these are the mitred square patchwork socks i made so far. the first one was gifted to my aunt, the second one stayed with me and the third one went to live with a friend. as you can see they all have a strip of joined mitred squares as part of the pattern on the leg.
there are two ways of doing this, depending on how you want to start: you can either start with the squares and then join the cuff and lower leg on the top and bottom edge, or you can start with the cuff, knit the squares onto the live stitches and then join the lower leg - or cuff in case you start toe-up.
i'm going to show you both ways - on the same sock. they are both not very difficult but you need basic knitting know-how and you should not have an issue with picking up stitches because there's a lot of it...
i've talked a little about how to do this in this post already but thought a more detailed picture tutorial might be helpful.
first something about the amount of stitches you will need: i'm showing a 60-stitch sock here, but if you need more or fewer stitches for your socks it is a very simple matter to figure out how many stitches you need for your squares.
each square is made of the number of edge stitches x 2 +1
for a 60-stitch sock i like to have 6 squares. 60/6 = 10. that means each square is supposed to have 10 stitches on the top edge. i need 10 x 2 +1 = 21 stitches per square for a 60-stitch sock.
for a 64-stitch sock you could divide by 8.
8 squares à 8 top edge stitches: 8 x 2 +1 = 17 stitches per square.
for a 72-stitch sock you'd need 9 squares with 17 stitches per square (8 x 2 +1 = 17)
or 8 squares with 19 stitches per square (9 x 2 +1 = 19).
there are many ways to do divide up your stitches. just remember that you need an even number and that stitches for socks are usually multiples of 4.
so here we go:
cast on the number of stitches you've calculated for one square. i need 60 for my sock so i cast on 21 for my square. you can use any cast-on method you like - i used the long tail cast-on. space your stitches roughly the width of your needle - that will give you a nice stretch. (using bigger or even 2 needles does not guarantee a stretchy cast-on!)
usually when you knit mitred squares you knit a wrong-side (WS) row first = you knit across all the stitches first, turn and then decrease for the first time on the second row.
with these sock squares you DON'T DO THIS!
right after casting on you turn, slip the first stitch purl-wise with the yarn in front (hold on to your tail end if you have to) and knit to one stitch before the center stitch. in my case the center stitch is the 11th. i have 9 stitches on the right needle and 12 on the left.
the decrease happens over the 3 center stitches: slip the 10th stitch (to the right of the center) knit-wise.
knit the 11th and 12th stitch together (the center stitch and the one to the left of it),
pass the slipped stitch over the k2tog. you can see how the passed stitch slants to the left in the picture. that stitch is the new center stitch. you have decreased 2 stitches both to the left and right of the center stitch.
knit to the end of the row. there should be the same amount of stitches on each side of the center stitch.
turn, slip the first stitch purl-wise with the yarn in front - you do this with every first stitch! - and knit across all the stitches on the wrong side.
turn, slip first stitch (wyif) and knit (8 stitches) to the stitch before the center stitch. you can easily make out the center by the slanting stitch below it - indicated by the tip of my darning needle. if it helps, you can use a clip-on marker but i find that rather fiddly since it needs re-placing every other row.
there are not many stitches - when in doubt just count from both ends inwards.
if you have trouble identifying the right side of your square you can use a marker for that too, of course.
decrease again by slipping the next stitch knit-wise, k2tog and passing the slipped stitch over. knit to the end of the row, turn and knit across all stitches on the wrong side.
here i've indicated the slanting (passed-over) stitch below the center once more to show where you need to decrease: slip the stitch to the right of the center-stitch, knit the next 2 together and pass the slipped stitch over.
continue this way until you have only 3 stitches left - knit these 3 stitches on the WS and turn.
what you would do on a normal mitred square is a final decrease to end up with one remaining stitch that will be pulled through. DON'T DO THIS!
instead, slip the first stitch as usual, knit the next two together as usual and STOP THERE - DO NOT finish the decrease! when you look closely at the right edge of your square you should be able to count 9 neat edge stitches (they look like stacked Vs) - the 10th is the one still on your needle. if you finished the decrease, the last passed stitch would be the 10th edge stitch and the one remaining on the needle after that would create an 11th one belonging to that square. we don't want 11, we only want 10.
just trust me and don't finish the decrease.
i took this picture after i had done the first WS row on the next square already. i've indicated the stitches you should be able to count with arrows:
9 black arrows and a red one. the red one indicates the 10th edge stitch which is only created when you knit the unfinished decrease together as one stitch at the end of the first WS row of the next square.
we get to that now:
look at the edge on the left of the needle:
starting with the red-ish one on the left there are 10 neat edge stitches (stacked Vs) - not including the one on the needle.
starting with the one right next to the needle - indicated by my darning needle (the square in the above picture is the next one already but it's the same on all of them) - pick up all 10 stitches with the right side of the square facing you.
