Socks of Angst by Kim Driggs

Socks of Angst

Knitting
January 2015
Light Fingering ?
32 stitches and 52 rows = 4 inches
in stockinette
US 1 - 2.25 mm
460 yards (421 m)
Adult S[M, L] circumference; S[M, L] foot length
English
This pattern is available for free.

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Circumference: 78, 9 inches
Foot Length: 89, 10 inches
Leg Length: 8 inches

In video games and comics, a common theme is that the more angst the hero has, the more buckles they have on their clothing. This seems to be particularly true in stories drawn from myth and legend. So why shouldn’t our angsty hero lose their buckles when they take off their boots? In these socks, horizontal cables lead to a stylized cable “buckle.” The soles are in reverse stockinette (to soothe your troubled soles).

This sock, rather than being knit from the cuff or the toe, is knit from one side to the other. It is started on one side with Judy’s magic cast on (or any other toe up cast on). Increases are worked at one end for the toe and halfway up the cast on for the heel. The sock is then worked even (for the flat middle of the toe and heel). Decreases are then worked to mirror the increases, and the other side of the sock is Kitchener stitched shut.

This sideways construction allows cables to run perpendicular to the usual direction, mimicking the buckles and straps on a pair of boots. Left and right socks are mirror images of each other, with the “buckle” running approximately two thirds of the way across the top of the sock from the outer edge