Who ate the fishes?

New socks - knitted as part of the 52 plunge..


I ‘ve knitted the socks for myself. The pattern below assumes that you can knit socks as I have not explained anything basic. However you may use the chart on any basic sock patterns. I knitted the socks in Wollmeise 80/20 and 100 % sock yarn and used needle 2.

Cast on using Judy’s magic cast on. I did start with 14 loops on each needle and increased 4 stitches on every second needle until I did have in total 80 stitches. Distributed stitches with 41 on top needle and 39 on sole needle.
Toe border made with black and red. Note that chart below is 41 but the pattern calls for 20 stitches for one repeat – i.e. the last column is start of next pattern.

Thereafter I started fish pattern as follows:
On the sole I knitted pattern as follows
However note that after every row of fish and cats there are one row with only one strand – the blue.
After finishing the first row of fish, I started increase for gusset as follows. On the second row of fishrow two increase one stitch on each side of the middle stitch. Continue increasing on every second row. I made the following pattern with the increase - note however that I have a row of two blue stitches at each end of the increase before starting the sole pattern. I.e. I do have 19 sole pattern stitches at each end of the increase and I start the increase with two blue stitches on each side before making the colored stripes.
When completing the increase I stopped with one blue row prior to starting turning the heel. It is important to have one blue row to get a nice “edge” between the sole and the heel.
Set aside the 41 stitches on top and the 19 on each side of the increase. Make short rows by knitting one less each time with the remaining stitches until you have 11 stitches left. I turned without casting off – i.e. all stitches remains . Cut the yarn and start at one side. On each side of the 11 middle stitches pick up additional stitches to make the total stitches 39. The first row knit all stitches. Purl back until you have one stitch left. Knit that together with the first of the 19 stitches set aside on the separate needle.
Next row. Do not knit the first stitch, thereafter knit every second stitch and every second loose with yarn in back, continue until 2 stitches left. Knit one. The last one shall be knitted together with the first of the other 19 stitches set aside.
I st stitch loose off, purl back until 1 stitch left. Knit next together with the next of the 18 stitches set aside.
Continue these to rows until all 19 stitches are knitted together with the heel stitches. You will now have in total 80 stitches on the needle.

Continue with fish pattern. Row starts on the middle stitch back. On this row you will start with 3 fishes and 5 cats.
Next 3 fishes and 5 bones.
Next 1 fish and 7 cats.
Next All bones.
Last only cats.
I finished up with a hart border as follows:

Ribbed 3 knit 1 purl for 12 rounds, then 1 knit 1 purl for one row.
Next row – only knit the knit stitches and the last row only knit the purl stitches. Cast off. I used the method I’ve been told is called Italian cast off.

Send me an e-mail and I'll send the pattern as pdf (use the comment box).