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.
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.