PATTERN: Advent Baby Socks

** 2011 Kit giveaway HERE! **

* Pictures of Socks 1-16 here *

These are especially suitable for people who start pairs of socks with great enthusiasm, which peters off when faced with the prospect of having to crochet the second. If you intend to use these for babies, I’d advise using a yarn with an elastic content to give the socks a bit of stretch – single crochet stitches are less stretchy than knitted stitches (boo!)


You need
3.00mm hook [Americans: use a D hook - 3.25mm!]
approx 14g sock yarn


Abbreviations:
ss – slip stitch
sc – single crochet [dc in British English]
2 sc tog – 2 single crochet together. Here's how you do it:
Insert hook into stitch of previous row, draw yarn through. Put hook into the next stitch, draw yarn through.

You now have three loops on the hook...

draw yarn through all three.



Okey-dokey! Let's get started:

Crochet three chain and join with a slip stitch.
Round 1: Crochet 10 sc into the round. Join with a slip stitch.
Round 2: Slip stitch, crochet 2 SC [DC] into the same stitch. Crochet 2 sc [DC] into each of the other 9 stitches (20 stitches)
Round 3: Slip stitch, 1 sc [DC] into the same stitch. 2 sc [DC] into next stitch. *1 sc [DC] in next stitch, 2 sc [DC] in next stitch. Repeat from * to end of the round (you’ll finish with 2 SC [DC] in the last stitch.) (30 stitches)

Continue to crochet in the round till the foot of the sock is about 8 cms long.


Heel

If you can bear a highly unprofessional video, try my
VIDEO TUTORIAL for the heel (YouTube): Part 1 and Part 2

Row 1: Slip stitch, crochet 2 SC [DC] into same stitch and into the next 14 stitches. Turn. (30 stitches)


Row 2: Slip stitch, crochet 1 SC [DC] in the same stitch and 1 SC [DC] into each stitch after. (30 stitches)


Row 3: In this round you’ll decrease, till you have 15 stitches again. Slip stitch, crochet 2 sc tog. Continue across the row by crocheting two stitches from the previous row together, till at the end you have 15 stitches in total.



Row 4: Slip stitch, crochet 1 SC [DC] in the same stitch and 1 SC [DC] in each stitch in the row. (15 stitches)
Row 5: Slip stitch, crochet 2 sc tog. Continue across the row, till at the end you have 1 stitch left over in the previous row. Crochet 1 SC [DC] in the final stitch. (8 stitches)
Row 6: Slip stitch, crochet 1 SC [DC] in the same stitch and 1 SC [DC] in each stitch in the row. (8 stitches)
Row 7: Slip stitch, crochet 2 sc tog. Continue across the row, till you have 4 stitches in the row. (4 stitches)
Row 8: Slip stitch, crochet 2 sc tog twice – you’ll have 2 stitches.



Ankle
Row 1: Crochet 7 SC [DC] along the side of the previously crocheted rows. This should bring you up to the other 15 stitches that you left aside when you started the heel. 1 SC [DC] in each of these 15 stitches, bringing you back to the other side of the heel. Crochet 7 SC [DC] to the the first stitch in the round. Join with a slip stitch.


You now should have 29 stitches. You just crochet in the round till the ankle shaft has reached the length you want. Here's one I made earlier :-)


Advent Socks
You need
24 wooden clothes pegs (I brushed mine with some white paint)
24 cardboard circles


Stick the cardboard circle to the peg


and draw, paint or collage the number on the circle. I've used foam stickers that I bought at a local crafts store.


Add socks and peg to a long piece of ribbon or string. Tuck in a treat, sweet or small gift.


Two down, twenty-two to go. Thankfully we still have a few months till Christmas!

A PDF of this pattern can be made at THIS website: just copy and paste this link
http://www.gingerschatz.blogspot.com/2010/07/pattern-advent-baby-socks.html
and it prepares a perfect PDF, ready for print!

Bethany said:
These seem really simple and they are cute. What is the easiest way to adapt them to a larger size?


They are VERY simple! Really and truly - you might need to do a practice sock to get the heel down, then it's plain sailing. You could churn them out in your sleep.

Baby sock patterns seemed very complicated to me and I really wanted a pattern that could compete with a knitted pattern in terms of the 'look' of the sock. Single crochet is (IMO) best on a variegated sock yarn so you can see the yarn's stripes.

The simplest way to adapt them to a bigger size is to use a bigger hook and a thicker yarn - that's the cheater's version! Use a 3.75 (F) hook or a 4.25 (G) hook and a thicker yarn, and that will give you a slightly bigger sock without any pattern-fiddling.

Otherwise you will have to experiment a bit with the number of SC you crochet in the round at the beginning, e.g. instead of 30, do 40. Crochet till the sock is approx. 9.5 cm long and then start the heel by doubling the number of SC in 20 of the stitches (2 x SC in each stitch till you have 40, then a row with one SC in each of the 40, then gradually start to decrease by crocheting two together in every other row.) Then crochet around to form the ankle as above.

If you wish to adapt them to a bigger foot - say that of a small child - you might have problems with the heel. This heel pattern works well at smaller sizes because you can decrease quickly to form a "hemisphere" that makes up the ball of a heel. If you have a bigger sock, you will have more stitches in the round and it will take more rows to decrease to the point where you have only 2-4 stitches in the row (the point where you can fashion the ankle.) It's possible that the heel might be too long... I haven't tried it yet! (My biggest problem is that I have no babies or children about to test these sockies on. That's why I'm making an Advent calendar out of them :-)

PS: I find this size chart (it's a PDF) quite helpful as it shows the length of baby feet. There's a small mistake, though: the size of a 1-month baby's foot is not 9 cm it's 8 cm (otherwise, according to this chart, the baby's foot would shrink, not grow, in month 2!)