Onward with Spiral Striped Socks

My stash reduction continues with Spiral Striped Socks. I just can't let this spiral thing go. So here I am knitting a fingering weight sock with three balls of yarn hanging off my needles. If you're interested in getting started with me this is how I got started on my socks.

Since this is stash reduction I dove in and found 3 x 50g balls of sock yarn. Why I have single 50g balls is a mystery to me because a pair of socks they do not make. But I found a whole bag of them. I may be making many pairs of these socks.

I choose 2 solids,an eggplant colour and a blue, and 1 variegated in blue/green/yellow. There is some overlap of colour between the variegated and the blue but for these socks it doesn't matter.

  The trick for these socks is now to divide the sock into 2 sections. Half the stitches for the back of leg and half for the front of leg. The stripes work because I have 3 colours and have divided my sock into 2 sections. For these stripes to work you need one more colour than you have sections.

I knit the cuff in Colour 1 (eggplant).
Begin the stripes: with Colour 2 (variegated), knit across 1/2 the stitches (section 1).

With Colour 3 (blue) I knit across the second section, the other 1/2 of my stitches.

Now I am back at the beginning of the round and there are two stands of yarn there. The Colour 3 (blue) I just finished knitting and Colour 1 (eggplant) which I worked the cuff with. With Colour 1 (eggplant) I knit across 1/2 of the sock.

Ta, da, first stripes.

Now pick up Colour 2 (variegated) and knit across section. Pick up Colour 3 (blue) and knit across section. Pick up Colour 1 and knit, pick up Colour 2 and knit, pick up Colour 3 and knit. You probably got the picture by now. At the end of each section (each 1/2 of the sock) you will pick up the new colour which is conveniently sitting there and knit. The trick is DO NOT TWIST the colours when you pick up the new colour. The new colour should flow from the row below the needle you just knit and the first stitch of the new needle. Twisting the colours as we usually do defeats the spiralling of the stripes.

In this photo of my first pair of Spiral Socks, I finished working with the Light Grey and now am going to work with the Dark Grey which I will not twist but pick it up so that it flows from the stitch the yarn is attached to.

Several stripes later and I'm happy with the results. They are a little dramatic but really fun looking pair of socks.

Happy Sock knitting,
Deb