Monday, July 12, 2010

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!)

15 comments:

glor said...

Oh my gosh, this is precious, I love the idea of advent socks. Thank you so much for the tutorital and idea!!! Have a wonderful day.

TheCrochetEnthusiast said...

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

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this pattern! It works up quickly and easily and also is easy to remember. I am substituting moss stitch for sc for the foot and cuff. This gives the sock more stretch and ventilation.

I crochet booties for donation to local hospitals, so this pattern will get a lot of use!

sukigirl said...

This is a wonderful idea!
Thanks so much for the wonderful pattern...I'd love to make these!

Lisa said...

In row 2 of the heel, you say to do two SC in each stitch across, but there will still only be 30 stitches in the row, but in row 1 there are already 30 stitches. Or am I reading something wrong? (Of course, that is totally possible! But rare! :P )
Lisa

The Gingerbread Lady said...

Well, you're HALF reading it wrong!
You do two sc in the first sc in the previous row and **two sc in each of the next fourteen stitches** - that'll give you thirty stitches! Then you turn and do one sc in each of these stitches (30 in total). If you look at the pictures, you can see that you're only working with half of the stitches in the 'tube' section of the foot to create a flap that then becomes a heel

Lisa said...

Forgot to say that I just happened to have the same yarn that you used for No. 3. Hoping to get back into knitting socks, but can't seem to get the hang of it again. When I saw your post, it was perfect timing.
Lisa

The Gingerbread Lady said...

Yikes! Thanks for your eagle eye, Lisa - now I see what you mean! Pattern adjusted (talk about manuscript blindness ... I've made 30+ socks and I never spotted the obvious.)

Once you get the hang of the socks, you'll churn them out. You can easily do one an evening, if you have a free hour. Settle down, pop a film in the DVD player and off you go :-)
Thanks and best wishes!

Lisa said...

"if you have a free hour" That's what I keep praying for. I have 4 children at home. LOL
I just finished the first one!!!!!! PUt my own trim on it and it is so cute. 23 more to go!
Lisa

The Gingerbread Lady said...

Hurray! You're one twenty-fourth of the way through!
I'll keep my fingers crossed that the kiddies give you an hour off every now and again :-))

renee said...

I love the advent calendar idea! I will have to try this! Though I will probably use the afterthought heel because all the other crochet heels seem more complicated than my little brain can deal with. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you crochet yourself some adult sized socks one day because they are seriously fabulous. I'm wearing some right now! (and both socks took less than a week to finish!)

BalatongTNC said...

This is such a cute idea, and thank you for sharing the pattern. What a great tutorial!

Helen said...

thanks! will definitely try this.

Anonymous said...

hey

I tried it out and it worked fine for me!

Please check out my new blog :
http://lanathewoolydog.wordpress.com/

Becky turner said...

Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
1 month baby