Okay, I spent 3 days gnashing my teeth, ripping out, experimenting, gnashing, ripping, experimenting some more...and ended up with my own little sock method. My method, of neccessity, requires no mental efforts, no math other than the guage for inches and the ability to count off half my original number of stitches for the heel. I am probably the only person in the knitting world that couldn't figure out socks before this. I am intimidated by pages of instructions and have the attention span of a guppy. My attention span is caused by our kids and their tots that seem to be at our house almost constantly. We cannot comprehend the "empty nest syndrome" others speak of. I tried not cooking, but then they brought large containers of fried chicken from whatever greasy place they passed on the way. Yuck. There's no solution, other than to learn to live with the chaos of a noisy, cheerful family. We're loved. So are my biscuits and home cooking.
Back to the practical knitting tho...last week, I happily turned out 3 pairs of socks and one little toe-up (also my own method) prototype. Easy!! And now I can pick up any yarn and knit a sock without referring to silly instructions that look like Feinstein's cookbook. I call this practical knitting! Today...I am ripping out a half done cardigan for the littlest grandbaby and doing it by my practical method as well. Little or no seaming, neatly done and easy to pick up and put down a few dozen times a day.
Things I learned about socks:
1. If you slip that first stitch of each row you knit on that heel flap, picking up the gusset is super easy and neat.
2. On the first knit row after picking up gusset stitches, knit those picked up stitches (only those!) thru the back loop for that extra twist that snugs them up.
3. Learn that funny little figure 8 cast on to two needles and knit toe-up. Much easier to have that sock finished when you finish knitting and not sitting in the corner waiting for a grafted toe job. Especially if you have small children that interrupt grafting a lot. I have a link to a site that explains that toe thing, if anybody wants it. Once learned, it's with you forever.
4. The inside of the elbow to the wrist where the hand begins is the same length as that person's foot.
5. The length of a person's foot is the same as the circumference of around the heel and over the top of foot just below the ankle.
6. It's easier to measure someone's arm from elbow to wrist than to tackle them and measure their feet. It also doesn't tip them off that they will be getting handmade socks for Christmas.
7. Measure a kid's arm while they're napping. They don't wiggle as much.
8. Knitting toe-up works out exactly the same as knitting toe-down, just start the "heel flap" that normally you do just before the heel turning part when you get to the beginning of the ball of the person's heel. It's about 1/3rd of the foot length, I think. Don't do anything fancy to it, it's going to end up on bottom of the foot. You can do reinforced stuff to the turning part or just past that, if you really want to have that.
9. When you get done with the cuff, you have instant gratification, because it's finished! Tuck in that tail of yarn and gloat!
10. You can fix a nice cup of tea for your best friend who knitted her sock top-down and is trying to kitchener her sock toes while a two year old piles 7 stuffed toys in her lap to be kissed.
