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As I’ve mentioned before (maybe even with pictures–my memory’s shot), I’ve been knitting socks for a little under two years (will be two years January 28, 2014.) When I started out, I used 100 gram balls of Ella rae Classic, 100% wool, worsted weight. That established a baseline for me and it’s proven to be a good yarn for the kind of socks I like: thick and sturdy and easy to work. Each sock used up most of a 100 g. ball; I saved the remnants, of course, and soon thought of using them to make striped socks. Meanwhile, riding the bike in hot weather, I decided I needed short socks. Short striped socks seemed a good idea. The first pair used up the remnants from two pairs of red “regular” socks, plus a little blue for a single stripe.But then…I branched out into other yarn brands, other colors, and more remnants were in the sack of leftovers. And I found a yarn I wanted to use very badly but I didn’t want to commit to a “regular” pair when I needed another short pair. Hence:
The lefthand pair, nicknamed “Rainy Day Roses,” has been worn several times. The righthand pair, nicknamed “Sunny Day Roses” is new, with its yarn ends still loose inside. It’s intentional that the stripes don’t match. The rose color was the new yarn–I will now make a pair of solid rose socks, but the rest of the balls used on these short socks will continue to make stripes with other colors. The dark teal, turquoise, and green yarns were leftovers from previous solid pairs, as also the purple stripe at the top of the green-based striped ones.
But the weather cooled off before I finished the new pair (Saturday morning) so I knew I needed more regular length socks…and that led to the first striped pair of regular socks. They’re at the start of the toe decreases so it won’t be long before I have them in the rotation.
The regular socks have five inches of ribbing, then one and a half inches of stockinette (with a decrease to shape to my ankle.) I decided I did want matching stripes on the cuffs but unmatched on the foot. The heels are blue, and the toes will be blue with a single-row red stripe, just as the “sporty-shorty” socks have a single contrasting stripe on the toe. I’m still figuring out the best way to do this without having a zillion loose yarn ends. If the stripes are narrow enough, a color can “float” in the inside across the intervening color–very simply for one or two rows, OK for three or even four, but at five I begin to worry about snagging and breaking.
Initially I thought it would be best to change colors along the side of the sock, but have now come down on the side of changing them up the center sole…they feel fine, and I don’t have to worry about the jagged places were the colors meet (or don’t)–I learned how to make striped not jag, but it involves a process that gradually shortens where you do that (becuase it’s a slip-stitch method) and I don’t want the sock foot to get sneakily shorter. Accepting the jag and enjoying the stripes elsewhere seemed more sensible. I may change my mind later, especially if I do knee-high striped socks someday.
The red stripes are from leftovers of another pair of red “regular” socks and the blue here is a new blue. Since I started with the 100 g. balls, I will have quite a bit leftover, and my plan is that the next striped pair of regular socks will be this blue and leftover green. I have the feeling, though, that down the line trying to use up exactly all the leftover yarn will be like trying to get the gravy and what you put it on matched.
[Edit: adding a picture of the finished socks]
At this point the yarn ends weren’t woven in yet, so I wore them only long enough to take the picture. Their first wearing came the following weekend, Dec 8. They’ve now been washed and put in the rotation. Next up is a plain green pair. After that…not sure. But some plain pairs because it takes so long to weave in lots of ends.
Comment by Margaret Middleton — December 2, 2013 @ 3:01 pm
Knitting ignoramus here, but I *have* done crochet. Is there not a way to catch the “floating” color yarn on an inside loop of the active yarn at the “okay for 3 or 4 rows” interval, depending on how wide you plan on making the stripe? Seems like I did something along that logic when I was alternating crochet colors.
Comment by Linda — December 2, 2013 @ 4:24 pm
My thought too … when knitting a multicolored pattern one uses that technique.
I am using up yarn leftovers by having taken up felting … mostly needle felting as my house is too small to work with wet felting. I am also ridding myself of sweaters with stains which won’t come out or which turned out not to be “me” by felting them in a washing machine and repurposing them (probably with added motifs created out of left over yarn).
Love the new socks. I should probably try worsted weight, as sock weight and tiny needles drives me nuts.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 2, 2013 @ 7:49 pm
I was wondering when we were going to see some more of the socks. I like them.
