Two Toe-Up Socks
on a Single Circular Needle

This is the toe-up pattern I’ve been teaching people, so I thought it was high time I wrote it out. It is my regular toe-up pattern, modified for the two-socks-on-one-circular method. If you haven’t tried knitting two socks at the same time, I highly recommend it! It cut down by a third the amount of time it takes me to make a pair of socks.

Materials

• 1 (1, 2, 2, 2, 3) 50g skeins Regia 4-ply sock yarn (or other sock yarn)
• US #1 Addi Turbo 40” Circular
• 2 sock sized stitch markers

Sizes

Toddler’s, Child’s, Women’s Small, Women’s Medium, Men’s Medium, Men’s Large

Gauge

8 sts/1”

Notes

1. I’m using several terms to refer to where you are on your socks:

• First Sock or Sock One — when you are holding your sock so that the side with the stitch markers faces you, this is the sock on the right
• Second Sock or Sock Two — when you are holding the sock so that the side with the stitch markers is facing you, this is the sock on the left
• Side One — the side of either sock that has the stitch marker on it
• Side Two — the side of either sock that does not have the stitch marker on it

2. If the size you are making calls for only one skein of yarn, separate the skein into two balls of equal size — you will use one for each sock.

Instructions

Toes

Cast on:

• Take the yarn from the first skein, hold the two needles side by side and, using the long-tail method, cast on sts on alternating needles (i.e. CO 1 st on front needle, 1 st on back needle) until there are 8 sts on each needle (This is Sock One).
• Repeat with the other skein of yarn (This is Sock Two). You now have two socks cast on.

Knit 1 round, placing a marker at the center (between stitches 4 and 5) of Side One on each sock. Don’t put markers on Side Two.

Now begin the toe increases as follows:

• Inc 1 (knit into the front and back of the stitch) in the first st of Sock One, knit until there are 2 sts left, inc 1 in the next st, K1.
• Repeat this on both sides of both socks.
• Keep increasing on both socks, every row, until there are 16 sts on each side of both socks.

Knit 1 round.

Continue increasing every other round until there are 40 (48, 56, 60, 64, 68) sts total per sock.

Knit around without increasing until the socks measures 4 (4 1⁄2, 5 1⁄4, 6, 7 1⁄4, 9)” or two-thirds of the total length of the foot.

Heel Shaping & Gusset

Work back and forth on just Side One on both socks [20 (24, 28, 30, 32, 34) sts] until the socks measure 6 (7, 8, 9,10, 12)” or the full length of the foot from heel flap to toe.

Turn heel as follows:

• On the First Sock only, K 11 (13, 15, 17, 19, 21), K2tog, K 1, turn. Sl 1, P 3 (3, 3, 5, 7, 9), P2tog, P1, turn. *Sl 1, knit to within 1 st of the gap, K 2 tog across the gap, K 1, turn. Sl 1, purl to within 1 st of gap, P2tog across gap, P 1, turn.* Repeat * to * until you reach the ends of the row. 12 (14, 16, 18, 20, 22) sts remain.
• Still staying on just Sock One, knit across the heel stitches then pick up and knit 14 (15, 17, 19, 21, 23) sts along the left side of the heel flap. The sock will look a little strange at this point, but trust me.
• Now go to Sock Two, turn the heel and pick up the left side gusset stitches exactly as you did for Sock One.

You will now have two turned heels and one side of each heel flap picked up. At this point:

Knit across Side Two of both socks. Once across the Side Two:

Pick up and knit 14 (15, 17, 19, 21, 23) sts along the right side of Sock One’s heel flap, making sure that all the stitches on the heel and both gussets remain on Side One. This makes for a lot of stitches on Side One, but that’s okay.

Knit across the rest of Sock One’s Side One stitches and then pick up and knit the right hand gusset on Sock Two and on across the rest of Sock Two’s Side One stitches.

You will now have 40 (42, 50, 56, 62, 68) sts on Side One of each sock for a total of 60 (68, 78, 86, 94, 102) sts in each sock.

Knit across all Side Two stitches.

Gusset Decrease

Decrease for the gusset as follows: * K 1, SSK, knit until there are 3 sts left on side one, K2tog, K 1.

Repeat for Sock Two.

Knit across all Side Two stitches.

Knit 1 complete round without decreasing*.

Repeat * to* until you are back to your original 40 (48, 56, 60, 64, 68) total sts per sock.

Cuff

Knit until the sock cuffs have reached 6 (7, 8, 9,10, 12)” or desired length from the heel.

Work 12 rounds of K2, P2 ribbing and bind off loosely.

If you want a super-loose bind off, substitute the following:

• Work 11 rounds of K2, P2 ribbing.
• On Row 12, K2, M1, P2, M1 around.
• Bind off in pattern, but do not knit the M1 stitches— only slip them.
• When you get to the last stitch, pick up one stitch from across the gap and use that to bind off the last M1 stitch.

Break the yarn and pass it through the last stitch.

Sew in ends.