I’d mentioned that at the start of the summer my knitting friend Chris and I had set a sock challenge for ourselves. Each of us would write a sock pattern (with no swatching), then give the pattern to the other, who would knit up the first sock. After that, the sock and pattern would come back to the designer, who would have to knit up the second one.
I wanted my first sock design to be something special, so I threw in a bit of everything: leaves with nupps down the front, a bouquet motif in the back, a narrow line of vertical lace running along the side of the leg from cuff to sole, and an eye of partridge heel. Here you can see the result—
I’m not quite satisfied with the bouquet motif. I found one in a stitch dictionary, but it was worked bottom-up, so I sort of guessed at how it might be worked top-down. I need to go back and do some swatching to get the leaves a bit pointier and to make the blossoms more distinct.
Here’s a side view.
And here’s a shot of the leaf stitch that runs down the front. You can’t see the nupps as they were only on the leg. (And when I write up the pattern, I won’t be using nupps. I’ve come up with a very simple small bobble that I like better. It really does look like a little berry.)
Since this is my first sock design, I think it’s only fair to share it freely. As soon as I get through my charting backlog I’ll post the pattern so others can enjoy it. If you’d like me to email you when it’s ready, just leave me a note in the comments section.