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I made these socks for my pal Julie – I’m so excited to give them to her! This is my second pair of socks using the “Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow” yarn from White Birch Fiber Arts… and I’ll never stop giggling over that name.
The Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel is my go-to pattern for self-striping yarn because it doesn’t interrupt the stripe pattern and I am particularly proud of how this one turned out:
According to Ravelry, I’ve made these socks 16 times! I guess I’m a fan? 😉 In the early days I was worried about gaps forming where the heel meets the leg, so I would to pick up extra stitches at the sides to try to compensate. I have eventually learned that this is unnecessary and even undesirable because you can end up with weird stretched & crossed stitches at the join. The trick is to just let the gap happen… seriously. With this technique, you end up with yarn tails at either side of the heel, exactly where the holes form, so all you have to do is thread that tail onto a needle and sew to close up the gap after you finish up the heel. (I highly recommend using a darning egg so you have a nice flat surface for making these stitches).
yarn details
White Birch Fiber Arts 80/20 in Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow
Fingering Weight
80% Superwash Merino & 20% Nylone
Machine or Hand Wash Cold and Lay Flat to Dry
$33 per 100 g/ 400 yd skein
project details
pattern: “A Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel” by Emily B. Miller; available as a free Ravelry download – with an accompanying YouTube video.
size knit: CO 64 stitches
needles: US size 1.5 (2.5 mm), nickel-plated circular needles with a long cable for magic loop!
yarn used: 356 yards (89 grams)
finished size: Back of heel to tip of toe (completely un-stretched): 9.5”; Top of cuff to bottom of heel: 10.5”
duration: June 18 – December 27, 2020
notes
- Although the completed socks weigh 89 grams, I essentially used up the entire 100 gram skein to make these because I had to skip over the rainbow stripes of yarn a few times to get blue part for starting the cuff and heel. Which is to say, I have a bunch of little butterflies of the rainbow sections leftover and can’t do too much with them.
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