After knitting what seems like a gazillion pairs of socks since the start of 2016, I have distilled my basic recipe into this pattern. Use it to knit your first (or tenth or hundredth) pair of vanilla socks, or do as I do and use as a base for combining with other patterns.

After following the link to my blog, you will have your choice of a standard pattern with cute pictures or a super condensed version that is meant to fit on a single piece of paper when printed double-sided. Use one or both, whichever speaks to your heart more.

Update: There is now also a version which contains a recipe for non-standard stitch counts too!

Update #2: Want to make short socks instead? There’s a mod for that!

The pattern has been test-knit, but if you find any mistakes please let me know.

Some tutorials that might be helpful for beginners:

• German twisted cast-on

• Picking up along garter stitch edge (for the heel flap), version 1 and version 2 (same method but one might be easier to follow than the other for some people)

• Kitchener stitch