From left to right, three pairs of hand-knitted socks, in chronological order. These are all based on the same pattern, with a few variations. (The pair on the right looks skinny because of the rib, but I assure you it stretches out nicely).

The grey and purple pair (knit with Berroco Vintage) were the first pair of socks I ever knit. They took me almost six months to knit – well, two weeks for the first sock, and then I got distracted and then summer came – but they came out pretty well all things considered.

The middle pair, knit on Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK weight 100% superwash merino, which, let me just say, is a gorgeous yarn to knit with. I used olive and sand and got that pair finished in a week over the Christmas holidays. They turned out much better than my first pair (go figure) and are both warm and light-weight. The pattern is pretty basic, but look at how nicely it shows off the hand-painted yarn. Gorgeous.

The third pair are for my mom. They’re also knit with the other half of my Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, but with a 2×1 rib down the leg, because my mom found the leg on the green pair a little too tight. I went back and forth about knitting the heels in olive as well, but was worried I wouldn’t have enough; as it turns out, though, I certainly would have, so that’s something to keep in mind if you plan to knit these socks.

So, here are the basic details:

Boot Sock
(This assumes you have some knowledge of sock knitting, if that is not the case, e-mail me for a more detailed pattern)

These were knit on 3.75 mm needles, using worsted weight yarn. For the grey pair I cast on 40 stitches, for the olive pair 46 and for the sand pair 48. The cuff is 8 rows of 1×1 rib, after which I just knit until the leg was 7-inches long. Divide, knit 17 rows, and turn the heel as follows (written out for 40-stitch cast on, thus 20-stitch heel):

Row 1 – sl 1, k 10, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 2 – sl 1, p 3, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 3 – sl 1, k 4, ssk, k1, turn
Row 4 – sl 1, p 5, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 5 – sl 1, k 6, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 6 – sl 1, p7, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 7 – sl 1, k 8, ssk, k1, turn
Row 8 – sl 1, p 9, p2tog, p2tog, turn

Pick up 12 stitches along both sides of the heel flap and work the following decrease rounds until you’re back to your original number of stitches:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – knit
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit

The middle of your round is now in the middle of the heel.Knit up foot until you’re 3 inches from the total length (to measure gauge length, measure your foot on a piece of paper and then add 1/4 inch). Decrease for toe as follows:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – k1, ssk, k to within 3 sts from end of needle, k2tog, k1
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit
Knit these two rounds until you’ve decreased half the stitches (that is, there are 20 remaining). Now work only round 1 until a total of 8 stitches are left. Break yarn and, using a darning needle, thread tail through remaining stitches and pull tight. Weave in ends.