Pattern: Toe-Up Fish Scale Socks

These are toe-up socks with an afterthought heel. If you are familiar with crocheted sock design, this should be a fairly basic pattern of 5-dc shells crocheted in the round.

I love the look of shells, and wanted a pair of socks with a shell pattern. Halfway through, I realized that the sock looked like a fish (especially with the wild-colored yarn I chose - some exotic tropical species, maybe?). Turning after the completion of every round provides a slight textured look to the sock.

I used two skeins of Serenity Sock Yarn, thyme colorway. It's a fairly inexpensive bamboo/nylon/merino sock yarn that comes in 230-yd balls. I had bought up a number of different colorways when it was on sale and am now left with some pretty out-there colored sock yarn. I was interested to see just how far one skein can stretch, so I kept working the sock until I ran out of yarn.

Note: I wear a size 6 women's shoe. I tried to write the pattern to be flexible for different length feet, but alterations may be necessary to accommodate wider feet. If necessary, work the toe additional rounds before starting the foot (make sure the stitches around are a multiple of 4).

All stitches are in US terminology.

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Materials:

• Approximately 400 yds fingering weight yarn (smaller sizes will require less, larger sizes will require more).
  
• 3.5 mm/E crochet hook

Shell stitch: 5 dc in next stitch.

Make 2.

Toe:
Rnd 1: Ch 10, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 7 ch, 3 sc in next ch. Do not turn; continue working on opposite side of chain. Sc in next 7 ch across, 2 sc in next ch. Do not join.
Rnd 2: sc in first sc, sc in each st to end st, 3 sc in end sc, sc to opposite end, 3 sc in end st. Do not join.
Work 4 more rnds, with 3 sc on the ends. (40 sc around)
Do not turn.

Foot:
Rnd 1: *sl st, sc, dc, sc*, repeat from * to * around, sl st into last st. Turn.
Rnd 2: Ch 1, sl st into sl st, ch 3 (counts as dc here and throughout), 4 dc into same st as sl st, skip one sc, sc into dc, *skip one sc, shell in sl st, skip one sc, sc into dc*. Repeat from * to * around, join with sl st to third ch of ch 3. Turn.
Rnd 3: Sl st into first sl st, ch 3, 4 dc into same st as sl st, skip two dc, sc, *skip two dc, shell in sc, skip two dc, sc*. Repeat from * to * around, join with sl st to third ch of ch 3. Turn.
Repeat rnd 3 until sock reaches to bend of ankle when stretched. Do not turn on last rnd.

Leg:
Rnd 1: Base ch/sc 20, skip 5 shells, join with sl stitch to next sc. Turn.
Rnd 2: Sl st in sl st, *sc, dc, sc, sl* across foundation chain, join with sl st to sc in third dc of shell, continue with shell stitch across for five shells, (shell in sl st, skip one sc, sc into dc, skip one sc) 5 times, shell in sl st, join with sl st to first dc of first shell in row.
Repeat rnd 3 of Foot until sock is desired length. If necessary, make 7-dc shells instead of 5-dc shells to accommodate the calf. Bind off.

Heel:
Turn sock inside out and hold with toe pointing towards you. Join yarn to first dc in the right-hand corner of the heel opening.
Rnd 1: Sc in same dc as join, 3 sc, *sc (dc, sc, dc) together, 4 sc* 4 times, 3 sc, sc 2 corner sts together, sc across foundation chain to last two st, sc3tog.
Next rnds: *Sc across to last two st before corner, sc3tog*. Repeat from * to * in rounds until there are 10 stitches left (5 on each side).
Last rnd: Sl st join the opening closed(5 sl st).
Bind off, weave in ends.