When you love knitting socks, if you’re anything like me, you have lots of small amounts of sock yarn leftover. I love creating new projects that use the leftover sock yarn. The Blue Fair Isle Leftovers Socks used 4 different sock yarns. One was a commercial sock yarn and the other three were artesan hand dyed 4ply sock yarns.
I can’t give you the specific colour names of these yarns as their tags are not with the yarns anymore, but I know who made or dyed the yarn. I used to have the tags until very recently. We’ve been doing a spree of clearing clutter, sending books to the Charity Shops and have just finished the first phase of painting the rooms downstairs. In the midst of this recent chaos the yarn tags for some of my recent projects have been lost.
I chose four different yarns to knit the Blue Fair Isle Leftovers Socks – a dark, a medium dark, a medium light and a light coloured yarn. I was playing with broad stripes of colour moving from the darkest colour at the cuff to the lightest colour at the heel and then back to the darkest colour at the toe. I wanted the colours to blend into each other at the change over and decided to use a 7 round band of the simplest fair isle seed stitch as a transition between the wide stripes of colour.
The dark colour (A) is a Trekking XXL in a lovely mix of forest green/navy/teal . The medium dark colour (B) is a Claudia hand painted 4 ply sock yarn in tones of turquoise/blues/spiced cinnamon. The medium light colour (C) was hand dyed by a favourite artisan dyer in pretty tones of summer sky blue/turquoise. Unfortunately, Flamboyance Yarns is no longer dyeing yarn at present, her website is still there so that may change at some point in the future. The light coloured yarn was bought years ago from Ripples Crafts and is hand dyed in pretty tints of sky blue/dove grey/ecru.
All of these yarns were from my stash of leftover sock yarns some had been used for knitting socks others had been used for knitting clothing for Sasha Dolls over the years. I think these socks would be equally stunning in Autumn colours ranging from plum to red to gold and back to plum.
The Blue Fair Isle Leftovers Socks
This isn’t so much a pattern for the socks as notes of what I did.
I cast on 60 stitches using 2.75mm double pointed needles and the dark colour (A). The tension on the stocking stitch section is 8sts/11rows over 2.54cm/1 inch.
Cuff
I worked 14 rounds of k1,p1 rib using dark colour (A).
Leg
Continuing with the dark colour (A), I knit 15 rounds.
Then I added medium dark (B) and I knit 7 rounds of simple fair isle seed stitch.
- Round 1: (k1A, k1B) repeat to end of round.
- Round 2: (k1B, k1A) repeat to end of round.
- Repeat Rounds 1 and 2 twice more.
- Round 7: (k1A, k1B) repeat to end of round.
Continue knitting with medium dark colour (B) for the next 15 rounds.
Add the medium light colour (C) and knit 7 rounds of simple fair isle seed stitch.
- Round 1: (k1B, k1C) repeat to end of round.
- Round 2: (k1C, k1B) repeat to end of round.
- Repeat rounds 1 and 2 twice more.
- Round 7: (k1B, k1C) repeat to end of round.
Knit the next 4 rounds using the medium light colour (C). 48 rounds for the leg.
I decided to use the Strong Heel that I used in the Heather Socks. This was mainly because I wanted the coloured stripes to be the focal point rather than the heel. I was also interested to see if the fair isle band on the middle section of the heel would help to make this heel feel a little more fitted. It definitely did this very successfully.
Strong Heel
Needles 1 & 4 are the heel/gusset shaping; Needles 2 & 3 are the instep (top of the foot).
- Round 1: Needle 1 – knit to last stitch, make 1, k1; Needle 2 & 3 – knit; Needle 4 – k1, make 1, knit to end of needle.
- Round 2: knit
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until needles 1 & 4 each have 28 stitches on them.
Heel
While working the heel shaping I knit the first 11 rounds using the medium light colour (c). Then I added light colour (D) and I knit 7 rounds of simple fair isle seed stitch.
- Round 1: (k1C, k1D) repeat to end of round.
- Round 2: (k1D, k1C) repeat to end of round.
- Repeat rounds 1 and 2 twice more.
- Round 7: (k1C, k1D) repeat to end of round.
*Note*: When knitting the increases, I just made sure that the fair isle stitch pattern was correct on the instep and the main section of the heel and didn’t worry if I ended up with two stitches the same now and again at the increase points on the gusset.
