I’ve discovered the most amazing thing… how to knit the fastest socks in the world. Socks that you can still wear in shoes, but make amazingly squishy house socks, too. The secret is in the formula… 80% merino, 20% nylon. Boom.
I stumbled up the Quickie Socks by pure accident when I started a pair of socks out of Knitted Wit’s Victory Sock base. I cast on with my usual US 1 needles and 64 stitches and my sock turned out HUGE! So I went down to 56 stitches… still too big. Then I went to 48 stitches and it was perfect. Socks on 48 stitches fly!
Materials:
- 100 grams of an 80/20 sock yarn- so plump!
- US 2 (2.75mm) needles- I like magic loop on 32″ circulars.
- Darning needle, light bulb stitch markers, scissors, and other common notions.
Gauge:
My gauge with this yarn and needle size is roughly 7 stitches per inch. When I use what I consider a “typical sock yarn” in a 75/25 base, I get 8 stitches per inch.
Pattern:
1. Using Judy’s Magic Cast On, cast on 24 stitches (12 per needle).
2. KNIT ONE ROUND!
3. Increase every other round as follows:
- Rnd 1: K1, kf&b, knit to last two sts on first needle, kf&b, k1. Repeat for second needle.- 4 sts increased.
- Rnd 2: Knit.
4. Keep on increasing until you get to 48 stitches. My foot is narrow, so the 7″ circumference created by these 48 stitches is perfect for me. You might need 56 or 64 stitches. Just keep increasing until you reach the desired circumference!
5. Knit the foot until you’re ready to knit the heel. I wear a women’s 8 shoe and I only needed 61 rounds in this thicker base to reach my heel. {With 75/25 I need 68 rounds from toe to heel.} I like to put a lightbulb stitch marker in the last round of the toe, and every 20 rounds after that to make it easy to count rounds and match my two socks.
6. Work the Fish Lips Kiss Heel. This is my current favorite heel. It’s so quick and easy to work with any stitch count. With my 48 stitches I had 24 stitches for the heel. On the first pass, I had 7 twin stitches on each side, 8 unwrapped stitches in the middle, and 1 unwrapped stitch on each end.
The pattern costs just $1! You have my permission to skip through the sizing pages (if you don’t need them) and carry on with pattern around page 8.
7. Knit 40 rounds for the leg. Again, I like to use lightbulb stitch markers to mark the last row of the heel and each 20 rounds after that. I know some people like to mark every 10 rounds!
8. Knit 15 rounds of twisted 1×1 rib. I like to change this up depending on my mood when I knit the first sock. Sometimes it’s 2×2 rib, sometimes regular 1×1- the ribbing is up to you, but 15 rounds does the trick!
9. Stretchy Bind Off. I like to do a stretchy bind off as follows.
- Knit the first two stitches in pattern.
- Move yarn back.
- Insert left needle into the front of these two stitches and k2tog tbl.
For the rest of the bind of just repeat the following…
- Knit the next stitch in pattern.
- Move yarn back (if not already).
- Insert left needle into the front of these two stitches and k2tog tbl.
10. Weave in those ends! Make sure you don’t weave them in on the bottom of the foot. Not comfy.
That’s it! These are seriously so quick! I think it’s the smaller stitch count than usual. And a bit smaller row count.
Here are some quick maths… usually I have 64 sts with 68 rounds for my foot and 60ish total rounds for the leg, which equals 8,192 stitches (not including the heels or toes) for one sock. However, at 48 sts with 61 rounds for my foot and 55 rounds for the leg… we’re at 5,568. That saves a lot of time!
I hope you enjoy making quick pairs of socks! Maybe for Christmas gifts next year? I will have more sock recipes coming your way soon!
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