Nontraditional stranded colorwork design is a great interest of mine and I continue to explore the possibilities of non-horizontal patterns that are still repeats and are suitable for use on socks. These all over flower blossom socks gain a more random appearance from a floral repeat that is not horizontal. Rather, the blossom motif is staggered in low spirals to the left or the right in a larger repeat pattern. This contributes to a more chaotic or random appearance of the blossoms as opposed to tamely lining up in horizontal rows or alternating in a diamond layout. These socks are a veritable riot of blossoms—do not attempt unless you love flowers!

I’m also a big fan of adornment and embellishment and so I originally planned some framing horizontal patterns at the cuff and toe. But I loved the wild look of these blossoms as they were, and really couldn’t bring myself to squelch their exuberant expression so apart from a single framing round of the dark yarn at the start and end of the blossoms, I have added no additional patterns/motifs to add to the appearance. The striped under the heel gusset wedge is the exception, of course, but does not visually intrude on the flower show due to its location.

To accommodate this non horizontal aspect a larger repeat pattern in width and in length is necessary. Thus, the accompanying charts are fairly large: 51 x 51. In addition, they are mirror images of each other so that you can knit a left and right sock as shown. There are a few areas in the chart where there are some longer runs of the background or lighter color; knitters will have to make sure to catch the floats every 4 or so stitches and to stretch them out adequately as they go.

These socks are worked top down with a standard heel flap and a wide toe. The gussets are placed on the heel and make a wedge as they are consumed. This pattern is appropriate for an intermediate or expert knitter with experience in reading charts. The colorwork pattern is given as a chart. It is sized for women with 4 sizes available, with the larger sizes being appropriate for men also.

• I knit socks on 4 DPNs at a time; I have attempted to generalize my instructions for folks who use other needle set ups.

• Yarn recommendations: a solid, light and bright colored yarn for the background. For the flowers: a bright, possibly somewhat variegated yarn or other dark solid in a strongly contrasting color.

Materials:
Yarn for XL as shown:
--Dark yarn: Baah La Jolla, 100% superwash merino, colorway: August ’18 (a lightly variegated red/magenta). 45 g. or 157 yds.

--Light yarn: Wonderland Yarns, Cheshire Cat light fingering, 100% superwash merino,
colorway #59, Globe of Goldfish. 52 g. or 236 yds.

Needles in size US 1 and 2 OR sizes needed to obtain the gauge
Stitch markers
Tapestry needle

Gauge:
36 ST and 33 row = 4 inches in stockinette over the blocked colorwork pattern using US 2 or the larger size needles.

Finished sizes: Women’s M (L, XL and XXL). The XL size is suitable for men’s L. Pictured socks were knit in size XL and fit me, a ladies size 11, comfortably and have the following unstretched measurements (after blocking): length of foot from back of heel to toe: 10”, height from bottom of heel to top of cuff: 10.5”, circumference of leg: 8”, circumference of ankle at widest point: 11”.