This won’t become a knitting blog. I promise. Lately, though, as a part of my lifestyle modification and knitting diet, I’ve been knitting what seems like an awful lot of socks. The most recent are:

Tropicana – free pattern here.

The stitch looks like this (and is incredibly easy to remember):

This pair was knitted in Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ merino wool “Fire on the Mountain“.

I must say that this pattern works quite quickly. One of my chief qualifications for a sock pattern is that it go fairly speedily. The other is that it be easy to remember. I can’t stand having to constantly look at charts for something as simple as socks.

I used my standard heel for this, as I  am thoroughly resistant to change.

The pair currently in progress is a pattern called “Fruitloops” – free pattern here

The stitch looks like this (Patons Kroy, colourway “Paint Box”):

The loopiness is easier to see when it’s stretched over a foot:

One sock finished!

I modified it slightly as they’re for a person with a larger foot.

• Instead of 56 stitches, I cast on 68.
• The heel was worked over 34 stitches.
• I knit across 20 stitches for the first row of the heel.
• I picked up the same number of stitches for the gusset
• During the gusset decreases, I continued decreasing until I was down to 68 stitches
• The toe decreases were worked until 24 stitches remained.

One sock used up almost every bit of a skein of yarn (175m/50g)

It’s a nice pattern and the resulting sock fit snugly, but not uncomfortably. The inside of the sock looks just like 2-2 ribbing, which means it’s quite smooth (by comparison with the knobbly outside).