The Nicobar Socks are inspired by Caloenas nicobarica, the Nicobar Pigeon, a brilliantly-coloured pigeon found on islands in the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans from India to Palau. Its iridescent feathers make the Nicobar Pigeon a truly striking and unusual bird, and it is believed to be the closest living relative of the infamously-extinct Dodo Bird. Add some flair to your plumage with these striking socks!

Pattern Description

These toe-up socks use angled elongated stitches in one or more contrasting colours to create surface texture on top of the fabric. This is achieved with a combination of elongated slipped stitches and small sections of pseudo-stranded knitting, and it is a lot easier than it sounds! All cables can be done without a cable needle. The back of the leg has subtle elongated-stitch patterning in the main colour. They feature a Chinstrap rounded short row heel and a twisted rib cuff.

This pattern requires the knitter to be able to knit a small circumference in the round (the pattern is sock-knitting-method-neutral) and clearly explains all techniques required. Within the pattern you will find links to useful video tutorials as well, so the pattern is easily accessible to an intermediate sock knitter.

Note that the pattern is written for mid-calf socks; calf shaping in the sample pair as noted on my project page was calculated using the guidelines in the Vanilla Bean Cupcake Socks pattern.

Yarn Requirements and Sizing

Sizes available: Adult Small (Medium, Large) to fit foot circumferences of 18 (20.5, 23) cm / 7 (8, 9) inches — 56 (64, 72) stitches on the foot.

Main Colour requires approximately 300 (325, 350) m / 325 (350, 375) yards of fingering-weight yarn.

Only a very small amount of contrast colour is used to make each pattern repeat on these socks, making them perfect for yarns you loved using so much that you just couldn’t bring yourself to throw away the tiny amount left over. Each chart repeat only requires approximately 1-2 m/yards of Contrast Colour yarn; that’s it!

These socks are rated 3/5 — Intermediate — on my sock pattern difficulty scale. This is because they require a few uncommon stitches, and they have long repeat sections on the charts.