Merripog Socks

Last spring I was watching a foreign film of some kind (while knitting, of course) and saw a sweater. How many times has this happened to you? The movie has a sweater that makes you forget the movie entirely but not that sweater. Happens too often for me to count. This particular sweater had a two-color design  that transitioned from one color to the other along the yoke with the use of a charted design. Well, the whole idea  fell deeply asleep in my brain until I laid my hands on these two colors from Cephalopod Yarns, 

Montauk Monster and Oleander Nymph 

in their Skinny Bugga! yarn.

I knew they would be perfect for the colorwork and I knew it had to be in a sock. The Merripog Socks!

Please excuse dark pictures--rainy season has descended on us here and that makes for emo pics!

Next I found this flowery-hearty design in Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting and knew it was the one to bring the project to life. I jumped onto my trusty charting program and mirrored the pattern and played tag with the two colors. The whole idea made it a simple feat to work the heel and toe in the contrast color, too. I felt like the sock needed another little two-color fun just before changing colors for the toe, so I pulled out one little element from the larger pattern to do that job for me.

Along about the time when I was nearly done working the color pattern on the cuff, I saw one of my Instagram buddies working on an afterthought heel and bam! I knew that would be perfect for these socks, and that it would make the whole project a lot more fun (as if it weren't already a party). I had never done an afterthought anything, so I would get to learn something new!

Folks, I love afterthought heels! When you reach the heel, you just place your line of scrap yarn in place and keep going. Nice! Now I want to try an afterthought thumb. One of my upcoming designs is a mitten with a fun cable and it is now going to have afterthought thumbs. Too much fun. 

I chose a high-contrast color combo for my first Merripogs, but just to illustrate how you can also choose to go the more subtle route, here's my second attempt.

I knit this sock with Madeline Tosh Sock in Corsage and Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Orchid. These two yarns are so close in pinky shades that sometimes the two are the very same color, so the pattern is almost lost in places. Unfortunately, I also tried to practice my Continental knitting (thrower, I am) and came out with a very large, loose sock. This would fit my husband, but even he (being a person not in need of defending his manhood) would not wear socks like these...well, not on a regular day, that is.

All that is to say that this is a onesy. I'll hang it up and look at it. 

For some even better examples of choosing two yarns with more subtle color differences for the Merripog Socks, feast your eyes on the beautiful ones knit by the pattern's tester, Amanda, and another one being knit by Judetha in some very lively colors.

I can't wait to see what color combos people come up with next.

Maybe even yours!