A Versatile Sock Pattern

When I designed my most recent sock pattern, A Checklist of Birds, one of my goals was that the pattern would be a great “vanilla” sock pattern that would work well for any yarn, but would be especially great for those special skeins of self-striping yarn you’ve got hanging around.

Andrea's bare feet and a pair of inside-out striped socks.

The Details

What makes the pattern work so well for all your basic sock-knitting needs?

Construction: It’s a toe-up pattern so you can easily try on as you go.
Short Row Heel: It features a short-row heel, which is great because it’s easy to stop mid-stripe and use a bit of contrasting yarn to make the heel, then continue on with your stipe pattern un-interrupted.
Easy to try on as you go: I also love the short row heel because, unlike an afterthought heel, you can try the sock on after you’ve finished the heel plus a little bit of leg to make sure your foot section is the right length. It’s not such a big deal to just re-knit the heel if it needs an adjustment. That wouldn’t be possible if you’d already finished knitting the sock.
Thoughtfully-designed toe shape: I designed a rounded toe shape that I think fits better than a wedge and is super cute too!
Stretchy leg ribbing: The Checklist pattern includes ribbing along the back of the leg, which gives a nice snug fit, especially around the ankle, and a look I really like.
Easy to adjust leg length: With the toe-up construction and ribbing along the back, you can pretty much make your socks as tall as you like and use up exactly half of your yarn for each sock. A lot of folks won’t need any leg shaping even when making knee socks because of that stretchy ribbing. But if your calf-to-ankle ratio is a little bigger, it's simple to just add in a few increases at the sides of the socks.

How to Modify the Checklist Pattern for Plain Socks

I’ve had two skeins of Gauge Dye Works Solar System yarn sitting in my stash for quite a long time and I was super excited to finally have just the right pattern for the sock skein.

The sock version of this colourway, Round Trip, has two identical halves to make two identical socks and the other version, One Way Trip, has one set of stripes for the whole skein. If you haven’t seen this yarn, it’s a data visualization of the Solar System! Super nerdy and fun.

I still have a skein of One Way Trip, so we’ll see what I do with it in the future, but this post is about my socks!

To use the Checklist pattern for these socks, I just cast on for my size (Size B in the pattern — 7.5”/19 cm foot circumference/72 stitches around) and kept knitting. When the pattern told me to add the Checklist panel to the front of the sock, I ignored that and just kept working in Stockinette stitch instead until I got to the heel.

I decided to just keep knitting the heel with the working yarn because I was craving the simplest sock project possible. Doing so means that I’ve got a fetching little dark grey wedge under each of my heels. I could also easily have used some of the extra light grey to knit a light grey heel and keep the Solar System stripe pattern a little more accurate and un-interrupted. But I actually really like how the purple looks next to the orange, so I’m happy with my choice.

After completing the heel, I started the ribbing along the back of my sock for that nice snug fit and kept going in that pattern through the last stripe. I wanted to use as much yarn as possible, so I made my cuffs super tall for almost knee high socks. Look at my very fun finished project! Only those in the know will realize that my feet are laying down some knowledge about our galaxy with every step.

It’s Called Fashion

Anybody else remember when scrunching your socks down in just the right was super fashionable? Since my socks are so tall I decided to try it as a grownup and look how cute it is! I’m going to bring back this trend! (Unless it’s already back with all the other 90’s nostalgia??)

Also, please look at the perfect shape of that round toe!

Make Your Own

This is your self-striping sock yarn moment! Go digging through your stash (or have a very fun time on the Gauge Dye Works website, I’m not going to stop you) and find the perfect skein. This is a great way to get a ton of use out of your Checklist of Birds Socks pattern.

Here’s a link to buy the pattern here on my website and here it is on Ravelry.

Have you made A Checklist of Birds?

Tell me in the comments about your projects! Did you go for the Multi-Birds version or pick a single bird? Which one? Anybody already used this pattern for a vanilla sock project?

P.S. If you’re interested in how clever Catherine over at Gauge Dye Works is with the stripes and the data visualization, she has a blog with lots of fun colour thoughts and interesting math. Enjoy!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what the original Checklist of Birds sock pattern looks like, here it is!