If you're a knitter you probably are well aware that this weekend is Sock Summit - "the greatest sock show on earth... taking sock knitting almost too far"!  I am one of the lucky ones, living in Portland, Oregon, a few miles away from the event (in fact, I'll be heading over there as soon as I post this!) but for most of you threadheads, not at the summit, and maybe not even knowing the first thing about knitting socks, I'm rounding up a wide variety of sock knitting projects so you can learn what it's all about, and admire some gorgeous designs...

I'll start with something simple - I think a great way to learn is to try knitting some mini-socks, or peds, like these Pom Pom Peds by The Purl Bee, with some great step-by-step photos for beginners.

Another good first sock design is Super Simple Short Sock by Radiant Twist:



There are all kinds of sock knitting tutorials (differing from patterns) out there, for different ways of constructing and knitting socks - a tutorial for the basic way of making one sock at a time on double pointed needles can be found by Silver here.



On knitty.com you can find the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula, to learn how the construction works and then you can get creative with pattern specifics:



And then there's the method of knitting two toe-up socks at the same time on a circular needle, which you can find directions for by Silver, and also on Knit Picks.



So now I'll move on to the patterns!  Knitty is a fantastic source of free sock patterns - check out this list of them all!  One of the most popular patterns of them all is Cookie A's Monkey:



Spring Forward by Linda Welch is a pretty lace design:



For a simple, unisex pattern, there's Bobby Ziegler's Thuja:



And I love Star Athena's Halloween-themed Frankensocks!



Another free pattern source is Knotions, which just released this Tufted Diamonds pattern by Jody Pirrello, and will be posting 2 more socks in the next two days, to celebrate Sock Summit!



Moving on to independently published patterns, I love asymmetrical design, so I'm totally drawn to these Mojo socks on Some Knitting Required:



One of the all-around most popular sock patterns out there is Jaywalker by Grumperina, available as a ravelry download, or a toe-up version can be found here.  I love this pair knit by indychick_uk on flickr:



Anne Campbell has an assortment of patterns downloadable on her site - I love the Circle Socks (this pair was knit by weeblet2001 on flickr):



Wendy Knits offers a huge collection of free sock patterns, like this one called Rivulets Socks:



Knitzi offers this beautiful Nutkin Sock pattern:



Cat Bordhi designed these fancy Houdini Socks, free through Twist Collective:



And if you're into colorwork, check out these gorgeous Tulip Socks on the Purl Bee:



And while every sock pattern above is offered for free, I urge you to explore for-sale patterns out there and support independent designers when you find a pattern you love!  The only way designers are able to give us the free patterns is by selling some...  One of my personal favorites is Tron Socks, designed by Star Athena - inspired by the 80's movie and video game!

 

 

 

This was a tough roundup because there are hundreds of sock patterns available on the internet, so I tried to choose a variety of different types of patterns for you.  If you are looking for a particular kind of sock (lace, colorwork, cables...), do a ravelry search and get more specific to narrow down the results.  By the way, I am not a sock knitter myself, but I'm just starting to get interested in socks, thanks to Sock Summit (that's the beginning of my first ever knit sock up at the top), and I'm having fun with it!  Hope I've inspired you to try it out too!