2022 Geek-A-Long Sock Academy: Stretchy Cast On for Top Down Socks

Happy Sunday Yarn Friends! We’re creeping closer and closer to the official kick-off of the 2022 Geek-A-Long, and I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get very excited. As much fun as last year’s double knit behemoth of a sweater was, I’m really looking forward to a laid back year of socks. They are portable, easy to keep up with (this year knitting a long with us will mean knitting 1/2 a sock a week) and easy to dip in and out of as your schedule and inclination allow. Color work sock knitting is on of my top favorite “chill knits”. The sort of thing I do to relax. The color work keeps it interesting enough that I don’t zone our or get bored, but the nature of socks constrains the charts so there is an upper limit on how complex those charts will be. The end result looks complex, but is really just the product of repeating one smaller chart around.

Socks are endlessly useless – seriously, there is no point where I think “that’s it. I have enough socks. I never need more” AND they make perfect gifts. In summation. SocksSocksSocksSocks I love socks!! I really want everyone to love them with me, but I know that they can be an intimidating project if you’ve never made socks or if you’ve never made color work socks. Don’t worry Fibermancers, we’ve got your back. Before we start releasing the 2022 GAL patterns we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to cast on and knit along!

We are right in the middle of our Sock Academy Series, and if you’re just joining us you can read all about Sock Anatomy, Choosing Sock Needles, Choosing Sock Yarn, Swatching, and Reading Color Work Charts. Continuing along, this week I want to talk about Casting On for Top Down Socks.

Casting On For Top Down Socks: You Absolutely MUST Have Stretch!

Ensuring you have a great fitting sock is one of the many joys of knitting your own socks. Yes, you can buy a pack of socks at Target. They’ll be cheap. They’ll be fast. But they won’t be perfectly tailored to your foot (and obviously they lack the fun factor of making your own). One of the worst things you can do to yourself is spend hours knitting gorgeous colorwork socks, works of art that you poured your heart into….just to finish binding off and discover they don’t fit well. You should try on your socks repeatedly as you knit them to avoid this, but one place that fit is most likely to go sideways is on the cast on.

All of our 2022 socks will use the same general construction. We toyed with the idea of doing lots of different sock constructions this year, but since the point is to give you a relaxing Geek-A-Long we decided to choose one construction method and stick with it. So every pair we put out for the 2022 GAL will be worked top/cuff down. That means the cast on can make or break your fit. If it doesn’t have enough stretch to accommodate your foot and leg the sock will be uncomfortable. New sock knitters often err on the side of making the cast on too tight on the premise that it will hold better to your leg and keep your sock up. In fact the opposite is true! A cuff that is too tight will loose it’s shape over time from being stretched so hard and either become a floppy stretched out mess, or the yarn will break and your hard work will be ruined. If you are just starting your sock journey, err on the side of too loose for the cast on. After a few socks you’ll have a sense of just how much tension to put in the cast on for your perfect pair, but you’ll have a much better result from a CO that’s too loose than too tight.

Many cuff down patterns will tell you to “cast on with the stretchy CO of your choice” and ours are no exception. You can use any stretchy (generally your best bet here will always be a long tail Cast On) CO, and knit away. But I do think there is one cast on that is just superior to all others for sock cuffs: The Twisted German Cast On (TGCO). This Long Tail CO is not the simplest by any means, but it is so so SO worth the end result!

I’ve published a TGCO video before, but today I’ve got a fabulous new one. We made the prior version years ago, and our camera and editing technology have come a long way since then, so this seemed like the perfect week to film a new one! I can’t over hype this Cast On, I use it for anything that is going to start with ribbing. If it’s your first time working it, there’s a good chance it will feel fiddly, over complicated, and slow. But I really do think it’s worth mastering. Once you have the hang of it, it ensures a perfect stretchy, smooth, attractive edge to the top of your sock.

Shown in the video are my Shifter Socks which published last week and are available to you free here or on Ravelry! These socks were designed to let you try out colorwork sock knitting on an intentionally simple pattern. I also want to call out Mr. Cappucino for his amazing help and expertise editing the video! Part of the reason we don’t make more tutorials is that it takes us ages to edit them ourselves. He kindly offered to take that on and you can look forward to far more videos in the future now that he’s handling the editing! Dave has been a behind the scenes llama for a long time, and you’ve seen him modeling the 2021 Geek-A-Long sweater, as well as several of our other designs.

We’ll be back right here next with a tutorial on working in magic loop (my favorite way to knit socks but absolutely NOT a requirement) and some tips and advice for carrying your yarn when working rounds with 2 colors.

~Megan-Anne

Mabel the Merciless saw me working on the cast on tutorial, and went in her bedroom and made a how to make sock puppets tutorial video with her tablet, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Is 6 too young for her own youtube channel? Probably, but I might do it anyways.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation page benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year. No contribution is too small! Wanna make your donation go even further? Lattes & Llamas will donate $1 for every skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn purchased.