You’ve got your sock pattern, yarn, and needles that provide the correct gauge, but what else do you need to knit a pair of socks? These are our essential tools for knitting socks that you’ll want to have on hand when getting started. The essentials are surprisingly basic, and odds are good you’ve already got options on hand! But once you fall in love with sock knitting, there are even more tools that you’ll want to collect. We consider them nice to have, because you can complete a pair of socks without them, but they truly level-up the knitting sock experience!
Essentials
A Ruler
Many sock patterns give measurements to achieve instead of exact row counts, so a ruler is an important tool to have! A measuring tape will also do the job, but for toe-up socks, rulers can be slipped inside the sock to quickly measure the foot length, so they’re preferable. You can even get rulers made just for socks that include standard shoe sizes alongside with the equivalent metric and imperial measurements!
Featured: Socks Rule! – Tool for measuring socks
Stitch Markers
Keeping track of the beginning of the round is important, whether you’re knitting socks from the top-down or toe-up, whether you’re using DPN or the magic loop. Placing a marker at the beginning of the round and slipping it every round is the best way to keep track, but if you find it challenging to keep the marker in place with the method you chose for knitting in the round, you can also place a locking stitch marker on the first stitch in the round and move it up every round.
Featured: Metallic Stitch Marker Variety Pack & Tin
Yarn Needles
If you’re knitting toes from the top down to the toes, grafting the toes shut is almost always the final step, and a yarn needle is needed to do that. If you prefer knitting from the toe up and using a crochet hook to weave in ends, you might not need one, but it’s good to have some on hand in case you choose a pattern with a sewn BO like the tubular BO.
Featured: Bent Tip Tapestry Needles
Snips
Following up from the yarn needles, snips probably don’t need much explanation. It’s easier to thread a yarn needle with a cleanly-cut yarn tail, and you’ll want to snip any extra length left after weaving in ends. Any snips or scissors will do the job, but because socks are such a portable project, portable snips with protected tips that can be safely tossed in a knitting bag are the best choice!
Featured: Foldable Scissors
Nice to Have
Project Bag
Socks are the ultimate on-the-go project, and unfortunately taking your knitting everywhere can get it dirty if you’re not careful. That’s why a project bag is great to have! Lightweight cotton bags work best if you want to tuck your sock project into a purse or tote bag because they don’t add much bulk.
Featured: Single Sock Project Bag
Sock Blockers
If you want to show off your socks on social media or get perfectly crisp stitches, sock blockers will provide your socks extra shape! Unlike other blocking tools, sock blockers generally don’t change how the sock will look when worn, so that’s why they’re nice to have but not essentials.
Featured: Adjustable Sock Blockers
Chart Keepers
Socks are great canvases for interesting colorwork and fun stitch patterns! If you’re not knitting plain vanilla socks, odds are good that your pattern will have some kind of chart. A chart keeper will help you keep track of what row you’re on, and strong magnets won’t budge when a chart keeper is thrown in your knitting bag.
Featured: Premium Knitting Chart Keeper
DPN Protectors
Wood DPNs are tragically fragile, but that shouldn’t stop fans of them from taking them on the go. DPN protectors slot over the DPNs with an opening at the bottom for the fabric of a sock WIP to hang out. This keeps them safe from snapping in your knitting bag so you can confidently take your sock projects anywhere.
Featured: Sock Knitting Needle Holders
Would you categorize essentials and nice-to-have sock tools the same way? Are there any other sock tools that you consider essential?
