Pattern One – Mad Cow Socks

Check your email. The first pattern has been released. On the day patterns are released we are offering a little information about the designers and the patterns.

The first pattern is called Mad Cow. It’s a simple striping pattern. I don’t know the specifics about the black and white yarn that Jennifer used, but the test knit in pink was done with Lorna’s Shepherd Sock.

Meet Jennifer Young.

She designed this fabulous easy pattern. The simplicity makes it the perfect pattern for starting off Sock Madness. You can get used to competitive sock knitting while working a sock that’s very forgiving.  She even offers two versions of the pattern - toe-up or toe-down – it’s the knitter’s choice. If you get stuck on a technique, Jennifer has thoughtfully provided you some links to some great instructions at the end of her pattern. If you love this pattern and want to try more of Jennifer’s designs, check this out.

Here are a few words from Jennifer.

The design for the Mad Cow socks originally came to me as an idea about color. I knit a pair of socks that ended up with little splotches of yellow, blue, and green due to the short pattern repeats. When I saw the same yarn in black and white, I thought it would be cool to use that yarn in black and white to have a pair of “cow” socks. Actually, I wanted the socks to have a white background with black splotches, but an extended search for a matching shade of white yarn proved fruitless so I decided that my cows would be black with white spots. 

When I got down to knitting the socks, I thought just X rounds of MC, X rounds of CC would get boring quickly, so I threw in the alternating short repeats. The double repeat of the solid color at the heel is to make the pattern “reversible”, a knitting palindrome, if you will. It also deepens the appearance of the heel, since short row heels in contrasting colors sometimes look oddly shallow.

I have been making my own patterns since the first pair of socks I knit (about a year and a half ago now, I think). Sometimes I follow a published pattern, but even then I usually just take the stitch pattern and adapt it to suit me and the mood I’m in at the time– I knit for relaxation, so I try not to have too many rules to follow.

If you have any difficulty when knitting the socks, please contact me at jenniferteacher@gmail.com.

Good Luck to Everyone!