50% of proceeds will go to World Vision, helping children towards a brighter future. Thank you!

A journey is the adventure of every step. Wearing hand knit socks feels different, each stitch has a human touch of the creative. Handmade. Nothing feels the same as wearing a hand knit pair of socks, glorious comfort and joy.

Welcome to my first sock pattern! I learned the intrigue of sock knitting in the Yukon, a perfect environment for knitting. There was an amazing shop called Folknits with a most wonderful team to enable, encourage, support, and even fix complex mistakes. I once took a wrap made of ribbon yarn on size 10mm needles there, having dropped some rows of stitches and it took their top expert to figure it out.
I was inspired and keen - to gain the understanding of those stitches made of loops and air and manipulate them into sense and beautiful things. I quickly soaked up everything I could from knitting scarves to socks to felted slippers and glorious lace.

The Dutch Heel I learned from a 76 year old Norwegian lady who uses only this technique for her socks. It snugs well under the foot, simple to knit, is 60% faster than a rounded heel. Just one of the joys for me in knitting socks.

They are amusing, so many tiny stitches which with experience become very rapid indeed. Socks are portable projects and you will gain the happy interest of passers by. Be bold, take them everywhere you go. A few stitches here and there in a day add up to a lot very quickly.

For sizing 60 stitches will fit a medium size, 7 - 8. I wear a size 39 or 8.5-9 and find 64 stitches fits best knit snuggly. Increase the stitch count by four stitches as needed for larger sizes.

Check your gauge! A 4 ply yarn will be thicker. A sock is a fitted garment thus the need to work to gauge for best results and the ability to fit into your shoe!

Dpns, use 5. 4 for carrying the stitches and 1 as working needle. Using only 3 to carry the stitches puts a strain on the yarn at the corners. Reducing the strain adds more wearable life to your sock.

Choose a colour and quality of yarn that makes you happy, solids or semi-solids will show your stitches the best. A master spinner instructor recently spun and knit many blends with and without nylon and shared her socks for specific testing. The results showed 60% Merino/ 40% Silk to be the most durable.

This pattern is meant to be printed double sided on thick paper, then folded as a ‘booklet’ to be more portable. Thus the first page of this pattern shows the ‘inner pages’, 2 & 3; the second page shows the ‘outer pages’ - 4 & 1.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
I hope you enjoy the knitting passion of the Joy of Sox!