What I made, by Sharon

Last month I wrote about my sock draw, and Kate asked me "Could you please write a post about knitting socks specially for exercising? Recommendations for patterns, construction and yarn types?" And I would be happy to, because I have thought about this a lot. In fact I've tried a number of heels and, when I started knitting sneaker liners in a serious way, even published a rough pattern for my favourite pattern at the time. I later decided I hate afterthought heels, although I do like the way they look in stripes they are fiddly to work and I always get holes on the edges. I have done fish-lips-kiss heels, sweet tomato heels, hat heels, all the heels. After a great deal of thought and wear I've realised that the challenge of sports socks is that, over time, they shrink through the heel. A heel flap and gusset seems to fit and wears the best. To accommodate this phenomena, I do 16 rounds of ribbing, rather than the 12 I used to do. It doesn't seem to matte...

I love stripped socks, in colour changing or plain yarn, but I really don’t like the way a heel flap interrupts the stripes. I have tried a short row heel, but the rows don’t line up neatly, so I developed this sock. It uses top down construction and an afterthought heel. There is a great tutorial for the afterthought heel here . Materials: 25grams each of 2 different coloured sock weight yarns - a little more if you have big feet. 2.5mm x 5 double pointed needles Small amount of waste yarn Instructions: Using colour 1: Cast on 60 stitches. Divide stitches evenly over 4 needles. Join for knitting in the round, being careful not to twist. Place marker to indicate beginning of the round. Knit 4 rows 1 x 1 ribbing in colour 1. Change to colour 2 and knit 4 rows 1x 1 ribbing. Returning to colour 1 knit 4 rows plain. The leg can be lengthened by knitting extra stripes here. Place afterthought heel: Knit 30 stitches onto waste yarn, then reknit them with colour 2. Foot: Con...