Saturday 15 July 2017

My Patons Kroy Socks: Free Pattern

I love me some Patons Kroy. In the days before discovering my LYS, and the beautiful sock yarns to be had there, I flocked to Micheals for all of my yarny needs, and over the years I've grown quite the stash of Patons Kroy self paterning sock yarn.


However, having only found my way to sock knitting in the past few years, I put my Patons to some other, more interesting uses.


Prototypes for a cute self paterning yarn sweater... the neckline still needs working out also kroy is just way too scratchy for baby sweaters. Soooo maybe I'll come back to this one day.

Anyways, lately I love me a pair of Kroy Socks. Since the yarn, which is 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon, is a heavier fingering weight (bordering on sport weight), you should go up a needle size (we've all heard stories of kroy socks knit on US 1s that can stand up on their own. and some people have even knit them themselves). And going up a needle size with socks means coming down in stitch count.


I normall knit a 60 or 64 stitch sock, with fingering weight yarn on US 1 (2.25mm) needles. My Kroy socks I knit with 54 stitches on US 2 (2.75mm) needles. And you know what, besides the fact that self striping yarn knits faster, fewer stitches on bigger needles also makes one hell of a difference.

So below you'll find the pattern/recipe that I use for Kroy socks, it'll always be available here for free. But I also plan on writing up a sock pattern for top down heel flap and gusset socks, properly, and with photos to show exactly what I mean by picking up my stitches and such. That should be available for purchase (probably $2) on Ravelry in the next few weeks.

So here's how I knit my Kroy socks.

Materials

2 50g balls of Patons Kroy
US 2 (2.75mm) needles I use 9 inch circs for the cuffs and DPNs from the heel down
Darning needle and scissors for weaving in ends

Cast on 56 (or your desired #, remember, bigger needles=fewer stitches) stitches using a long tail cast on. Choose a colour change point for the first loop in your cast on if you want matchy matchy socks.

Knit in 2 by two ribbing for 2 inches or so, ending at a colour change point.

Knit even for desired leg length, depending on the length of the striping pattern, I like one or two repeats.

Heel Flap

To avoid disrupting the striping pattern on the front of the sock, join yarn from other end of ball (or in the first example, I used only the white with black specs sections... this meant for lots of weaving in of ends.

Working over back half of stitches only

Row 1- Purl 2, (knit 1, Slip 1 with yarn in back) repeat until 2 stitches before end of row, knit 2
Row 2- Knit 2, purl to end of row
Row 3- Purl 2, (slip 1 with yarn in back, knit 1) repeat until 2 stitches before end of row, knit 2
Row 4- Knit 2, purl to end of row

Repeat these 4 rows until you have knit the same number of rows as stitches on your needle - ie) I have 56 stitches total, I am working on the back 28, so I need to knit my heel flap 28 rows long. Since this flap has garter ridges on each side, I just knit until I have 14 garter ridges (half of 28).

On the last purl row.... do not purl to end of needle, proceed to heel turn.

Heel Turn

Starting with last row of heel flap
Row 1-  knit 2, purl to 1 stitch past center point (ie I have 28 stitches, I purl to the 15 stitch), purl 2 together, purl 1, turn.
Row 2- Slip first stitch, knit 3, knit 2 together, knit 1, turn.
Row 3- Slip first stitch, purl to 1 stitch before turn, purl 2 together, purl 1, turn.
Row 4- Slip first stich, knit to 1 stitch before tutn, knit 2 together, knit 1, turn.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until all stitches have been worked. break yarn.

Heel Gusset

Now, we're going to continue with the main yarn, still attched, starting in the corner between the leg and the heel flap. I find it best to work with DPNs here, my sock at this point would have all of the front stitches still on my 9 inch circ, and my heel flap/turn on a single DPN.

Set Up:

Using a free DPN, pick up two loops in the corner, then pick up one stitch in each garter ridge along right side of heel flap. (note this is just picking up, not knitting).

With a free DPN and yarn from leg of sock, knit the two picked up loops together as one, knit each of the picked up stitches and knit half of the stitches from the heel turn.

With a free DPN, pick up one stitch in each garter ridge along the left side of the heel flap, pick up two loops in the corner between the heel flap and leg.

With a free DPN, continue knitting across the back of the heel, then knit into each of the picked up stitches, working the last two loops together as one.

With a free DPN, knit half of the front stitches.

With a free DPN, knit the remaining front stitches.

You should now have your sock on 4 DPNs: needle 1 - right gusset and first half of back; needle 2 - second half of back and left gusset; needle 3 - first half of front; and needle 4 - second half of front.

Decreases:

Round 1- back stitches: knit 2 together, knit to 2 before end, slip slip knit, front stitches - knit even
Round 2 - knit even
Round 3 - back stitches - Knit 1, slip slip knit, knit to 3 before end, knit 2 together, knit 1, front stitches - knit even
Round 4 - knit even

Repeat rounds 3 and 4 until you have the same number of stitches on all your needles (total cast on stich count, divided by 4).

Knit even until you are ready for toe decreases.

Toe

Depending on the striping pattern, I either continue with my working yarn, or switch to a contrasting yarn.

Round 1: back stitches - knit 1, slip slip knit, knit to 3 before end, knit 2 together, knit 1, repeat on front stitches
Round 2: knit even

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until 40 stitches remain.

Repeat round 1 until 16 stitches remain.

Break yarn and kitchener stitch toe closed.

Repeat for second sock (and if your like me, match all of your stripes perfectly!)

13 comments:

  1. thank you for your generous gift! I like to knit all socks toe up. Is there any way you can do one little pattern with Kroy, toeup? I bought a lot of this yarn on sale. Thanks again!

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    Replies
    1. I've never done patons kroy toe up, but I will look into doing a pattern specifically for kroy toe up in the future. I do have a paid for pattern for toe up socks with a unique heel I've designed on Ravelry that would work for any sock yarn (Just search Double Double Socks) but all of my kroy socks so far have been top down using this recipe. Thanks for commenting!

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  6. How far from the end of the sock is toe shaping begun in this pattern?

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  7. Hello, for starting the heel, are you starting on the RS or WS? Thank you!

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  11. Thanks for this recipe. I have been told this yarn even though it is described as fingering everyone says it is thicker more like a sport weight. I didn’t know how to make them being I do the same as you as far as 1 needles 64 titches for fingering works great.

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  12. I almost exclusively use Kroy yarn and almost exclusively knit two at a time toe up socks. Patterning is a little tricky because you have to find where the repeat is on the two skeins of yarn, so when you buy your skeins, not only look for a dye lot, but also unravel it a little to see how much waste you're going to have if you try to line up two balls to the same starting point which is your goal. I also use Fish Lips Kiss heel, so there is no issue with messing up the striping, but I have made a few with contrast heels using Kroy in Grey Marl and they look great-again, you have to start and stop at as close to the exact same point in the yarn as you can. (Note: Kroy skeins are shorter than most (166 yds) so for me, I need three skeins for an average length of men's socks, so I often unroll the first skein to make it into two short ones for the foot because I don't have to be as fussy about the matching as I do about the leg. Either way, there will be wasted yarn. PS: I am a size 10 mens and use 72 stitches on a #2 needle)

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