Garter or Purled socks?

#1

Hey all. I’ve put aside my botched sock yarn project and pulled out something more my size, but I need pattern suggestions.

It’s the most loverliest purple yarn, a blend of merino wool and silk It has a rather nice sheen to it. While making a swatch, I noticed that garter stitches show off the sheen much better than stockinette.

Any suggestions on a sock pattern that features purl or garter? I guess I could just take a standard pattern and wear them inside out, but that just seems, well, ick. If it matters, it’s a very light worsted (maybe a DK?) and I plan on using size 2 needles which lands at 7 stitches/inch. I could probably adapt a pattern to match my yarn/gauge, though.

(Note: I’ve seen the sideways garter stitch knee-highs, but that’s not quite what I’m looking for.)

Suggestions?

#2

I made a pair of socks in a pattern called Tumbling Blocks. It’s a free pattern on the Crystal Palace website. It has “subtle design (based on a quilt pattern)” of little blocks made up of knit and purl stitches on the leg and then a plain stockinette foot for comfort.
I don’t know if you could adapt this pattern, it’s a pretty simple sock pattern but as written it uses fingering weight. I just thought the little block design might really catch the sheen of your pretty yarn.

http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/panda-wool-tumblks-sock.html

#3

Oh, that’s cute. I like the mixture of knit areas, straight purled areas, and moss-stitch areas. Food for thought. Thanks!

#4

Here’s a site I love to look at for sock ideas and patterns. http://www.knittychick.com/free_sock_patterns.htm

#5

Ack! But, you see, that’s too many options. Over-pattern-whelming. :slight_smile: (Bookmarked for later, though, so thanks!)

FWIW, I ended up choosing just to do them in a garter rib. I have to admit: I’m a genius. :sun: It’s showing off the yarn nicely while creating some interesting subtle detail that I wouldn’t have expected. (The knit stitches completely hide while there are nice vertical lines where the “rib” flips.)

I may die of k2p2 boredom, but it’s pretty enough that I can’t complain.

Edit: I googled “garter rib” out of curiosity and found out that there are at least four different interpretations of the stitch, especially where socks are concerned. So, for the record, this is the stitch pattern I’m using.

#6

That looks like a cool pattern! Are you going to take a picture, when you are done?

#7

I actually tried to scan the in-progress socks to show. (My camera’s packed up somewhere.) I heard that scanners make great “cameras” for 3-dimensional objects because they pick up all the details.

Turns out, they pick up TOO MUCH detail! All the flaws and imperfections that don’t show up to the naked eye… they show up on the scanned picture! Ugh.

So, as soon as I dig up my camera, I’ll post something. :slight_smile: