Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (Recipe)

My first socks of summer are done, blocked, and photographed!

Too bad they don't count towards my Summer of Socks 2008 participation! I do have two other legitimate SoS08 pairs on the needles right now. Sadly, I cast the ones pictured on on Father's Day, as I needed an in-process demonstration sock for the magic loop class I taught.

I've dubbed them the Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (MUMTU Socks or MUMTUS), and I've posted the condensed version of the pattern on Ravelry. Ravelers can view the project page here. Anyone can download the PDF by clicking here.

(ETA) You can also work through the pattern using my in-depth workshop/pictorial here on Aesthetic Entanglementz.

If you're not on Ravelry, don't despair—I haven't forgotten you! I've just run out of time to complete the conversions needed to post the pattern here before I leave for my camping trip in the morning. I am working on the pictorial for a workshop version of the pattern that will debut on Aesthetic Entanglementz shortly after I return from vacation later this week. (Another pair of socks that won't count towards my Summer of Socks participation since I'll be making them kid-sized. Alas—C just couldn't handle seeing another pair that wasn't for her!)

Aside from the fact that this pattern's customizable for any size, yarn weight, or gauge, what makes it special is that it features a pretty gusset and heel-flap (rather than a short-row heel) worked in the toe-up, magic loop construction.

My favorite! If I never saw another sock design, I could happily make these forever!

Here are my notes on the socks as pictured:

Pattern: Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (Recipe compiled by me). Download PDF.
Materials: Zitron Trekking Pro Natura, 1 skein, colorway 1602
Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm
Started: June 15, 2008
Completed: June 27, 2008

Specs as pictured:

• Magic Loop
• Toe-Up
• 2 at once
• 2x2 ribbing on leg
• Gusset
• Eye of Partridge Heel Flap
• Reinforced toes (using laceweight Russian wool from my stash)
• Primary Stitch Count: 72

Love the pattern. Love the fit. Even might be persuaded to say I love the feel of the yarn. But I strongly dislike the look of the yarn. So much so that I lovingly refer to this pair as my "Anti Pro Natura Socks."

I really wish Zitron—and other yarn manufacturers, in general—would state on the ball band whether there’s a clear repeat within the yarn or not. They don't really have to include a picture of what exactly the pattern looks like, but some indication would be nice! You know, like: Repeating pattern, 3 yards. Aside from being courteous, it would make for happier customers, I think. In the case of the Pro Natura, I couldn’t discern a clear repeat when I was dividing the skein and winding the balls. However, about 4 inches into the socks, it became readily apparent that there is, in fact, a repeat … and that I hadn’t gotten the socks aligned. (In fact, I was only off by a slight margin, but that was nothing more than luck.) Grrrr.

Besides the repeat issue, I really just dislike how the colorway worked up. It's too bad because I thought the yarn was absolutely gorgeous in the skein. I liked it so much that I almost bought 2 skeins! But when I look at it worked up, I think it's bleghchy. I’m just not a fan of the areas of white pooling or of the way the contrast works. This is the kind of colorway and striping that makes me cranky, in general, because it rarely looks good knit up and just indicates to me that the yarn manufacturer wasn’t working with enough sensitivity to finish project.

So I ended up hating these socks the entire time I worked on them–not because of the pattern or concerns over fit or amount of yarn but, simply, because I don’t like the way the yarn looks. Some have asked why I continued knitting them if I dislike them so much—and why, on earth, I would have knit the cuff so long? Well, there's the obvious fact that these were being knit as a demonstration sock for the class. In addition to that, I decided they'll be good for wearing under boots (I'm wear boots almost every day during the cold months). That means nobody’s going to be looking at them. It also means they need to be long enough to peek over the boot top so the edge doesn't chafe my leg. Purely practical.

Helluva Gal

Despite a tenuous start, the Bad Woman Wrap and I are getting along famously!


It seems I was a little more uptight than she preferred when I first cast-on, so after knitting about 8 inches I frogged her (sounds naughty!) and started over again. Second time around I found my loosey-goosey groove casting on over two needles, and she's been a happy gal ever since.

I even took her with me to the Northwest Folklife Festival on Memorial Day. No pictures to corroborate the occasion, but I introduced her (i.e. knit publicly while I listened) to Jim Page (topical and politically astute folksinger and raconteur who changed Seattle's street-performance laws in 1974 and is largely responsible for our robust busking culture) and Artis the Spoonman (if you're not a Seattlite, you know him as the subject of that Soundgarden song). Here's a sampling of what I saw at Folklife — the video's not mine, but it was shot by someone who might as well have been sitting in my spot! And for those interested, here's another recent video of them at the venue where I first encountered them 9 years ago, the sidewalk outside the Original Starbucks at Pike Place Market, where they still busk. You may not always agree with the politics, but you have to admire the spirit, tenacity, and talent!

