I'm all about the twisted stitches, lately.
They're so satisfying, you know? So tiny and orderly and lovely. I've found that when my brain is in danger of melting altogether and dribbling out my ears, a couple repeats of Bavarian-style twisted stitch patterns set everything right. All the little lines are so graceful and logical, so tidy, so totally devoid of chaos. What you see is precisely what you get - and it doesn't hurt, I suppose, that what you end up getting is almost always really, really beautiful.
The little ribbed cables aren't exactly correct for the style, maybe (as far as I can tell, Bavarian/Austrian/German twisted stitch motifs generally avoid crossing more than two stitches in any given twist or crossing), but they do look as though they fit right in. The front and back of this sock are symmetrical, with vertical motifs arranged in the Aran style - a central panel flanked by narrower mirrored motifs (too bad one never seems to have enough room to fit in as many motifs as she'd like), rather than the Bavarian style of many narrow motifs arranged symmetrically from side to side.
This sock went through several iterations, before settling on just the right combination of stitches and size and yarn:
The center sock is in the Blood Orange 2-ply I spun up, and the rightmost sock is from a 3-ply I spun from the Almost Solid Hyacinth. Both are pretty yarns, and both showed the stitches well enough (suprisingly well, in the case of the 2-ply) - texturally, that is. The variations in color, though, were too much competition for the very delicate pattern. Instead, I settled on a commercial yarn - Original Recipe Jawoll is almost ideal for this kind of thing. It's a little lighter than most sock yarns, allowing for a very small gauge (all the better to cram more motifs in, my dear); it's a firm, "round" 3-ply, showing off textures nicely; it comes in plenty of non-striping, non-patterning, non-pooling solid colors to let all the focus stay on the texture. The left-hand sock is in a grey Jawoll, in a pattern arrangement that almost made the cut - my main issue with it was in the long straightaways between the diamonds of the central pattern. They allowed too much lateral stretch for a nice fit, and I wasn't willing to sacrifice either of the other patterns - so I went back to a tightly compressed pattern (just a regular old lattice, with an extra twist at every crossing) and started knitting it in green. Perfect.
So, would you like to knit your own? Actually, answer this question first: is the thought of a 100-stitch sock appealing to you, or is it horrifying? Because we've got 96 stitches, cabled and twisted every round, right here in the Bayerische sock.
(Obviously, this is a work in progress, and has NOT been test-knit. I'm just making it up as I go, and sharing the charts for anyone who likes the motifs or would like to knit along. If I like the results at the end, I'll format the pattern nicely and put it up for free download)
Key:
means knit through the back loop.
means purl.
means a right-leaning cross. To do this without a cable needle, slip these two stitches to the right needle. Holding the left needle at the back of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the back of the first stitch slipped. Pull the right needle free of both stitches (the skipped stitch will be loose for just a second, here), and pick the loose stitch up from the front. Put it back on the left needle and knit each stitch through its back loop.
means a left-leaning cross. Slip these two stitches to the right needle. Holding the left needle at the front of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the front of the first stitch slipped. Pull the right needle free of both stitches and pick the loose stitch up from the back. Put it back on the left needle and knit each stitch through its back loop.
means a right-leaning twist. Slip these two stitches to the right needle. Holding the left needle at the back of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the back of the first stitch slipped. Pull the right needle free of both stitches and pick the loose stitch up from the front. Put it back on the left needle. K1tbl, p1.
means a left-leaning twist. Slip these two stitches to the right needle. Holding the left needle at the front of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the front of the first stitch slipped. Pull the right needle free of both stitches and pick the loose stitch up from the back. Put it back on the left needle. P1, k1tbl.
means a right-leaning 7-stitch ribbed cross. You can do this without a cable needle, though first-timers might just want to use one in the regular way to keep from dropping the loose stitches. Without a CN: slip these 7 stitches to the right-hand needle. Holding the left needle at the back of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the back of the first 4 stitches slipped. Draw the right needle free and pick the 3 loose stitches up from the front. Put them back on the left needle. (K1tbl, p1) 3 times, k1tbl.
means a left-leaning 7-stitch ribbed cross. Slip these 7 stitches to the right-hand needle. Holding the left needle at the front of the work, insert the tip of the left needle into the front of the first 3 stitches slipped. Draw the right needle free and pick the 4 loose stitches up from the back. Put them back on the left needle. (K1tbl, p1) 3 times, k1tbl.
The sock so far:
(Instructions are for a VERY stretchy sock 7" in circumference at the ankle (unstretched). It will probably comfortably fit anyone with an ankle up to 9.5" in circumference)
Ribbing:
With US 0 (2.0mm) needles, cast on 76 stitches. Join, being careful not to twist.
Round 1 (RS): *K1tbl, p1. Repeat from * to end.
Repeat Round 1 for 13 rounds more.
Round 15 (increase round): *(K1tbl, p1) 7 times. M1 purlwise. (K1tbl, m1 knitwise, p1, m1 purlwise) 2 times. (k1tbl, p1) 7 times. K1tbl, m1 knitwise. Purl into front and back of next stitch. M1 knitwise. K1tbl, m1 purlwise, p1, m1 knitwise, k1tbl, p1. Repeat from * for other half of sock. 20 stitches increased, 96 stitches total.
Leg:
Round 1: *K1tbl. Work Row 1 of Chart A across next 9 sts. K1tbl. Work Row 1 of Chart B across next 14 sts. K1tbl. Work Row 1 of Chart C across next 9 sts. K1tbl. Work Row 1 of Chart D across next 12 sts. Repeat from * for other half of sock.
Work as set until desired leg length is reached, ending with row 16 of Chart D.
Notes
- If I haven't muddled things up too badly, the patterns should flow very neatly out of the ribbing.
- Right now, I'm planning for Chart D to fall at the two sides of the sock, with Chart A falling at the front and back. Chart D will be split and dealt with when the plain knitting for the gussets and sole begins, after picking up stitches for the heel.
- You really ought to work the crosses without a cable needle, as described. For one thing, it's about a million times faster - which matters when lots of crosses and twists happen every round. For another, I tend to think that some of the "crispness" of the twisted stitch is lost, the more fiddling and manipulating you do with it. It's cleaner to just make a couple swift movements with the two needles you're already working with.
- It should be easy to keep track of everything after just one or two repeats of the pattern - the patterns are very logical, and when combined have plenty of self-checks: as is right and proper, all the repeats are a multiple of the same number of rows (8, in this case, obviously). So, you know that every second cross of the ribbed cable should put you at the beginning of the side panel pattern again. You know to work the ribbed cable crosses in the first place because they always accompany the second set of crosses in the second half of the lattice. Etc, etc.
Click for part II of this pattern
