Dappled Air

While doing my research on the 'Wunderknäuel' in Google in German I saw my baby spiral socks and an explanation that in German hospitals they use them for preemies. They call them in German 'Regenwürmer' - 'earthworms'. As the socks have no heel they can be worn by any size baby and will keep the tiny ones nice and warm. Here is a link to the pattern and all kinds of other baby patterns in German.

After I had finished my husbands socks there was still some yarn left over, just enough to make a pair of baby spiral socks. As spiral socks are very stretchy and babies grow so fast, I decided to make the socks big enough for a bigger baby (up to 20 lbs), but they should also fit a newborn. So I had to make them long enough for the bigger baby, for the smaller baby there will just be a big cuff as you can see on my model, a doll that is even smaller than a newborn. Material needed: about 10 gr wool per sock 4 double pointed needles darning needle gauge: 28 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm) on 3.25 mm (U.S. 3) needles My pattern is: 2 knit, 3 purl for 3 rows and then offset either to the left or right by one stitch so that it will go like this: 1 knit, 2 purl, 2 knit, 2 purl. Knitting Instructions : cast on 32 stitches very loosely divided over 3 needles (10 stitches, 12 stitches, 10 stitches) knit ribbing pattern: 1 knit, 1 purl for 10 rows switch to spiral pattern: 1st row of pattern: 2 ...

The last time I knitted socks, I was a teenager trying to get the pair done for my dad for Christmas. My dad only wore hand knitted socks. As my hubby has always cold feed, I thought maybe a pair of knitted socks will help him this winter. So I set out to do some research about knitting socks as a reminder, that's when I discovered spiral socks. What are spiral socks, well, they are socks without a heel, basically tube socks. The reason they fit so nicely is that pattern that is used to make them. The pattern spirals around the length of the sock, hence the name. Now, my next adventure was to find the wool. I did not want thick wool and I wanted durable wool for socks. So after almost giving up, I found this variegated wool. It is Pattons Kroy Socks Jaquards 4 Ply. I had no idea how much wool I would need as I was winging it, but decided to buy two 50 g balls. As you can see, I knitted the socks with the spirals going 2 different directions. I didn't want them to both spiral th...