the last one might be a little tricky to find - try not to mistake it for one belonging to the bottom edge.
the unfinished decrease counts as 1 stitch! you have 11 stitches (12 if you count them all individually). cast on another 10 using whichever method you like best. (i used the backwards loop cast-on but there are others as well to be found on youtube.)
turn your work, slip the first stitch purl-wise with the yarn in the front - this is a little tricky with backwards loop cast-on stitches but possible. when you slip the first stitch of a backwards loop cast-on with the yarn in front, and then put the yarn back to continue knitting, the stitch will be twisted once or twice - leave it like that!
knit across all the stitches on the wrong side until you reach the last two which are the unfinished decrease. knit these two together as one and then count your stitches. there should be 21.
repeat decreasing across the center stitches on the right side just like you did on the first square.
- don't forget to slip the first stitch of every row purl-wise with the yarn in front.
- knit across all the stitches on the wrong side.
- don't forget that you must not finish the very last decrease and that you have to knit these two stitches together as the last stitch on the wrong side row.
when you have done five squares - the whole thing is only curved like this now because the edge stitches on the top take up more space than the cast-on stitches on the bottom - you can either make the last one like the others and then stitch them together to form a cuff, or you can join the strip to a cuff while knitting the last square. it's really not hard to do:
pick up and cast on the stitches needed for your last square.
then you need to look at the side edge of your first square:
here you see it from the wrong side, the two needle tips indicate the first and the last of the loops. there should be 10 in total. these loops like to hide behind the garter stitch when looked at from the right side and, because this edge is a cast-on edge, there is only one loop to go through - not two as with the previous side edges. note that these loops are slightly offset - be careful to only pick up the one loop you need.
take your knitting as you would to knit a WS row. take the first square in front of your work - make sure the strip of squares is not twisted - and pick up the first one of the edge loops from front to back.
with your yarn in front, slip the stitch onto the needle inserted through the first square and take the yarn back behind the needle again. here you can see what i meant previously when i said the stitch would be twisted. that's okay!
use your left hand needle to help pull the slipped stitch thought the edge loop you've picked up.
tighten the slipped stitch a little if necessary.
knit across all the WS stitches. don't forget to k2tog the last 2.
turn and decrease as usual on the RS.
turn and pick up the second loop on the side edge of the first square. (the first loop may seem big and stretched out but don't worry, it will be fine!
slip the first working stitch and pull it through the picked-up loop.
knit across all the stitches on the WS, decrease in the middle on the RS.
continue this way until you've joined all the side loops while knitting the last square. here i've indicated the third loop to be picked up and you can see the next ones quite nicely as well.
this is what the join looks like from the right side. it may not be completely invisible but it looks neat and tidy and will be at the back of the sock anyway.
the last side loop you pick up might be loose because it's basically the tail end already. if it is - it might be different with different cast-on methods and i must confess that i didn't try - just pick up the loop very carefully and try not to pull out the tail end. pick up the loop, pull the slipped stitch through and knit across the remaining two stitches.
(sorry, different colours again. but as i said already: it's the same, whatever yarn/colours you use.)
the very last decrease is the only one you actually finish. slip the first stitch, knit the last two together and pass the slipped stitch over. you have one stitch left on your needle. snip the yarn with a good 4-6" - 10-15cm tail end and pull it up - out of the stitch. DO NOT PULL TIGHT!
the last stitch is supposed to stay a normal stitch size because we are going to connect the last little space between the squares with the invisible join that is often used in crochet. since the edge stitches on the top edge of the cuff look like crochet stitches we can treat them as such. doing this well help you neatly pick up all the stitches to continue knitting your sock.
in the above picture you can see the stitch with the tail end and the very first edge stitch of the first square, indicated by my needle.
thread your needle and insert it into the second edge stitch on the first square, to the left of the first one, from front to back.
gently pull the tail end through. you are basically creating a new stitch on top of the first one (which might be a little small and hidden), locking down the last one at the same time.
insert your needle into the last stitch, exactly where the tail end comes out, from the top down and pull through. tighten gently.
the "new" stitch sits neatly on top of the first one and the little gap is closed. now all you have to do is darn in the tail end. i would suggest doing this somewhere on the inside of the last square you've made.(not the first one because it pulls the "new" tail-end stitch in the wrong direction and may distort it.)
this is the inside of the cuff. i like to go though two or three loops just below the top edge and then use a duplicate stitch to secure the tail end. be careful not to pull too much and distort the invisible join.
this is the finished cuff. i have darned both ends but instead of snipping them both i pulled one to the outside between the first and last square to indicate the back of the cuff. you could of course use a stitch marker for this. i hope you can see how neat the top edge is. if all went right there should be exactly as many edge stitches as stitches required for your sock. in my case there are 60.
now you can go ahead and pick up the stiches to create the rest of your sock. in general it does not matter where you start because the stitches are all the same.
