The Dizzy Diamonds Socks are a fun, slightly-eye-bending way to jazz up an otherwise-vanilla pair of socks! Grab the brightest contrast mini you can find and splash that colour on the leg of the sock for an exciting burst of graphic colourwork. Why make another pair of vanilla socks when you can make something that makes people say “WOW!”

Pattern Description

These socks have a plain foot and a stranded-colourwork leg. They have a contrast afterthought heel (with optional afterthought gussets that offer a roomier heel fit) that allows you to use self-striping, self-patterning, or pooling yarn continuously with no breaks. The pattern is written for four sizes and they are completely adjustable to fit any foot length. Corresponding written instructions are provided for the chart, and video resources are linked for many of the required techniques.

This pattern requires the knitter to be able to knit with two colours at once on a small circumference in the round (the pattern is method-neutral to suit your preferred technique for socks). It clearly explains all techniques for increases, decreases, and short rows.

This pattern provides both toe-up and cuff-down instructions.

Yarn Requirements and Sizing

Sizes available: Small (Medium, Large, XL) — 50 (60, 70, 80) st on the foot, with some sizes having more stitches in the colourwork section — to fit foot circumferences of approximately 15.5 (18, 21, 24) cm / 6.125 (7, 8.25, 9.5) inches; both the foot length and the leg height are adjustable.

Yarn requirements (particularly for the Main Colour) will vary widely depending on your finished foot length, but average foot lengths will need approximately 175 (225, 250, 275) m / 190 (250, 275, 300) yards for the Main Colour and 90 (100, 110, 120) m / 95 (110, 120, 135) yards for the Contrast Colour.

Go wild with your colours for these socks! They look good in pretty much any style of yarn for the Main Colour — self-striping, self-patterning, pooling, speckled, etc. — but the effect of the stitch pattern is easiest to see if the Contrast Colour is a solid or semisolid that contrasts well with all the colours in the Main Colour yarn.

These socks are rated 3/5 — Intermediate — on my sock pattern difficulty scale. This is because while they require some stranded colourwork, the foot of the sock is plain, and the colourwork pattern is very intuitive and it only very rarely requires catching strands.

This pattern is available on the knitCompanion app! You can get a version prepared specifically for kC compatibility here. #kcdesign