ON THE FENCE SOCKS

These socks are a fun knit. If you are a sock newbie, they are perfect as you can use the basic instructions which are very easy to follow and skip the pattern until you feel ready for it. When you ARE ready, it is a simple grid of Knit and Purl stitches.
I’d like to thank Bernadine Little, who named these socks “On The Fence” when I was at a loss. She thought of “On the Fence” because the pattern reminded her of a garden fence design and also because you can be ‘on the fence’ when you decide how to wear them as they can be worn the ‘right’ way or inside out – the stitch pattern is then reversed. If you want to be able to do this, you will need to be extra careful when sewing in your ends!
This pattern is for socks for both men and women. Size 1 is small, size 2 is medium, size 3 is large and size 4 is extra-large. Stitch count given is for Size 1; the other sizes follow in brackets ( ).
These are toe-up socks with a NO WRAP AND TURN AND NO PICKING UP STITCHES heel and a great elastic bind-off.
Needles: 2.75mm circular or DPNs. I cast on with a circular, work for a round or two and then change to DPNs (a set of 3: one for the heel stitches, one for the instep stitches and one to knit with), but this is totally up to you. I do the rib and cast off with 2.5s but again, it is your choice.
Yarn: Sock yarn is best as the added nylon gives greater flexibility and is more hard-wearing but any 4 ply, fingering or sport will work. To make this knit even more fun, try a yummy hand-dyed yarn from one of our many creative Kiwi Indy dyers. The turquoise/plum gradient above is from Darn-Knit NZ and the other yarns shown are from Tutti Frutti Yarns.