Socktoberfest!

Now's the perfect time to show off my Halloween socks with the Jack O' Lantern heels. These are my own design; I didn't write up a pattern, but I can share the graph for the heel. They're made of Kroy sock yarn; I remember the orange color is called Orangina; don't remember what color I used for the rest.

If you want to create a pair for yourself, you'll need a basic 56-stitch sock pattern; here's a good one. I did a couple of rounds of orange in the middle of the cuff, which is 12 rounds altogether. I would make the cuff longer if I was to do it over again, tho'. Then plain stockinette for the leg, until you get to the fun part - the heel!

The heel is done in plain stockinette, not heel stitch. The graph is worked from the top down, since that's the direction you're working the heel. Notice that the graph shows 27 rows, beginning with a RS row. I always start my heels with a WS row, which I did in blue, then began the heel graph, for a total of 28 rows. The sock pattern linked above only has 26 rows in the heel, but it won't hurt a thing if you knit 28. Of course, you won't be doing the k1, sl1 on the RS rows, or knitting the last stitch on WS rows, but I do recommend slipping the first stitch of each row.

On the first sock, I just knitted the "body" of the jack o' lantern, using the intarsia method. I had three skeins going: orange for the pumpkin, and two blue, one for each side of the heel. Do yourself a favor--wind a small ball of the orange and the blue, to make this part easier to manage. Once the heel was done, but before I continued with the foot, I embroidered the face of the jack o'lantern using duplicate stitch. Once that was done, I continued the sock like usual, and finished up with an orange toe.

I found I didn't much like doing duplicate stitch, so for the second sock, I made the pumpkin as before, except I made the face using stranded (fair isle) knitting. This isn't as hard as it sounds; I just carried the main color along the back of the knitting on the rows that had the features, knitting in the eyes, etc. rather than doing them later. I enjoyed that more than duplicate stitch, but it did require concentration.

Except for the heels, these socks are easy TV knitting, but a little bit of extra work at the heel makes for some very fun socks! I typically wear these with slip-on shoes, so I can easily show them off. Of course, they'd be perfect for clogs!

If anyone has any questions, put them in the comments. I'll do my best to answer.