Sock (really knitting!) newbie question

Hello all! I just learned to knit about a month ago, and I'm finishing
up a sock... it's really kinda sad looking, but it's a first attempt
and I gotta learn, right??

Anyway, I've purchased some sock books, and most of them only show the
pattern in one size (e.g., "ladies large", "men's medium").

How does one adjust these patterns to fit other sizes?? I checked the
books, and no adjustments appear to be documented. Could you direct
me to other books or to a web site with info??

Many thanks in advance,

Jean

Its all about gauge, which is how many stitches per inch YOU knit with
THAT yarn and THOSE needles. Once you know your gauge you can measure
the intended wearer and produce custom socks after doing a wee bit of
arithmetic.

Maggie Righetti (Knitting in Plain English) and Elizabeth Zimmerman
(Knitter's Workshop, Knitting Around) are both good books for new
knitters to have on the shelf.

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 13:59:54 GMT, (Jean Early)
wrote:

Hello all! I just learned to knit about a month ago, and I'm finishing
up a sock... it's really kinda sad looking, but it's a first attempt
and I gotta learn, right??

Anyway, I've purchased some sock books, and most of them only show the
pattern in one size (e.g., "ladies large", "men's medium").

How does one adjust these patterns to fit other sizes?? I checked the
books, and no adjustments appear to be documented. Could you direct
me to other books or to a web site with info??

Many thanks in advance,

Jean

Here's a good page for you to look at - particularly the bottom part,
plus there's a link to one of the 'sock calculators' on-line. . .

http://www.royea.net/sock.html


Basically you need to know ankle size, foot length and foot (at the
widest part) - plus your gauge with intended yarn and needles - this
gets you a targeted cast on stitches (for ankle), targeted number of
stitches needed for the foot (after heel and gusset are done) and how
long to make the foot of the sock. . . it is recommended that you
decrease the number of stitches by 10% for a good fit, but that totally
depends on how a person likes their socks to fit (among other things).

When you are ready another place to browse around is the Sock Knitters
Home page (a mailing list):

http://www.socknitters.com/directory.htm

There's a lot of good stuff here, could be a little overwhelming at
first. . . one thing - just looking at multiple patterns will start to
give you a sense of sock construction which helps a lot!

Good luck - any specific questions - just shout - there's quite a few
sock knitters roaming around here

One book, many people recommend is Nancy Bush's "Folk Socks" and where I
agree it's a good book, particularly for reference of different types of
heels and toes - otherwise, a beginner might look at the sock patterns
and go running the other way - there are a lot of intricate colorwork in
that book. But, you can knit a sock without doing the colorwork!!!!

Another recomendation is if you can get to somewhere with a largish
selection of sock books, go down and spend some time reading through
patterns that appeal to you. . . books are *not* written equally and
what is easy to read for one person is 'greek' to the next. Now is a
good time to look for reference books for knitting since it is so
popular there are a lot to choose from!

Sonya

Jean Early wrote:
Hello all! I just learned to knit about a month ago, and I'm finishing
up a sock... it's really kinda sad looking, but it's a first attempt
and I gotta learn, right??

Anyway, I've purchased some sock books, and most of them only show the
pattern in one size (e.g., "ladies large", "men's medium").

How does one adjust these patterns to fit other sizes?? I checked the
books, and no adjustments appear to be documented. Could you direct
me to other books or to a web site with info??

Many thanks in advance,

Jean