Knit from Your Stash 2007

I heard about this Knit from your Stash plan in late December and have been trying to follow it, with one change. I made an inventory of my sock yarn a few weeks ago and determined that, at the rate I have been knitting socks, averaging 9 pairs a year since 2000, I have 20 years worth of sock yarn to knit with. That's at least 270 skeins of sock yarn! (Some are 50 gram and some are 100 gram skeins.) So, no sock yarn purchases either. Sock books, yes. I have my eye on two new books, Sensational Knitted Socks Two and the new Interweave Sock book.

Last year I made a concerted effort to finish all of my second socks and pretty much succeeded. I only have two single socks that I am not actively knitting on sock #2, down from a high of nine. I'm bored with all of the socks I am currently knitting, though (six different pairs, all started last year). I was gifted with a brand new set of vintage Boye Balene prototype DPN's, so I started a new sock over the weekend using stash yarn. It's a combination of this Dutch pattern and Ginger Luter's Swatch Your Step pattern from her wonderful book, Module Magic. I am using Lorna's Laces yarn in the green, teal and purple Lakeview colorway and a solid color medium aqua blue Special Blauband. I'll post pictures soon.

I love using slip stitch patterns. They also work well in socks, for uniting leftover balls of yarn using a 50 gram ball of a solid color as the contrast. and using the leftovers as your contrast color. This makes a striking sock, but there are lots more ends to weave in. I've found they are actually less stretchy and I need to use more stitches. YMMV, and the slip stitch pattern you use also has a lot to do with it.