greenermakes

No Mow Socks – Knitting pattern

€6,50 EUR

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When you are walking across a lawn or meadow, if you pause for a moment and look closely, you might discover something wonderful: countless tiny blossoms. Provided, of course, that the lawn or meadow has not been mown for a while. These summery colourwork socks would like to shine a spotlight on the beauty, but also the worth of these so-called weeds: they are important actors in ecosystems (e.g. as a crucial source of nectar and pollen for insects) and some of them are edible or even have healing powers. Convincing reasons to mow the lawn less often or to leave some sections undisturbed, don’t you think? :)

You start your No Mow Socks with a two-colour picot edge. After that, you get to choose between three floral colourwork patterns representing plant species whose blossoms adorn meadows, lawns and gardens across large parts of the Northern hemisphere: bird’s-eye speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) and ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea). The first colourwork section is followed by a heel flap and gusset with a slip stitch pattern. Then you have a relaxing stretch of stocking stitch ahead of you before you knit colourwork again to let a leaf detail appear on the toe. You do not need to knit with more than two colours at a time. However, you can add some pops of colour by embroidering on the finished socks with duplicate stitch if you like – a simple embroidery technique that does not require any prior experience.

By the way: as these shorty socks use a relatively small amount of yarn, especially regarding the contrast colours, they offer a perfect opportunity to showcase tiny yarn scraps.

Sizes

3 sizes, corresponding to shoe sizes EU 34/35 (36–39) 40–43

Recommended yarn:

Fingering-weight sock yarn in a main colour and two contrast colours (+ optional: very small quantity of fingering- or sport-weight yarn in a contrasting colour for the duplicate stitch embroidery), e.g. Pascuali Pinta

Yarn estimates:

Main colour: approx. 180 (210) 240 m / 200 (230) 270 yds
Contrast colour 1 (picot edge and leaves): approx. 40 (40) 45 m / 45 (45) 50 yds
Contrast colour 2 (blossoms): approx. 25 (30) 30 m / 30 (35) 35 yds

Needles and notions needed:

DPNs (5 needles per set) OR circular needles with minimum length of 80 cm (32”) (if you prefer to knit socks with the Magic Loop method), sizes 2 mm (US 0) and 2.5 mm (US 1.5)
stitch markers, tapestry needle

Gauge:

Stockinette: 30 stitches x 44 rows = 10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4” on 2 mm (US 0) needles in the round, blocked
Colourwork: 30 stitches x 34 rows = 10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4” on 2.5 mm (US 1.5) needles in the round, blocked