Use Every Scrap Knitalong: Cast On!

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Today’s the day that we cast away for our Use Every Scrap Knitalong, and cast on! Over the next two months, we’ll be sharing posts that together will form a road map for knitting toe-up socks that use up every bit of a special skein or scraps that you’ve got lingering in your stash. If you missed last week’s post on preparing your yarn, you can catch up here. Today, we’re going to cover casting on and knitting your toe. Needles at ready? Let’s get started!

Planning your socks

If you are knitting every scrap of a precious skein, your task is relatively straightforward: divide your yarn into two equal portions if it isn’t already divided for you. Wind your yarn into balls if required. Now you can move on to the Casting On instructions below.

If you are working with scraps, there are a few more decisions to make, and unfortunately, most of them come down to what you want from your socks. It’s personal preference! If you are looking for advice, please do drop in to The Knitalong Hub Use Every Scrap topic and ask for opinions – there are lots of us who will chip in with ideas.

Here are my plans…

I’m knitting my first pair in Fab Funky Fibres I Can Dance. These will be long socks to use ever scrap of this beautiful yarn.

For my second pair, I’ve settled on using up the leftovers of my Crazy Zauberball in the Garden Party shade. I used this for my Flux Hand Warmers, and I have about 20g remaining. Alongside that, I’m going to use some partial balls of Coop Knits Socks Yeah! 4ply. I have 15g of Sphene (yellow), and around 40g each of Ammolite (pink), Larimar (pale blue) and Topaz (turquoise). In total this is more than enough yarn to knit a pair of socks! I intend to use up the Sphene and the Garden Party, and to see how I get on with the rest… So how am I going to use my yarns? It has taken a lot of pondering, but I’ve settled on this as a plan…

Toes worked in Sphene, and I’ll continue to use the Sphene until it’s basically used up.

Then I will work a 4 stripe sequence of the other yarns as follows for the remainder of the foot and leg: 8 rounds each of Garden Party, Topaz, Ammolite and Larimar in that order.

I will weigh the Garden Party before and after the first stripe, so that I know roughly how much will be required for the final stripe. I don’t want to start a stripe in Garden Party and not have enough to complete it. Once I have enough for just one more stripe, I will probably complete the leg with ribbing in Topaz. My thought process is that if I use all 20g of the Garden Party, I will use a similar amount of the other three colours in the stripe sequence. That makes a total of 80g for the foot and leg, which is plenty for a good length of sock. With the 15g of Sphene on top for the toes, plus some extra Topaz for the heels, I anticipate that these will be mid-calf length. Unless I get bored and stop sooner, which is always possible!!

I have chosen to work eight-round stripes as I want the colours to be nice and clear. I love helical knitting, but I think that these shades will blend together in a not-so attractive way if I do single round helical stripes. I settled on eight rounds as that’s not too wide, but long enough that I’ll get into a rhythm. You can do any width of stripe that you like of course!

And my last planning point is to say that I’m going to place my heel such that the change of the round is on the inside of each foot. We will talk more about that when we get there.

Cast On

And here’s the first decision to make in this choose-your-own-sock-knitting adventure: which cast on will you use? Option 1 is Judy’s Magic Cast On, or JMCO for short. JMCO is a really popular option for toe-up socks as it sets you really nicely for knitting a closed tube. It can feel a bit fiddly, especially on small needles, but it gives great results. Option 2 is to work a crochet provisional cast on to start your toe, which you will later unzip and graft, just as you would for cuff down socks. There are no bad choices here, it just comes down to personal preference!

Option 1: Judy’s Magic Cast On

Using two circular needles, one long circular needle or Addi Flexiflips (aka CraSyTrios), use Judy’s Magic Cast On to cast on your required number of stitches (see sizing and tension info below) as demonstrated in the video tutorial below (you can hover over the timeline to get to the bits you’ll need: the general method for casting on is at 1:44 and working the first round of a tube is at 9:45).

You will have half of your stitches on the front needle, and half of the stitches on the rear needle. Work the first round as follows (this is all shown in the video):

Knit across the stitches on the rear needle. Turn the work and knit through the back of the loop through the stitches on the other needle.

Top Tip 1: If you prefer knitting small circumferences with double-pointed needles (DPNs), then I would suggest using the crochet provisional cast on, followed by grafting. To work the first round after JMCO really requires the stitches not being worked to be slipped onto a cable, to allow some extra wiggle room. You can just about do it with DPNs, but it isn’t really an enjoyable process in my opinion!

Option 2: Crochet Provisional Cast On

With this method you can use any type of needle that is suitable for working small circumferences in the round.

Using waste yarn, cast on sufficient stitches to one needle tip (sizing and tension info below). Here is the crochet provisional cast on video (YouTube link):

Once you have cast on with the waste yarn, change to main yarn and knit across those stitches onto your chosen needles. If you are using DPNs work some stitches onto each of your needles. If you are using FlexyFlips work half of the stitches onto each of your two needles (the third will be used to knit across with). For magic loop, divide the stitches so that half are on the needle tip and half on the cable.

Knit Your Toe

If you used the crochet cast-on method, you will now need to join your stitches into the round.

