Bending By the Sea

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There are a lot of fun and simple patterns that use a very little bit of lace to make a big impact on your stripes! My most recent pair is By The Sea Socks, by Arianna Soloway (free Ravelry pattern link).

Ok. So, that is obviously not a striping yarn. It is Menacing Tower from Another Crafty Girl, and it is the perfect purple. But, light lace patterns like this one do bend yarn delightfully, as you'll see below.

But first, here are a few reasons you might want to make By The Sea Socks - which were published in 2018 and have a total of 7...seven... projects in Ravelry. 

• The pattern is written for Sport weight! I love a sport weight sock, and this pattern is written for 60 stitches. I knit mine in fingering without amending the stitch count, so they'll just be for smaller feet - but still adult sized.
• You can plug the pattern into your standard sock formula - it's great for leveling up your favorite vanilla recipe. The pattern is written toe-up, but I ignored all that and knit it top down. The fun wavy bends still look great, even though I knit them "upside down."
• The pattern is just on the leg of the sock. The foot is plain stockinette, so you can zoom right through it. The pattern is also super easy to memorize, so you won't have to refer to the chart much...and more than half the rows are plain knit. 

Are you convinced? Isn't it silly that there are so few projects for such a versatile, fun, and free pattern? 

I do have one word of caution for knitters who have the same oddly-specific knitting hang up that I do...If you use a self-striping yarn, take note that there is a purl row in the pattern. Depending on where this falls in your stripe transition, you might end up with those purl blips of color that stand out in your otherwise blip-free stripe sequence. 

This is why I used a variegated yarn instead of a stripe. (Also, I was really feeling this yarn!) If you embrace the blips, this won't be an issue. You could also amend the pattern slightly to either eliminate the purl round, or move it slightly if it happens to fall on a stripe transition round. 

I have two more pattern recommendations for you! Both are free and written for fingering weight yarn. They were tons of fun and really show off the stripes.

After Party Socks were designed by Beki Dickson (Rav pattern link)

I knit mine in my Little Known Holidays colorway. The pattern is a chevron with increases and decreases amongst a bunch of plain knitting. It makes a gentle wave - pleasing and not too busy.

If you want busy, I recommend feather pluckin' by Erin Vaughan (Rav pattern link)!

I knit these in my Summer Cucurbits colorway. Feather pluckin' has quiet a bit more lace to it, and when I started them, I'll be honest, I thought they were a bit slow to make. But, once I got into the groove and saw the fun, funky stripes, I was into it and they flew off my needles. The fit is very forgiving and this pattern would make really great summer shortie socks.

You might notice with both these striping socks, that the color sequence is not disrupted on the front of the sock. This is because I always knit my heel with the opposite end of the yarn cake (if I'm not making an afterthought heel). The stripes get a little thinner around the gusset, but the stripe order is consistent.  

I'm working on yet another bending stripes pattern right now! Do you have a favorite or one you'd like to try?

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