I just wanted to make some simple socks. Sometimes life is chaotic and messy, so it’s nice to have a relaxing, not too complicated something on the needles. The idea was simple: a six stitch, six row repeat.

Did I mention that sometimes life gets chaotic? When chaos reigns, a person might shift the beginning of the round by 3 stitches after working two repeats and not realize it until 12 rounds later.

Rather than rip back and resume the simplicity, I declared this a design feature, and these socks were born. Granted, this turns a 6-row chart into an 18-row chart on the leg with a shift on row 12. That leads to some instep charts that are even longer that include 3 stitches that may or may not be worked depending on which size and which row you’re working. I promise, it looks much more complicated than it actually is.

With that said, you may be wondering what does any of this have to do with the not-at-all-common term “Prettified Thrash”. The same chaos that let to shifting the beginning of the round also made finding a creative and unique pattern name more challenging than it should be. So I resorted to the one thing that made sense: an anagram generator. “Shift Third Repeat” isn’t the most exciting name, but “Prettified Thrash” makes me laugh, and laughter is an excellent weapon against chaos.