No matter how you cast on, you should now have some toe stitches on your needles! The basic pattern for the toe is that the stitches are divided (mentally, with markers, or by which needles they are on) into two equal halves. One half will be the top of the foot, and one half will be the sole of the foot.

Work the following pattern until you have sufficient stitches that your sock will fit your foot nicely.

Round 1 (inc): Knit into the front and back of the stitch (this will now be written as kfb), knit across the first half until there are two stitches remaining in this half, kfb, knit the last stitch. Move to the second half of the round and work in the same way: Kfb, knit across the second half until there are two stitches remaining in this half, kfb, knit the last stitch. 4 stitches increased.

Round 2: Knit all stitches.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until you have sufficient stitches. If you prefer a different increase (M1 or something else) then do use your preferred option.

And that’s it for now! If you have spare needles, then I suggest that you work the toes of both of your socks before the next pattern instalment which will land next week. And if you don’t have spare needles, you can always slip the first toe to waste yarn while you work on the second one. We are all about avoiding second sock syndrome here!

Top Tip 2: Do your future self a favour, and make sure to keep notes of what you’ve done! This will come in handy even if you’re working on both socks alongside one another, but is absolutely crucial if you plan to knit your first sock, then your second. And, if you love your finished socks (and I certainly hope you will!), you’ll want to know how to knit them again. Trust me, your future self will thank you!

Sizing and Tension Information

You will have noticed that we haven’t said how many stitches to cast on, or how many stitches you will need at the end of your toes. This is because it depends on your yarn and tension information. It is my preference to cast on a multiple of 4 stitches. The toe increases are then in sets of 4 stitches, so the foot and leg of the sock will have a multiple of 4 stitches, which is handy as I like 2x2 ribbing best for socks! If you are happy with 1x1 ribbing then you just need an even number of stitches.

Width of the tip of the toe

Aim for your toe to be 5–7.5cm [2–3in] wide at the cast-on edge, depending on whether your feet are small (at the lower end of the range) or large (at the top of the range), or somewhere in the middle!

4Ply (fingering) sock yarn

Tension: I would suggest aiming for around 36 sts and 50 rounds to 10cm [4in].
Stitches to cast on: If you match that tension you will want to cast on 18–28 stitches in total depending on the size of your feet. That will be 9–14 stitches on each needle if you’re using JMCO.

Sport weight (6ply) sock yarn

Tension: Aim for approximately 30 sts and 44 rounds to 10cm [4in].
Stitches to cast on: 16–22 stitches in total depending on the size of your feet. That will be 8–11 stitches on each needle if you’re using JMCO.

DK weight sock yarn

Tension: Something around 28 sts and 40 rounds to 10cm [4in] should be suitable for socks.
Stitches to cast on: 14–20 stitches in total depending on the size of your feet. That will be 7–10 stitches on each needle if you’re using JMCO.

Total stitches for foot

You can simply try on your toe as you knit, and stop increasing when the toe looks suitable. However this won’t work if you are knitting for someone who isn’t available to lend their feet at regular intervals, so here is the calculation approach…

I’ve done worked examples in both metric and imperial measurements, so scroll down for both.

Metric calculation

You should know how many stitches you are getting in 10cm. For a 4ply yarn you should have around 36 stitches to 10cm and I’m going to use that for the worked example.

Divide your number of stitches by 10 to calculate how many stitches there are in 1cm.

So if we have 36 sts in 10cm we will have 3.6 sts in 1cm.

Measure your foot circumference in cm.

Mine is 23cm.

Multiply your foot circumference by 0.85 to get your desired sock circumference. This factor works for stocking stitch and makes the finished sock smaller than your foot so that it fits snugly. If you want to use an alternative stitch pattern you may need to adjust this number. If your stitch pattern is more stretchy, multiply by a smaller number.

23 x 0.85 = 19.55cm

Multiply the sock circumference by your number of sts in 1cm.

19.55cm x 3.6 = 70.38 sts

Now round your stitch count up to a multiple that works best for you.

I want a multiple of 4, but an even number would be fine too. So 70.38 rounds up to 72 which is a multiple of 4.

Imperial calculation

You should know how many stitches you are getting in 4in. For a 4ply yarn you should have around 36 stitches to 4in and I’m going to use that for the worked example.

Divide your number of stitches by 4 to calculate how many stitches there are in 1in.

So if we have 36 sts in 4in we will have 9 sts in 1in.

Measure your foot circumference in inches.

Mine is 9in.

Multiply your foot circumference by 0.85 to get your desired sock circumference. This factor works for stocking stitch and makes the finished sock smaller than your foot so that it fits snugly. If you want to use an alternative stitch pattern you may need to adjust this number. If your stitch pattern is more stretchy, multiply by a smaller number.

9 x 0.85 = 7.65in

Multiply the sock circumference by your number of sts in 1in.

7.65in x 9 = 68.85 sts

Now round your stitch count up to a multiple that works best for you.

I want a multiple of 4, but an even number would be fine too. So 68.85 rounds up to 72 which is a multiple of 4.

That’s it!

We’ll be back next week with more details on knitting the foot! In the meantime, if you’re still looking for sock inspiration, we’ve got a whole heap of beautiful sock yarn in the online shop. Every purchase, big and small, helps us produce content like this and keep it freely available!