The Piper Socks’ striking plaid pattern is deceptively simple. It’s basically one row of light and dark stitches worked in stranded colour knitting. The colours are switched to create the effect of woven plaid material. The socks are worked top down, with a short row heel that has no “wrap and turns”. Instead, you simply work one stitch less on each heel row and then work one more stitch on the second half of the heel by slipping a stitch, picking up the strand between the next two stitches and working them together like an SSK.