If you’ve knit a few pairs of socks, you probably have a few little balls of sock yarn lying around that you don’t know what to do with. Depending on the type of socks you make, the yarn you buy and the size of your foot, you could have a few yards or a hundred yards of yarn left over; not enough for a full sock but of course you wouldn’t just toss it.
What’s the intrepid stash buster to do? Knit stash-busting socks, of course!
The easiest thing is to take a simple pattern (like Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s, Susan B. Anderson’s, or mine for that matter) and just add stripes as you need to. Or you can start with a pattern that was made for scraps, if you’d rather.
Such as Oddments, a slip-stitch patterned sock by Beverly S. that would look great if the colors of your scraps are harmonious. Or Kathryn C.’s delightfully named A Farewell to Yarns, which may actually look better the more riotous colors you throw at it.
Anne Carroll Gilmour offers the lovely Ring-Toss Stash Busting Scrap Socks, featuring circular patterns on the leg. A Study in Scraps by Heather Sebastian is another fun one that uses short stripes to break up the colors on a simple ribbed sock. (Her Blender Socks also offer tips on how to make different colors look more harmonious in a sock.)
Stashbusters by Wendy Gal is another one that’s made to work with yarn of many colors; it was actually designed with multicolored yarns in mind.
If you’re more of a fan of the stranded knitting look, try the Potluck Fair Isle Socks by Terry Morris or Running Susi’s Fair Isle Stash Socks.
And the prize for most interesting stash-busting sock of the day goes to Jennifer Pattison and her Tilt & Twist Socks, actually two patterns that use panels of different yarns that twist around the leg (the difference between the two is the speed of the movement). Really cool.
How do you use leftover sock yarn? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Looking for more knitted socks designs and patterns to keep you warm this winter? Check out these knitted sock patterns on Etsy.
I’ve also bought mini-skeins of sock yarn, thinking I’d make one of the sock yarn blankets — but I’d rather have the socks!
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