Boot Socks: A Pattern

 I love boots. I love boots a lot. A LOT. But I also hate most of the socks out there, they're too short or ugly, and don't even get me started on how useless the thin "boot socks" are. I mean you're wearing boots, what are you supposed to do with wimpy socks. Anyway, I designed this sock to bridge the gap between versatility and cuteness. As with all of my patterns (more coming soon!) it's more of a "recipe" to sock greatness than a row by row...by row pattern, so some basic sock knowhow is needed.

Size: 7.5 foot circumference, customizable leg height and calve diameter.
Yarn: Berroco Vintage (though any dk or sport yarn would work, *see gauge.)
Needles: 5 US 5--3.75 mm
Gauge: 22 st in 4" of St. st.

Notes: This is a toe up sock with short row heels. Also it increases along a seam in the back to accommodate the calf. Calf sizes from 9.5" to 20" in diameter.

This website does a great job of explaining how to CO on and work toe up sock: http://www.wendyjohnson.net/blog/sockpattern.htm.

1) Using the above method work the toe until you have 40 stitches total. Distribute 10 st over four needles.
    Needle #1 and #2: top of foot, cable.
    Needle #3 and #4: bottom of foot, St st.

2) Work the Wandering Cable over half (20) st [top of foot], and k the other 20 [bottom of foot].

3) Continue until you reach desired foot length minus 1". This will ensure a snug fit, note if you are worried about sizing (ie making these for someone who's foot is not readily available) you might change this to 1/2" less than foot length.

4) Work short row shaping over the needles #3 and #4 [bottom of foot] until you have 6 wrapped st, 8 live unwrapped st, and 6 wrapped st. Finish short row shaping.

5) Redistribute st so that are three needles with:
    Needle #1: has 12 st.
    Needle #2: has 12 st.
    Needle #3: has 16 st.

6) Work st as follows:

    Needle #1: K.

    Needle #2: K.

    Needle #3: Row 1 of Cable.

7) Continue to work St st and Cable pattern on the needles indicated. A quick note, the number of m1's will be dependent on calf shaping (see section below). This mock up is just to show that in the middle of the back of the leg there is "seam", in reality it is the st you increase on either side of.

    Needle #1: K to last st, m1, k1.

    Needle #2: m1, K the rest of the stitches.

    Needle #3: Cable.

*On future rows k the m1 when you get to it.

Modification: When testing this pattern I found several of my testers had concerns about the "stay-up-ness" (technical term) of the sock and so they worked rib instead of St st and they incorporated the increases in the patten of the rib as they went along. Just a thought.

Calf increasing

The diameter of the calf can be altered from 9.5" to 20". Measure the widest part of your calf and multiply the number by 5. This number is the amount of stitches you will need to have total. Measure from the base of your heel how high you want your sock to be, take your calf increase number and divide it by the height. This gives you how many st per inch you will increase.

Calf increase= 

[(your calf)(5) -41] divided by height of leg from heel=how many st per inch you will increase.

The increases per inch comes in handy so that there aren't as many rows or st to count, just use markers to mark where you last increased and make sure these increases are evenly distributed per inch.

8) Continue working cable pattern and increases per in until you reach 2" from your target leg length. Work K1, P1 rib for 2" and bind off in pattern. For a more traditional Scottish flare ribbon can be treaded through the top couple of rows and tied to the side.

--INDEX--

1/1RPC= sl1 back, K1, P1.
1/1Lpc= sl1 front, P1, K1.
2st RC= sl1 back, K1, K1.
2st LC= sl1 front, K1, K1.

"Wandering Cable"

20 st repeat

Row 1:  P2, K2, P3, 2-st RC, P2, 2-st RC, P3, K2, P2. 

Row 2 and every even row: K the knit sts and P the purl sts. 

Row 3:  P2, K2, P2, [1/1 RPC, 1/1 LPC] twice, P2, K2, P2. 

Row 5:  P2, K2, P2, K1, P2, 2st LC, P2, K1, P2, K2, P2. 

Row 7:  P2, K2, P2, [1/1 LPC, 1/1 RPC] twice, P2, K2, P2. 

Row 8:  K the knit sts and P the purl sts.