Pole Dance These socks are worked flat in two sections, except for

the cuff and toe. The heel is a no-wrap short-row heel

tucked into the first section of the sock. Stitches are
A sinuous sockitecture adventure by Hypercycloid
picked up along the edges of the first panel so the second
panel can be joined as you go along – no intarsia, no
seaming. Spiraling is achieved with simple increases
and decreases at the beginning and end of each knit
row.

Gauge
About 32 stitches/4” in stockinette, though easily
adjusted for your normal sock knitting gauge. It
may be handy to know your row gauge since it is
hard to try the sock on until you are halfway
through.

Yarn
Fingering weight in two colorways, about 50
grams/200yards each.

Sizing
Pattern is written based on your usual stockinette
numbers.

If you are unsure, measure foot circumference at

the ball of the foot (in inches), multiply by your
gauge in stitches per inch, and multiply by 0.9,
then round up to the nearest multiple of four.

Or just use 68 stitches for a medium width

women’s foot and 76 stitches for a medium width
men’s foot.

Tools
• two 40” circulars in 2.25mm/US1 or whatever
size you prefer for your sock knitting
• tapestry needle
• waste yarn or stitch holder

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Stitches/Abbreviations
k knit

p purl

k2tog knit next two stitches together as one: 1-stitch decrease

ssk slip stitch knitwise, slip next stitch knitwise, knit both together through the back loops:
1-stitch decrease

m1L Make-1 Left: insert left needle under the horizontal bar between stitches, from front to
back, and knit into the back of the stitch to twist it closed: 1-stitch increase

m1R Make-1 Right: insert left needle under the horizontal bar between stitches, from back
to front, and knit into the front of the stitch to twist it closed: 1-stitch increase

lifted increase insert left needle into the stitch below the one you just worked on the right needle, lift
onto the left needle, and knit (RS) or purl (WS) it: 1-stitch increase

sl1 slip stitch with yarn held to the wrong (purl) side of the work

General Information
The two socks are essentially the same except for the basic pattern row, which causes the socks to spiral in
different directions.

The pattern is written so that the cuff and heel are in Color #1 and the toe is in Color #2. In the color you
want the HEEL to be, cast on your usual number of stitches plus two, rounded up to the nearest multiple of
four. I have recently discovered Tilly’s Very Stretchy Cast-On and highly recommend it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTIBTm0QL6A

Cuff
Knitting in the round, do 2x2 ribbing (k2, p2, repeat) until you are happy with the length. (I usually go 16-
24 rows.) Do one more round of plain knit as a set-up row. Put half your stitches on waste yarn, a holder,
or an extra circular, and prepare to start the funky part!

Section One: Leg

From here until the toe you will be working in the flat, that is, back and forth with a right side (RS) and a
wrong side (WS), across half your total number of stitches.

All sl1 are slipped purlwise with yarn held to the wrong side.

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Sock #1 Pattern for first section: Sock #2 Pattern for first section:

RS: sl1, ssk, knit across to last stitch, m1L, k, turn RS: sl1, m1R, knit across to last three stitches,
k2tog, k1, turn
WS: sl1, purl across, turn
WS: sl1, purl across, turn

The sl1 at the beginning of each row is important because you will be picking up those slipped stitches later
to attach section/color #2. A nice slipped stitch edge will make those joins tighter and make it easier to pick
stitches up in the right place.

Continue until you like the length of your sock cuff and leg. It will be a little difficult to try the sock on for
length but if needed you can do a bit of math with row gauge to see how you’re doing. If your row gauge is
12 rows per inch like mine, every six slipped stitches is one inch of leg length.

Section One: Heel

The heel is a no-wrap short-row heel, worked down to about 12 active stitches. If you are making a large
circumference sock, you may wish to work down to 14 stitches.

Row 1 (RS): Slip one stitch, knit across until one stitch remains unworked on the left needle. Turn.
Row 2 (WS): Slip one stitch, then purl across until one stitch remains unworked on the left needle. Turn.
Row 3 (RS): Slip one stitch, knit across until two stitches remain unworked on the left needle. Turn.
Row 4 (WS): Slip one stitch, then purl across until two stitches remain unworked on the left needle. Turn.

Continue like this, taking one more stitch out of play at the end of every row until you have just finished a
purl row and have twelveish active stitches left in the center and an equal number of stitches in hold on
either side.

You are halfway through the heel! The next part instructs
you to use a lifted increase, but a make-1 increase will
work if you prefer (though it is more likely to make holes
or gaps).

Slip one stitch, knit across to the last active stitch. SSK
the last active stitch and the nearest held stitch to prevent
a gap. Do a lifted increase, then turn.

