Self-striping sock yarn is always enjoyable to knit, and when you pull a self-striping sock out among non-knitters, they always think it’s a bit like magic. But after knitting dozens of self-striping socks in stockinette with a ribbed cuff, I wanted to change things up a bit, and the easiest way to do that seemed to be to add some texture.

These socks, designed specifically for self-striping sock yarn, have two reverse stockinette “tubes” on either end of a section of ribbing on the leg. The three-dimensional tubes are intended to be worked in the color in your striping sequence that stands out from the rest, and they’re created by working a joined hem at the cuff and a welt just above the heel.

As to the name, it comes from an old Daily Show bit to illustrate the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens’s explanation of the internet. Even all these years later, I still find it amusing.

To knit these socks, you need to know how to:

• work in stockinette and reverse stockinette in the round,
• pick up stitches from a previous round and join them with live stitches,
• slip stitches,
• work basic decreases (k2tog, ssk, p2tog),
• pick up stitches along an edge, and
• graft live stitches using Kitchener stitch.

The amount of yarn needed will depend on the size knit and length of foot. Although the pattern has been written for sport weight, it will easily work with a fingering weight yarn as well.

Tech editing by TECHsorcist