Making Monday: Simply stripey sock recipe

For this Making Monday, I have been writing a recipe to share. Let me know what you think!  

I like to make the most of my sock yarn, even when there are only a few grammes left, and after seeing the grumperina knit stripey socks a while ago, I have developed her technique for my own ends to make simply stripey socks. This is how I do it:

1. Have a good rummage in the stash, and choose some sock yarns in complementary colours/shades.

2. Weigh the yarn and make sure there is enough to make a pair of socks. (I know that I need at least 50g to make a pair of plain vanilla socks in my size). If there isn't, then go back to step one and rummage some more.

2. Divide any small balls into two roughly equal portions.

3. Cast on in the usual way and knit the sock cuff using one of the yarns. In this instance, because there is a lot of green and not much of the others, then I am using the green as the 'main' colour.

4. When the cuff is the required length, start on the leg of the sock. Introduce your additional yarns/colours at this point.

A. If there are only two colours/yarns, then work the first round in the new colour and then go back to the main colour for the second round, then revert to the new colour for round three. Continue knitting in this way, alternating colours/yarns until the leg of your sock is the required length.

Joining the second yarn after the cuff

B. If you have three colours/yarns to work with (as I have here), then join the first colour at the beginning of the round, AND then join the second colour the next time you change needles. Continue knitting in that colour until you encounter the main colour again (at the end of the round). Pick this up and knit until you meet the tail of the first colour and then knit with that one.

If you find yourself with all of your yarn tails at the same point, all you need to remember is to ALWAYS knit with the LOWEST yarn available. In the picture below, this means taking the paler green yarn (on the left).

I find knitting these stripes really addictive, and once I've started it's hard to stop - although I do break from time to time to admire the effect. One of the yarns I'm using here is a self-striping one, changing from cream to green and back again.

Keep knitting until the leg is the desired length and prepare for the heel flap. I knit this in one colour - in this case, the same colour as the cuff, so I make sure that the yarns are in the right place. The spare yarns should be 'parked' just before the heel flap, as shown below.

Heel flap and yarn on left (front) needle; spare yarns parked on right (back)needle.

Continue knitting the heel flap in the normal way until you start to pick up the stitches along the side of the flap. You should find that as you come to pick up stitches on the second side of the heel flap that you encounter your spare yarns again. As always, work with the lowest yarn available and use this to pick up the stitches on the second side of the heel flap. 

Work the foot and toe of the sock in your usual way, alternating yarns as you did before for as long as you want or are able. I often use quite small quantities of yarn for my stripes, so sometimes only the leg of the sock is striped, while the rest is plain. The possibilities are endless! Here are few examples...

Making Monday: making, baking and being at home

As is always the case, a week was simply not long enough to accomplish everything on my list, but it was good to get some things finished, and some things started, and to have a few days where work interruptions were minimal and the priorities were unashamedly domestic.There was...

: : knitting - two socks finished (but not a pair)

: : sewing - one small t-shirt refashioned and two pairs of trousers cut out ready for stitching (both repurposed from my old trousers)

: : baking - a lemon drizzle cake (from Nigella's domestic goddess book) and a delicious quiche (mushroom and leek) and home-made pizzas and a jumble fruit crumble

and playing, and meeting friends, and some trips out, including one to see this: the Tour of Britain, which started yesterday in Peebles.

And there was a wee bit of gardening (in between the showers) and paperwork and sorting and decluttering (three big bags for the charity shop), but a bit less sleep than we hoped for on account of a small person with a tickly cough but, all in all, it was a good week.

Don't forget to check out other making mondays to see what everyone else has been doing...

Making Lists

No work for me this week, so my making monday is all about lists: planning the week ahead to make the most of my time at home, some of it without children(!)

: : read/finish reading the lovely books that are cluttering up my side of the bed
: : convert as many WIPs as possible to FOs
: : sort and rationalise the fabric stash (see item above)
: : bake and cook good things
: : weed, deadhead and tidy up the garden
: : attend to personal grooming (pedicure and haircut both booked)
: : catch up on paperwork/tax affairs
: : sleep
: : eat
: : play
: : blog

I hope there'll some more of these:

And plenty more of this:

Making Monday: Socks (FO)

Never mind the bed bug, I've been bitten by the sock bug, and this week has mostly been about finishing these stripey foot warmers.

Now and again, I join with a small group of knitting women/mums for an evening of chatting, knitting and eating cake. After a short break for the Scottish summer holidays, we reconvened this week (thanks Beth! *wave*), and I managed to finish these off, as well as catch up on the latest news from the group, which included: 3 chickens and some bees; several children back at school; a dog bite on a tummy (ouch); camping in Scotland; circuses and pigs. Make of that what you will...

Pattern: generic top down

Yarn: unknown self-striping yarn (from Oxfam) plus pale brown yarn from stash

Time taken: 19 July -25 August 2011

As it turns out, we were all knitting socks this week. Except one, who is knitting a hat (or a sock for a head). Anyway, to get back to the FO, as usual I employed my favourite striping trick to make the yarn stre-e-tch to a make a pair of socks. I began with roughly equal amounts of yarn, together weighing 66 g (which I know is enough to knit a pair of socks in my size). I normally try and work things so that the cuffs and heels are the same colour on each sock, but there wasn't enough yarn to do that this time, so one sock has a plain cuff and heel flap and the other has a self-striping cuff and heel-flap - which you can just about see in the photos above. 

Try as I might, once I'd finished this pair, I couldn't stop, and another pair of socks cast themselves on. Java from knitty again, but this time with the twinkle toes sparkly blue yarn I had for my birthday. There's 100g in the ball, so I know I won't run out this time....

Making Monday: Husband socks

I'm joining in with Natalie's making monday for the first time. Despite lots of work, wrangling children and cleaning the kitchen yesterday, I managed to finish the husband socks (only 4 months after the actual birthday), and DH seems to be quite pleased! As I often do, I combined two yarns to make the socks stripe and to make the best of the yarn in my stash. It's one of my favourite sock knitting techniques...

Pattern: generic top down socks

yarn: Regia solid (charcoal); unknown sock yarn from a charity shop (paler grey with blue)

DH doesnt go in for very colourful socks (his entire sock wardrobe is grey or black!), so I like the subtle blue flecks here...

As you can see from the picture below, I use this striping technique a lot. Four of the nine pairs here (all below the purple ones) are striped like this, and I've got another pair on the needles at the moment...! If you are interested in these things: the green pairs of socks are made with Yarn Yard yarn as is the rainbow pair (second from top). The blue/green pairs above and below the purple socks are made with Crazy zauberball yarn. The purple socks are Jenny Cook yarn which I had for Christmas. The other pairs are scrappy pairs I made using various combinations of leftovers. I blogged about the grey/green/white ones earlier in the summer. I love seeing my socks together like this (there are a few other pairs too), washed and dried and ready to go back into the drawer...