Moving right along in our sock KAL, we’ve just finished the gussets. We’re almost finished now as I’m sure a lot of you realized that you’re now at the foot of the sock. The foot consists of the instep and the sole. You should have approximately the same number of stitches that you started out with, but as stated earlier, that is no writ in stone. If you have wider feet or narrower ones, you can stop the decreases for the gussets as necessary to accommodate the foot you’re knitting for. Continue in the round for the desired length of the foot. You can continue with a pattern on the top of the sock if desired, or knit the entire sock in stocking stitch. Continue to about 2 inches remaining for your sock to start the toe decreases. If it is possible, it is best to try on the sock to determine this point as the gauge is sometimes stretched when actually on the foot and a measurement off the foot may come up a little short.
There are numerous ways to do the toe decrease with the three most popular being the wedge toe, circular toe, and short row toe shaping. We’re going to do the wedge toe for this KAL, but we will talk about the other two in future posts. For the wedge toe, you’re going to do 4 decreases per row (2 on either side of the stitch marker), on alternate rows. So we’ll work a row of decreases, a row without, then alternate in this manner until enough stitches have been decreased. Again, you will be working with SSK and K2TOG decreases to give the appropriate left and right leaning slant. To start the decreases you will need to center the pattern on the top of the sock if you have one. Begin the decrease round on the right side of the foot when you are looking down on top of it.
Try the sock on to determine when to shape the toes ...
Place your marker at the beginning of the round and K1. Now do a left slant decrease by using the SSK method (or any other left slant decrease you choose). Knit to 3 stitches before the next decrease. K2tog and K1. This K1 should be the stitch with the marker. You have completed the first 2 decreases in the round.
Now we approach the underside of the sock and need to repeat the decreases. Again, K1, then SSK. Knit to the last 3 stitches in the round, and again K2tog, and k1 (the last stitch on the round). This is one completed round, and you have decreased 4 stitches. Knit one round without any decreases.
The sock with a few decrease rows ...
Repeat these 2 rounds until you have decreased enough stitches so that when you try on the sock, your little toe is almost completely covered. If you wish, you can shape the decreases more to the shape of your foot by not decreasing on the side with the big toe on every decrease row.
The sock with the toe ready for grafting! Yes, that's my foot ...
That is the end point for today. Place the stitches on a stitch holder and repeat this process for the second sock. Friday we will complete the socks by grafting the hole closed.
Hugzzz 😎