For me knitting is not just a craft to keep my hands busy, or a way to express myself artistically, but it is also a form of memory-keeping. Every stitch I knit holds memories of places where the yarn was purchased, the friends who were with me when I worked on the project, and the movies I watched while knitting and the stories I listened to as audiobooks. When I look back at my finished projects, I don’t just see a pile of knitted items, I see a whole lot of memories.
I knitted the Scrapbook socks with the leftover yarns from my three other summer sock projects, so they are like a collection of summer memories for me. I knitted with the purple yarn in May when the lingering light of May evenings whispered with the promise of warm summer days. The socks I knitted with the peachy orange yarn have knitted flower patterns on them and the terracotta yarn reminds me of the summer cabins we rented this summer and where I knitted my third pair of socks while listening to the waves and the calls of the loons. And in August I gathered all the leftovers and collected all my summer memories, and knitted them into the striped lace patterns of these socks.
The Scrapbook socks are knitted from the cuff down towards the toes. They are started with an optional tubular cast on which provides a stretchy edge to the cuff. The heels are knitted as short-row heels. The socks are perfect for stash busting leftover socks yarns as you can work every lace stripe with a different color, but the socks would look beautiful in just one color as well.
Size
1 (2)
Circumference 21 (22.5) cm / 8.25 (8.75) inches, to be worn with slight negative ease
Length adjustable
Yarn
Approximately 170-190 m / 190-210 yards of fingering weight sock yarn in the main color (MC), and 85-90 m / 95-100 yards of fingering weight sock yarn in the each of the contrasting colors (CC1 and CC2)
Sample: Säie Wool Merino sock (75% superwash merino wool, 25% nylon; 425 m / 465 yards per 100 g), shown in colorways Toasted Sienna as MC, Blackberry yoghurt as CC1 and Tropic pop as CC2.
Needles
2.5 mm / US 1.5 DPNs or circular needles with a cable suitable for small circumference knitting
Always choose the needle size that gets you the right gauge.
Note: if you are using mini-circulars, you might want to use DPNs or Magic Loop for the Tubular Cast On.
Gauge
32 sts and 40 rounds = 10 cm / 4 inches of Stockinette stitch, in the round after blocking.
Note: If you can't match the gauge both across the stitches and across the rounds, choose the needle size that gets you closer to the gauge across the stitches.
Notions
- 2 stitch markers
- waste yarn for the Tubular Cast On
- sewing needle
- blocking tools (sock blockers)
