crazy legs...

That was fun! I love these! They could be called knee socks, maybe cabin socks or just more great gifts! My niece who loves teal, got that pair and she’s excited to wear them in her high-top rubber boots!

Making sure all the scraps were the same fibre content (75 superwash/25 polymid), for the first pair, I grouped blue/teal colourways as close as possible, weighed each leftover before and knit about half so there would be enough for the second sock, recording how many rows of each bit in the hopes of duplicating the stripes for the second matching sock. In the photo below, the middle small cone of yarn looks like it has a lot of red it in which I pulled off and didn't use because I thought it would have contrasted too starkly with the rest of the colourways.

Rhiana’s socks are straight up and down, her calves are still quite slim so basically, I made the socks in her size (6.5) from my 2017 ankle sock pattern, with the top cuff 20 rows and knit 180 rows for the leg portion above the heel.




The teal pair began with a 20-row cuff of 40-0-40 sts in 2X2 (2X1) rib as per my original pattern. The circular part of the leg, 100 rows straight, shaped by decreases every 30 rows down to the 34-0-34 sts for the basic sock in my size. These were a nice length but quite snug on my well-developed calves!
For the second pair, gray was the main theme. I broke up the leftovers more, using 30 rows as maximum so there were smaller blocks of colours and could be repeated further down if there was extra. These had 25 rows of rib over 42-0-42 sts, decreased the same way and are perfect!
I’ve added these details to my sock pattern – it is a revision [https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2016/12/12-days-of-christmas-socks.html]  of my ‘warmup socks’ from the Freebies at www.knitwords.com – if you want the new revision, email me!
Just about out of leftovers! What am I gonna do? LOL! Place a new order of course! Have to use up that discount I got with the last order before it expires ;)

changing it up a bit...

There I was, threading up a black and white yarn for another pair of socks, thinking, what size should I be making these? The last few pairs have coincidentally been my size and even though I’d love a pair of black and white, one can only use so many pairs… and it dawned on me. My 12-year-old granddaughter, Rhiana, is currently going through a black and white phase. I saw a pair of black and white houndstooth check leggings  the other day and picked them up for her. Her brother Nathan told me she hadn’t taken them off for four days! I looked at my ‘cone’ of sock yarn and deliberated - this is a single 100g skein - a small pair of socks for her would be a bit of a waste – oh, wait a minute she might like knee socks…
Oh, these are pretty cute! This colourway was called ‘zebra’. I hope they fit!

Another thought – my sock-machine knitter friend Julie mentioned she was going to a ‘crank-in’ (a sock machine gathering/symposium) and she was taking sock yarn scraps to sell – and since then I’ve been wondering what I can do with all my little leftover bits. I did once make a circular scarf [https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/em-word.html ] of leftovers but I have a considerable amount again. I could make some ‘at-home’ knee socks…