Frivolous and flirty little top-down summer socks let the sun shine on painted toes. Designed to keep feet warm while your toenail polish dries, they also protect delicate skin on the top of your foot from the cruel summer sun, or show off your pedicure when it’s too chilly to wear sandals alone. A simple stockinette thong helps keep the socks in place, and makes wearing thonged sandals just that little bit more comfortable.

Top down socks begin with a small chart for an easy to memorize lace pattern, and feature the Sherman technique for mitered toes and heels, and a small gusset and flap for slightly deeper and thus better fitting heels. The traveling lace panel on the instep is worked with a simple increase/decrease pair, and large instep charts for each foot clearly show every stitch.

If toe-less socks aren’t your thing, you can work my favorite mitered toe using the Sherman Toe tutorial included in Welsh for Rainbow.