April's Sock - Bleached Herringbone

Still homesick. Still making cables. LOL.

The pattern on this sock was inspired by a cable pattern on a crocheted purse that I made last year. The shells and cables in the purse looked like tree trunks to me, and when I revamped the pattern for socks, the finished appearance reminded me of herringbone, especially in the pale colour.

These socks are made with a splurge yarn. The yarn in question is Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo, in Ivory. This yarn is 75% bamboo, 25% nylon. Although pricey for me, the yarn is fully machine washable and dryable. This makes it very convenient. There is a higher nylon content than you'll find in most sock yarns, so hopefully this will render On Your Toes a little stronger and longer lasting. I got two skeins, to see how tall I could make my socks. You can make a pair out of one skein, though, if you kept your leg cuffs no taller than 9 or 10 herringbone pattern repeats. You will have an extremely small amount of leftovers.

Edit: I ended up just making a shorter-cuffed sock. I am happy with the results. My calves were extremely resistant to a taller cuff, LOL, and the machinations required to increase nicely in this cable stitch pattern were making me cross-eyed. I don't do increases that require more than two rows. Having said that, who wants to lay bets that May's sock will have some god-awful five or six row increase sequence?

On sale, this yarn was a little over $9 per skein. I think it's about $12 or more here in Winnipeg. Like I said, this was a splurge for me. However, the bamboo is so ungodly SOFT. It's almost like angora, but without the sneezing. Everyone who sees me working with this yarn has to come over and touch it. Someone offered me $60 for the socks I was making for this blog entry. I had to say no, because I was already done one, and they were designed for me. I did, however, take measurements of their foot for another day:D

This sock is made with two different sized hooks. The foot is done with a 2.75mm hook, while the leg is made with a 3.50mm hook. I tried to do the sock in the smaller hook but the cable pattern was just too tight to get my foot in the damned thing. The construction is toe-up with a short-rowed heel. This pattern relies on multiples of three, so keep that in mind when you end off your toe-shaping. You may have to work an extra increase in there somewhere to make your stitches a multiple of three that will fit your foot. My suggestion is to go with the number closest to your measurement, so for example, I find that with a 2.75mm hook, 44 sts at the end of toe-shaping will fit my foot, so I went one more stitch to 45. If you have an odd number, bear this in mind when dividing your sts for the heel, and go with a multiple of three that is the larger of the two numbers.

Try not to work too firmly, but don't be loose, either. Keep the yarn well-tensioned because the shell pattern will give a lot of stretch and look a little boney on it's own.

Yarn: 1 skein of Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo, in Ivory.

Hooks: 2.75mm for foot, 3.50mm for leg

Split ring markers to mark cable repeats and points of shaping in toes.

Cost: about $25 for taller socks. $12 for a shorter cuff.

Toe:

With smaller hook, chain 11. Pivot work and, working in bottom bumps of chain, Sc in 2nd ch fr hk and in ea across. 10 sc. Pivot work and sc in the top of each st. 20 sc. Place marker in next st to be worked, count off 10 sts, and place marker in this st. Work increases before and after each marked st on increase rnds.

Do not join, do not turn. Work in a spiral.

Rnd 1: Inc before and after each marked st (2 sc in one st). Sc in sc for rest of sts.

Rnd 2: Work even (sc in sc around)

Rep these rnds until you have a toe cap that comes to within 1/2" of the measurement around the ball of your foot. If it is not a multiple of three, then work an extra round and make the necessary increases to ensure that sts are divisible by three.

Foot:

Shell foundation row:

In next st, place SHELL (sc, ch2, sc), sk next 2 sts, SHELL in next st, sk next 2 sts, SHELL in next st.....rep around. Count your shells. The number should be divisible by three (I ended up with 15 shells)

Next rnd: SHELL in ch-2 sp of SHELL worked previously.

Work like this continuously, putting a shell in each shell, until your sock measures 2" less than the total length of your foot.

Heel:

Flatten your sock widthwise and isolate the sides. From one side, sc in ea sc and ch sp, to a number that is equivalent to half the sts of your toe cap when you were done it. So, for example, mine was 45 sts before beginning the shell pattern. Half of 45 is 23 and 22. You have to keep in mind that your final number of heel sts must also be divisible by three so that you can work your shell foundation row correctly and carry on across the shells on the top of the foot without having to fudge stitches. So in my case, I could have gone with either 21 or 24 sts. I tried both and stuck with 24 sts because the heel felt better with those three extra sts.

So, once you determine how many sts wide your heel will be, work a sc in each sc and ch sp, then turn. (for me, 24 sts)

Next row: work across, sc in sc, leaving last st unworked. Ch1/turn

Next row: work across as before, leaving last st unworked. Ch1/turn

Do this until your heel flap is about 2" long. Make a note of how many sts long your last row is. Mine was 11.

I'll use my numbers from here on out to illustrate completing the heel:

First turning row:

Ch 1, sc in ea sc across, sc2tog along side edge and next unworked st in row below. SS in side edge below that. Turn. 12 sc. Do not make a turning chain.

Skip ss and sc in 12 sc. Sc2tog along side edge and next unworked st below. SS in side edge below that. Turn. 13 sc.

Keep doing this, picking up one st on either side until you have your original number of sts. In my case, 24. With right side facing, use the larger hook from now on and work in shell pattern across top of foot and then work shell foundation row over heel sts.

Leg/cuff:

The following is the pattern repeat for the herringbone. Mark your first st. Divide your shells by three and the resulting number is how many times you will work this pattern repeat. In my case it was 5, because I had 15 shells. You need three shells per pattern repeat.

As before, do not join, do not turn.

CLUSTER = 3 dc in first row. 3 fpdc in all other rows after that.

Pattern Row 1: work shell in ch-sp of 1st shell, 3 dc in next shell (CLUSTER - this replaces the second shell), shell in ch-sp of 3rd shell. Repeat across to end of round.

Pattern Row 2: Work front post triple crochet (fptc) in 1st dc of CLUSTER. Working behind this fptc, place a shell in the shell behind it. Work 3 front post double crochet (fpdc) in 2nd dc of CLUSTER. Place a shell in the next shell. Working in front of this shell, work a fptc around 3rd dc of CLUSTER. Repeat across to end of round.

Pattern Row 3: Work shell in first shell. Ch 1, work sc in 2nd fpdc of CLUSTER, ch1, work shell in 3rd shell. Repeat to end of round.

Pattern Row 4: Work fptc in 1st fpdc of CLUSTER. Working behind the fptc, place a shell in the first shell. Work 3 fpdc around 2nd fpdc of CLUSTER. Work shell in third shell. Working in front of third shell, place a fptc around 3rd fpdc of CLUSTER. Repeat to end of round.

Repeat rows 3 & 4 for pattern. I ended mine off on a Pattern Row 4.

Make cuff to desired length, fasten off. Weave in ends.