2022 Geek-A-Long: Get Started with Shifter Socks

Happy Sunday Fibermancers! It’s February 13th, which means we are just 2 days away from one of my favorite holidays: 50% off boxes of chocolate at literally every store. If Valentines Day is your thing, I hope you enjoy it, and if you are more into the discount candy like I am, then I wish you many boxes of half price Ferrero Rocher. While you wait on the sugar rush promised to you by the chaotic cherub of love, please enjoy a little GALentines gift from Jac and I to you: The Shifter Socks!

You can download this fabulous free pattern on Ravelry or by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

I designed Shifter to give you a chance to try out sock knitting ahead of the 2022 Geek-A-Long, so you’ll be feeling confident and ready to go as we head into the official GAL patterns next month. The Shifter socks feature simple 8 stitch repeats, and a striped gusset. Jac took the lead on designing the GAL charts this year, and her work is insanely gorgeous. One of the things she’s especially great at is creating color charts that are very straightforward to knit, but when combined on your project make the whole thing look super complex. While they look complex, the execution is no different from that of Shifter, so if you can make these, you’ll be all set for Geek-A-Long 2022!

Continuing our Sock School Geek-A-Long series today let’s talk about reading color charts. If you are just starting out your color work journey, the charts can seem overwhelming. Charts can range from very complex to very simple, but they all have a few things in common:

1. When working in the round (that will be the case for all color charts in the 2022 GAL), ALWAYS read the chart from right to left.
2. When working flat (you turn your work at the end of a row) read the RIGHT SIDE rows from right to left and the WRONG SIDE rows from left to right.

Your pattern will indicate what color to use for white squares on the chart, and what color to use for black squares. Typically, but not always, the darker yarn will be represented in black on a 2 color chart, and the lighter color in white or dark gray. Before you start working, triple check which color you should use for each color on the chart. Then as you work across a row or round you will work 1 stitch for each square on the chart. Here is an example of a round, following a row on a chart:

The yarn that is not being used is behind my work. The easiest way to learn color work is by doing! Just cast on a swatch, and get started. I find it much easier to work color work in the round rather than flat, so I recommend starting there. The swatch (a functional Zarf/cup cozy) in the Shifter pattern is a perfect first colorwork project.

Next week we’ll be covering the stretchy cast on. There is no “rule” regarding what Cast On you will use for socks, but I am a die hard fan of the Twisted German Cast On, so we’ll be covering that. The week after we’ll take a deep dive into yarn management and how to carry your unused yarn across the back of the work when working long stretches of a single color on a chart.

Get the Shifter Sock pattern on Ravelry by clicking this link, or download it here by clicking the button below. Tag us in your project photos on Instagram so we can all ooh, aah, and cheer your progress. #ShifterSocks #LattesandLlamas #Lattesandllamasyarn @doctor_llama @Jac_attacking.

~Megan-Anne

There is no greater trial than trying to get a 6 year old to fill out Valentine cards for her class.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation page benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year. No contribution is too small! Wanna make your donation go even further? Lattes & Llamas will donate $1 for every skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn purchased.