Totally Mesmerizing Felici Socks

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!

Tags: afterthought, felici, heels, socks

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11 Comments

Comment by Julie Hicks on June 12, 2009 at 1:21pm: Love the two colorways together. I'm not a big fan of tall socks, but I bet that would look good on a shorter pair too-I might have to try that when I start getting stocked up on excess yarn.

Comment by vickigknits on June 10, 2009 at 6:21am: Those are totally awesome...most of my socks are fraternal, rather than identical! I love it ;)

Comment by Corinne on June 9, 2009 at 8:22am: Thanks for your "freedom" socks. It is super to have someone else feel as though both socks don't need to identical to be a pair. I have several colorways that I purchased too much of for a pair of socks and this will be an ideal way to use up that extra yarn. There isn't enough of any one color to make a whole sock but putting them together in this manner is a super way to use up that beautiful yarn in the bottom of the bin.

Comment by Nina on June 8, 2009 at 7:13am: These could definitely be done as a matching pair; you'd just have to make them shorter to be sure you have enough of the main color to do both sets of cuffs, heels, and toes. Can't wait to see what you all do with them!

Comment by Roseanne Roberts on June 6, 2009 at 4:09pm: Wow, they are amazing - I'm definately going to try that heel it sounds soooooooo easy. I can't wait to get my hands on some felici now and knit a pair - I am a bit way out, but I think a matching pair will be wild enough for me!

Comment by PurlGirl on June 5, 2009 at 1:19pm: Such fun socks! The heels turned out very nice, I used those for Christmas Stockings because I still can't do nice short rows. Now Knit Picks should sell those see-through shoes so we can show off our works of art!

Comment by Bren on June 4, 2009 at 9:56pm: Those are just lovely! Oh...I want to knit socks too! But i don't know how yet. Rats! Maybe soon. You only used one ball each for the pair? I'll have to get sock yarn soon.

Comment by Katie on June 4, 2009 at 2:38pm: Those look great! And although your afterthought heels look great, I'm with Melissa. (although even with the heel breaking up the sock halfway, I've still had the same pair of socks on my needles for two years, so I don't finish them anyway!)

Comment by Nina on June 4, 2009 at 2:29pm: Ooh, the amazing thing is, I used one ball of each! I had very little yarn left over at the end (maybe 10-15 yards?) but I made them very high; they hit me mid-calf and I am tall.

Comment by Sidneysmom on June 4, 2009 at 12:47pm: How many balls of yarn did you use per sock? I'm wanting to use one of the "last chance" colors and want to know about how many I should buy before I can't get them any longer.