this is pair #38. T has requested another pair of socks and i was happy to oblige. i call them "fox sox" because i have used the same yarn for the crochet lalylala fox doll... the yarn is Regia Winter Stars and i made them with a three-wedge "fan heel" (a type of short row heel - link's to a (german) video - heel starts at about 4:00 min) to make the socks fit longer.
this is pair #39. i got a little fancy and named them "vintage harlequin". it's because of the colours of the stripes and squares. they seem a little muted to me - like the faded colour of an old circus poster...
i used two 50g balls - a stripy and a solid - which came in the same pack to be used together but i was a little irritated (for a very short time) because the solid turquoise and the turquoise in the stripy yarn are not the same. i really wanted to make another pair of patchwork socks and these colours were perfect for it.
a couple of months ago i stumbled across a picture of a pair of socks on google that i really liked very much. i don't think i can share it here as i could not find out who took it and therefore owns copyright to it. i think it was a listing for the finished socks on one of the many artist's marketplace websites and now i can't find it again because they may have been sold. anyway, google remembers everything so you can look at a picture of them here (i hope). it was not so much the colours that struck me - although they are lovely and instantly caught my eye all the same and you know i like everything rainbow - it was more the pattern or rather the texture on the leg. i tried to find a pattern for it but didn't, and since i really wanted a pair of socks like that for myself i had to improvise...
the pattern does not show so much as the self patterning yarn is very busy already but it worked out very great once i had finally figured it out. and i have to say: i'm rather proud of myself for coming up with a way to knit something just from looking at a picture of it. (even though i have no way of knowing if the socks that inspired me were done the same way. and i'm sure i could not do that with fancy lace patterns - haha!)
before trying on a sock i had to research instructions for knitting the little bobbles. i found different ways that seemed managable and i made a little swatch where i tried them so i could compare and choose the one i liked best. i ended up doing a three-stitch bobble.
here is how i knit the "cuff drops" pattern. (this instruction is my own design and wording, inspired by the picture i linked to above. in case it's done the same way - no offence and/or copyright infringement intended!)
- cast on the desired number of stitches (i cast on 60)
- purl 1 round - knit 1 round - purl 1 round - knit 1 round (that's the very top edge of the cuff)
- ** 10 rounds *knit 2 - purl 2*
- purl 1 round
- knit 2 rounds
- 1 round *knit 2 - bobble*
(if your stitch count is not a multiple of 3 but of 4 instead you can also *knit 3 - bobble*)
bobble:
- knit into front of stitch, knit into back of stitch, knit into front of stitch
(you have made 3 stitches out of 1) - turn
- slip 1st stitch purlwise - purl next 2 stitches together
- turn
- slip 1st stitch knitwise - knit next stitch - lift slipped stitch over knitted stitch
- tighten gently
i don't know if this is common knowlege when knitting bobbles but i have found that i get nice looking bobbles when i knit them very loosely. don't be tempted to tighten the stitches while you are working the bobble - it will look nicer when you tighten it up only when it's done. (don't let your needle slide out of the bobble you are working on! don't ask...)
also, when you slip the stitch over the last knitted stitch to finish the bobble, let the slipped stitch kind of "wrap" itself around the whole bunch of stitches you have created. when you then tighten the bobble, said slipped stitch will pull this bunch together and create a nice bobble.
after the bobble round:
- knit 1 round - to avoid a hole appearing between the bobble and the previous stitch, pick up the thread connecting the two and knit them together through the back
- knit 1 round
- purl 1 round
- knit 2 rounds
- 1 round *knit 2 - bobble*
- knit 2 rounds (pick up threads and knit together with the bobble stitches through the back on the 1st knit round again)
- purl 1 round **
repeat from **
i repeated from ** to ** twice on the first two pairs i made this way, but you can repeat the pattern as many times as you like. on the vintage harlequin socks i replaced the second 10 rounds *knit 2 - purl 2* with the mitred squares which i knitted first in fact and then picked up stitches from the top and bottom edge to knit the pattern.
mitred squares tutorials can be found on the internet aplenty. i started out with 21 stitches per square and made a continual strip of six squares, joining the last one to the first as i knitted it (or you can make a strip and then sew it together to form a cuff). that should give you 10 edge-stitches per square (60 in total) to pick up form the edges both on the top and the bottom of the cuff. however, i picked up 11 per square as i felt it was necessary but that may differ from knitter to knitter - if you think it looks okay with the intended number of stitches to be picked up that's great, should you feel like you have to add yet another stitch you'll have to decrease away more. after picking up the stitches i worked one purl round and then decreased the additional stitches away - one per square - in the first knit round of the pattern.
how many stitches you need for your squares depends on the number of stitches you need for your sock and the number/size of squares you want. my socks usually have 60 stitches, so i divided that by 6 which makes it 6 squares of 10 stitches each - those are the edge-stitches which you will pick up. a mitred square is made from double the number of stitches +1. that makes 21 stitches in my case.
you could also knit 10 squares of 6 stitches each in which case you would need 13 stitches for each square.
for the first pair of patchwork socks i made i needed 64 stitches, so i made 8 squares of 8 stitches - 17 stitches per square.
you could also make 4 really big squares, using 31 stitches per square (for a 60 stitch sock) or 33 stitches per square (for a 64 stitch sock) - but these squares would be big enough to make the entire leg of the socks.
i made the cuff first and used jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off. take care: you are binding off purl stitches!
then i knitted the pattern again at the bottom of the squares but without the rib-section (see pictures for orientation) and added 10 rounds in stockinette before i started the heel. you can use any kind of heel you like, i made this one - which works great if you want to have a contrasting colour heel.
happy knitting!
EDIT:
the bobble pattern described above works great on the cuffs of ankle socks:
- purl 1 round - knit 1 round - purl 1 round (that's the very top "cuff")
- * knit 2 rounds
- 1 bobble round - you can space the bobbles as far apart as you wish. i usually knit 2 or 3 stitches between each bobble - it also depends on your total number of stitches.
- knit 2 rounds (remember to pick up the strand between the bobble-stitch and the previous stitch as described above in the first knit round)
- purl 1 round *
- repeat from * to *
- knit 10 rounds before starting the heel
i've also made a pair where i have only one bobble round:
on this pair i repeated the "cuff" (purl 1 rd - knit 1 rd - purl 1 rd) after the bobble section and i did only 5 rounds before the heel. they turned out really short but you can always make them as long as you want.
enjoy!