The Weirdest Socks I've Ever Knit

I recently finished the weirdest pair of socks I've ever knit. Let's take a deep dive, shall we?

This is the Gaudete sock pattern by Stephanie van der Linden. It was originally released as a mystery knit-along in 2010. It is now available for free in both English and German as a Ravelry download. Fun fact: "Gaudete" is Latin for "rejoice."

I made mine in West Yorkshire Spinners' Signature 4-Ply in the self-patterning colorway "Wood Pigeon." This is one of my favorite go-to yarns, and if you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it.

Now let's get into the nitty gritty. 

 

The Good:

These socks are unlike anything I've made before. The creative engineering that went into this design is impressive. Rather than create a traditional gusset on the side of the foot, this pattern has you build two triangular panels on the back of the heel while simultaneously knitting the instep stitches. When you turn the heel, you absorb all the extra stitches before you return to knitting in the round, so the bottom of the foot doesn't see a single decrease until you reach the toe. It's a very cool construction that I haven't seen elsewhere. 

The finished product is a well-fitting, attractive sock. I think the pattern would really shine in a tonal colorway, but even with a busy yarn, you can still appreciate the chevron pattern and the thoughtful shaping of the heel and toe. 

The pattern includes four sizes and gives specific foot lengths for EU shoe sizes 34-42. Although they're written to be a full-length, mid-calf sock, some folks have made them shorter and they're absolutely adorable.

 

The Bad:

As much as I admire the ingenuity of this pattern, the instructions aren't as easy to follow as I would like. I found myself glued to the charts for the instep pattern because the decreases didn't feel intuitive. She also has a habit of saying things like "repeat 9 times" instead of "repeat until 16 stitches remain," so there's a lot of counting and tally marking to do at certain stages of the sock. This is probably not the best project to take to Knit Night. 

I realized -- entirely too far into the project to do anything about it -- that when she indicates to increase with an "ML" or "MR," she does not mean "Make 1 Left" or "Make 1 Right;" she means "Make 1 Purlwise" and "Make 1 Knitwise." After making this discovery, I threw that advice out the window and just used the increases I wanted on the second sock. They both turned out fine, it's just something to be aware of.

You and I should both take these criticisms with a grain of salt, as this pattern is over 15 years old. The Internet and the knitting world were different places back then (PetiteKnit wouldn't exist for another six years, btw). Plus, this was originally released in chunks as a make-along, so its initial batch of knitters had pre-portioned pieces to work on. Even though this pattern doesn't feel as polished as most of what we're seeing released today, it's still a complete, unique pattern that deserves a chance at your needles. 

The Weird:

The pattern calls for a double layered stockinette cuff. When you do that, you get a cool winged shape at the cuff, thanks to the chevron ribbing. I didn't trust a non-ribbed cuff to be stretchy enough or to provide enough stability at the calf, so I did one inch of 1x1 rib instead and then skipped straight to "Set-Up-Round 2" in the instructions. In hindsight, I wish I had reduced the length of the leg to compensate, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time.

When you get to the heel prep, this sock starts to look crazy. The chevron pattern goes one way and the heel gussets go another way, so for a while this looks more like a modern art sculpture than a sock. It was very much a "trust the process" knit for me at this point.

To achieve the tapered pattern on the top of the foot, you increase stitches on the bottom of the foot. This creates a strange bulging that one could call "arch shaping" or one could call "half-full water balloon." I have high arches, so this worked out fine for me. If you have normal-to-flat shaped feet, I would  recommend placing the increases at the edges of the foot instead of centering them under the foot.

As written, the pattern ends with a row of six stitches and you cinch them together like the top of a hat. I found this didn't work well with my foot shape, so I modified it. I decreased down to 8 stitches (instead of 6), then grafted the left and right sides together. If you're planning to make this sock, maybe browse through the finished projects on Ravelry and see if the toe shaping looks like a good fit for your feet.

What's the weirdest, "trust the process" knit you've made? Do you know another wonky sock construction I should try? Let me know in the comments!