Trikonasana Yoga Socks

It seems that I'm going trough a "yoga sock phase" again. But this time, I try different designs to make the knitting a bit more interesting. After a sideways version and on with horizonal cables, I tried this one that is knitted diagonally - or with slanted horizontal ribbing.

As I am always trying to reduce the number of ends to weave in, this version is also knitted in one piece - and flat.

Trikonasana is the name for the triangle pose in yoga.

I haven't done much yoga lately, but I resolved to do the 30/30 Yoga Challenge by Ekhart Yoga in September. (I've often taken resolutions like that but never quite accomplished them - maybe announcing it publicly (sort of) helps :)




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



Materials

• three 3mm needles
• about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn
• scrap yarn (for provisional CO and to hold some stitches) 
• a crochet hook (for provisional CO)
• a tapestry needle to graft and to weave in ends.

Techniques and Special Stitches

• Provisonal CO: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional CO – as shown in this YouTube Video by lucyneatby
• Grafting in stockinette stitch (aka Kitchener stitch): As shown for example in this YouTube video by WEBS - America's Yarn Store
• pfb: purl first into the front and then into the back loop of one stitch, a purl increase, here’s a YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter that shows a pfb

Gauge and What to Measure
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.
Please note that the actual width of the pice is not measured at the edge, but along the knitting direction or 45 degrees off the edge.


Construction
The pictures below shows the general construction. You start with half of the intended lenght of the sock multiplied by 1.4. (I wanted the sock to measure about 2 x 7 cm = 14 cm) - since I'm knitting slanted I aimed for about 9.8 cm (7 cm (half the lenght) x 1,4 = 9.8 cm). Since 13 stitches give 5 cm, about 25 stitches will give about 9.8 cm.

Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in slanted horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the back of the foot and the front part of your ankles (Part 2 - wide part in the middle). At the end of part 2 you put half of your stitches on scrap yarn.  Then you continue in another narrow strip of slanted horizontal ribs.
The piece looks now as shown in the photo below. To finish it you need to graft the two seams as shown in the schematic.

Instructions

Part 1:
Provisionally CO 25 sts but leave a tail long enough to graft these stitches
Row 1: k all sts
Row 2: k1, kfb, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Row 3: p1, p to end
Row 4: p1, pfb, p to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1

Repeat rows 1 to 4 until the side edge (when stretched a bit) is about half the circumference of your feet. Stretching the piece while measuring it, will help the socks to fit snugly, The ribbing is quite strechy, so it needs to be knitted with some negative ease.

Part 2:
Row 1: k all sts then with scrap yarn and on a new needle provisionally CO 25 more stitches and continue knitting (k) (see picture 1)

Knit rows 2 to 4 as in part 1.

Then repeat rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) until the sock (measured in kntting direction) measures the circumference of your foot – when being stretched a bit.
End with a row 3

Row 4; p1, pfb, p20, p2tog, p1  and put the remaining stitches (there should 25 sts left) on a piece of scrap yarn. Turn your work - it should look as in picture 2.

Part 3:
Knit rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) as many times as you knitted in part 1.
However, do not knit row 4 of the last repeat - end with a row 3.

Cut your yarn leaving a tail long enough to graft the seam. Open the stitches from the second provisional CO and catch them on a knitting needle. Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 3). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Once you've finished grafting this seam, open the stitches from the first provisional CO and catch them on a needle, also put the stitches you put on scrap yarn at the end of part 2 on another needle.
Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 4). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Weave in ends.

Second sock
If you want your socks to be symmetrical (i.e. one is the mirror image of the other) you need to turn one of them inside out, i.e. redefining the former RS to now WS. So after you've grafted the second one, make sure to weave in your ends on the new WS side.