Stripes

By MJ on May 27, 2008 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pattern: I'm in the process of writing a guideline, not necessarily a pattern, on striped socks. Regular readers will know I use the same formula for all my socks: basic toe-up pattern using Magic Cast-On, short-row heel, and 1x1 ribbing with sewn bind-off.

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM in colorway 120 (a mix of purples, peaches, oranges, greens, and pinks) and KPM in colorway 2235 (a semi-solid purple)

Needles: US1 dpns

I call these my happy socks. They were the bursts of color I needed on gloomy, grey, Bavarian winter mornings. Oh goodness, were there lots of those mornings!

The pair started its life as 2 skeins of Koigu living side by side in my stash for about 3 years. I remember I bought both skeins at Yarns Unlimited in Santa Monica at two separate occasions, thinking I'd make anklets out of one or the other, but never thinking of knitting the two together.

I decided that if I were to knit striped socks, I'd want to use up every single bit of the variegated and as much as possible of the semi-solid. Koigu variegateds are just too nice to have leftovers!

Here's the side-by-side comparison of the stripes. I think the best combination, one that will show up well as stripes, is a variegated with a complementary solid or semi-solid. You need to see the delineation between the variegated, which when knitted becomes a series of stripes anyway, and the solid.

I decided to put the color change on the instep of both socks, because the inner side of the foot isn't as visible as the outer side. I didn't quibble about color jogs; I think they're actually a nice touch here, a bit of symmetry.

I'm glad I made my Koigu Template Socks first, because I got to figure out how many stitches and rows I'd need to make socks that fit me in that specific yarn. I love stockinette; I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of too, too lacy socks. A little bit here and there as embellishment, or a single motif; texture is great; stripes are awesome. I'm a simple gal after all! :-)

Sock Striping Guideline/Tutorial/Recipe/"Pattern" in my next post.