For this sock, I wanted to create a pattern with visual interest mixing traditional techniques. Twisted stitches and lace sounded appealing so I turned to Barbara Walker’s, A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, for inspiration. Gable Pattern caught my eye and I modified it to create a stacked effect for the leg, separating columns of motifs with a simple rib. Sizing up the pattern created a challenge—my first thought was to increase the width of the rib between the columns, but I didn’t like how it threw off the balance of the design. Instead, it was back to the drawing board and the final result is a bigger motif for the larger size. The eye of partridge heel has always been a favorite of mine, and the tone-on-tone shading of the Nature’s Palette yarn along with slipping the stitches knitwise really makes the heel design pop.

Don’t be put off by the yo at the beginning of a dpn on the instep, it’s really easy to do. Just bring the yarn forward and let it hang in front of the work, insert your dpn into the next st, then bring the yarn up and over the needle. Voila, a yo! Or you’re more than welcome to redistribute the sts on your needles to avoid having a yo at the beginning of a dpn.