I adore pumpkins. While I never cared for carving jack-o-lanterns, I loved the pumpkin cookies my family had at Halloween and Thanksgiving and I loved seeing the squash at home and in stores. They are one of the things I miss living in Europe, since I strictly maintain the squash here are not the same.

So I will make myself pumpkin socks! I am calling them pun’kin socks, since that is about what it sounds like when I say it, in a gushy voice that I can’t seem to resist.

Pattern: It doesn’t have gauge information. I realize that the pattern is free, but I really miss that. My gauge was 8st/inch on 2 2mm metal (one steel, one nickel) circulars, for reference.

Yarn: Cascade heritage is currently my go-to fingering weight yarn, and I am for the most part quite happy with it. This particular skein is not as soft as others I’ve used, which might be a particularity of the color or batch.

Execution: Cast-on was done using the long-tail cast-on. The first attempt was with 68 stitches around, but that was too snug on my leg, so I restarted with 72 stitches. Cuff and leg were three repeats each, instead of four as pattern directed; any more and I would have needed to add calf-shaping. This requires modifying the heel turn a bit (by the way, the heel turn here seems to be identical to that of Silver’s sock class); I substituted the number 20 for 18 in the first short row of the heel turn, and picked up 17 stitches on each side to make the gusset (16 from the heel flap and 1 from the corner). The foot is five repeats long, with one plain knit row immediately after the pattern’s “finish row.” I then decreased following pattern instructions until I had 40 stitches, immediately followed with another decrease row, and then grafted the remaining 36 stitches shut.

I am happy with how the socks turned out, as they were my first cuff-down pair. I am not thrilled with the heel flap, purely because I think I’d prefer something that feels thicker/sturdier behind my foot. The ribbed one specified in the pattern fits the theme, though.