I know we use the heel stitch to make the heel of socks a bit thicker; slipping every other stitch gives us a double layer of yarn over the heel. So for a bed sock, why not used slipped stitches to make the whole thing doubly thick and cozy?
I finished one, almost. I won’t commit to grafting that toe until I’m done playing with my stitch patterns! I have a Dotty slip stitch pattern on the leg of the sock, but I didn’t want that underfoot. Even though this is intended to be a bed sock (worsted weight, warm), I didn’t want those bumps on the sole. At first I tried using the double stitch stripe on the whole foot, but it was hard for me to carry the floats loosely. I put them just on the sole.
But the heart wants what the heart wants. As you can see, now I’m trying the stripes on the leg first, to see if I can keep things loose enough there. If yes, then I can do it on the foot, too. I kind of love the idea of vertical stripes on leg and foot, and a band of horizontal stripes across the gusset shaping. (Partly because working the decreases into the vertical stripe pattern seemed like a pain in the…foot? But I’ll think about it again when I get there on the second sock.) Also, I want the purple foot stripe to begin right after a purple gusset stripe, and end right before the purple toe. I don’t like the purple bar floating against the orange background. See how nice it looks snugged up to the ribbing on the second sock?
Do I want to explain all of this in a pattern, or just make these for myself for fun? It would be a quick gift knit.
I love these colors. Malabrigo Rios, in Lavanda (purple) and Archangel. It feels like fall to me. And I’m sitting here in the backyard, making the most of a gloriously sunny day. Rain tomorrow!
PDXKnitterati 
I would love a pattern. They look snuggly and warm.
Great gift giving!
And quick, because they’re worsted weight!
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I agree with Terri: if I could knit still – and especially if I could knit socks ! – I would make dozens of pairs for gifts .. you couldn’t go wrong ! 🙂
You’ll note that these are worsted weight socks, which means big yarn and big needles! I’m not a fussy small needle sock knitter. Not enough patience for that!
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Those are beautiful colors and the pattern shows them off so well.
Doesn’t it look like a witchy Halloween sock?!
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They are coming out beautiful no matter how you end up choosing to do the final pattern. You are so very creative. I love it when you give us a peek into your process of deciding what looks good, but what might look better!
There’s so much “what if I do this? or that?” when working through ideas. It’s really fun! And it usually works out, eventually…
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TWO patterns – or one with options; I LOVE options!
I like the dots, but like the stripes too (I don’t usually).
I wear some kind of sock to bed almost year ‘round – Reynaud’s Syndrome = cold feet, fingers, nose – almost regardless the weather.
The dots are nice, but I *love* how graphic the stripes are. But the transitions between the leg/instep/foot are different for the dots vs. the stripes, because of how I want them to look. That’s a lot of explaining if they’re both in the same pattern. Still thinking about it. Maybe I can make it work!
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