I have big balls of sock yarn, little scraps of sock yarn, and everything in between. I have yarn that I dyed from plants in my yard and yarn from the store. I decided to use it up. I made piles of colors that I thought looked nice together and then just went at it. Here are the results.

These are a version of the “On-Your-Toes” toe-up socks designed by Ann Budd, from Interweave Knits, Summer 2007.

I like long socks because I do not like having cold ankles when I’m outside in the winter.

I didn’t try to hide the color joins. I figured that, given how unruly the colors are, and given that the point was to just keep knitting with a color until it was gone, I’d just let the chips fall where they fell.

I like short socks too, especially when I don’t have enough yarn to knit long socks.

I tend to make my toe-up socks’ bind-off too tight, regardless of the techniques I try; there’s no better way to wreck an otherwise perfect pair of socks. So I work the sock up as far as the ribbing, and then work the ribbing separately, top-down. Then I weave the two pieces together. It is an enjoyable thing to do, and lets me spend a bit more time with my socks before I have to take them off of my needles. I do get attached to them.

Of course, there is a lot of weaving in to do. I used to despise weaving in ends and my knitwear would languish in a corner, waiting for some attention.

Now that I have finished all of these socks. no weaving in will ever frighten me again. I am a devotee.

There are about six different types of sock yarn in this pair. You can see the difference in gauge; the hand-dyed yarn is much thicker.

The difference in gauge isn’t an issue once the socks are on legs. This pair has been worn for a while now, and you can see in the upper left that some of the yarn is not as durable as it might be.