To celebrate my birthday month, if you purchase any two of my patterns from this list during November: Something Lovely, Aster or Diamonds are Forever, you will receive an automatic 30% discount.

This sock pattern celebrates the Aster, the second most numerous family of flowers with over 23,000 currently accepted species. Aster means “star’ in Greek, referring to the appearance of some family members as a star surrounded by rays. It includes many lovely varieties that are used by florists, including dahlias, zinnias, chrysamthemums and sunflowers.

It was originally the MKAL pattern for the Socktober knitting activities at the Karori Flower Shop. It will also be the KAL sock for November on the on the Kiwiyarns Knits group. Come join in the fun! As November is also my birthday month, I will also be randomly selecting one or two participants to receive some Kiwi goodies during the month!

Finished size:

Small/Medium: 19.5cm/7¾ ” leg unstretched.
Large: 21.5cm/8½ ” leg unstretched
Materials: Any medium weight sock yarn is fine. This pattern is best suited to colourways that are similar to flowers - hand-dyed, semi-solid colours.

New Zealand examples of suitable yarn include Bleating Art Sock, Knitsch, Fibre Alive (sadly discontinued, but will be living on in some stashes!), Happy-go-knitty 100% BFL or alpaca/merino/nylon and any Doespins sock yarn.

Popular international yarns include Koigu, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd sock, Wollmeise, Sokkusu O, Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock, Rowan Fine Art… got the picture? ;-)

Commercial sock yarns that are not self-patterning would also be fine.

Knitter level: This pattern best suits an intermediate level knitter with a basic knowledge of lace and chart reading.

The pattern uses lace stitches, and therefore the fit is relaxed. I have reduced the number of stitches in order to give the sock a snug fit for the specified sizes. It is available in medium and large size - the large uses a 64 stitch cast on - if you do not like your sock too snug, this might be the better size for you. Another way to alter fit for a larger size would be to use needles that are a size larger, ie. 2.5mm/US 1.5.

Materials:

• 100g medium weight sock yarn - approx 340m/370yd for the pattern

• a small cable needle

• DPNs (or circulars for magic loop) in the size to achieve gauge.