Boomerang Socks — Getting Started

Today’s the day! I’m starting to knit my way through the patterns in New Directions in Sock Knitting.

Rather than working through the book from cover to cover, I’ve decided to let chance be my guide. The first design I’ll tackle is Louise Robert’s Boomerang on page 112.

The back leg, heel, and sole of these socks are worked in one piece that’s shaped like a boomerang, then the top of the foot and front of the leg are worked in a lace pattern while the sides of the boomerang are joined into a foot-shaped tube. This construction is ideal for self-striping yarn.

The socks pictured are worked in Biscotte & Cie Felix Self -Striping (80% superwash merino, 20% nylon; 365 yd [334 m]/100 g) in a green/rose/lavender colorway. The first two sizes require 1 skein, the largest size requires 2.

It just so happens that Louise sent me a skein of the same yarn in a black/gray/red colorway to knit my own pair. I’m making the middle size, so a single skein will be sufficient.

The instructions say to use Judy’s Magic method to cast on a whopping 258 stitches, beginning at the top of the cuff, down the back of the leg, around the base of the heel, along the bottom of the sole to the toe, across the end of the toe, back along the bottom of the sole to the heel, around the heel, up the leg, and ending at the cuff. Markers designate where the shaping will occur at the heel and toe. Although the pattern doesn’t specify it, I’ve added markers between the cuff and leg to remind me to switch between seed stitch at the cuff and stockinette stitch on the leg.

Now it’s just a matter of working around and around, shaping the heel and toe as I go, to fill in the back and sides of the leg and foot. Thankfully, the shaping involves a lot of decreases so that I’ll be left with 168 stitches when all the shaping is completed.

This is going to be fun!