This happened to me when I got the current skates I'm in, I thought they were too small because my big toe was pushing on the toe cap. Same thing as you, sitting down when knees were bent toes weren't crammed. Basically I noticed that my toes were crammed when skating because I was skating too upright. That made me focus more on knee bend when skating and problem was solved. It took a couple skates to get used to it, a lot of times I would start with a lot of knee bend but by the end of my skate due to fatigue, I would start skating more upright and toes would push on toe cap. My problem is solved and don't have this issue anymore, plus my stride has gotten better.