Your first pair of socks: a plain-English roadmap

Hand-knit socks are the thing that turns knitters into evangelists. The first pair is a puzzle; the second is a habit. Here's the map.

Choose your needles

• Double-pointed needles (DPNs): traditional, four or five short needles. Fiddly for the first inch, then fine.
• Magic loop: one long circular needle folded in half. No needle-change ladders, and only two ends to lose.
• 9-inch circulars: tiny circular needles, fast but hard on the hands for some.

Try magic loop first if you already own a long circular.

Anatomy of a top-down sock

1. Cuff: 1x1 or 2x2 rib for 3–5cm so it stays up.
2. Leg: stocking stitch (or a pattern) for as long as you like.
3. Heel flap: worked back and forth on half the stitches, usually in slip-stitch heel stitch for padding.
4. Heel turn: short rows that cup the flap around the heel.
5. Gusset: pick up stitches along the flap edges, then decrease every other round to get back to your foot count.
6. Foot: plain rounds until about 5cm short of your toe.
7. Toe: decrease at both sides every other round, then graft with Kitchener stitch.

Yarn matters

Sock yarn should be 4 ply with 20–25% nylon. Pure merino feels lovely and wears through in a month. Self-striping yarn makes plain socks exciting and hides uneven tension.

Where people get stuck

• The heel turn looks like nonsense on paper. Just follow it row by row; it works.
• Picking up gusset stitches: pick up one for every slipped edge stitch, plus one extra in the corner to close the gap.
• Kitchener: set up with the two needles parallel, follow "knit off, purl on, purl off, knit on" and you're done in five minutes.
• Second sock syndrome: cast on the second sock the same day you finish the first.

Fit

Measure the foot around the ball and knit the sock 10% smaller than that. Socks should have negative ease, or they'll slop about in your shoe.

Start with a plain vanilla sock in self-striping yarn. Then post them here with your feet in them; sock photos are a tradition.

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