Comment by Catmadknitter — December 2, 2013 @ 8:02 pm
Yes, you twist all the colors together, but remember to keep the “floating” color loose.
She’s right about the sneakily shorter slip stitch problem, though the amt used for color change *shouldn’t* be an issue (famous last words!).
Comment by elizabeth — December 2, 2013 @ 10:05 pm
We’re expecting really cold (for us) weather toward the end of the week–below freezing, that is, possibly with frozen precipitation of some sort. So another pair of the regular socks, that came higher up my ankles, will be very welcome. If I get them done.
Glad you’re enjoying the pictures.
I haven’t yet figured out how to anchor the floating yarn while knitting on, but when I weave in the yarn tails, I can zigzag over it to some extent. However, a long stretch of narrowish stripes and floats means no yarn tail to do the “nailing down” with. I can of course take another strand of yarn and do that. This particular pair of socks has a “hole” at the top of one gusset which will need repair, so I’ll be sewing on the inside anyway.
Comment by Richard — December 3, 2013 @ 2:15 pm
News item (though complete non sequiter to this thread): we now have image of Crown‘s UK cover up on Amazon (UK).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-Renewal-Paladins-Legacy-Elizabeth/dp/0356501302
Comment by elizabeth — December 3, 2013 @ 2:56 pm
Yay! (I wish they’d tell me when it was OK to post it, but…at least it’s there.)
I’m going to put up a Covers! Covers! topic and show both.
Comment by GinnyW — December 5, 2013 @ 8:13 am
Very pretty! I almost wish I could knit.
Comment by elizabeth — December 5, 2013 @ 4:26 pm
The red and blue ones are now finished except for weaving in the yarn ends. The medium blue socks, not quite 18 months old, acquired a hole in the toe yesterday. The red & blue stripes will become part of the Week One sack, to replace them, rather than starting a new week sack.
(I keep each pair in a separate plastic freezer bag, and seven such bags in a larger freezer bag, in the fond hope of frustrating attacks by clothes moths, cockroaches, and mice, all of which destroy hand-knits.)
Today’s break between other things is “weaving in ends.”
Comment by penny — December 6, 2013 @ 9:00 am
There are a couple of other ways to do jogless stripes. TechKnitting wrote about it. Don’t forget with knee-high socks you’d need to also incorporate calf increases and you can hide the jog with them.
Yay for handknit socks that fit your feet and meet your specifications, that’s why I knit. Enjoy in good health and happiness.
Comment by Katrina — December 7, 2013 @ 2:31 pm
Your socks are lovely and look oh-so comfortable. They’re enough to make me think about trying to crochet socks. (I mostly do blankets.)
Comment by elizabeth — December 9, 2013 @ 4:33 pm
The switch from flat things to round things is a bit scary, but with knitting (dunno about crochet) once you’ve learned to join the cast-on or first row…it’s just around and around and around she goes, until you stop where you want to. Once you’re going around and around, and have decided where you want the heel to bend the tube…there are directions, some complicated and some simple. I’m fond of simple, so I use the “heel flap” version with the heel turn Stephanie Pearl-McPhee described so clearly in her book KNITTING RULES. (How simple? So simple I got it right the very first time–that’s how simple. I could not believe it, but…it worked.) I’m still not doing “grafted” toes, but “purse-string” toes…decrease until there are only eight stitches left, 2 on each needle, then run the yarn through the stitches and pull them together. Done.
(Well, not quite. Then you pull the yarn back inside the sock, turn the sock inside out, and weave the yarn end in. But close enough to done.)
Comment by Nadine Barter Bowlus — December 9, 2013 @ 8:02 pm
For striped socks, I cheat by using “self-striping” yarn. It is fun to see how they turn out. I’ve discovered that 100 grams of sock-weight yarn gives me pair of regular length socks and a pair of shorties.
Comment by elizabeth — December 9, 2013 @ 9:43 pm
I don’t think that’s a cheat–some of that yarn is gorgeous. I prefer thicker socks, worsted weight, so I need two 100g balls for a pair, and then have some left over. I use the leftover in the shorty socks, either as solid (in the first pair of short ones) or as stripes. It takes the leftovers of a pair of socks to make one short sock if I’m going for solid–two pairs to make a pair of short socks. But with stripes…the leftovers of one pair can be stripes on several, depending on how many yarn ends I want to have to weave in…(grin.)