The Kings County Socks are the height of luxury. Their name and design was inspired in equal parts by this regal colourway of Malabrigo Sock Yarn and by Brooklyn’s unique mix of exaggerated aesthetics and no-nonsense attitude. Knit top-down in a 2x2 rib to hug your feet, they feature an optional foldover cuff, a strong style heel, and a deceptively simple cable pattern running down the length.

The pattern can be knit with either magic loop or DPNs and includes both charted and written instructions for the cable panel and heel increases. The cables themselves were inspired by a stitch pattern in Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook which is an invaluable design resource. The strong heel was originally developed by Gerdine Crawford-Strong and involves no wrapping when you turn your short rows and no picking up stitches which means that not only is it super easy (which is a huge plus if you’re lazy like me) but these socks are also technically reversible if you weave in your ends nicely enough! A photo tutorial (which can also be found on my blog) is provided for beginning and joining the provisional cast on used for the foldover cuff. If you choose to knit a traditional ribbed cuff instead, or would like a version of the pattern that doesn’t eat up all your ink, you can ignore this tutorial and simply print pages 1-6.

Sizes:
This pattern is written for both a small and a large size:
a 60 (or 68) stitch cast on will fit a leg circumference between 7-10 (8-12) inches.

If you’d like a sock that is larger or smaller than this I would suggest changing your needle size or yarn weight to follow these instructions in a larger or smaller gauge in order to maintain the proportions of the cable panel and 2x2 rib in the heel.

Gauge:
30 stitches and 42 rows per 4 inches/10 cm in stockinette stitch

Materials:
300 (350) yards/275 (320) meters of Malabrigo Sock (shown here in colourway Aniversario) or similar fingering weight yarn

Needles:

• one 2.5mm/US 1.5 circular needle (with at least 29” cord for magic loop) or DPNS for provisional cast on and body of sock - or whatever size necessary to obtain gauge
• one 2.25mm/US 1 circular needle (with at least 29” cord for magic loop) or DPNS for cuff - or a half size smaller than whatever you used to obtain gauge

Additional Tools:

• stitch markers, 2 per sock
• cable needle (optional)
• tapestry needle

This pattern has been tech edited and test knit!