Because Size Matters: Foot Size Survey

Everyone

As Knitty's technical editor for socks, I get to talk to a lot of knitters and designers about sock patterns. The number one question I hear from designers and knitters is how to size socks.

When sizing socks, foot circumference is the key measurement. For the vast majority of sock designs, the length of the foot is controlled simply by working fewer or more rounds in that section- totally independent of the number of stitches you cast on.

The challenge is that information about foot circumference is very hard to find. When sizing shoes, foot length is the primary measurement; and so all of the information out there in the world about foot size is focused on foot length.

Since foot length is remarkably unrelated to foot circumference – small feet can be wide, long feet can be narrow – telling me your shoe size tells me very little about how big your socks should be. A lot of the time, when designers are creating socks, we're guessing about how they should be sized.

With help from our friends and collaborators at Sock Summit and Cooperative Press, we're trying to change this. We're launching a foot size survey, and we're hoping you can help us out.

Send email to footsurvey@wisehildaknits.com with the following info:

Your shoe size: US or European size & gender (e.g. US Women's size
Your foot length
Ankle circumference around the narrowest part of your ankle
Foot circumference around the ball of your foot
Circumference around your foot at your ankle
Diagonal measurement around your heel, from the base of your heel up over the top of your foot
Circumference of your calf six inches (15cm) up from the ground

The measurements we need

And if you can talk your friends and family into letting you measure their feet, we'd love that info too.

We'll crunch the data and come up with a set of measurements that we will publish here and on the Cooperative Press website, for all sock designers to use.

Thank you! Your reward for participation will be better sized sock patterns for everyone – and our eternal gratitude, of course!

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