I've been intimidated by the idea of sock knitting for a long time. And why? I figure if I can make gloves, I can probably manage a wussy pair of socks. But still--the toothpick sized needles, the skinny, skinny yarn...
Anyway, the time came to knit birthday presents for the girls. Jess already knits scarves, I've already made her two hats, and she has a pair of my fingerless gloves. It was time to branch out.
Every time we go to Jess's apartment in the city, we end up on the floor, socks off, surrounded by her myriad bottles of nail polish, and get creative with our fingers and toes. Jessica is a connoisseur of nail color. And since she has an old drafty apartment and lives in a chilly, breezy city, it was a natural conclusion: pedicure socks. Alas, it was time to face my sock knitting fears. So I did a cop out.
I have some more hand-spun yarn of questionable quantity, so I definitely wanted to make them from the toes up. That way, the length would be determined by the amount of yarn, and I wouldn't run out before I finished the foot. Also, I knit these simultaneously on two sets of #3 double points.
Since I made them in a stripe pattern, and the heel is comprised of only one color, I had to carry the other strand up the center of the heel as I was knitting it. So I ended up crossing a purl stitch in front of the unused color every other row.
Due to the sport weight, rather than sock weight yarn, I used #3 instead of the usual #2 sock size needle. However, I probably could have gone with #4, too. Check your gauge. I based my pattern off of this generic toe up method, courtesy of Wendy Johnson.
I was relieved that the project was successful, and I'm now inspired to make a real pair of socks, toes included.
I went ahead and wrote up a pattern. Download it here. Feel free to comment with any questions. Happy knitting! Happy toenail painting. Happy warming.
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