When you’re a sock knitter for any amount of time whatsoever, you end up accumulating the leftover scraps from just about every pair you make. Thus, having a scrappy pattern or two in your pattern arsenal is just the ticket. For these socks you will need 3 kinds of scraps: a good portion of a solid for the cuff, heels and toes, a multicolor for rounds in between your blocks, and multiple highly contrasting colors for the blocks themselves.

The two sizes are accomplished by using different needle sizes with different resulting gauges. Thus, there is just one set of instructions for these socks. As always when knitting fair isle, make sure not to knit too tightly.

I have chosen to make identical socks for my pair pictured here, but you certainly don’t have to! Mix it up! Go wild! Use up all those dang scraps! Off course, all of those scraps mean a lot of joins and a lot of pesky ends to weave in. Eliminate the hassle of weaving in ends by using my modified Russian join that I have employed for these socks (and have been using on all of my knitted projects without mishap for 30+ years). Find it here in my blog tutorial, complete with lots of close-up photos: link text

This pattern is appropriate for an intermediate level knitter familiar with fair isle knitting. The gusset has some fairly explicit instructions that a beginner would likely struggle with. Expert knitters will find the pattern interesting as well, and it should be a quick and fun knit for them.

Please note that the original version of this pattern had the 2 stitch counts for the gauges switched. I have uploaded a corrected version. I you have the old version you can get the new one or just pencil in that correction.

Materials:
Yarn:
Solid color for cuffs, heels and toes: ca. 40 g
Variegated/multicolor yarn for dividing stripes: ca. 15 g
Scraps: at least 4 colors, totaling ca. 60-70 g

Stitch markers

Needles:
US 1 (2.25 mm) or size needed to obtain the gauge for M
OR
US 2 (2.75 mm) or size needed to obtain the gauge for L

Tapestry needle

Gauge for the two sizes: For M: 36 ST

38 rows = 4 inches

For L: 40 ST = 4 inches in blocked stockinette ST over the fair isle pattern using US 2 40 rows = 4 inches