Windowpane socks tutorial

I uploaded a pattern for these Windowpane socks (Ravelry link) to Ravelry earlier this week, and I've been getting a bunch of requests for the pattern, so I figured I'd do up a photo tutorial.

Here's part 1 of the tutorial, which covers the first tier of squares. I'm still knitting the second tier and will do part 2 later today or tomorrow.

I'm re-knitting the pattern in the Wollmeise that I won as a blog prize from Knitting Sutra last year.

Here is a photo of the yarn on my Tinker Toy swift so you can see how it starts out.

And here it is in the ball. So pretty, so self-striping!


I stretched out one colour repeat of purple-to-green and took a guess at how much yarn a repeat would take.

Note: All handpainted yarns are different so you should swatch out a square with your own needles and gauge if you want the windowpanes effect. For at least the Wollmeise and Socks that Rock, 11 stitches worked, but you might find that 13 or 15 stitches might be the magic number for longer yarn repeats.
For this yarn and my gauge: Cast on 11 stitches. Purl one row. (On all rows but the cast-on one, I slip the first purl stitch so that it’s easier to pick up a stitch when you go to pick up stitches at the sides of the squares.)

Slip 1, Knit 3. (Again, I slip the first knit stitch so that it’s easier to pick up a stitch when you go to pick up stitches at the sides of the squares.)

Slip 2 stitches together knit-wise. Knit the next stitch. Pass two slipped stitches over the knit stitch.

Knit 4

Purl 9. (Purl all back stitches -- slip the first purl stitch to make it easier to pick up.)

Knit 3. Slip as before to make the mitered square come together. Knit 3. Purl back.

Continue until you’re down to one stitch at the tip of the square. Hopefully you’re also at the end of the colour repeat.

If you still have some colour repeat left, rip that square and cast on 2-4 more stitches.

Here`s my first mitered square.


Pick up 6 stitches along the side of the square. Cast on 5 more stitches (I used the e cast-on).


Purl 11. Repeat from the Slip 1, Knit 3 step to make your second square. Keep making squares until you have enough squares less one to make a strip that goes comfortably around your calf. This is addictive, as each square only takes a few minutes to make.

You'll join your last square to the first one. Pick up the stitches along the side, then cast on 4 stitches with the e cast-on. Then pick up the stitch at the bottom corner of your first square and make the fifth stitch.


Slip 1, and purl back. Repeat the mitered square pattern but on the very last stitch of each knit row: slip that last stitch, pick up 1 loop from the edge of the first mitered square, knit the two stitches together.


The two squares should line up neatly. with each other, with your final corner stitch sticking up into the next row of squares.


Pick up 5 stitches along the square that you're on, and cast on 5 more stitches with the e cast-on.


And that will take us to the end of part 1 ... look for part 2 shortly!

PS. here's a photo of what the pattern looks like with Lorna's Laces yarn -- I couldn't get the full colour repeat into a mitered square, but I also love the random rainbow squares that I did get.