Guardian Miter Socks

I'm free... Well not exactly free, there will be more text work, and who knows, maybe even more knitting, but for the moment, I have finished the knitting that I need to do for the sock book. That last deadline was a killer- some of the yarns I used didn't photograph well, so I had to reknit 12 socks (including the most tedious design in the entire book- gorgeous sock, tedious knitting) and design and knit one new pattern- in about 18 days.

So what did I knit for fun last night, on the first night in awhile that I could knit whatever I pleased? A sock, of course.

This yarn is from Twisted Fiber Arts, my favorite dyers in the whole entire world. The yarn is Playful, a slightly heavier fingering weight superwash with a great squoosh and bounce, and it's dyed in the Guardian colorway. When knitted plain, it works up into stripes of red, brown, orange and purple. When it's knitted as mitered squares, it comes out in bands also (sorta), but very cool bands. I could have knitted the rows of squares from alternating ends of the ball so that the colors didn't line up, but I like this look.

I'm nearly done with the cuff of the first sock- this is the last row of 6 squares. I will take pics of the whole process when I start the mate, and post the pattern as I go, for those who want to give this a try. It's the same process as my patchwork socks, but with just 1 yarn (which is nice- the only ends to weave in are at either end of the row of squares).

For anyone familiar with mitered squares, who wants to get started, here are the stats:

2.75mm needles (I'm using dpns, but straights will work fine, and you'll need both sets anyway-straights for the heel/sole and dpns for the ribbing).

100gr striping yarn (not absolutely necessary, but it sure looks cool)

Mitered squares: 19 sts

Cuff for Women's Average Sock: 4 rows of 6 squares, Instep for Women's Average Sock: 4 rows of 3 squares. Unstretched- 6 squares are 7 1/2" wide, 4 rows of squares are 5" long, each square is approx 1 1/4" on each side (this is before blocking, and the garter stitch squares have a lot of elasticity).