Stripey Stripes are what we call the short lengths of our self striping sock yarns. So when you use them to knit a stripe in socks or mitts your stripe will have stripes. Stripey stripes.
When we dye self striping sock yarns we start by creating a long skein of yarn. How long? Ten meters of yarn is one pattern repeat. That length gives us space to dye enough of each colour so it will knit up as stripes rather than a more random pattern.
We’ve been asked about providing 10 gram mini skeins of self striping sock yarns before – and it’s never felt like a great option. With some colourways it doesn’t matter where in the dye pattern the yarn starts and stops. For other colourways – like the pride flag ones – there’s a point where the pattern should start and stop.
Stripey Stripes deal with this by always starting and stopping at the beginning of a dye pattern. There’s a single complete pattern repeat in each length.
Stripey Stripes come in pairs, as they’re designed to work in socks or mitts. Most of the time these are things that get made in pairs, so a set of two stripes seemed like a good way to go. We’ve split them so you know where each stripey stripe starts and ends. It also saves having to rip back your project when you realise you were having such a lovely time knitting that the second colour repeat started four rounds back!
There’s nothing to say that both stripey stripes need to appear in the same position in socks or mitts. I knitted these socks with one stripe coming after 10 rounds of stocking stitch on the leg and the other after 30 rounds of stocking stitch once I’d turned the heel.
Working with these stripey stripes has been fun. They’d be a great way to add a pop of colour to stash yarns – and they’d be a fun way to split two colours if you’re using up smaller amounts of yarn.
You’ll find all of the stripey stripe colours in the self striping yarn section of the shop – so you can choose if you’d like to go full on stripey or play with a pop of colour.
What would you make with stripey stripes? Leave me a comment and let me know.
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