So you've gotten that provisional cast on taken care of, your yarn is joined in the round, and you want to start your sock with a picot cuff. Where do you go next?

Step 1: Join Stitches in the Round

I'm starting with a repeat of yesterday's last photo just so we're all at the same place and there's a visual reference for how things start. To get to this point, please check out my post on the provisional crochet cast-on in the round. As a side note, I cast this cuff on using needles two sizes smaller than I am going to use for the body of the sock. This is not absolutely necessary, but I'll explain my rationale for doing it in the next step.

Step 2: Do Some Knitting, Don't Forget that YO, K2Tog Row!

The knitting for a picot edge is simple, you knit the number of rows you want to give you a cuff height that you like, knit the fold over row -- which means repeating the YO,K2Tog stitch pair all the way around the round until you return to the beginning. Then you knit the same number of rows that you knit before the turning row. The photo above shows what things look like after that is complete. The provisionally cast-on edge is at the bottom of the picture to help orient you.

A couple of notes about how I do picot edges. First of all, they are not a stretchy edging like a ribbed cuff. Because of that, you can't really count on a picot edge to really help hold a sock up unless it is relatively tight and/or a bit stiffer than the rest of the sock fabric. One way to make this happen is to knit the first set of rows before the turning row on a smaller needle than the rows after the turning row. Thus, for this demonstration, the first 7 rows were knit on 2.0 mm needles, and the turning row and the next 6 rows were knit on 2.75 mm needles.

Now, if you look back at my original instructions, you might notice that they don't seem to jibe with what I just wrote, since I am doing fewer rows after the turning row than before. The reason for this is that the length of the fabric after you do the turning row is longer than before the turning row because the needles are bigger and, thus, the stitches are bigger. If you join the edges at this point, the outside edge of the picot edge will bulge and you will have to rip out the join and that last row and go at it again. Ask me how I know this...

So my general feeling is that the formula you should use if you change needles at the turning row is to knit one less row than you knit before the turning row. Another way to say this is that you should knit an equal number of rows on each needle size, and count the turning row as the first row on the larger needles.

Step 3: Removing The Provisional Cast On

So now you get to the point where you're going to be happy you didn't pull too tightly on that end after finishing your crochet cast on. Find the end of the waste yarn with the crochet chains and gently undo the chains and start to pull the waste yarn out and put the free stitches on a set of double pointed needles, matching the number of stitches on each needle with the number you have on each of the working needles. In order to prevent dropped stitches, I like to use a smaller set of needles than my working needles, even if I didn't change needle size at the turning row. I also like to insert the needle in the soon-to-be freed edge stitch before I pull out the waste yarn. It helps me maintain the correct stitch orientation (I poke the needle in from the top) and dimishes my angst over dropping stitches.

Step 4: Pick Up Free Edge Stitches on Smaller Double Pointed Needles

After you transfer all the cast on edge stitches to double pointed needles, you should have something that looks like this. In this image, the cast on edge stitches on the smaller needles are at the bottom of the picture and the working edge is at the top of the picture.

Step 5: Fold Tube At the Turning Edge

This next part is probably the fiddly-est part of the whole operation. You need to fold the tube so that the wrong sides on either side of the turning edge are touching and the right sides of the fabric are facing towards you and into the center of the tube. This will involve moving those needles around and about each other to get them where you want them to go. When you're done, each working needle should be paired with a needle holding stitches from the cast on edge. In the picture above, you can also see that the smaller(cast on edge) needle is on the inside of the tube, and the larger (working) needle is on the exterior.

Step 6: Knit the Working Edge and Cast On Edge Together

The next thing you are going to do is a Japanese three needle bind off. If you've ever done a regular three needle bind off, the idea is conceptually similar, except you're going to end up with a set of working stitches left after you're done. Which is important, otherwise you'd just have a sock cuff and no easy way to proceed on your sock.

To get started, you're going to hold a pair of needles together, and put your working needle knitwise through the first stitch on the front needle and on the back needle. Then you're going to wrap your yarn as if to knit and draw the stitch through. You've now bound a cast on edge stitch with a working stitch to create one stitch.

Step 7: Knit Stitches From Both Needles All the Way Around the Tube

All that remains to do be done now is to work your way all around the tube, knitting one stitch from each needle together. The picture above shows two needles completed, the third needle half-way through and the last needle pair left to be done. The only thing you need to worry about is making sure that your working needle is always the same size as the outer needle of the pair.

Step 8: Admire your Lovely Picot Edge

After you've made it all the way around, it's time to flip it over and admire your work. Picot edges should be stiff enough to stand up on their own most of the time and should have a reasonably nice solid structure. If you look on the inside, you'll also see what I think is a very neat and lovely joined edge that becomes almost invisible against the inside of the sock if the rest of the sock is based in stockinette.

Now you're ready to knit the rest of the sock, or whatever other tubular structure has captured your fancy!

Before I end this post, I'd like to point out another excellent guide to working a picot edge and one that I most certainly referred to when I was trying this technique out for the first time. I would also like to recommend Nancie Wiseman's Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques which also provides very helpful information about executing crochet-cast ons, provisional cast ons and picot edges.