These are knee-high socks with extra ease in the calf area to fit people with sturdy legs. Most of the leg is knit in ribbing for extra stretch.
The pattern can be made with worsted weight yarn or with TWO strands of fingering weight yarn held together throughout. I made the sample pair of two strands of Brown Sheep’s Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn. The sample pair is size XL for a ladies 8.5 size shoe and a 16” calf circumference. The sample pair had slightly variant gauge: one was 6 stitches per inch, the other was 6.5 stitches per inch. They both fit perfectly.
For the XL size, I used nearly all of 4 balls of the Wildfoote, using 2 strands together throughout. I had a full ounce (32 g) of color A yarn left, so I believe a knitter could make the L size with only 3 balls of Color A. Five balls would be needed for the XXL size.
Only 1 ball of Color B is needed for any size.
If worsted weight yarn is used, start with 400 yds for L, 440 yds for XL and 600 yds for XXL in color A.
For people who can’t wear wool, I recommend a stretchy non-wool yarn be used. Don’t try pure cotton or silk as neither of them have any stretch.