On Socks of the Toe Up Variety

A reader (whose name, embarrassingly, I never caught) approached me at the K-W Knitter's Fair last weekend. (Hello!)

She mentioned that she'd learnt to knit top-down socks from me, from my Knitty article of way back...

and she wanted to now tackle toe-up socks.

How very timely. I have another Knitty article that answers just that question - "Socks 102". Well, actually, it answers a whole bunch of other questions as well, but here are the key points:

I'm fond of Amy Swenson's Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula... the girl thinks like me, of course I like it!

And you'll need to use a provisional cast on, for which you can find help here...

I differ from Amy in one significant way. It's all about foot shape. As explained in Socks 102, the problem I have with a standard toe-up sock is that the fit doesn't work for me. The standard construction assumes that the circumference of your heel is pretty close to the circumference of your foot. This just isn't true for me. If a toe-up sock fits my foot well, it's too tight around the ankle; and if it fits well around the heel it's too loose on the foot. A top-down sock doesn't have this problem, because there is a gusset -- a portion worked with more stitches around the heel.

So I added a gusset to the toe-up sock. All outlined in "Socks 102".. And if you want the backstory, read here and here...