Pi Socks - A Recipe by Susan Gutperl

Pi Socks - A Recipe

Knitting
October 2008
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
30 stitches and 42 rows = 4 inches
in stockinette stitch
US 1½ - 2.5 mm
328 - 459 yards (300 - 420 m)
knit them in any size you like
English
This pattern is available for free.

On the hunt for a cool way to create a random or at least halfway interesting stripe sequence the best husband of all suggested looking into some mathematical numbers like Pi or E. Some research later I decided to give the number Pi a go and design a pair of socks encoding it into the stripes. This Recipe explains the logic behind the stripes and gives you hints on how to knit your own pair of cool looking Pi Socks.

Requirement: Knowledge on how to knit a basic pair of socks.

Yarn: Use any fingering weight sock yarn of your liking. It can even be a heavier 6-ply sock yarn if you want something that knits up faster. Gauge doesn’t really matter here as long as you know how to re-calculate things to get a sock that actually fits.
I chose good old Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Uni/Solid 4-ply/4-fädig in chocolate brown and green. One 50 grams skein of each should do. For the stripes to really pop you’ll probably want to choose two colors that have a high contrast. How about brown/yellow, black/white, turquoise/magenta or dark red/pink?

Needles: I like to knit Regia 4-ply on 2.5 mm needles but I am told there are all kinds of knitters out there. You might be a loose knitter and 2.25 mm needles give you better results for your socks. Or ask my sis. She knits really tight so 2.75 mm DPNs are usually the tool of her choice.