Knitting -- scraps

So I dragged out a box of leftover fingering weight yarn and made five pairs of socks, and still had leftovers. Just not enough leftovers in each color to be sure I could make one-color socks.

But I had some coordinating and some contrasting colors, and here is the result.

The pattern is, use the contrasting color and the slingshot cast on for 12 stitches per needle. Increase to a total of 30 stitches per needle.  (18 rounds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4hhxKrylOs

Add on the main color and split the 30 stitches on one needle onto two DPs. These will be used for your heel. My size is 7 1/2 so I knitted 51 rounds for the foot. 

Then I added in the contrasting color again and worked the short row heel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahZE4GREr0

Note that she splits the heel stitches into 3 sets, so only 10 stitches on each heel needle will get wrapped and then knit up into the gusset. The middle 10 stitches (5 per needle) remain stable the entire length of the heel, which is 40 rows, 20 under the heel and 20 behind the heel. When I did the last purl row and wrapped the end stitch on the instep, I switched back to the main color and knitted a round, flipping the wraps to the back as the video shows.

This puts me at the ankle; I knitted to round 8 in which I increased 8 stitches, and another 8 in round 17. Then I knitted the cuff as k2/p2 rib.

When you have doubts whether you have enough yarn to make a whole pair of socks it helps to have some spare needles. You use a 32 or 40 inch circular needle to work the toe, and DPs to work the rest of the sock. You should also have a 12 or 16 inch circular somewhere, which you normally use to knit sleeves and ribbed necks. Knit the sock to the end of the ankle. Now knit half of the ribbed cuff, if you think you have enough to work the other sock to the same point.

Start the other sock and knit to the same point. If you think you have yarn for 10 more rounds apiece, do that, and so on. To do this, you may have to find the inside of the first skein and use it up from both ends, but at least you won't wind up with socks with two different length cuffs. The maximum rounds in the cuff will be 39 plus the knit-off round. 

And of course with small amounts of scraps, you can work the foot and top of these socks using Fair Isle patterns, stripes, small checkerboards, etc.

There are about 222 yards of yarn in a skein of Cotton Fine. If you buy one skein of the contrasting or coordinating color, you can probably work 20 heel and toe sets so you would get 10 pairs of socks out of 10 skeins of Cotton Fine. YMMV depending on your shoe size.

If you do this with worsted weight yarn, cast on 10 stitches per needle for the toe and increase to 20 stitches per needle (20 rounds), then knit 45 rounds in the foot. The heel will be a little difficult; 20/3 is 6 with 2 extra stitches. Work your wraps over the outside 7 stitches with the center 6 stitches (3 on each heel needle) stable. Work 15 rounds in the ankle, increasing in round 7 and 15, and make the cuff 40 rounds high. 

These stitch counts should also work for DK/sport yarn; try one and if it's too tight, unravel and use the fingering stitch counts.

So here is another reason for not throwing away leftovers, even if you don't have enough to knit a top-down raglan jumper.