The Friendship Bracelet Socks are inspired by the simple expression of friendship embodied by brightly-coloured threads intricately woven together. Learning to work a complex pattern in thread was a rite of passage for many of us as young tweens, and may have led to an interest in other ways of using string… like knitting!

Pattern Description

These toe-up socks combine chains of contrast-colour elongated stitches and small cables to form crisscrossing braid motifs that let you play with six (or more!) different colours. They feature a classic gusset and heel flap construction and a twisted-rib cuff.

This pattern requires the knitter to be able to knit a small circumference in the round (the pattern is method-neutral to suit your preferred technique for socks — double-pointed needles, magic loop, circular needles, etc.). Not feeling confident about this non-traditional colourwork technique? It’s much easier than it looks, and don’t worry — there are plenty of resources available in the pattern to help you if you need it:

• The pattern clearly explains all the necessary stitches, including the no-cable-needle cables. There are full corresponding written instructions for every graphic chart.
• There is a detailed photo tutorial included in the pattern that shows all of the initial charted toe rounds, including how to get started on the vertical colourwork.
• There is another photo tutorial showing how to work all the necessary cables, step-by-step.
• Prefer video assistance? This pattern also includes links to multiple video tutorials, including one that shows how to work all of the cables in this pattern, on the sample for these socks specifically.

Yarn Requirements and Sizing

Sizes available: Adult Small (Medium, Large) to fit foot circumferences of 18 (20.5, 23) cm / 7 (8, 9) inches. The finished foot lengths and leg heights are written to be adjustable to fit. (Note that toe-up sock sizing is heavily dependent on row gauge, so if your gauge is different than the pattern gauge, you will need to adjust your gusset start point accordingly to get your desired fit. Pattern support assistance for individual fit adjustments is available via email.)

These socks require a Main Colour and small amounts of 6-12 Contrast Colours:

• Main Colour: 300 (325, 350) m / 325 (350, 375) yards required.
• Contrast Colours: approximately 10 m / 11 yards each for six colours, as in the sample pair; to avoid having to re-join CC strands after running out, I recommend that each colour used on the foot and front of the leg has at least 3 m / 3.25 yards of length available, and that each colour used on the heel flap and back of leg has at least 2 m / 2.25 yards of length available.

Note that even if you use fewer Contrast Colours, you will still need separate strands of yarn for each vertical chain of stitches. If you prefer to keep the CC yarns in balls or cakes and not cut the strands, an easy and simple yarn management strategy for this is explained in the pattern document.

These socks are rated 4/5 — Adventurous — on my sock pattern difficulty scale. This is because they use a non-traditional colourwork technique and require managing multiple yarns, as well as following several charts that span the majority of the sock, including the toe, heel flap, and cuff.