My ongoing affection for scrappy projects was recently rekindled when I spied these fabulous Scrappy Happy socks from Andrea of the A Sunny Day for Bluej blog. She shared her project in our Ravelry group and sent me down the best kind of scrappy sock wormhole, searching for more information and how-to’s.
© Bluej2009
Andrea used a basic sock pattern and did her own sort of color alchemy to come up with the order of colors. Amazing result! I’ve knit socks from scraps before with different colors of leftover yarn and wasn’t as thrilled with the result. Rather than having an end result that looked shabby chic and scrappilicious…I ended up with an unfortunate sort of thrift store, hobo wear. So I started investigating successful scrappy sock projects and learned that the way in which you combine the colors and change from one color to the next really matters.
Heather Sebastian of Joey’s House knew that already. She has a Blender Socks recipe that explains how to break up those transitions perfectly.
© Joeyshouse
If you prefer step by step instructions, the Hipknitism blog offers a free online class on exactly how to make her Stashbuster Spirals socks. The detail of instruction on these are wonderful. Steffi from Germany made some using scraps of Collinette Jitterbug. The assorted scraps are mingled into pure kaleidoscopic sock beauty! Check out her Zwillingsspirale Hanni project on Ravelry. Gorgeous!
© Tapirbaby82
For more of a gradient effect, try the Regenbogen Ringel pattern from the Kuschelschaf blog. She has lots of other truly beautiful sock patterns too!
© Zauberschaf
I suspect you’ll have so much fun combining your scrap sock yarn into prismatic masterpieces, that you won’t want to stop! If that’s the case, Surprise Stripes from the Missa Neuloimme Kerran blog are the perfect socks for you.
© NeulistiMNK
I can guarantee that when my Granddaughters’ see these, my sock yarn scraps will be tied up for years! 🙂
Happy Scrappy Sock Knitting, Crafty Friends! ♥♥♥
Such inspiring, colorful scrappy projects! Thanks for sharing my project 🙂
Thanks for allowing us to feature it, Andrea! Such cool socks!
I make socks as well from leftover yarn but I do mine a bit different and end up with more of a double knit sock floating my colors behind and ending up with a checkerboard affect.
That sounds like a really cool technique, Marybeth!
This is a very valuable post! Thanks for sharing all the links because it will save me a lot of research. 🙂 I like the way the scrappy socks look much more for myself when the colors shift gradually. I’m off to ravelry to fav some patterns.
Yay Suzanne! Glad to know there’s other knitters like me who value the scrappy project. Playing with color is so fun. Hope yours come out just the way you like them!
Yes! I won an assortment of magic and moonshine sock yarns and I wanted to put them together but didn’t know how to do it without making it look like colorblock socks. Now I’m set’
Perfect! Show us when you’re done! Here or on our Crafty Friends Flickr Page
I made a pair too. don’t have a camera… sorry
The Ravelry blender sock pattern was lifechanging for me! Making another pair as I type
Too fun, Jay! Socks are the best knitting projects, and scrappy ones are incredibly satisfying. Tying up all those loose ends, so to speak! 😀