How to Design a Sock Knitting Pattern in 5 days

Can I design a sock knitting pattern in 5 days?

The first crochet pattern I wrote took me about 5 months. It was all such a mystery at first. If you told me back then that I would try this, I would have laughed at you. But once you learn the steps to creating a pattern, it slowly gets easier and easier. So you also get faster at it. But still, design a sock knitting pattern in 5 days? This might be a bit of a bonkers thing to try!

A quick word to the crocheters reading this – yes, the pattern I’m talking about in this post is knitting, but the process of designing is the exact same. It’s just the stitches and names for the stitches that are different. There are few enough resources to learn the skill of writing knitting patterns, and even less aimed at the crocheter. But everything I’m covering here applies to both. So do read on if you want to try designing a crochet sock (or crochet hat, or anything else). The basic process is the same.

So, anyway, what are the steps to designing a sock knitting pattern. But can it be done in 5 days? Lets see…

Why am I designing a sock knitting pattern in 5 days?

A quick little bit of background. During the Olympics, the ‘Ravellenic Games‘ happen on Ravelry. Knitters and crocheters set themselves targets, and aim to complete them. Its fun. I looked at my very busy schedule, and decided that I could just afford 5 days out of my other work, and test myself to see if I could really do a pattern by the deadline. Did I manage it, though?…

Day 0 for designing a sock knitting pattern

The very first step to designing any knitting or crochet pattern is to have an idea. I had a few concepts already floating around in my head for these socks. It was actually a few different ideas, that I decided to bring together in this project.

The grading idea

First of all, I’d been thinking about grading. Grading Arans, specifically. I confess, I spend a lot of time thinking about both those topics.

In particular, I had been thinking about a few Aran patterns I want to try, where I was mulling over putting some portion of the grading inside the pattern blocks, rather than between them. Why? Well, in most Aran patterns, the difference stitches between the sizes all happens between the columns of patterns.

But this gives a very uneven look between the sizes. So, I have a few ideas for (as yet unwritten) patterns, where I want to make the cable panel itself bigger by increments, to keep the balance for all sizes.

But I wasn’t prepared to jump straight into a big Aran Pullover before I knew I could do it. So, I had resolved to try it out with a pair of socks or mittens first. And from that, the idea of a sock pattern with overall cabled diamonds was born.

Yarn choices

Yarn choices are another early consideration that needs to be made when pattern writing. If I was designing a big cardigan, that might involve buying and swatching from a few brands, choosing exactly the right one for my pattern, and sending an email to request yarn support. For a pair of socks… not so much.

For this pattern, the yarn inspiration came from a futile attempt to put order on my messy craft room replete with yarn stash. Last year I designed the Jorvik Vest for Ancient Arts Yarns, in their wonderful Lascaux DX. I had 2 skeins left over, and had allowed them to get swallowed by the tangled mess. As I wound them up again, I resolved to just use them. Great excuse of to find knitting needles and stop tidying.

Where would I wear the socks?

An important aspect of design inspiration for me is imagining myself wearing the item. I tend to design because I need something, so resolve to make it.

Last year, I failed to plant my garlic on my allotment, or my flower bulbs in my garden. By the time it was right to plant them it was cold, wet, and my feet get terrible chilblains. It’s a disability related thing, and a total nuisance .

The year I decided to make myself a pair of very thick soft socks to keep with my welly boots, so I would have no excuse not to do the autumn planting. I wanted them ready before the end of the summer, so doing them as part of the Ravellenic games seemed perfect.

So far, the idea is rattling around my head to make thick, soft double knit socks, ideal for inside welly boots for gardening, with an all-over cable pattern. So far, so good.

Construction techniques

I like to knit my socks toe up. In fact, I have a very strong preference for doing it that way. In part, this is because I despise grafting. My grafting always looks a mess. I just can’t get a good toe on a top down sock. A cast on for a toe up sock on the other hand is easy.

On another level, I blame my dyslexia. I know I get tired earlier, and need to put my knitting or crochet down sooner when I work my garment upside-down. Whether its a sweater, a sock or a mitten, I find I work longer and easier when working from the bottom up, so I am always looking at it the right way up, and not swirling what I am seeing in my head to imagine what it will look like finished. That seems to be just a ‘me’ thing. But if speed was of the essence, I knew the sock had to be toe up.

However, I sometimes hit a problem with toe up socks – heals! I also have a strong preference for a heal flap and gusset. They are just a better fit for my foot with its very high instep. I’d tried kitting toe up heal flap and gusset socks before, and I’d started the gusset too late, and ended up with a sock that was much too long for my foot.

