Pin of the Week: A Simple Stockinette Sock

As you may know I’ve declared this the Summer of Socks if for no other reason than I need to amuse myself. Over at About I’m sharing patterns, books and techniques for knitting better socks, and I recently came across a pin on Pinterest that led me to Susan B. Anderson’s excellent blog post about how she knits stockinette socks.

A plain stockinette sock is as easy as sock knitting gets, and once you’ve done it once it really is easy. But you’ll find yourself coming back to a basic pattern over and over again because you don’t really have to think about what you’re doing, so you can knit them anywhere, and they come together pretty quickly because you’re just knitting round after round.

Stockinette socks are perfect for building your sock wardrobe and for wearing every day. Isn’t that a lovely life goal: to only wear handknit socks? I could get behind that.

In addition to the basic pattern, her recommendations for books and other resources are spot-on, so be sure to read to the end.

[Photo via Susan B. Anderson.]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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