I want to learn and understand more about the construction of kneehighs and calf inserts. So I just had to knit these, right? Scientific purposes… ;-)

Personally, I think the instructions are unnecessarily complicated. But maybe it’s just me…

A comment on the German book translation: don’t bother. Whoever did this was obviously not a knitter and or had no clue what they were doing…. some instructions are plain wrong, some are missing. So apparently, it hasn’t been tech edited. I couldn’t get the English edition and figured this would work as well. It doesn’t!

A word on calf sizing: no, just no. If you want to have stockings that stay up, go down further. These will make a fabric that won’t be stretched out much, even with the sizing instructions. I went down TWO sizes from the suggested one… and will compensate at the biggest part of my calves with more increases in the chart (see below). Because after all, it’s just the muscle, not the whole calf that needs that size… and they still seem big in the ribbing part. That way smaller size still isn’t snug. Just stretched.

Mods:

• German twisted cast on on 2.5mm needles
• Calf insert: playing with lifted increases
• 4 more sets of increases (8 additional stitches) on calf insert
• 10 rows straight
• 4 more decreases, then decreases as per pattern (the lines will run differently than per pattern, though)
• at the end of the calf insert: instead of two decreases side by side, change to cdc (centered double decreases), no chart panel at the back of the foot means that the uneven number of stitches is not important. Start with a no decrease row.
• no heel detail as it’s going to be hidden in shoes anyways (and is a pain to knit, especially in back and forth)
• after last calf decrease: 6 more pattern repeats on 2.5mm needles, 1 more on 2.25mm needles
• during last pattern repeat, increase 3 times on each side for heel - every 3rd row, start in row 2
• continue medaillons until actual turning of the heel
• FLK heel (stockinette) over 4-1-10-11-10-1-4 stitches
• decrease in every 2nd row to 28 sole stitches
• after last sole decrease, decrease middle stitches on top,of foot from 10 to 8, aka 34 instep stitches
• FLK toe: 1-10-6-10-1

for reference - I have long legs. From floor to knee is more than 18 inches

Yarn usage
Legs: 55g each
Heel increases: 2g each
Heels: 4g each
Foot: 16g each
Toe: 4g each

81g per sock