I continued with the heel/gusset shaping using the light colour (D) for 8 rounds . When I was ready to turn the heel I did the complete Heel Turn using the light colour (D).
Heel Turn
Beginning on a wrong side row. Only working on needles 1 & 4.
- Row 1: Needle 4 – p1, p2tog, p1, turn.
- Row 2: slip 1, k3, ssk, k1, turn.
*Note*: There will be a small gap between the working stitches that form the heel turn and the unworked heel stitches.
- Row 3: Slip 1, purl to within 1 stitch of gap, p2tog, p1, turn.
- Row 4: Slip 1, knit to within 1 stitch of gap, ssk, k1, turn.
Repeat rows 3 and 4 until all the side stitches have been worked, and there are 15 stitches on each of the needles. Should end on a completed row 4.
Foot
After turning the heel, knit 7 rounds using light colour (D). (If you count the rounds of the light colour on the instep you should have 15 rounds). Then I added medium light colour (C) and I knit 7 rounds of simple fair isle seed stitch.
- Round 1: (k1D, k1C) repeat to end of round.
- Round 2: (k1C, k1D) repeat to end of round.
- Repeat rounds 1 and 2 twice more.
- Round 7: (k1D, k1C) repeat to end of round.
Continuing with the medium light colour (C) I knit 15 rounds.
I added medium dark colour (B) and I knit 7 rounds of simple fair isle seed stitch.
- Round 1: (k1C, k1B) repeat to end of round.
- Round 2: (k1B, k1C) repeat to end of round.
- Repeat rounds 1 and 2 twice more.
- Round 7: (k1C, k1B) repeat to end of round.
Continuing with medium dark colour (B) I knit 8 rounds.
Classic Toe
- Round 1: Needles 1 & 3 – knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1; Needles 2 & 4 – k1, ssk, knit to end of needle.
- Round 2: Knit
- Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 4 stitches on each needle (16 stitches).
For the first 8 rounds of the classic toe shaping I continued using Medium Dark (B).
Then I changed to Dark (A) and used this colour until I finished the toe.
- Making sure that the toe stitches align horizontally with the heel, slip the stitches from needle 4 onto needle 1 and the stitches from needle 3 onto needle 2. Eight stitches on each needle.
- Graft the toe stitches using kitchener stitch.
Finishing
Weave in all the loose ends.
Inch Abbey
We photographed the Blue Fair Isle Leftovers Socks at Inch Abbey. You may recognise Inch Abbey if you are a fan of Game of Thrones. It was used to film the Red Fork and Hoster Tully’s Funeral.
Inch Abbey is on the bank of the River Quoile and is the remains of a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1180 by John de Courcy an Anglo-Norman who also built Carrickfergus Castle.
Across the River Quoile Down Cathedral the Cathedral Church of the Church of Ireland can be seen sitting on top of the mound. From this vantage point you wouldn’t realise it is situated in the middle of Downpatrick. St Patrick’s grave is in the churchyard. St Patrick arrived in Ireland in 432 and spent much of his remaining years holding services in a barn, on the site of which Saul Church was built. St Patrick died in Saul on 17 March 461.
I surely love the socks you knit! They are beautiful and such an inspiration to try new techniques and patterns! This pattern is now on my to-do list as well as your slip stitch rib sock.
Maybe this will help with your ball band issue…When I wind a skein on my ball winder, before I slip off the cake I take the ball band, roll it into a tube, and then slip it into the center hole of the cake as it comes off the winder. The cake holds the band inside its center. That way I know what I have later down the line when I want to use the little balls up or buy more of that particular yarn.
Thank you Kate, I am much better at keeping track of ball bands and that is a really good idea. Problem comes when I start knitting with the cake, as I like to knit from the centre, and I used to mislay my ball band when I took it out. It wasn’t such an issue when I was knitting clothes for the Sasha Dolls but more of a problem when I am knitting projects for myself. I’m missing quite a few ball bands from my large yarn stash (particularly, where I’ve used some of the yarn for knitting a doll sweater). I can remember what some of the yarn is but not all of it. I do know that 95% of my stash is sock yarn or 4ply! It is all stored in clear plastic crates by colour. Nicolette