Spiral around and around.

No more snow but now I'm hot on the trail of Christmas knitting. I'm knitting socks. No not in sock wool, that would be crazy! I'm thinking worsted weight boot socks are much more practical to be knitting with only 23 days to go. And after all I can't be 100% sure my daughter's boyfriend will wear them. But if you're going to be part of our family, wearing knitting is required. One men's pair done.

Now I'm working on a pair of coloured socks in 3 colours. All the colours spiral up the sock.

This is what I did. I divided my sock into 2 sections, the Top of foot and the Bottom of foot. First I knit across the Top of the foot in Dark Gray, dropped the wool. Knit across Bottom of foot with Pink, dropped the wool. Knit across Top of foot with the 3rd colour, Light Gray. All  3 colours are now engaged. (On the Top of foot I have a Dk Gray stripe and a Lt Gray stripe.)

At the end of this needle, I drop the Lt Gray wool I just knit with. The Dk Gray wool is very conveniently waiting there from the previous stripe. Pick up the Dk Gray wool and knit across Bottom of foot. On and on, around and around, picking up the new colour wool that is conveniently sitting there to knit across the next needle.

The trick, and you know there always is always a trick, is NOT twist your colours when you change colours.

I want the Dk Gray stripe to continue across the new needle for a stripe above the pink. This is way more confusing than it is to work. This is where I changed colours. No break in the stripe. No jog because the stripes just continue to spiral around. I think I love this.

I've done these socks from the toe up but it would work much better from the cuff down because of the heel. So for the next pair I'm coming down from the top with a traditional heel flap and gusset. I think I could use up a lot of odds and ends this way.

Deb