I promised you a finished object, so it’s time to deliver. Last Sunday I completed my Black and Blue Ribs Socks.
They were knitted in Trekking XXL sock yarn in color 35. Trekking XXL is one of my very favorite sock yarns. It’s a workhorse yarn that wears really well. It’s a bit thinner than most fingering-weight sock yarns, so I usually knit it up on 2.25 mm needles instead of my usual 2.5 mm, and I cast on 80 stitches instead of 72. I’m always amazed at sock knitters who cast on only 64 or even 56 stitches. They must have very narrow feet and tiny calves, or perhaps they knit their socks at a much larger gauge than I do. I like my socks to be 8.5-9.5 stitches per inch, so 64 stitches just won’t do. But I digress.
Trekking XXL comes in a huge variety of great colorways, and I have never been disappointed with how a Trekking colorway knitted up until I made these socks. I had no idea when I bought this yarn that it would knit up in a “camo” pattern. I don’t like the camouflage look, and I was really disappointed when I realized this colorway is camo because I love the combination of blue, black, and gray. I was expecting more of a striping pattern, but instead, I got this.
Black and Blue Ribs socks in “camo” yarn
The stitch pattern is a simple Shadow Rib pattern, which is one of my very favorite patterns for socks. It looks good in almost any yarn, solid, tonal, semi-solid, patterned, self-striping, or hand-dyed. And it’s easy to knit, but interesting. I started with a 2 x 2 ribbed cuff, then worked the Shadow Rib pattern. The heel flap is Eye of Partridge. I worked the gusset decreases on the sole of the foot again,
Heel gusset decreases were made on the sole.
but I reversed the shaping, switching k2tog for ssk and vice versa, because I was curious as to how it would look.
The gusset decreases lean right on the right side of the heel and left on the left side of the heel.
I must admit that I really, really like knitting the gusset decreases on the sole. It looks nice, and the fit is fantastic.
Black and Blue Ribs on a “model.” Please ignore the old lady skin.
Be sure to check out FO Friday on Tami’s blog.
All Kinds Of Knitting 
These socks are great.
(BTW I don’t think my feet look skinny but I knit trekking on size 2mm needles and just have 60 or 64 stitches, depending on the pattern)
I’m curious. What gauge do you get? If I knitted Trekking on 2mm needles, I would have no fewer than 10 stitches per inch, so socks on 60 stitches would have a circumference of only 6 inches.
9 stitches. It makes a nice firm fabric.