PodScript: How I Knit My Toe Up Socks | Magic Loop Method & Turkish Cast On
Allison from Lofty Loops Yarns demonstrates her method for knitting toe-up socks.
Summary
Allison from Lofty Loops Yarns presents a tutorial on knitting toe-up socks using the Magic Loop method with a Turkish cast-on. She demonstrates a simplified approach to toe increases using yarn overs instead of the traditional make-one-left and make-one-right techniques, which helps track progress more easily.
Key Takeaways
• The Turkish cast-on creates a seamless toe by wrapping yarn around two needles simultaneously, typically 14 to 16 times depending on preference.
• Using yarn over increases instead of make-one increases provides a visual cue for tracking which row requires increases versus plain knitting rows.
• Knitting yarn overs through the back loop prevents holes from forming in the fabric during toe shaping.
• Maintaining even tension on the first stitches after turning prevents laddering where the needle changes position, though pulling too tight can make it difficult to insert the needle.
Full Transcript
Allison: I just wanted to give you a quick tutorial on how I knit my toe-up socks using the Magic Loop method and a Turkish cast-on. I actually do a little trick for the increases that I'd like to share with you. I use the yarn over increases instead of using a make-one-left, make-one-right because they're easier for me to remember which row I'm on and it's just less for me to have to think about as I'm knitting on my toes.
Materials and Setup
I'm going to be showing you how to do this on a circular needle. This is a 24-inch Chiaogoo red lace needle in a US size two or 2.75 millimetre needle. It is my preferred method and actually I prefer a US size one, but my twos were open so that's what I went ahead and used for the tutorial. I have a cake of hand-dyed yarn and it is a sock yarn, so it's a superwash merino nylon blend.
Turkish Cast-On Technique
You'll want to take your working yarn and make just a little slip knot in the end. This slip knot you are going to want to place on your needles. Once you have your slip knot, pick up the needles and I stack them. I slip the slip knot onto the bottom needle and tighten it up just enough to where it's not going to slide around on me. You can leave the tail hanging free and wrap towards you, behind the back and towards you around both needles. I do this 14 times typically. Sometimes I'll do 16. It's really completely up to you, but I like to stick to 14 just because it's the first number that pops into my head. Sixteen does not make that much of a difference. You can play around with this number and do what works best for you.
You'll notice that the loops aren't too terribly tight, but they do have a bit of tension to them. You'll want them to move nice and easily on you. Once you have the amount of loops on your needles that you prefer, go ahead and pull out the bottom needle and place it between the cord and your top needle. Wrap the yarn around the cord and knit off that top needle as usual and continue moving on. You want to knit all of those loops off the needle.
It does get quite fiddly. It's just something that you're going to want to practise and get the hang of. The loops are fairly loose, but I like to keep even tension as much as possible to avoid holes in the ends of my toes. Again, if you need to practise this a few times, that's totally fine. It's still quite fiddly to me, so please don't feel bad if it takes you a little while to get the hang of it. I promise it's like riding a bike. Once you get it, you'll be off and running.
First Row Setup
Once you come to the last loop, go ahead and knit that off and then you'll want to turn the set of needles towards your right so those stitches you just worked on that bottom needle now. Feed the cord through the top loops to put the top needle back in and then pull out the bottom needle that you've just knitted on to and do the same thing across the top.
At this point I like to grab that little tail from earlier and I knit them both together. You don't have to do this. You can wait and weave in your ends once you have your completed sock, but this is just a little extra step I like to do because I'm not a huge fan of weaving in ends. If I just hold them together as I knit about the first five or six stitches, I find at the end I can just cut that off and I don't have to worry about weaving in another end.
At this point I've knit about six stitches so I'm going to drop that extra tail and I will eventually cut the excess off. I'm just going to continue with my working yarn all the way across the top. Once you have knitted all of those loops off your top needle, turn it again to the right, always to the right, so your cable is coming out the left side and feed that needle back through. Now you've done the Turkish cast-on and you're ready to start your toe increases.
Yarn Over Increase Method
We want to pull the bottom needle, knit that first stitch, and then instead of making a make-one-right or make-one-left, I yarn over here and knit across to the last stitch. This is just something that I've learned how to do so I don't have to try to remember whether or not I'm on an increased row. It gets really obvious once you've hit a yarn over or if perhaps a yarn over doesn't exist, then you know you need to create one on that round.
I have a bad habit of watching TV or Netflix whilst I do this, so I don't pay as close attention and then I end up increasing too many times or not enough. Again, hit the last stitch, yarn over before knitting that last stitch on the needle and turn your work to the right. Pull that cord on through and do the same thing one more time.
When you get to that slip knot, just go ahead and pull it off and continue as normal. Knit the first stitch, yarn over, and knit to the end. You have one stitch left, yarn over again, knit the last stitch off. Now you've increased both sides by two stitches.
Knitting the Yarn Overs
Feed your cord back on through and now we're going to knit across. We don't want to increase again. We just want to knit those yarn overs. You'll pull the bottom needle out, knit the first stitch, and you'll notice that yarn over from before. We want to go ahead and knit that, but we don't want to knit it as we typically would a yarn over because that would leave big open holes and we don't want that.
You want to knit through the back loop. I like to put it on that right needle and kind of flip it around so I can get that back loop on the needle. Knit the yarn over through the back loop. If you knit that front loop as you would normally knit a stitch and it's a yarn over, you're going to end up with a hole. Try to remember that you want to knit all yarn overs through the back loop and that will close it up.
Building the Toe
Now you can see we've got a little bit of a toe forming here. If you pull quite tightly as you are turning and knitting those first stitches, you might have to work a bit to get your needle back into the loops, but you should be okay. I like to pull and give just a bit of a tug on those first stitches so I don't have any ladders or gapping on the sides, but don't pull so tight that you have to really work to get that needle back in.
Knit the first stitch, knit the yarn over through the back loop, and knit across. After you finished this row and you go to turn your work, you will have all knit stitches with no yarn over. That is how you know that you are now on another increase row. That's kind of my cue. If I see that yarn over in that second stitch position, I know that I'm not on an increase row. If I do have a yarn over, then I know that I just increased and I need to go ahead and knit across.
You'll just continue in that manner, knitting all the stitches and then on the next round you yarn over increase, and then you knit all the stitches and you yarn over increase until you've increased to your preferred size.
I hope you found that helpful or interesting to learn how I typically like to do my toe-up socks on Magic Loop.