Heavyweight Watson Socks by Katie Birkwood
I stumbled across Sherry Menton's Elementary Watson sock pattern (Ravelry link) by chance when I was shortly planning to knit a pair of cabled men's socks from a couple of balls of wonderful undyed wool. It turned out that the yarn was a very heavy 4ply (fingering weight), and wouldn't knit to anything near the 8 stitches/inch necessary for the pattern. Undeterred, I worked out my own revised version to accommodate the larger gauge, and here is how I did it.
Yarn
Blacker Designs Pure Organic Wool Corriedale/Hebridean ‘4-ply', 2 skeins (c. 380 yds), or any sport weight or very heavy 4ply (fingering weight) wool of c. 12 wraps per inch.
Needles
3.25mm (US 3) for sock, 2.25mm (US 1) for cuff (Pattern originally written for knitting in the round on two circular needles. I used 4 double pointed needles)
Gauge
6.25 sts and 9.5 rows per 1 inch
NOTES
This adapted pattern is not written out in full. You will need to consult the original pattern (links above) in conjunction with it. The original pattern charts the front and back of the sock in two pieces. Out of personal preference, I have thought of each design element--the cables and the chevron pattern--as two separate entities that alternate around the sock. In the original pattern the two design elements are 6 and 12 rows respectively, meaning that they are always 'in synch', and that cable crosses always occur on rows 5 and 11 of the chevron pattern. In order to accommodate a different gauge, I have had to reduce the chevron pattern to a repeat of 8 stitches over 8 rows, meaning that the two elements are no longer so easily related to each other. In my version, cable crosses occur on rows 5, 3, 1 and 7 of successive chevron patterns (crosses 1 and 7 are in the same repeat of the chevron pattern). The original pattern specifies that the gusset increases and heel turn should coincide with the end of 12-row pattern blocks. As the repeat in my version is 24 rows, this would severely limit the sizing possibilities, and I therefore started the gusset increases and placed the heel without regard to the position in the pattern. When starting the leg pattern after the heel turn I advise knitting plain until a suitable starting place is reached, for example waiting up to 7 rows so that the chevron pattern is started on row 1 (to match the position at the front of the sock), and waiting up to 5 rows until the cable chart is started. I discovered when knitting the socks that I'm very fussy about how ribbing flows out of cables, and have therefore included a slightly convoluted set-up round for the cuff of the socks. If you are not as fussy as me (very likely indeed!) then you can omit the set-up round and knit the cuff as directed in the original pattern. These notes are intended as a guide to the alterations I made, and not as a fully-written-out pattern. If anything's unclear or confusing please let me know and I'll be happy to try and explain it more fully.
CHARTS
Increase Chart Right
Chevron Pattern
PATTERN
TOE
Cast on 8 stitches on each needle (16St), and proceed as in original pattern (place marker after 4th stitch on needle 2) until 30 stitches on each needle (60st total). FOOT Work needle 2 all in knit stitch throughout On needle 1, work Increase Chart Right, Chevron Pattern Chart, and Increase Chart Left. After 6 rounds you will have completed the Increase Charts and will have 36 stitches on needle 1 (66st total). Continue working Chevron Pattern as set, and start and end needle 1 with the Cable chart. From this point, cable crosses will occur on rounds 3, 1, 7, and 5 of the Chevron Pattern, and the two patterns will be in synch every 24 rows. Continue as set until the sock measures 2 inches less than required.
GUSSET INCREASES
Work as in original pattern until 10 stitches have been increased on either side (20st increased, 86st total) HEEL Turn the heel as in original pattern. LEG Knit across needle 2. Continue needle 1 in pattern as set. On needle 2, knit plain until the correct row is reached to start the Chevron Pattern and Cables at row 1 of their charts. This is likely to be on different rows for each element. Continue as set until the sock reaches the desired length. CUFF Set-up round (discretionary): \*P1, K1, P2tog, K1, P1, K1, LLpurlinc (see note), K1, P1, K1, P2tog, {K1, P1} 3 times, M1, {P1, K1} 2 times, repeat from \* twice more (66st). Following rows: work P1 K1 ribbing around. When cuff is desired length bind off using a stretchy bind off (Il used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off).
STITCH NOTE
LLpurlinc: Insert left needle into the stitch below the stitch just worked on the right needle. Purl into the front of this lifted stitch.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Katie Birkwood is a knitting musician librarian from Cambridge, UK. She is girlinthemoon on Ravelry and blogs (about libraries) at Girl in the Moon. She can be emailed at maedchenimmond@gmail.com Original pattern by Sherry Menton adapted and distributed with the author's permission. This pattern @ Katie Birkwood 2010. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 3.0 license, http: / /creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-sa/3.0/.