Sometimes, I settle for a boomerang heal. They are so easy to knit, and the size always comes out right. But there’s that tugging to get them on, as they lack the give around the heal. I didn’t want that for these socks, as I wanted to be able to pull them on for gardening.

If I was to do a toe up heal flap and gusset I needed to test exactly how long that heal would be, so I started the gusset in the right place. So I swatched a heal flap. Cast on my estimated number of stitches, knit 2 rounds, and went straight into the gusset for the heal flap, and swatched the whole heal section so that I could take accurate measurements.

And finally, I had all preparations in place. A couple of weeks of now-and-then thinking and planning while the picture of the pattern took place in my head. I knew what I wanted them to look like, what the yarn would be, and I’d swatched. I’d also launched another knitting pattern that had been taking up my time. (It’s a great pattern, you can see it here). Time to get to work on the socks!

Day 1 for designing a sock knitting pattern

Day one, step one. Sketch

Yes, I had an idea in my head. But sketching it out is a step that I’ve learned really helps. Doesn’t matter how baad your drawing skills are. It helps you see the various elements together is you diagram them on paper.

(The next thing I did was spill my lunch on my sketch. That’s not a step I recommend, obviously!)

Day One, Step Two. More detailed swatching.

I had already swatched the heal, in my intended yarn. But I hadn’t swatched the cable design to check how much it tightened up the stitch. And I hadn’t swatched in any alternative yarns. I wanted to be sure if my pattern simply recommended ‘DK weight yarn’ it would likely work for most. Next, I knit up a few different toes in different DK yarns from my stash, and some of the cable stitches.

Grading

After that, I fell down a big rabbit hole. How many sizes is right for a pair of socks? I checked the Yarn Council Standards. They give foot widths of 7, 8 and 9 inches for women, and 8, 9 and 10 for men. So if these are a unisex pair of socks, I should do them for foot widths between 7 and 10 inches. Right?

But something about that has always not sat quite right with me. I have a 9 inch wide foot at the ball of my foot. I’m also quite skinny. When I first became sick, many years ago now, I lost a lot of weight very fast. One of the surprises from that was that I needed to buy new shoes. None of my shoes fit me when all the weight vanished from my feet. So the ‘standards’ tell me I have the biggest possible foot for a woman, but I know my feet used to be bigger than that. So I’m not buying it. I see quite a few people I know with heart disease or kidney disease, and there feet can become incredibly swollen. Do those people just not get to wear socks? That doesn’t seem very fair!

My next step was to post on social media and ask all my followers how wide their feet were.

We need to talk more about inclusive sizing for socks as well as sweaters, maybe?

While waiting for answers there, I went poking round Ravelry. I looked through 3 pages of ‘hot right now’ sock knitting patterns. And almost lost the will to live. Most of them didn’t just fail to go beyond the 7-8-9 inch recommended sizes, most of them (yes, almost all of them) came in one size only. I found this shocking and depressing. The first multi sizes sock I saw was on the bottom of the first page. Why do knitters tolerate designers being so lazy and slap dash about their craft? Talking about inclusive sizing is important, and not just for sweaters!

I drafted the grading and found that my stitch repeat didn’t lend itself to one inch increments, it was easier to grade by going up 4 stitches between sizes. That gave me a lot of sizes. maybe too many? I toyed about with different options, and waited to see what responses I would get on instagram to my questions about what foot sizes people really needed.

Time for bed. I still hadn’t started knitting the sock or creating the actual written pattern, but I was optimistic I could do this.

Day 2 – Thursday 8th August

Annnnndddd… was hit with a cluster headache from hell as I was half way down the stairs the next morning.

Day two didn’t involve any pattern writing. It did involve as much knitting as I could cope with. And nearly as much frogging. It’s like the headache stole my ability to wield a cable needle. But I’m stubborn, so I persevered.

As the day wore on and the headache eased a bit, I was at least able to take a decision on what sizes I would make. Social media gave me only women’s responses. No men had replied, and no women replied on behalf of male family members, unfortunately. But I wasn’t surprised to see quite a few women say they were over the 9 inch foot width. 9.5 seems quite common. What did take me by surprise was that just as many women complained that sizes are always too big for them, as their feet are 6 or 6.5 inches wide and they struggle to find children socks and shoes that look appropriate for an adult. All the adults ones are too big.

Grading decision taken…

Based on that, I decided to add sizing to the Yarn council standard recommendations in both directions, and make my cable socks for 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 inch wide feet. I still wonder if that’s enough to be called ‘inclusive sizing’ but it seems to be better than 99% of what’s on offer.

Off to bed to sleep off the last of the headache, a bit frustrated at my lack of progress, but happy that I had confirmed what sizing I would be doing.

