Garudasana Yoga Socks

In summer I like feeling the floor under my bare feet. Unfortunately, summers here in Germany or Switzerland can get pretty cool, so I often need something to warm my feet a bit.  That's why I like wearing yoga socks (even when I'm too lazy to do my sun salutations in the morning). They keep the feet (a bit) warm while still giving you the a "summery" feeling under your soles.

On this blog there are already two patterns for yoga socks. One (very easy) in the round (loom-style) pattern and a second sideways knitted flat pattern. Both were fun to make but a bit plain. That's why I decided to try something less boring and I experimented a bit with horizontal cables ... so here's the result: Yoga socks knitted flat and sideways with a cable pattern on the back of the foot.

These yoga socks are called Garudasana, because the horizontal cabling reminds me of the crossed legs and arms in Eagle pose (Garudasana). 

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



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The pattern is written in a way that it can be adapted to most foot sizes. However, I have included the stitch and row counts that I have used - written in purple.

Materials

• a total of about 25 to 30 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors
• three knitting needles (3mm), I used both circular and dpns (short dpns for the narrow bits at start and finish, circulars for the wide bit in the middle
• scrap yarn, for the provisional CO and to secure stitches
• a crochet hook for the provisional CO
• tapestry needle, for kitchener stitch and to weave in ends

Techniques and Terminology

• Provisional Cast-On: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional CO – as shown in this YouTube Video
• Grafting or kitchener stitch: The basic stockinette kitchener stitch is shown in this YouTube-Video by PurlSoho.
• Backwards Loop Cast-On: See this YouTube-Video by planetpurl.
• Ridges: Throughout the pattern, the term ridges will be used. One ridge is a sequence of four rows - two k-rows followed by two p-rows.

Gauge

Before starting to knit measure the circumference of your ankles. You will be asked to knit until you have reached half of that circumference.

As to the width of your stitches, I had 13 stitches to 5 cm. However, this is one of the cases where knitting a swatch is actually more work than casting on “normally” and ripping back after a few rows if the piece is too wide or too narrow.

Because the pattern (horizontal ribs) is very stretchy and the widening because of the holes in the middle, these socks need negative ease to fit snugly. This means that they have to be knitted smaller than the wearer's foot. That's why I'd recommend to make these socks at least three centimeters smaller than the measured circumference.

Example: the circumference of my ankles measures 21 cm - the circumference of the socks I knitted is only 17 to 18 cm (depending how it's being held).

Or in ridges: for a sideways version of yoga socks without a horizontal cable pattern - I equalled the circumference with 22 ridges (11 for the front, 11 for the back) - for the Garudasana yoga socks, I knitted 9 ridges for the back (narrow part) and 10 for the front (i.e. 19 in total) with the same yarn weight and same needles.

General Construction

The picture below shows the general construction (click on the image to enlarge it).

You start with a narrow part, i.e. half of the intended lenght of the sock (for me this was about 8 cm - or 20 stitches for the first provisional CO). This part will later be at the above your heel or under your sole.

Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches, i.e. your starting the front part. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the front of your feet (wide part in the middle).
In order to center the cabling in the middle of this part, the number of ridges in this wide (front) part must be even.

When this wide (front) part is finished, the half of the stitches are put on scrap yarn to be later grafted to the firt provisional CO. Then you continue in another narrow strip of horizontal ribs. You finish by grafting  two seams.

So the piece that you knit will look a bit like a Tetris piece :)

  

Instructions

  

With scrap yarn, provisionally CO 20 stitches

1st narrow part

Start with yarn A, leaving a tail long enough for grafting 20 sts.

First ridge

Row 1: k all sts

Row 2: sl1 p-wise, k to end

Row 3: sl1 p-wise, p to end

Row 4: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Next ridges

Row 5: sl1 k-wise, k to end

Row 6: sl1 p-wise, k to end

Row 7: sl1 p-wise, p to end

Row 8: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Repeat rows 5 to 8 until the piece is as high as half of your ankle circumference. End with a row 8.

Count the number of ridges, this number is called X - it will be needed later to calculate the number of ridges to knit until the cabling starts.

