Overview photo of the completed pair of socks. Note the heel stitch base on this pair, which was a bit of an additional experiment. Photo of one of the socks being worn, which opens up the pattern and shows it off.
Pattern Custom design
SizeAdult women's size 9
NeedlesUS 3 - 3.25 mm
Yarn
Patons North America Kroy Socks, Kool Stripes - 2 skeins

This is a design largely inspired by one particular design here on Ravelry… that I can’t actually find anymore. :( Of course, this is hardly an original idea, and so there are at least a couple other patterns i’ve found that use a similar theme, including:

In this particular design, I opted for a diagonal set of both eyelets and twisted stitches. The result is a bit more busy than other designs, but combined with the self-striping yarn, I think the result is kinda whimsical (like a delicious novelty candy cane).

The base structure will be the same as all my socks: toe-up, magic cast-on, reverse dutch heel, and JSSBO cast-off. Like my Grandma’s Sock project, I’m also using this project to try out the use of heel stitch across the entire bottom of the foot, for increased durability.

Update:

And naturally I didn’t realize that this particular yarn recommends a size 3 needle, rather than the size 1’s I was using. It wasn’t until the gusset that I realized that a) the fabric was oddly stiff, and b) I was running dangerously short of yarn.

So I’ve frogged, rewound my yarn ball, and am now starting again with size 3’s. Woo.

Update 2:

Aaaand done. This took way longer than I had expected, in part because I ended up coming up with my own decrease for the right-leaning spiral sock (most decreases resulted in a very noticeable line beside the YOs, while the one I use, though still prominent, doesn’t produce a solid leaning line of stitches).

The stitch pattern for these socks is:

Left lean: Twist left, k5, yo, k2tog, k3 Right lean: Twist right, k3, weird k2tog, yo, k5

Twist left:

  1. Knit second stitch tbl, with needle and yarn behind the piece.
  2. K2tog tbl.

Twist right:

  1. K2tog but leave on left needle.
  2. K1 through first stitch, then slip off both stitches.

Weird k2tog:

  1. S1 knitwise, then return to left needle.
  2. k2tog tbl.

Update 3:

Fun fact: The decrease that I came up with on my own is, in fact, the same one used in the pattern I’ve chosen for the Koopmans’ baby blanket, thus providing an excellent example of “unvention”…