(In My) Solitudes

Apologies in advance to the late, great Duke Ellington.

I finished up my Solitude Socks. Very squishy and very warm. Here’s the recipe, in a nutshell.

I started with a 32-inch size 2 circular needle, then using Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-on, I started with 10 stitches. Using the magic loop method, I knit a row, and then increased every other row until I hit 22 stitches per side, 44 total stitches in circumference. I knit two more rows, then started 2x2 ribbing on the instep of the sock – the row starts and ends with two knit stitches.

When I got to where I wanted to do the short row heel, I used double wraps and started the heel on 8 unwrapped stitches. This is the only part of the socks I wasn’t entirely happy with. Despite double-wrapping the short row stitches, I still ended up with little holes. Janelle suggested trying the no-wrap short row heel technique at Happy Knits. I’ll try to remember this for next time.

After the heel was completed, I knit 15 rows as I had for the foot of the sock, and then switched to 2x2 ribbing for the remainder of the cuff. As mentioned earlier, the front of the sock started and ended with two knit stitches– now the back of the cuff started and ended with two purl stitches. I knit until it looked like I was running out of yarn, then I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off.

And that’s it! Now I have a nice, thick, warm pair of socks. Thanks for this yarn, Janelle!