The Rainbow Connection

Dudes! It is has been a LONG time since I posted a finished pair of socks on this here blog. A LONG TIME. That is all about to change. BEHOLD! The 15 Colour Rainbow Self-Striping Socks:

These socks are fantastic, if I don’t say so myself. And such a new new experience for me! I’ve knit a lot of socks in my knitting life – not as many as some – but a respectable amount to be sure. Always top down – except for one time I did that short row gusset toe up sock that I don’t even know where it is now and maybe never made a mate? I’ve always admired those that knit toe up stripey socks but really – not for me. WELL THAT HAS ALL CHANGED! The Fish Lips Kiss Heel is magic. MAGIC I tell you!  Look how pretty!

No wraps. No gusset. No picking up stitches. Nothing but a beautiful well-fitting heel. It really is a dream! I had one little glitch – on the last part of the heel I got a ladder between the two circulars I was using, but I found a helpful tip in the Sock Therapist‘s ravelry forum. Basically you just move the ladder along by taking up the slack in the other stitches on the row. After a few they get tighter and tighter. Worked like a charm. She does say to pull REALLY tight in that last part where I got the ladder – I guess I didn’t pull tight enough. I’m sure with practice I will get it all ironed out. Still, I really love the heel. It’s FAST. And neat. Her technique reminds me a little bit of my beloved Socktopus’ shadow wrap short rows.

My favorite thing ever about this sock is the yarn

, of course. SO MANY STRIPES! In case you missed the last post, it’s Fab Funky Fibres 15 Colour Rainbow Yarn. It made the plain stockinette go so quickly and I’m a little ashamed at how my OCD/perfectionist brain tried really hard to make those stripes match up. And oh how they match!

To get the stripes to match, I wound the ball, then split it in half using my scale. After I had two balls, I chose the one I would start with – in this case a bit of red leading into the pink. Then I took the second ball and unwound it until I came to the same starting point. I cut the yarn when I had them even.

I used Judy’s Magic Cast On to start the socks and cast on 24 stitches – 12 on each circular. I like my toes a bit square because well, my toes are kind of square. I increased every other row until I hit the toe mark on my Fish Lips Kiss Heel template. It falls right at the top of my pinky toe. I ended up with 68 stitches – more than my normal 64 stitches – but this yarn is thinner than my usual Socks That Rock and I’ve found after many gauge swatches that I do knit a bit tight.

I knit and knit and knit. I went back and forth between both socks so that I could be sure the stripes were still lining up. I got pretty high up my leg and did some increases when I hit my calf. I have no idea how many stitches I increased. Maybe about 12? I ended with about twelve rows of 2×2 ribbing and then did a stretchy cast off. I know I knit the right length because I have an almost perfect 15 colour repeat left, minus some rows of pink. If I wanted the socks to match, this was the only way to do it.

Ravelry Link

These socks make me really happy! And now I want to knit all the toe up socks in all the stripey yarns!! What’s your favorite stripey yarn? I’ve got some Yarntini coming to me soon, some Knitterly Things, some Moonrover. I’m out of the stripey yarn loop so tell me what you love!

Thanks for reading!

L, C