Sampling.

It’s one of those things that as a fibre person you either love or hate doing.

I’m sort of in the middle now. I started hating doing it. I didn’t want to take the time and just get into the project.

One thing taking my spinning course has taught me though is that sampling will give me a better end product. It will make it easier to get the final result that I want rather than having it be more hit and miss.

So now I still don’t like to make many samples, but I do try to see what the results of different methods will produce.

I’m getting ready for a talk I’m giving in February to my local spinning guild. It is on spinning for socks and some techniques for knitting toe up socks.

I’ll be covering things like types of fibres to use, different spinning and plying methods, and different knitting methods.

So this is a perfect time to make a bunch of samples to show off all of these things.

I’m planning on making a bunch of small socks. The socks use about 45-50 yards of yarn, and about 25g or 1oz of fibre. I doesn’t take to long to spin up the yarn and the socks can be easily knit over an evening.

For those that might be interested, here is a basic pattern you can use to make a small sock like the one in the picture. I’m going to format it better and will post it later as a free download.

These small socks would make pretty Christmas tree ornaments or small stocking stuffer socks! Since they don’t use a lot of yarn they are perfect for using up those scraps of sock weight yarn that you may have lying around.

Mini Sample Socks
Copyright 2013, Danny Ouellette.
This pattern is provided as is and for free. If distributed please copy it in its entirety, including this copyright notice.

Yarn
41-45 m (45-50 yd) of fingering weight yarn, handspun yarn approx. 16-17 WPI

Needles
2.5 mm [US size 1.5]. A set of five double pointed needles or a long circular needle for the magic loop method

General Notes
The instructions are given for knitting with five dpns. Stitches for the instep will be on needles 1 and 2, and the sole on needles 3 and 4. If you are using the magic loop method then stitches for needles 1 and 2 will be on one side and needles 3 and 4 the other side.

Abbreviations
kfb – knit into the front and back of the next stitch.

ssk – slip, slip, knit
Slip the next two stitches knitwise, one at a time, from the LHN to the RHN. Insert the LHN into the front of these two stitches and knit them together.

s1p – slip stitch purlwise
s1k – slip stitch knitwise

W&T – Wrap and Turn
Right side – Knit to the point specified in the pattern, bring the yarn to the front of the work between the needles, slip the next stitch from the LHN to the RHN, bring the yarn around this stitch to the back of the work, slip the stitch back to the LHN, turn the work to begin purling back in the other direction. Pull the yarn to tighten the wrap.

Wrong side – Purl to the point specified in the pattern, bring the yarn to the front of the work between the needles, slip the next stitch from the LHN to the RHN, bring the yarn around this stitch to the back of the work, slip the stitch back to the LHN, turn the work to begin knitting back in the other direction. Pull the yarn to tighten the wrap.

Knit Wrap
Slip the wrapped stitch onto the RHN. With the tip of the LHN pick up the wrap and then move the wrapped stitch back to the LHN. K2tog the wrap and wrapped stitch.

Purl Wrap
Slip the tip of the RHN under the back of the wrap around the next stitch and place it onto the LHN. P2tog the wrap and wrapped stitch.

Instructions
Toe
Cast-on 8 sts onto two dpns using either the Figure 8 cast-on, Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-On or the Light Circular Cast-on.

Knit one round. Re-arrange the sts so there are 4 sts on each of four dpns.

Increase rounds
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ndls 3&4: k1, kfb, k to 2 sts before end of ndl 4, kfb, k1
Rnd 2: knit around

Repeat these two rounds until there are 40 sts total, 10 sts on each needle.

Foot
Knit around until the piece measures 8 cm (3.15 in) long.

Gusset
Knit across ndls 1 and 2; over ndls 3 and 4 work k2, kfb, k1, place marker, k12, place marker, k1, kfb, k2.

Increase Rounds:
Rnd 1: K around.
Rnd 2: ndls 1&2: knit; ndls 3&4: k to 2 sts before marker, kfb, k1,
slip marker,k to next marker, slip marker, k1, kfb, k to end.

Repeat these two rounds 4 times more.

12 sts increased, 52 sts in total. Needles 1 and 2 each hold 10 sts, Needles 3 and 4 each hold 16 sts.

Heel Turn
Knit across ndls 1 and 2, k first 10 sts from ndl 3 onto ndl 2, removing the stitch marker when you reach it; k last 6 sts from ndl 3 and first 5 sts from ndl 4 onto one ndl for the heel, W&T but do not slip wrapped st back to LHN (wrapped st remains on the heel needle). Slip last 10 sts from ndl 4 to ndl 1, removing the stitch marker when you reach it.

Needles 1 and 2 each hold 20 sts, the heel needle holds 12 sts. The heel turn is worked in short rows over these stitches, beginning with the WS facing.

Row 1 [WS]: Slip wrapped st to RHN, s1p, p to last st on needle, W&T.

Row 2 [RS]: S1p, k to 1 st before previous wrapped st, W&T.
Row 3 [WS]: S1p, p to 1 st before previous wrapped st, W&T.

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 two times more. There are 4 wrapped sts on each side of the heel needle with 4 unwrapped sts in the center.

Heel Flap
Stitches for the heel flap are created in the next two rows by working into the wraps before working the wraps together with the wrapped sts.

Next Row [RS]:
S1p, ssk, k1, knit wrap, [k into the back of next wrap, knit wrap] 3 times, pick up two strands and k 1 st in the space between the heel needle and ndl 1. Turn work. 11 sts on the heel needle.

Next Row [WS]:
S1p, p10, purl wrap, [p into the front of next wrap, purl wrap] 3 times, pick up two strands and p 1 st in the space between the heel needle and ndl 2. 19 sts on the heel needle.

The heel flap is now worked in the Eye of Partridge pattern. Stitches at each end of the heel needle will be worked together with sts from the ends of ndls 1 and 2. To make working the decreases easier slip a few sts at a time from ndls 1 and 2 onto the heel needle as needed.

Eye of Partridge Heel Pattern
Row 1 [RS]: S1k, [k1, s1p]x8, k1, ssk. Turn work.
Rows 2 & 4 [WS]: S1p, p17, p2tog. Turn work.
Row 3 [RS]: S1k, [s1p, k1]x8, s1p, ssk. Turn work.

Repeat these 4 rows 5 times more.

Leg
With the RS facing and a new needle, s1k, k9 sts from the heel needle. Leave the remaining 9 sts on the heel needle.

The new beginning of the round is in the middle of the heel stitches.

Knit around, increasing 1 stitch on needle 1 to bring the total to 40 sts.

Knit around till the leg measures 10 cm (4 in) long from the bottom of the heel.

Cuff
Work [k2, p2] ribbing around for 6 or 8 rounds.

Loosely cast-off all stitches.