Until December of 2024, I had never knit a pair of DK weight socks. I’m usually a fingering weight sock person. I love wearing them, I love knitting them, and I especially love collecting fingering weight yarns.
In December, I saw a friend had knit a pair of socks by holding fingering weight yarn doubled (i.e. holding two strands together), and I thought I’d give it a try. So for my Christmas Eve cast-on, I started a pair of Super Sprinkle Socks by holding my fingering weight yarn doubled.
I LOVE how these turned out! It took me less than a week to knit these, and I’ve been wearing them every chance I get. They are so cozy and warm, and I think they’ll wear a little longer than my usual fingering weight socks. (I’m tough on my socks, it turns out. Luckily, I’m the only person in my family who wears through socks, and the good news is I can always knit more!)
For this project, I chose my Super Sprinkle Socks pattern. I published this design in November 2023, and I love how this super easy texture works with speckled and tonal yarn. I originally designed these socks with fingering weight yarn in mind, and I knit the originals at a gauge of 9 sts and 12 rounds per inch using a 2.25 mm needle. For this sock, I used a 3.25 mm needle and knit a smaller size at a gauge of 7 sts and 9 rounds per inch. I used Jems Luxe Fibers Luxe Sock in the colorway Sirens.
When I designed the pattern, I included five sizes: 48 stitches (sts), 56 sts, 64 sts, 72 sts, and 80 sts. Most adults will find that the 64 sts or 72 sts sizes fit best, but I love knitting socks for my children as well, and my youngest wears a sock with 48 stitches, so I like to include the size in my patterns when possible. I usually knit the 64 sts size for myself. At my fingering weight gauge, that gives me 64 stitches divided by 9 stitches per inch equals 7.1 inches circumference for my socks. I did a little math, and it turns out that if I knit the 48 sts size at a gauge of 7 stitches per inch, I’ll end up with roughly the same circumference sock: 48 sts/7 sts/inch = 6.9 inches.
I’m pretty adventurous as a knitter and have no problem restarting something if it doesn’t work out, so I cast these on using a 3.25 mm (US #3) needle, which gave me 7 stitches per inch. I love the resulting fit!
I did run into a little snag along the way, however. When you use thicker yarn to make socks, the yardage is going to change. I used 56 grams of yarn for the first sock, and my skein only had 49 grams left for the second sock. That was a problem. Fortunately, it turns out that I have a color type, and I was able to find some leftover yarn from another project that matched up pretty well. The crochet granny square in the photo below shows some of the yarn I used: Suburban Stitcher’s Naranjita colorway on her sock base.
The color wasn’t a perfect match, but it was close enough that when I held it together with the yarn that I was using, it blended in pretty well. I was able to finish up the socks! Yay!
You can see a little bit of the color difference in the toe of the left sock (shown above), but I think it worked out pretty well! The slight color difference certainly won’t stop me from wearing them as much as possible.
These socks were such a quick knit and great fit that I made a second pair in January!
For this pair, I prepared to run out of yarn and used a contrast color for the start of the cuff and the toe of the socks. This yarn was Hue Loco’s Phyllis Sock base in the colorways Petunia (gray) and Oh Snap (green). I am so happy with how these turned out, and I know that there will be many more pairs of DK weight socks in my future. I started these on January 18, 2025 and finished them up on January 26, 2025.
I love how fun this texture is for these socks, but I’m definitely eyeballing some of my other patterns that include a 48 sts size for a future pair of DK weight socks. The Dragon Fairy Socks are also a contender, and I think the Candy Dot Grid Socks and Pause Time Socks would be fun in a thicker sock as well.
What do you think? Have you tried knitting a pair of DK weight socks? What patterns have you resized to get a fit that you love?
