Team Color Socks

I attempted to dye Minnesota Vikings football purple and gold yarn for socks. I ended up with something nice (see blog post here), but not that. Plan B was to make team color socks using two different colors of commercial sock yarn from Knit Picks. Two 50 gram balls are needed for one pair of socks.

I cranked some sample tubes on my circular sock machine (CSM) to practice changing yarns, using leftover yarn from other pairs of socks. For the first one I overlapped the two yarns for about four stitches. The plain green yarn was a bit thinner, and I did not notice until I was done with this sample that I had dropped a stitch near the beginning.

I remembered later that there is a better method of doing yarn changes called “faux Russian join”. SweetGeorgia Yarns has a good video showing Felicia Lo making “scrappy socks” on her sock machine using this process. I cranked out two samples using faux Russian join that turned out well, and with the right number of rows for Gnome parts. There are many tails on the inside, but they are already knitted in and can be trimmed off. The following photos shows the outside and inside of a knitted tube with yarn changes.

Before starting a purple and gold striped sock I did some math to figure out how many rows of each color to crank. There needed to be approximately the same amount of each color used. With 80 leg rows and 70 foot rows for the sock to fit my husband, it worked out perfectly to have stripes consisting of 10 rows per color, with a yellow hem at the top of the leg, and purple heels and toes.

The following photo is a close up of a yarn change using the faux Russian join method.

I was a little worried that I might run out of purple yarn before the end of the second sock, but that did not happen.

I made a couple of minor mistakes that were not a problem, both at the first color change. I overlapped the colors, forgetting to do the faux Russian join. I also forgot to put the heel spring back on (an extra yarn guide used to increase tension for heels, or the entire sock), so the tension is looser for that one band of color at the top of the leg. That is OK as Wayne’s leg is thicker there. When I got to the second sock, I left the heel spring off on purpose for that first band of color so the socks would match and fit the same way.

When I showed the socks to Wayne, he was impressed, but also apparently had a different pattern of colors in mind with more purple and less gold. That might not have been possible with equal amounts of each color. This photo was taken later after the hand finishing was done.

When I came up with the equal width stripes look, I must have had the following in the back of my mind, which I have seen with college colors. I guess Wayne is not likely to wear these LOL.

Later that same day, I got an email from Knit Picks with a one day only free shipping promotion. How did they know I needed more purple and gold yarn? I would not be surprised if my phone was listening to us talk about it. After discussing with Wayne who else would get team color socks, and that they should have a larger proportion of the main color, I went online to place an order. Not only was there free shipping, but the sock yarn was marked down. I ordered enough for several more pairs of Minnesota Viking color socks, and one pair of Green Bay Packers green and gold socks for my daughter-in-law. They are a mixed team family which makes for some friendly rivalry during football season.

My son had asked me to make him plain black shorty socks. My response was for him to just buy those, but since this Knit Picks yarn was such a good deal, I added some black yarn to the order.

I made a Gnome using my yarn change samples. This one has only two sections, without the “shirt” piece in the middle. I used some actual washed wool from my stash for the beard, instead of fake fur. I hand stitched the beard on rather than gluing it on. I like the way it turned out.

We went on a road trip while I was waiting for the Knit Picks yarn order to arrive. Doing the hand work to kitchener stitch the toes shut and weave in ends on the purple and gold striped pair of socks was a good project for the car. When we got back home my Knit Picks order had arrived.

In preparation for cranking another pair of purple and gold socks, I made a drawing and discussed with Wayne the ideal number of rows for each color. He found a Vikings jersey to use as a guide and we came up with a plan.

Cranking socks requires very careful attention in order to avoid making mistakes which are hard to fix. Changing yarns while making a sock requires another level of concentration. I had to pay attention to the number of rows cranked of each color (thank goodness for the automatic row counter), stop at the right place to make the yarn change, and remember to re-engage the heel spring each time in order to maintain the right tension.

While making the heel on the first sock with the new color pattern, I dropped a stitch. A latch must have gotten bumped closed, even though I was trying very hard to make sure that did not happen. Some people can fix that without too much trouble, but I am not there yet. I tried to fix it by undoing several rows of knitting (not easy), until I got back to a point where I could continue going forward again. It was not exactly right, but I did not want to spend any more time on it and it was close enough. Wayne would only be wearing these socks while watching a game, he would not care.

On the second sock, I cranked the leg part and the heel perfectly, but I forgot to reengage the heel spring for the foot section. I was distracted because I was pretty sure I was going to run out of purple yarn before I finished that section. If it has been only a couple of rows, I would have just left it and put the heel spring on for the rest of the foot. But this was almost the entire foot that would look and fit differently than the other sock of the pair.

Probably the fastest solution would have been to start the sock over again from the beginning. Instead I picked up the stitches all the way around with a needle and thread right at the beginning of the foot, and then unraveled the foot rows I had cranked back to that row. I hung the picked up stitches on to the needles on the sock machine. I had to figure out how to make this plan work by raising needles out of work to get the yarn carrier in the right place to begin knitting. It was all very putzy but it worked. It would have been easier to start the sock over again, but I learned some things the way I did it.

I did not run out of purple yarn after all. There was exactly enough, with only a few extra inches left. That means I could have cranked the first sock with more purple. When I was getting ready to graft the toe shut, I found that a stitch had dropped when I was adding the waste yarn at the end of making the toe. I put a stitch marker in the last stitch before the drop in order to keep it from unraveling even more. Fortunately this situation is easy to fix with a crochet hook.

Wayne was very pleased with the second pair of Vikings color socks that more closely coordinated with his team jersey.

I have yarn for two more pairs of Minnesota Vikings purple and gold socks, and one pair of Green Bay Packers green and gold socks. I could earn a bunch of money making and selling team color socks, but honestly I am probably not going do that. There are so many other things I want to do.