Slip one stitch, purl across to last active stitch. P2tog the
last active stitch and the nearest held stitch. Do a lifted
increase, then turn.

Continue in this manner, slipping the first stitch of each row, knitting or purling across, doing an ssk or a
p2tog across the gap, working a lifted increase, and turn.

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In the last two rows of the heel (a knit/RS row and a purl/WS row) you will be closing the gap between the
last and second-to-last stitches. If you try to increase as you did in previous rows, you risk the nice neat slip-
stitch edge. Skip the increases for these last two rows; we’ll compensate with a set-up row:

Set-up row for the sole (RS): sl1, m1R, knit to last stitch, m1L, k1.

Ta-da! You have finished your heel. You should be back up to your original number of stitches.

Section One: Foot

Go back to spiraling using the appropriate pattern (same as above):

Sock #1 Pattern for first section: Sock #2 Pattern for first section:

RS: sl1, ssk, knit across to last stitch, m1L, k1, turn RS: sl1, m1R, knit across to last three stitches,
k2tog, k1, turn
WS: sl1, purl across, turn
WS: sl1, purl across, turn

Keep going until you are two inches shy of your total foot length when you put your foot in the heel cup
and spiral the panel around your foot. Ending on a RS row, put your stitches on a holder or waste yarn,
but do not break the yarn yet.

Section Two
Using a long circular and holding the sock with the toe section in your right hand and RS facing you, pick
up one stitch in each slipped stitch along the edge until you are back at the cuff. Do not pick up extra
stitches at the heel. (In making sock #1, note how many slipped stitches you have between the cuff and heel,
and between the heel and end. Keep track of these numbers so you can make sock #2 the same length.)
Still using color #1, knit the remaining cuff stitches. At the end of this row, do not turn; instead, with a
different long circular, pick up stitches down the other edge of panel #1 until you reach the toe. Count the
picked-up stitches on each edge to make sure they are the same number – if not, adjust however you see fit.
Break color #1.

Returning to the cuff where you switched from one circular to the other, join color #2 and work a WS set-
up row: purl across to the last stitch of the (former) cuff stitches. P2tog - you are joining a cuff stitch with a
picked-up stitch. Turn.

The pattern rows for the second section are very similar to what you already did, with adjustments because
there are no selvedge stitches. You no longer need to slip stitches at the beginning of rows. You will now
be making a join stitch at the end of each row. For a RS row, this is an ssk where one stitch is a live stitch
and the other is a picked-up edge stitch. For a WS row, you are joining a live and a picked-up stitch via
p2tog.

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Sock #1 Pattern for second section: Sock #2 Pattern for second section:

RS: ssk, knit across to last two stitches, m1L, k1, RS: **m1R, knit across to last three stitches, k2tog,
ssk (join), turn k2tog (join), turn

WS: purl across to last stitch, p2tog (join), turn WS: purl across to last stitch, p2tog (join), turn

**Important anomaly in Sock #2 pattern: when you start a RS row with an m1R, there isn’t, technically, a
horizontal bar between stitches to pick up. You are actually picking up one leg of the stitch that was just
p2tog’d in the last row. It tightens up the join.

Continue down the length of the sock, working back and forth and gradually eating up those picked-up
edge stitches. When they are gone, you are ready to work your toe. Continuing with color #2, grab the
stitches that were waiting for you on waste yarn and get ready to knit in the round again.

Toe
Important! Because of the spiraling and variations in foot length, you will need to adjust your start of
round to make sure your toe decreases are in the right place (if you want a wedge toe). Try on your sock or
manipulate it a bit to figure out where the instep and sole will be so that the heel is centered at the back.
Set your end of round appropriately, and knit around once to even things out and get your start of round in
the right place (between the instep and sole stitches).

If you prefer to do a star toe, you don’t have to worry with fiddling about to find the new start-of-round.

Wedge Toe Star Toe

Decrease round: working across the instep: k1, ssk, Divide and mark your total number of stitches into
knit to last three stitches, k2tog, k1. Repeat for sole four equal groups, using DPNs or markers or The
stitches. Force etc.

Plain round: knit instep and sole stitches. Decrease round: k2tog, knit to next marker, repeat
three more times to the end of the round.
Alternate decrease and plain rounds until you have
32 stitches left, then decrease every row until you Plain round: knit all stitches.
have 16 stitches left (8 sole and 8 instep stitches).
Alternate decrease and plain rounds until you have
Kitchener your toe closed. 16 stitches left, then decrease every round until you
have 8 stitches left. Break yarn, thread a tapestry
needle and draw yarn tail through all stitches,
pulling tight to close toe hole.

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Have fun!!

(This prototype sock was knitted with color #2 at the cuff; as written, the cuff would be brown.)

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