Anatomy of a Sock

By Judy Sumner

Whether knit from the top down or from the toe up, a sock is a truly wonderful garment to knit and to wear. Stop and think about its shape. It’s a relatively straight tube that suddenly makes a 90 degree turn and then straightens again, only to taper at just the right moment to fit your toes. For me a sock is also like a canvas for an artist. It is just waiting for me to interpret the beautiful handpainted yarn, to turn the lace weight cashmere into a boudoir stocking or to pick up some of the elements from my new sweater and create matching socks.

Whether you are a beginning sock knitter or one who is very experienced, you still need to think through the “anatomy” of this amazing garment.

The Sock Top

The top of the sock may be designed and used to help in holding the sock firmly on your leg or it may be only for decorative purposes. Most socks begin with some sort of ribbing, often K1,P1. To make a sock that clings more closely to the leg, a K2, P2 rib might work more effectively. If you have access to many of the stitch dictionaries you will be amazed at the numbers and kinds of ribbing that have been developed.

However, especially with lace designs such as feather and fan which “ripples”, several rows of garter stitch will provide a nice top and follow the ripple, giving you a lovely scalloped edge on your sock. Other options you might consider are a hemmed top (often with a picot edge such as the Checkerboard Lace socks in this issue) or perhaps a rolled stockinette top followed with a bit of ribbing. There are also some socks that are edged in a beautiful lace.


The Sock Leg

It is on the leg portion of the sock that most design work is done. Your options are only limited by your imagination. Do you want a stockinette stitch or perhaps you might want to continue your ribbing to the heel flap. Maybe you would enjoy an attractive knit/purl design. Or perhaps you have a wonderful varigated yarn that “pools” colors and you choose a slip stitch design to prevent that from happening. Are you using a lovely natural yarn that yearns to be cabled or make twisted Bavarian designs or maybe a fine pastel that screams “lace”? Of course there is always the fair isle option for multicolors. This is the part of the sock that shows off your work so you need to really concentrate on what your “statement” will be whether you are looking for a pattern to use or designing your own socks.

I am a firm believer that any knitting method can be translated to socks. I recently “played” with a sock top using Valentina Devine’s wonderful “Creative Knitting” method. I pulled out my colors and worked around in a rectangle, changing colors at will until I had a piece that was approximately the size of half a sock top. I made a second piece with the same colors but very different in design and then embroidered designs to embellish them as directed by Valentina in her class. I finished the squares in black, joined them and then picked up the bottom stitches and worked about an inch before beginning the heel flap.

There are patterns for entrelac socks and no doubt, some designer is working on ones using shells and patches a la Horst Schultz. Remember, the leg of the sock is your showpiece!

This portion of the sock can also vary in length, depending on your purpose. It may reach nearly to the knee or be very shallow. I personally prefer ones about 5-7” depending on the design. If you find a pattern you want to make but it is not the length you want, it is very easily adapted to make it “your” sock.


The Heel Flap

I am sure that there are many ways of knitting heel flaps but they primarily are there to provide a small, rather padded feeling area at the back of the heel on which to attach the gussets of the sock. Most commonly, they are purled on the wrong side and on the right side you slip a stitch, knit a stitch across. You slip the first stitch on each row, providing a convenient place to pick up stitches for your gussets. I believe it was Nancy Bush who said that the heel flap ought to be approximately square which means that you must do more rows with fingering weight yarn than with sport or worsted wt. yarn.

Sometimes heel flaps are decorated with lace or lovely aran designs, most often to wear with the popular clog-type shoes. Let those heel flaps show!


The Heel

Perhaps I ought to have labeled this portion of the article as the “Dreaded” heel. I don’t really understand why turning heels have taken such a bad rap. It is really very easy. I think what scares some knitters is the idea of turning your work before actually knitting all the stitches. Once you have done a few heels, you will see that it is their magic that turns the lowly tube sock into one that really fits a human foot. I highly recommend using some sort of reinforcement yarn or Wooly Nylon with your yarn for the heel flap and the heel in order to lengthen the time before the dreaded hole shows up in your wonderful hand-knit socks.


The Gussets

These tricky looking little triangles fit between the upright leg and the horizontal foot portions of your socks. Some people complain about having holes at the point where you pick up stitches along the heel flap and the instep of the foot. This is easily remedied by using the simple M1 (make one stitch by lifting the thread between the heel flap and the instep, twisting it and knitting into the back of it). On the next round, you just knit it together with the last stitch of the first gusset and the first stitch of the second gusset. Voila! No hole!


The Sock Foot

Although you might technically carry your pattern all the way around the instep, this is generally not done since the bottom of the foot is the part you are walking on. Often the pattern is carried through the top of the instep of the sock, there are times when you might not choose to do this. I recently was designing a sock with a lovely cable but realized that it might be quite uncomfortable when mashed into the top of a foot by a shoe.

I also considered that perhaps I could make a more “cushioned” sock bottom for my husband who’s feet are very tender and tried a knit2, purl 2 rib on the bottom as a test. I have worn those socks and they don’t feel a bit cushier than ordinary stockinette. Maybe doing the heel flap stitch might work.

I have found that making the foot of a sock about 1-1/2” shorter than the desired length before beginning the toe seems to work in pretty much all cases.


The Toe

Look at your foot. Isn’t it interesting the way it tapers in at the toes? Every foot is a bit different than any other foot though and this is an area where some people want a fast taper and others want a much slower one. This is your own option based on the foot the socks are ultimately meant for. Basically, you decrease on a regular basis on the stitches on the top of the toe and the stitches on the bottom of the toe and then – like magic, you are left with a set of toe stitches – top and bottom, ready to be grafted together, providing a wonderful sock with no seams to rub against a tender foot. Again, I highly recommend using a reinforcement yarn for the toe to stave off the holes.


A Note on Needles

There are many kinds of needles and preferences on using them. To me, using a set of five needles makes most sense since half the stitches are the front or top of instep of the sock and the other half are the back, heel and bottom of the foot. Some people still use only four needles while others are experimenting on tiny circulars or even two circulars...but that’s another story.