Simple Sock Making

….to some of these patterns!!!

I have decided to retire certain patterns. They’re not the most popular ones. I am not deleting them permanently, I’m just making their pages into drafts. If their end location happens to be a Raverly, then the pdf located there will stay.

Why?

They don’t get any shares or views.

They’re taking up space.

The photos aren’t that great.

They could be rewritten to be better understood.

For a variety of reasons, it is just time to take them down.

The ones that are being retired are:

• The Blue Socks of Happiness
• Spring Garden Socks
• Bleached Herringbone

I will take them down on Friday evening, probably about 10pm EST, before I go to bed. This doesn’t mean that they are gone forever, just for now.

This is a lead in page to the PDF of this pattern. For whatever reason. the PDF link won’t generate on the ravelry pattern page. If I put it in the link field in editing, I get the red marker of doom telling me that it’s a PDF link and needs to be in its proper little field….where it won’t display.

Sorry folks. Ravelry has never been my favourite place to try to save and distribute patterns, but it’s the busiest.

Click this link to get the pattern as a PDF. If it won’t click, copy and paste it into your browser.

http://simplesockmaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BasicToeUpCrochetedSock.pdf

Hey sock lovers!!

After a long absence away from this site, I decided to finish cleaning out the posts. My goal is to get this site lean and mean and down to the patterns and related articles.

My next goal is to clean up the comments because at one point when I was on blogger, I didn’t check yes for a spam filter so I got pretty damned spammed.

Hopefully no one misses the porn links. LOL

I found this video in my YouTube Channel. It was shot quickly, for someone who needed to know how to turn a heel. I don’t know why it was marked private, but meh, whatever. I made it public now. In watching it again I am reminded of why I love my little tripod now, because 17 year old boys make the WORST cameramen.

Here’s a quick stocking pattern that works up while you watch tv.
UPDATE!!!

This morning (December 9th) I shot two videos. The first one shows the Tunisian lace being made and the second shows a Tunisian bind off:

Tunisian lace
Tunisian bind off

6.0mm hook
6.5mm Tunisian crochet hook,preferably with a long cable
1 darning needle
Split ring markers
1 skein Red Heart Super Saver, Red
1 skein Red Heart Super Saver, White

Foundation round:
Using white yarn and the 6.0mm hook, chain 11. Flip the chain. Working in 2nd chain from hook, work sc across in the bottom bumps. 10 sc. Work 1 sc in same stitch as 10th sc, place marker. Flip the chain right side up. Work another sc in same chain, work sc across, working two sc in first chain. Mark the 2nd sc. You should have 22 sc. On either end is a group of three sc and the central stitch in each group is marked.

Round one (increase round):

Work 2 sc in each sc on either side of marked stitches, and work one sc in all other sc. Be sure to replace the markers in the appropriate stitch as you work.

Round 2 (even round):

Work sc in sc around.

Repeat these two rounds until you have 42 stitches. Break white yarn and switch to red yarn. Remove markers.

Body of foot:

Work sc blo in rounds for 15 rounds. At side stitch, break red yarn, attach white yarn.

Heel:
The heel is first worked in short rows that form a triangle. To turn the heel, stitches will then be picked up at either end of each row. This forms a cup shape for the heel.

RS: Work 20 sc across sock. Chain 1 and turn.
WS: Work 19 sc across. Chain 1 and turn.
RS: Work 18 sc across. Chain 1 and turn.

Continue like this until you have worked a short row of 10 sc across. Chain 1 and turn.

WS: work 10 sc across. Insert hook in side edge, draw up a loop, insert hook in skipped stitch of row below, draw up a loop, yarn over and draw through all loops. Sc2tog made. Ss in next side edge, turn. 11 sc plus 1 ss.

RS: skip ss and work even on 11 sc. At end of row, work sc2tog into side edge and stitch below. Work ss into next side edge, turn. 12 sc plus 1 ss.

Continue working as established until all 20 stitches are picked up and the heel is complete with the right side facing. Attach red yarn and continue working in rounds as before.

Cuff:

Work sc blo for 15 rounds. Work more if you wish for a longer cuff.

Trim:

If you have a Tunisian hook with a long cable, pick up stitches on the sock. Using white, pick up the first four stitches in the front loops and the last four in the back loops of those same stitches for an overlapping cuff. Make sure that the right side of your work faces the inside of the stocking so that when the cuff is folded down the right side is visible.

If not, simply chain 46 and work the lace pattern. Whip stitch the trim onto the cuff so the edges overlap.

Lace trim:

Foundation row: chain 46, pick up loop in 2nd chain from hook and each across. 46 loops on hook.

Work the return pass: yarn over hook, draw through one loop, then yarn over hook and draw through two loops across the rest of the stitches until you are at the beginning of your row, with one stitch on the hook, to work the next row.

This is the standard Tunisian return pass and it will be the return pass that is worked on every return row of this pattern.

Pattern row one:

(Please note that the first loop on the hook is not counted in the pattern stitch directions. This is your selvedge. By default it is a Tunisian simple stitch or TSS)

TSS2tog = insert hook in next two vertical bars of stitches to be worked, yarn over and draw up a loop. Decrease made.

*TSS2tog, yarn over* across to last vertical bar, TSS. Work standard return pass, treating yarn overs as stitches.

Row two:

Work TSS in each vertical bar and each eyelet hole that was made by the yarn overs from the previous row. Remember that the working loop on your hook corresponds to the very first stitch (the selvedge). Do not forget to pick up a stitch in the very last vertical bar – you may have to tug on it and straighten it up to see where it is.

Work standard return pass.

Work as many rows as you like, and end your work on a pattern row one, getting ready to work row two.

Final bind off:

Chain one, draw up the loop in next vertical bar and pass it through the loop on the hook to make a slip stitch. This binds off your work, similar to knitting. Work this slip stitch bind off across. Weave in loose ends.

Whip stitch the trim so that when folded down, the right side faces out.

I’m sitting in the food court of the shopping centre where I work. I decided to pull out a sock that I’m working on, whose pattern will be used in an upcoming FREE sock class for everyone who wants it.

I had worked on it during the bus ride across the city this morning and when I looked at it, I laughed out loud. No really, I LOL’d good and hard. I made the lady at the table beside me jump. Sorry about that!!

The reason I laughed is that I took a look at my sock and right away realized that I should snap a picture and share this with you. My sock is made toe-up. You can see that the toe is nice and relaxed looking. The body of the foot is proportionate and then suddenly in the last two inches or so, it looks like I made a bunch of decreases, except that I didn’t.

My sock shrank when I started to crochet on the bus this morning. I guess being cramped up between two men that insist on taking up all available space around them can have a negative impact on my gauge, eh?

This is why blocking is important, especially if your item is made of animal fibres. When you block something, you are setting the fibres – just like styling your hair. Some fibres have better memory than others just like some folks’ hair can hold a style better. Not only will blocking set the shape and reduce the effects of changes in gauge, like in the photo above, but it’ll help to open up lace and other stitch patterns meant to have visual impact.

Blocking doesn’t have to be an ordeal. Sock blockers can be purchased inexpensively at most craft stores or even made with corrugated cardboard.

And with that, I’m off to save the world from snarly eyebrows and fugly nails!!