I’ve finally finished this pair of socks which I began nine weeks ago just after I broke my wrist. For the next six weeks I knit barely 20 rows. Once my cast came off I was able to resume my typical knitting pace of 30-40 rows each evening.

Socks From Leftovers #9

You have to look closely to see there are two different patterned yarns used in these socks. The leftovers blended quite well. But that’s the end of what seems to want to work. The remaining leftover balls don’t want to play well with each other – so I think I’m going to bag them up today and put them in the pile of stuff to take to Mission Mart – a local used clothing outlet run by the Souls Harbour Mission which runs drop-in centres and shelters for the homeless.

Yesterday I went through my fabric stash, pulling out fabrics I know I’m not ever going to use – cotton twill for pants (I had five 1.5m pieces all washed and ready to be used that have been sitting in a drawer for at least three years), remnants from garments (perhaps 1/2m – enough to use for something for a child), other garment sized pieces that I no longer could see making into whatever it was I intended to make.

I piled them into big bags and took them straight away – the faster they’re out of my house, the happier I am. I want to go through the stash again a second time – I bet there is more I can part with and not miss it. The incentive, of course, is that I have stacks of new linen in pant lengths (which I’ve washed and pressed ready to be used) which I’m not going to get to this season and I need to have somewhere to store them. I had lots of empty drawer space when I moved into the apartment three years ago but those drawers seem to have filled up. I needed to eliminate some of the fabric so I could put away the newest acquisitions.

That’s it for fabric – no more fabric – I can’t buy any more fabric because I have nowhere to put it!

As for socks – I have already picked out yarn for a new pair of socks I’ll start this evening.

These are the brightest socks so far from leftovers. The two yarns blended extremely well; you’d never know they were from two different balls of yarn.

Leftovers #8

These are the originals:

Colourful Socks – Leftovers #8

Leftovers #8

I was away for the better part of a week (over a week ago) and didn’t get much knitting done, and of course, no sewing. I resumed where I’d left off and have finally finished Leftovers #6. another combination that worked out very nicely – particularly the red/peach solid I used for cuff/heel/toe – it brightens the sock and showcases the other colours.

Socks From Leftovers #6

Socks from the original yarns:

Peach/Blue Socks

Opal Yarn

You’d never know this pair of socks was knit from leftover yarn – the two sparkly yarns blended perfectly and I had exactly enough to do two complete pattern repeats on two socks!

Sparkly Pink Socks

I admit I divided up the yarn before I started knitting so I had some idea how much to knit using the first yarn before switching to the second. IN this case the colours were very similar so you have to look hard to figure out where one yarn ends and the second begins.

No more sparkly yarn in my stash, however; so that’s the end of the sparkly socks!

Sparkly Socks #!

Sparkly Socks #2

These socks seemed to go faster than the previous two pairs made from leftovers – mainly because I was knitting sections of the variegated pattern then switching yarn. I wasn’t having to continually swap yarn after knitting just two needles to keep the spiral going. I’m sure my sense that the knitting went faster was an illusion but it was more satisfying to knit them this way.

Leftovers #3

And I like the resulting blended pattern more than I do the “striped” version that results from combining two different yarns.

Here are the two original patterns:

Blue Socks

Green/Blue Socks

Completed these socks Friday evening. Again, the two socks came out a reasonably matched pair even though I didn’t really bother to align either yarn.

Striped Socks From Leftovers

These socks look nothing like the original socks!

Courage Of The Morning Sun

Or this:

Purple Socks

Yesterday I began another pair from leftovers – this time I’m not going to interweave the yarns as I have for the previous two pairs, this time I’m planning on knitting a variable number of rows from each yarn in largish stripes to see how that will turn out. It will have the advantage of not having to change yarn every two needles as I knit in the round.

I started these socks two weeks ago. I decided to begin using yarn leftover from other socks – I have a basket full of balls large enough, when combined, to make a pair.

I selected two yarns I thought might blend reasonably well and began knitting by alternating the yarns – the effect is an overall colour progression in alternating rows.

Turquoise Socks

Here’s how I do it: To start, I knit three needles using the first yarn, then go back to the first needle and knit two needles of the second yarn. After that, I continue knitting two needles of one yarn, then two needles of the second yarn – the second yarn is always one needle behind the first which means I never have to worry about crossing the yarns and I get a continuous smooth alternating spiral.

What’s interesting about this pair of socks is that while I was able to match the start point on one of the yarns, the colour changes on the other were too subtle to worry about but it turns out the yarns were in synch and both socks knit up with essentially the same pattern! That was a lucky outcome, I didn’t expect that to happen. The areas of dark and turquoise matched up pretty well.

Here are the original socks made from these two yarns.

Original Turquoise Socks

Original Gray/Magenta Socks

The yarns combined to produce something quite different yet interesting.

I’m now working on another pair amalgamating two yarns – I have enough leftover yarn to keep me going for many months!