Friday 22 August 2014

Seven-Colour Socks Pattern Translation


These are the socks I wrote about in June. I was looking forward to wearing these socks to keep my toes and ankles warm between dance workshops, but so far have forgotten to take them with me, probably because it has been so warm. I am thinking of developing a pattern without the stranded colourwork and with a shorter leg and fewer colour rings, as they would make lovely lounge socks for dancers (and anyone, really).

Meanwhile, here's the pattern, translated from Norwegian into English.  My additions and comments are included [in square brackets]. You will need to refer to the original pattern charts on the Ull.no website for the colourwork (click on the hyperlink with the pdf symbol under the heading 'Last ned gratis'). I've included a list of the original colours at the bottom of this post, although you can choose your own colour combinations.

Rainbow Socks
Design: Borghild Kolas

Rainbow socks with many colour variations.
Sizes: 6/8 - 10/12 years - adult/women's
Yarn: Embla Hifa 3, 100% pure new wool, approx 201m per 100g
Fjell Sokkegarn (Mountain Sock Yarn) 3, 80% wool/20% nylon, approx 167m per 100g
Yarn pack contains enough yarn for two pairs of socks. [Ull.no offers yarn packs for these socks.]
Suggested needles: 4mm dpns
[Tension: 10 x 10 cm
Fjell Sokkegarn 3    22 sts. x 29 rows on 3.5 – 4 mm needles
Embla Hifa 3        20 sts. x 27 rows stocking stitch on 3.5 mm needles/20 sts. x 23 rows stocking stitch on 4 mm needles]

Yarn colour and quantity:
[I've included the suggested quantities, but I think they refer to the yarn supplied in the pack. Although acrylic is lighter than wool, my pair of socks only weighs 103g in total. See below for a list of the original colour variations. I used acrylic DK in the following colours:

50g   Colour 1  Camel
100g Colour 2  Dark Red
100g Colour 3  Burgundy
50g   Colour 4  Claret
50g   Colour 5  Copper
50g   Colour 6  Old Gold
100g Colour 7  Dark Brown

With colour 1, Cast on 40 - 44 - 48 sts, (10 - 11 - 12 sts left on each needle) on 4mm needles. [I cast on 56 sts for my chunky legs, 14 per needle, although the main thing which will restrict the stretch is how tightly you carry the yarn between stitches for the colourwork.]
Work 8 - 9 - 9 rounds stockinette.
[Change to colour 2.] Continue in pattern on chart 1.
[The cross pattern is worked over rounds 3-5 of 7 rounds in stockinette.  There is one stitch of background colour between the crosses (which are 3 up, 3 across). The Cross pattern is interspersed with 4-4-5 rounds of background colour in purl/reverse stockinette.
So the pattern proceeds by adding the next colour to do the cross pattern with that colour as background and the crosses in the previous colour, and then 5 rounds purl with the background colour, then adding the next colour and repeating until you have used 6 colours.]

When the chart is complete, work 7-8-9 rounds with colour 7.

Heel
"Parish Decrease" (or knit your usual heel) [This is a square heel]:
The heel is worked in the same colour as the ribbing (= the colour you have on the needles). Work back and forth over 20 - 22 - 24 stitches (10 - 11 - 12 on each needle) [or in my case, 28 sts, 14 per needle.] with a pattern as follows:
1st row (RS): Slip 1 Knit 1 rpt
2nd row (WS): Slip the first stitch and purl rest of the stitches.
Repeat these 2 rows, approx. 4 - 4.5 - 5cm

