Carved stone ball socks are knit from the top down, the stretchy stitch pattern, plus the option to knit the leg and foot to any length means that they will fit most women’s feet. The ribbed heel flap gives the sock more grip around your heel. The pattern is written for one size only - to fit an average women’s foot of 7 – 9” / 17.5 – 23cm.

You will need at least 300m of sock weight yarn and 5 DPNs in size 2.25mm (or US size 1) to knit a pair of these socks. More yarn will be needed if you wish to do lengthen the leg (15 cm in the pattern) or lengthen the foot. The pattern looks great in solid or semi-solid yarns. Heavily variegated yarn may obscure the pattern.

You will need a darning/sewing needle to sew in the ends.

The patterns for the leg and foot are provided as charts with written instructions for the cuff, heel flap, shaping the heel, gusset, gusset shaping and toe. The charts can be found at the end of the pattern. The charts should be read from right to left. The row number is given at the right hand side of the charts where you should start your rows.

The pattern is based on the amazing and mysterious carved stone balls that have been excavated from the prehistoric site of Skara Brae on Orkney. No one knows what these balls were for but they are beautifully carved and only found in Scotland.