Legacy: Four-Color Socks

For this project, I had the yarn in a bag marked "socks for" the recipient. But no pattern. Four skeins of gorgeous color, fingering weight, washable wool. I searched on four-color socks in Ravelry and came up with a pattern in a book that I own, and that I know my sister owned a copy of. So it's possible she had this pattern in mind.

A lot of Ravelry commenters give this pattern grief, which is only half-deserved. Corrugated ribbing, as we have learned, can be worked in 2-row sets, working color A stitches and slipping color B, then reversing it on the next row. In practice, two such rows equal one row of knitting. So people reading through the pattern who have never done 2-color ribbing thought that the heel and toe would be comically long, when in fact they were just fine as written. That my heel flaps are a skosh long is my own fault, since I was off on the first sock by two rows and decided it was better to make them match than to rip out half a sock to fix it.

The toes, though, were another matter. The pattern is actually written in a very ambiguous way, and despite leaving clever notes for myself after the first sock, I had to figure it out all over again on the second sock.

But all in all, it was worth it. I like them a lot, and if they wind up a tad large for the recipient, they'll make nice slipper socks.

Needles: US 1½ (2.5 mm)
Yarn: a mystery Maryland Sheep and Wool purchase from another year
Pattern: Anna Tillman's Classic Fair Isle from knitted socks (which is out of print)