Continue the ‘parish decrease’ as follows: [to turn the heel]
RS: Slip 1 Knit 1 etc. the first of the two needles. Slip 1, K1, Slip 1 on the other needle (3 stitches), dec 1 stitch. [I thought I should have a wider heel, so did S1K1 twice on the second needle - 4 sts before decreasing using K2tog.]
Turn.
WS: Purl back and [then] 3 stitches from the next needle , dec 1 st . Turn. [For me, 4 sts on the second needle, P2tog decrease.]
Repeat this until you have decreased on both sides, when you have 4 stitches left on each needle (all knit). [The K2tog/P2tog decreases are worked 'across the gap', leaving a central heel section of 8 sts for the original pattern, 10 sts for my wider heel.]
Pick up stitches on both sides of the heel so that you again use four needles and knit around in stockinette.
Decrease in "curve" on the side (at each side of the ankle) so you have 10 - 11 - 12 sts on each needle (= total 40 - 44 - 48 sts), less if you want a narrower foot.
[This is where the original pattern assumes you know how to do all this. How many stitches you pick up depends on how many rows you did for the heel flap, plus a couple for the corners. I did 14 rows, so picked up 9 stitches on the first edge of the heel flap onto the same needle holding the heel stitches, knitted the instep stitches onto another 2 needles, picked up 9 sts on the other side of the heel flap and continued to work half the heel sts onto the last needle (Needle 4) so that the rounds started mid-sole. There were 16 sts on heel/sole needles and 14 on instep needles. I wanted to decrease to 12 sts on all needles and worked as follows:
N1 Knit until 3 sts remain, K2tog, K1
N2 K1, SSK, knit the rest on that needle
N3 Knit until 3 sts remain, K2tog, K1
N4 K1, SSK, knit the rest on that needle
Then knit a round without decreases.
Repeat this decrease row and plain round, until all needles have 12 sts.]

Change colour [to colour 2]
And knit 5-6-7 rounds stockinette.
Continue pattern from chart 2.
[Add colour 7 as background, 2 rounds in col 7, 1 round alternating sts of cols 7 and 2, 2 rounds col 7, 3 rounds with crosses pattern in col 2, 2 rounds col 7, 1 round alternating sts of cols 7 and 2, 2 rounds col 7.
Change to colour 4 and repeat the 7 round 'crosses' pattern, using colour 5 for the crosses.]

After completing the chart, continue the toe in colour 3
Work 4 - 6 - 8 rounds Stockinette or desired length (depending on how long you want feet).

Decrease for toes:
Round begins mid-sole of foot.
Needle 1: K until there are 3 sts left, knit 2 together, knit the last st
Needle 2: K1, SSK, knit the rest of the stitches on the needle
Needle 3: As needle 1.
Needle 4: As needle 2.
Knit a round without decreases.
Repeat these 2 rounds until you have approx. 8-10 stitches left.
Cut the thread and pull it through the stitches and sew/bind off. [I used a kitchener graft.]

Sew in all loose ends.
Knit second sock the same.

The original colour variations are as follows. The codes in brackets are the yarn types - Embla Hifa 3 are 4 figure codes starting with 6, the other codes refer to Fjell Sokkegarn:
Colours and quantities: 1/50g, 2/100g, 3/100g, 4/50g, 5/50g, 6/50g, 7/100g
Rainbow: Purple (Lilac) (6077), Purple (Mauve) (519), Cobalt Blue (518), Green (6024), Yellow (6069), Orange (6070), Red (505)
Mountain: Mottled light grey (6054), dark grey (130), medium grey (115), light grey (110), unbleached white (100),  Charcoal (6056), black (511)
Sun: Maize yellow (6002), cognac brown (525), dark red (513), Red (505), Orange (6070), Yellow (6069), Ochre (526)
Sea: Light blue (6081), Denim Blue (507), navy (506), turquoise (512), bleached white (504), Cobalt Blue (518), Cobalt blue/black (538)
Rose: Lilac pink (6044), Dark lilac pink (S524), deep pink (521), Purple (Mauve) (519), bleached white (504), grey-purple (523), Pinky-lilac (520)
Forest: ochre/black (536), light olive (529), olive/black (539), black (511), unbleached white (100), cognac brown (525), dark green (510)
Autumn: Purple-brown  (6099), Ochre (526), dark green (510),  light olive (529), dark brown (6010), dark terracotta (6503), cognac brown (525).

2 comments:

Val said...

Thank you so much for your translation! This is the only one I can find! I will now give it a try. Thanks again.

MrsCoop said...

Awesome translation. Thank-you!