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I had a friend text me recently to ask what pattern she should choose to knit her first pair of socks, so I thought I’d spin up this list of my 4 favorite sock knitting patterns for beginners: Starter Stockinette, Simple Skyp, Broken Record, and Monkey are my top picks, and I’d tackle them in that order. The last three are all free patterns and the first is from a great reference book that is well-worth your time/money because it covers a bunch of sock knitting tips and techniques.
1. Vanilla Socks: Starter Stockinette
Believe it or not, I learned how to knit socks by reading a book! I loved Betsy Lee McCarthy’s Knit Socks, and the first sock pattern I ever knitted was her Starter Stockinette pattern. I have the old version of this book that is shaped like a sock – and you can find that super cheap on eBay – or you can get the newer regular-book-shaped copy at the library, on Amazon or wherever you like to buy your knitting books.
This sock pattern is excellent for beginners because it’s designed for worsted weight yarn with larger diameter double-pointed needles, so it’s less intimidating to a newbie. It’s all stockinette stitch so you can focus on learning the shaping techniques without worrying about a stitch pattern. We call this a “Vanilla Sock” in the knitting world and you can find tons of patterns for vanilla socks out there if you don’t have the book, but I love how this pattern is formatted in a table and is completely step-by-step. It even tells you exactly how many stitches you should have on your needles at any given time. Plus, the socks are super cozy!
Once you’ve cut your teeth on some worsted-weight yarn socks, you can dive into the wonderful world of shopping for sock yarn and try your hand at some Simple Skyp or Broken Record socks.
2. Simple Skyp
Simple Skyp is a great “second sock” for beginner sock knitters. The pattern calls for sport weight yarn, but I have always used fingering weight. I knit them with US size 2 needles, instead of the size 1 or 1.5 that I use on most socks. I call these “Speed Socks” because they knit up so fast on the larger needles!
This is a well-written pattern by Adrienne Ku with a tiered pricing structure on Ravelry. The pattern costs $6, but there are coupons in the description to purchase it at 50% off or at 100% off (a.k.a. free), depending on your budget.
Beginners will love this pattern because the skyp stitch is easy to knit, and the repeat is simple to memorize, so you can devote your focus to the construction of the socks, which is still new to you.
If you want to play around with a variegated yarn, have at it, but I think these socks look lovely in solids or tweed! The ones below are knitted in Knit Picks Stroll Tweed. By the way, the Stroll line from Knit Picks is a great sock yarn to work with for beginners! It’s affordable, comes in tons of colors and dye treatments, and the solids, heathers, and tweeds come in balls instead of hanks, so you don’t need to wind the yarn on your own.
3. Broken Record
I used to recommend Vanilla Latte socks as a good “second sock” project but the pattern has been discontinued. If you are a more experienced knitter, you can easily knit these broken rib socks without a pattern, which I explain here. But if you are a beginner, you’ll likely want a pattern.
There is a free pattern called Broken Record on Ravelry that is very similar to Vanilla Latte that you can check out. I confess I haven’t test knitted this specific pattern before, but I’ve read through it and it looks good. The designer also includes links to tutorials for many of the techniques, which is amazing.
Like Simple Skyp, Broken Record is another sock pattern where the stitch repeat is simple and easy to memorize. Have fun with color when choosing yarn for these!
4. Monkey
When you’re ready to graduate to knitting lace socks, I highly recommend choosing Monkey by Cookie A as your first pattern.
Monkey is a clearly written pattern with a beautiful and intuitive lace motif. I’ve knitted it so many times that I even have the lace pattern memorized! I’ve written a whole post dedicated to this pattern here. Monkey looks especially lovely knitted up in tonal or speckle yarns! The first socks below are knitted up in a spectacular speckled yarn by a local dyer here in Boston, YouKnitIDye and the second is done up in Knit Picks Hawthorne Tonal.
Monkey is a free pattern that was originally published in Knitty with both charted and written instructions for the lace pattern, so I like to recommend this to knitters who might be new to reading charts. (There is also a version of Monkey published by Interweave that comes in two sizes but doesn’t have written instructions for the lace, only charts, so make note of that). You can also find this pattern in Cookie A’s out-of-print book, Knit. Sock. Love. (If you ever run across a copy of that one, snag it!)
And there you have it, my favorite sock patterns for beginners! What was the first pair of socks you knitted?
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