i like the start with the "new" first stitch of the first square (which we just created with the invisible join) simply because it puts the beginning of my round in the same place as the join between the squares.
this is what the inside looks like. there will be a little ridge but it will flatten out with wear and wash and it's not bulky or uncomfortable to wear at all.
i've picked up 20 stitches on one dpn - i like to divide my 60 stitches across three needles to work on the leg and foot of a sock. you can use mini cirulars or magic loop or arrange the stitches any other way you like, of course.
all stitches picked up. if you find you have one or two stitches too many (or too few) for some reason - don't panic! it's not a problem. if there's too many just decrease them away in the next round or two and if you have too few just increase at the back of the leg. noone will ever know!
now you can go on with whichever pattern you like. i like to purl the very first round after picking up the stitches - i find it makes for a neater transition. all the wonkyness, if you have any, will smooth out after washing.
here is my cuff all done. i chose a contrasting colour for a pattern section (cuff drops pattern) and then changed back to the self striping yarn for the ribbing and bind-off. i used jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off - you need something stretchy when binding off the cuff of your socks.
now you need to pick up the bottom edge - the cast-on edge - of your squares to finish off the leg.
maybe count the loops on the bottom edge of your squares before picking them up to be sure you know which ones they are. i have inserted my needle into the first one of the square in the above picture. the green arrow indicates the 10th and last loop to be picked up on this square. the last loop might hide between the others a little. i started picking up the loops next to the join between the squares again.
pick up all the loops around your cuff.
it might be easy to confuse the join between the first and the last square for a loop to be picked up. only do so if, for some reason, you have a stitch too little.
at this point you can continue knitting whichever pattern you want, finish the leg and go on to the heel. this is what i've done on the three pairs i showed you at the very top of this post.
for the sake of this tutorial, and to try out if it worked, i decided to add another strip of mitred squares after another contrasting colour pattern section. it shows the second way of including mitred squares in your socks: working them with the live stitches already on the needles. you could use this either as i have here - to make the leg longer and add more squares - or simply to make matters easier. this way allows you to start with your cuff/ribbing first. you could start the sock toe-up and add the squares on the leg later that way too, of course.
with the yarn you want to use for the strip of squares, cast on half your square-stitches +1; in my case 11 (21 stitches per square). take the sock cuff at the beginning of the round and knit 10 stitches of the cuff right onto the same needle next to the cast-on stitches. make sure you keep an even tension on the transition between cast-on and knitting.
since i had 20 stitches on my dpn and i only need 10 for now i have to slip the remaining 10 onto another needle or a stitch holder. i didn't mind the other dpns hanging around while i worked on the individual squares but if your needles bother you, you can always slip the remaining cuff stitches onto a stitch holder or longer circular needle. i don't know if mini circulars are long enough to allow you to keep the waiting stitches on them and work on the square at the same time. magic-loopers should be able to keep all their stitches on one circular.
now you have all the stitches needed for one square, you just need to work the square as already described above:
- knit across all stitches on the WS
- slip every first stitch with the yarn in front
- decrease over the three center stitches by slipping the first, knitting the next two together and passing the slipped stitch over.
- don't forget that you must not finish the last decrease.
pick up 10 stitches along the side (11 stitches on the needle because the first two count as 1!) and knit the next 10 stitches of the cuff.
turn and knit across all stitches on the WS. don't forget to knit the last two together as one.
the rest of the squares work exactly like the first one.
you can either knit all your squares and then sew the first and the last together with the tail end or you can join them as you knit the last one the same way as described above.
squares knitted onto live stitches will have a neat top edge, looking like crochet stitches. they are to be picked up just like explained above. for this sock i repeated the pattern section once more and then moved on to the heel straight away.
(i might bring in the bright green again for the toe just to pull everything together...)
you could make the entire leg of the sock just out of mitred squares. you can knit the next strip right onto the first, you don't have to do any pattern in between, and you can do as many strips as you want. you can make the sqares pretty much as big or small as you want too. you could make only two big squares with 61 stitches each (for a 60-stitch sock) or four not quite so big ones with 31 stitches each (for a 60-stitch sock) - these big ones would be big enough to make up the entire leg of the sock though. you could also have 10 tiny squares with 13 stitches each (for a 60-stitch sock).
self striping yarn, especially one that creates narrow stripes, works really well for smaller mitred squares but you can use any yarn you want of course. a slow gradient yarn (e.g. schoppel zauberball) would look great too. it would also be fun to use different yarn left overs for each square and then use black for contrast to make the colours pop.
i may try to incorporate a row of mitred squares into the foot some time soon...
i hope you found this (admittedly very long) tutorial helpful. it has not been tested by any knitters other than me so if you find any errors or have troubles with any of my babbling, don't hesitate to let me know. you can either leave a comment (i read them all - but i'm afraid you won't get a notification when i reply so you'd have to come back to check) or contact me via the witchhazel fb-page.