Mens Worsted Weight Socks - Free Pattern

While shopping at Hobby Lobby recently, I came across a worsted Red Heart yarn in a color called Marrakesh:

It was too vibrant and pretty not to pick up a skein. Naturally, I made socks with it, and naturally, they have already been deployed:

At first I sized these for myself, but it’s really not my color. Despite the bright pink, my Hubby likes the color, so I re-sized them for him. Now I can expect to see them quite frequently around the house, since we tend to wear the worsted-weight socks as slippers. Once I’ve seen them around awhile, I can decide whether I like the color enough to make something bigger, like an afghan. Meanwhile, here’s the pattern.

I wanted to use this color to show how I use the stitch markers for the increase on the arches. I use three: one in the middle of the back, and one at each side of the back, between the original number of stitches and the increased stitches. It starts out a bit odd-looking:

But once you’ve increased a few stitches, it becomes very easy to count how many you’ve increased:

Once I get to the number of stitches I need and begin the heel decrease, I use the middle marker as my counter for the first decrease and turn (which is generally the middle stitch plus 2). Once I’ve done that, all the stitch markers come out, though the middle one can be left in to mark the center of the back row for bind-off purposes.

Now, off to a late lunch with my Hubby, who has chosen to wear the new socks today. Guess I'll take the cabled scarf with me to work on.