Day 3 – Friday 9th August

Day three I woke, with the headache gone, and got stuck into work.

At this stage I had all the stitch counts for my sizes worked out in excel, and I had knit the first foot up to the start of the gusset, where I needed to begin the increases.

Day 3 – Pattern writing

So day 3 saw me writing out all the line by line instructions for the toe and foot. Everyone whose opinion I value says to write the pattern first, then make the sample. I don’t do it that way often enough. And the headache of the day before had left me incapable of working on screen, so I’d focused on the knitting. I love designing, especially working out the stitch counts and the technical aspects. And I love writing – these blogs, and so forth. But actually writing patterns? I get rather stuck on it at times, I must confess. But here I was, with a lot of writing to do.

Day 3 – Knitting the sample sock

Soon enough, I had all the instructions for the toe and foot written out. But only now I was contemplating a big problem with my design. Every size had a different size cable pattern. Could I use charts in any sensible way for this pattern? I got rather stuck on this conundrum, and put aside the writing for now. If I just knit up the next section, it might help clear my head and help me decide…

Day 3 – marketing tasks

The final thing I did on the Friday was start this blog post. I opening the file, and sketched out a few headings and ideas that would later turn into a blog.

Day 3 – time off

Friday evening I had a social engagement – I was off to have dinner and watch a film with neighbours. So I finished up work mid afternoon, and headed upstairs for a shower and stuff, to get ready for an evening out.

Day 4 – Saturday 10th August

Day four brought a different mood. At the end of day three of my attempt to design a sock knitting pattern in five days, I had been focusing on how much I had done. All the grading, and working out of all the concepts, and so forth. All good work. But day four I woke with a sudden horrible realisation. I still needed to write most of the pattern – so far it was only up to the foot. I still needed the heal, leg and cuff, as well as all those other pesky bits like lists of materials, yarn quantities, etc, etc.

And more than that, I still needed to flipping well knit a pair of socks! And I was only half way up the first one. Yes, pair of socks. I’d kind of been assuming I could knit one sock for the event, and knit its match in my own time in the days after, but that wouldn’t work for this event. Time to get the needles clicking as fast as possible.

Designing without marketing is just an expensive hobby…

Someone once said that a designing without marketing isn’t a business, it’s just an expensive hobby. And sadly, in my experience, they are right. Having a pattern launch strategy is a core component part of creating a knitting or crochet design. Since I was designing this pattern as part of a Ravelry event, I felt pressure to use that event, and be as visible as possible during it. This days task was to mention (again) what my challenge was on a few different boards on Ravelry, and to post on Instagram about it as a reel and a static post. My previous posts had been to consult about sock sizes. Day three I asked my readers or followers what name I should give it.

So despite my panic at realising I might not get the knitting completed on time, I spent a few hours online in various spaces talking about what I was doing.

Day 5 – Sunday 11th August

On the Sunday I knitted. Just knitted. I had sock one complete the day before, but I still had a full sock to do, and one day knit it in. Thank heavens I’d not opted for a fingering weight sock yarn!

There’s not a lot to say about the Sunday, except I’d never knitted so furiously in all my life. 10.30pm I finally cast off, having knitted solidly all day, and by about 11 pm I had my first rather dull photos taken and posted to Ravelry so say I had completed on time. Exhausted, I fell into bed. I had designed a sock knitting pattern in five days, and ‘won’ my personal challenge for the Ravellenic games! Hurrah!

After the main challenge

What’s left to do now? Plenty! I still haven’t finished designing a sock knitting pattern. Yes, I had knitted a pair of socks, to my own design. So I said I’d met the challenge. I had the main pattern elements, mainly the sizing and grading and how I would lay out the cable instructions all completed. But I still need to:

Finish the actual pattern writing

Post tester calls, send the pattern to testers, and run a test

Send the pattern to my Tech Editor

Promote the pattern on social media, over and over in different ways, before, during and after the time I launch it for sale, which will be about 6 weeks away to allow for testing and tech editing. So, yes, it’s possible to create the initial pattern in 5 days. But there’s much work still between that and one available for purchase.

Pattern design steps taken to design a sock knitting pattern

To summarise, what was the process I’d followed?

1. Generate an original idea

2. Yarn choices

3. Swatching

4. Calculating stitch counts

5. Draft the written pattern

6. Create the first sample, tweaking stitch counts and written pattern as you go, if need be

7. Quality control with tech editors and testers

8. Marketing and developing a pattern launch strategy (should be ongoing from time of step 1 above)

9. Uploading to sales platform of choice (I tend to stick to Ravelry), launching, and promoting it everywhere.

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Or check out my Little Dargle summer footsie sock pattern I launched last year?