A sure sign of spring: baby ducks on a pond, paddling in line, leaving a trail of bubbles in their wake. And mama duck makes a back and forth path, to guarantee that all of her ducks are in a row. The patterning in this sock pairs a bubble stitch together with delicate cables (worked with or without a cable needle), like the duck path through the water, to create a beautifully detailed panel. The Ducks and Bubbles pattern is mirrored for the right and left foot and runs the length of the sock. These customizable length, toe-up socks are constructed using a heel technique that does not require wraps-and-turns, a gusset, or a heel flap. Design has been test knit and tech edited for accuracy and clarity.

Sizes: Ladies small (medium, large) to fit a foot circumference of 7 (8, 9)” or 17.75 (20.25, 22.8)cm

Needles: US 1 (2.25mm) 32” circular needles for magic loop or other method of small circumference knitting or size needed to obtain gauge

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Springvale Sock, 3.5 oz (100g), 370 yards (338 m)
Colorway shown: Birds of a Feather
 

Special Techniques:

• Judy’s Magic Cast-on WITH(out) A TWIST: My cast-on method is a twist on the normal method. It eliminates the need to knit through the back loop (as you need to in the normal method for this cast-on). To see a video of my version, go here: http://youtu.be/iVoC6mRB668

• My heel technique uses a combination of basic heel shaping and the method for working short row stitches found in an early 2011 blog post on Shadow Wraps: http://socktopusunplugged.wordpress.com/tag/shadow-wrap/

• A fantastic pattern I’ve recently discovered that shows a similar but more detailed heel technique and includes pictures and a useful tutorial for sock-sizing can be found here (it is well worth the $1): http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fish-lips-kiss-heel

• To cable without a cable needle, a video that shows this technique with a different cable: http://youtu.be/sNB2FyUfQRs