Also at Folklife, I introduced the Bad Woman Wrap to Ockham's Razor, a young group of truly remarkable musicians playing hard-driving, foot-stompin', beer-drinkin', get-up-on-your-feet-dancing, punk-rockin' contemporary and classic Irish folk music. Simply amazing. (And yes, I included punk-rockin' as one of the descriptors for their Irish music. You should hear them Celt-out The Ramone's "I Wanna Be Sedated"!) Their fiddle player, Katie Corcoran, is astounding. Sorry I don't see any recent, good-quality videos to link to, but their website has a multimedia section where you can check out a studio version of their work—doesn't quite compare to catching them live at Kells but gives you a sense of what they do.

The Bad Woman Wrap likes the musicians, as evidenced by the fact that I completed nearly 30 percent of the project at Folklife. The Ultra Alpaca practically dances off my fingers. I had to switch from nickel-plated to bamboo needles to get more grip.

In other news, I'm preparing to teach a sock class at A New Yarn this summer. I want to teach basic magic loop, toe-up, two-at-once, with heel flap and gusset. Haven't found a good, ready-made generic pattern that gives me absolutely everything I want, so I'm putting together my own. It's what I do when I knit them for myself, I just never bothered to write up formal instructions. I'll post the pattern here eventually!

Because You Asked

I've had some requests for a more detailed write-up of my pattern for the Tweedy Cabled Cap, which I first blogged about in early March. Thanks!

Download PDF here!


I'm happy to provide pattern support if you need assistance. Just drop me an email. Also, please let me know if you encounter any typos or corrections I should fix.

As always, I'd love to get your feedback about this pattern. If you make it, please pop back here to post a comment and picture!

Tweedy Cabled Cap

Pattern: Mine
Started: March 4, 2008
Completed: March 6, 2008
Materials: Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK
Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm. I used 5 DPNs throughout. Kept things very clear on the 4-section cap.

This pattern is an original design, with influence from Cathy Campbell's
Between-Seasons Cap (from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders). I really liked Campbell's use of left and right twists along the decrease lines, so I lifted that technique.



The pattern for my cable braid is a 15-stitch, 8-row repeat. You do off-set, continuous CF6s and CFBs at rows 3 and 7, respectively.




Day One: I cast on 16 stitches for the band, putting an extra RSpurl on every row to anchor the cap. Knit the band for 19-1/2 inches to fit my head, cast off, and sewed the band together. You can knit the band to whatever length you need to wrap your noggin.

I decided to use US 7 needles instead of the 6s specified on the wrapper, and I'm really happy with that choice. Definitely better for the cabled band, which I had started on 6s but frogged because it was too dense and hard. I stuck with the 7s on the cap portion, too, in hopes that it would move me along more quickly and prevent me from running out of yarn. This was critical because I only had the 1 skein, which I found on a discontinued table but couldn't pass up. (Discontinued colorway 424.) I really didn't want to purchase more off ebay — where shipping charges would bring the entire project back up to pre-discount prices anyway. (Who wants to have their great bargain turn into a not-so-great bargain?!)

Day Two: Picked up 100 stitches around the RSpurl edge and started the cap. You're picking up roughly 3 of every 4 purl-edge stitches. Be careful not to skip more than one stitch at a time. If you have a bigger head, you'll probably want to increase the number of stitches you pick up. It really doesn't matter how many stitches you pick up as long as it's divisible by four (that's what I did, anyways — you can make as many top sections as you want) and you plan your decrease rows accordingly to get the shape you want.

I put equal numbers of stitches on each of 4 DPNs, and I plotted the LT/RT decrease line to land in the MIDDLE of each needle. This made it so I wouldn't have a decrease/twist line running up the front-center of the cap... not a look I like. With 100 stitches picked up, on each needle you knit 9 stitches before doing the LT/RT decorative sequence, then you knit the 9 remaining stitches.

Day Three: Didn't get a chance to knit again until after dinner.

I started my decreases when the cap hit about 5.5" (k2tog/ssk on either side of the LT/RT decorative sequence), and I decreased every other row until I needed to intensify the shape of the bend.

When you get down to about 13 stitches on each needle, you'll start doing more K2/ssk decreases per row than just around the decrease line — and you eliminate the LT/RT within about two rows of this. Plot the decreases to work down all knit stitches and LT/RT stitches. When each needle has just three stitches on it (you'll have just completed a row of K2tog P1 SSK), then cut the working yarn and use a tapestry needle to draw together the remaining stitches.

Finished it before I went to bed. Didn't run out of yarn. It fits great. It looks great. I love it!

Of course, I'm not set up to photograph myself wearing it (read: I didn't feel like getting cleaned up), so I recruited a darling model.



This is what she thinks modeling is all about... I give you C's "Blue Steel":



Please forgive this proud parent for gushing, but I'm more partial to this sweetie look.