Well, it’s not our new free pattern, but I’m going to try to pass these off as a summer of socks project:

I picked my 2 favorite colors of Felici (Tyrian Purple and Aquarium) and knit them up as high socks in 3 by 3 stripes. I worked the ribbing and toe of the first sock in Purple, and the same parts of the second sock in Aquarium, because apparently tall stripy purple-blue-yellow-green socks aren’t already quirky enough for me! My favorite part of this project, though, was definitely the afterthought heel:

which I knit in the same color, on each sock, as the cuffs and toes. Afterthought heels are so easy! Here’s how you do them:

(For a top-down sock)
Knit to the point in the leg where you want the heel to go.
With waste yarn, knit the heel stitches (typically one-half of the total stitches)
Slip these stitches back to the left needle.
resume knitting with your working yarn.

Then you just keep right on knitting your straight tube and knit the toes of your choice. (we have a glossary of these here) When you’re done, return to the stripe of waste yarn, pick up the row of stitches below, and the row above the waste yarn, and then carefully unpick the waste yarn. If you began with one-half of the leg stitches for your heel, you should now have the same number of stitches on the needles as you had for the circumference of your sock. Now, knit a toe on these stitches! Yes, I said a TOE. I like the “Classic or Standard” toe from our glossary for both the heels and toes of my socks.

I love this technique because it produces a heel that fits like a short-row heel, but it’s easier for me to execute, and the colors of the heel turn out in a very pleasing bull’s-eye pattern. Suffice to say, I’m going to get a lot of wear out of these socks, and I’ll be stocking up on Felici for future pairs! <