How to Design a 64-Stitch Doodle Sock

1 day ago

Written by Grey Lundy

1 day ago

Written by Grey Lundy

Are you a sock knitter that loves the standard 64-stitch sock size, but wondering how to make one that uses Doodle Charts? While we do have Base Doodle Socks that work with our common Doodle Repeats, sometimes you might just really want to stick with the 64-stitch standard. But how do you make Doodle charts work with that number? By getting just a little extra creative!

Having trouble finding the exact right size chart? You can search by chart dimensions (height & minimum repeat) in our Doodle Chart Search!

Common Doodle Repeat Sizes

All Doodle Charts are formatted to be 24-sts wide. However, many of our charts can be broken down into smaller pieces, which is great for when you need a little extra flexibility with planning your project.

For a bit more background on stitch repeats, what that means, and how to figure that out, we have a whole separate post about Doodle Repeats .

Common repeat numbers within Doodle Charts are: 4, 6, 8, 12, or 12 stitches. This information is shown by a box around the repeat on the chart itself, and should be noted either at the top of the card (for Doodle Decks) or a the side of the chart (in digital versions).

How to make Doodles fit on a 64-st sock

Common repeat numbers within Doodle Charts are: 4, 6, 8, 12, or 12 stitches.

But if you want to add Doodle Charts to a 64-st sock, you'll need a repeat that is: 4, 8, 16, or 32 stitches. So how does that work?

The easiest way to add Doodles to a 64-st sock is to find charts that have a minimum repeat of 4 or 8, as these numbers don't require any extra work - they're ready to go!

But what about the 16 or 32-st options? All you need is a little extra creativity, and we've given you some templates here to work with to get you started with confidence!

The key to making any chart work for 64-stitches is to convert your chart into an 8, 16, or 32 st chart!

HOW TO make an 8-st repeat

Make an 8-st repeat by combining a 6-st repeat with 2 extra stitches. You can either add 2 blank stitches between each 6-st repeat, or you can use that space to add extra CC stitches to make your floats shorter.

HOW TO make a 16-st repeat

Make a 16-st repeat by combining any 6- or 12-st chart with any 4-st chart (Basic Doodles are great for this) to make a 16-stitch repeat for your sock!

HOW TO make a 32-st repeat

Make a 32-st repeat by combining charts in any of the ways shown below! You can even use full 24-stitch charts by just adding a smaller motif in between!. Take a look at all the different ways to combine 6, 8, 12, and 24-stitch Doodles into a new chart that is perfect for your 64-stitch sock!

Need a good 4-st repeat to add to your design? This simple repeat is one of our favorite filler charts from the Basic Doodle, and is a great way to add a few extra stitches while still looking like it always belonged there!

Not sure you want to add more design elements? You can always just add a single blank st between repeats to fill up some extra space. The example below would have one spot near the BOR where you don't have the extra blank space, but this option doesn't require you to search for filler charts.

What if the chart I need to use doesn't work for this?

Sometimes the chart you want to use crosses over the edge of the repeat, so simply adding a different chart next to it doesn't quite work. In the Bat chart below, you can see how the design on the left and right edges of the chart crosses over the border at the end of the repeat.

But if you're absolutely in love with a particular chart, you can still make it work. You just have to use the advanced option!

In the example below, I repeated the diamond shape on either side of the bat, and moved the extra CC stitches so that nothing crossed over the edge of the stitch repeat. By moving the elements around, I expanded a 24-st Doodle Chart into a 32-st repeat!

BONUS TIP offsetting charts

If you are using one of the options that alternates two (or more) different charts, you might want to offset the charts to stagger out how the different elements line up vertically. Instead of just stacking the same thing directly on top of itself through your project, switch up how you arrange the elements in your design to add some more visual interest!