Enjoy!
Michele Goldman owns Fiberphilia yarn shop in Presque Isle.