For my socks I knitted a total of 9 ridges in this part.

Middle part (wide) - includes horizontal cabling

On a third needle prepare 20 more provisionally CO stitches.

Knit a row 5 and then go on knitting the 20 new stitches, i.e. the row is now 20 stitches wider (see pictures 1 and 2).

Knit one ridge less than half the number of ridges knitted during the first (narrow section), i.e. X/2-2 ridges. Then the cabling is started right in the center of the middle part.

Example: if you knitted 10 ridges during the narrow part (X=10), then knit 3 ridges (10/2 = 5; 5-2 = 3). In my case, I knitted 9 rigdes during the narrow part, and 3 ridges before I started the cabling. To center the cables, the wide (front) parts needs to have an even number of ridges. That's why I ended up with the narrow parts a bit shorter (9 ridges) than the middle part (10 ridges).

Cabling:

The cabling consists of four ridges - two in color A, two in color B, i.e. 16 rows. The horizontal cables are a bit tricky, that's why I have tried to illustrate the steps with photos.

C-Row 1: sl1 k-wise, k to end

C-Row 2: sl1 p-wise, k to end

C-Row 3: sl1 p-wise, p to end

C-Row 4: sl1 k-wise, p7, BO8, p8, BO8, p8

C-Row 5: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards-Loop CO), k8, CO8, k8 - you have now created two holes through which the first ridge in color B will be drawn.

C-Row 6: sl1 p-wise, k to end
C-Row 7: sl1 p-wise, p to end
C-Row 8: sl1, k-wise,  p7, BO8, p8, BO8, p8 (your piece should look like in picture 3)

You can now cut yarn A.
Change color and continue with yarn B.

C-Row 9: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards loop CO) and draw the tip of your needle and a Loop of your working yarn through the hole made by the BO/CO in C-Rows 4 and 5, make sure to not twist your new CO and to keep the working yarn over the new CO (see picture 4), k8, CO8 and repeat what you did through the first hole, k8. There will be yarn wrapped throuhg the holes as well, when you knit the next row, you will draw it back.
C-Row 10: sl1 p-wise, and k all stitches to the end, this means that when you are knitting the newly CO stitches you have to draw both needles through the hole and also draw the loop of yarn through the hole - do this for both holes.  (see picture 5).

C-Row 11: sl1 p-wise, p to end - again, when knitting over the newly CO stitches draw both needles through the hole and also draw a loop of string, make sure to not twist your stitches and keep the loop of working yarn over your stitches (see picture 6), again there will be a loop of yarn wrapped through the two holes (see picture 7)
C-Row 12: sl1 k-wise, p7, BO8, after binding off the last of the 8 stitches, put the last stitch on the left-hand needle, draws both needle tips through the hole, draw the yarn through, and put the last stitch back on the right-hand needle, p8, BO8 and repeat what you did through the first hole, p8 (your piece should now look like in picture 8)

C-Row 13: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards-Loop CO), k8, CO8, k8 (see picture 9)

C-Row 14: sl1 p-wise, k to end
C-Row 15: sl1 p-wise, p to end
C-Row 16: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Continue knitting normal rows 5-8 (i.e. normal ridges) the same number of times you knitted them in the wide part before the cabling started.
However, in the last ridge knit row 8 only up to and including the 20th stitch. Put the last 20 stitch on a stitch holder - they will be grafted to the 1st provisional CO later.

2nd narrow part

Knit rows 5-8 (i.e. normal ridges) the same amount of times you knitted during the first narrow part (i.e. X times, for my socks this was 9 times). However, do not knit the last row of the last ridge.
Picture 10 shows how the socks while knitting this part.

Cut yarn B but leave a tail long enough to graft 20 stitches.

Capture the stitches of the 2nd provisional CO on a needle. Hold together with the stitches still on your needle (right sides out) and graft with normal kitchener stitch (stockinette graft).

Capture stitches from 1st provisional CO on a needle and the stitches you put on scrap yarn at the end of the middle part. Hold needles together (right sides out)  and graft with normal kitchener stitch (stockinette graft).

Weave in Ends.

Make two.