A free, simple, and straightforward sock pattern designed for beginners to sock knitting.

The socks are knitted top-down with a ribbed cuff, short row heel, and standard toe decreases. This pattern is suitable for a first-time sock knitter, but assumes that you already know most knitting basics. If you’re an ambitious beginner and you’d like this to be your first project, I recommend first familiarizing yourself with the basics of knitting stockinette and ribbing in the round, as well as the kitchener stitch, long-tail cast-on method, and SSK/K2tog decreases.

Materials

Needles:

• 2.5 mm (US 1.5) circular needles

Note: This pattern was designed to be knitted in the round on 80 cm circular needles using the magic loop technique and instructions are written accordingly, but feel free to adjust for a different length cord or DPNs if that is your preference.

Yarn:

This pattern was designed and knitted with Gründl Hot Socks Manerba 6-ply in the color 04 (Main Color) and Rico Essentials Merino DK in Black (Contrast Color), and requires the following approximate quantities.

• Main Color: 46 g / 115 m / 126 yds (52 g / 130 m / 143 yds) 58 g / 145 m / 159 yds (65 g / 163 m / 179 yds) 72 g / 180 m / 197 yds
• Contrast Color: 18 g / 44 m / 49 yds (21 g / 51 m / 56 yds) 23 g / 56 m / 62 yds (26 g / 63 m / 69 yds) 29 g / 70 m / 77 yds

The socks can also be made with any other sport weight or lighter DK weight yarn that can achieve the correct gauge.

Note: The suggested yarn used as the Main Color in the sample photos is a self-striping sock yarn, a type of yarn dyed in multiple colors that naturally creates a striped pattern. If you’re like me and often find yourself bored by knitting single-color stockinette in the round, I highly recommend a self-striping yarn for some more interesting variation.