When You’ve Got the Perfect Rainbow Yarn

Yep, I couldn’t say yes fast enough to this bright, happy, almost neon rainbow yarn! Catherine over at Gauge Dye Works makes lots of things I love, which is why we’ve been collaborating on projects for over seven years. But sometimes she just nails it in a way that makes me say, “Gimme!” The colourway 76 (named for the number of stripes in the skein) was one of those.

As soon as I had my hands on a skein, I was turning this rainbow into socks, and when I got near the top of the first one, I thought it would be fun to add a little colourwork.

My stitch count was 72, so I had a lot of options. Lots of numbers fit very neatly into 72, which makes it a very convenient number for colourwork repeats. But when I realized that the hippo motif from AlterKnit was an even 24, giving me the option to put exactly 3 hippos marching around the top of each of my socks, I had to do it!

I think Hippos might be my favourite motif from AlterKnit, mostly because their little round butts make me laugh every time. And I haven’t actually made anything aside from the swatch using it, so this seemed like my chance. Look how cute!

Closeup of Andrea’s feet in bright rainbow socks, adorned with cute hippos around the cuffs.

About the Socks

Pattern

I used my Checklist of Birds Socks pattern as a base for this project, so I just followed those instructions, omitting the knit/purl charts and just working the feet in Stockinette stitch. It’s a toe-up sock pattern which I’ve played with many times to make vanilla socks. It’s nice when a pattern is so customizable!

I know some folks like to have contrasting colour heels and toes to keep things neat and make all the stripes the same width, but there’s something so freeing about just using that self-striping yarn all the way through without stopping. Of course there’s the delight of avoiding extra ends to weave in, but I really love how it creates cute colour blocking on the heels thanks to the short row shaping.

I worked the legs in simple 1x1 rib up to the colourwork and used some white Neighborhood Fiber Co. Organic Studio Sock as a background colour. I think it’s so cute how the hippos change colour and that they have different coloured hippos.

I love that my socks are coordinating rather than matching, particularly because I think it adds to their whimsy, but I could have just started the second sock at the same stripe as the first if I really wanted them to be identical.

A Tip About Colourwork& stretch

The tops of socks need to be very stretchy because they need to go over your heel. Colourwork is notoriously not stretchy at all, so it’s something to be extra mindful of when making socks that have colourwork embellishments. I solved it by using a needle size 2 sizes bigger for my colourwork than I did for the rest of my sock. It makes my socks look kind of funny when they’re not on my feet (tiny around the ribbing and then huge around the colourwork), but as you can see, they do actually fit when worn.

I recommend trying on your socks when you’re about halfway through your colourwork to make sure you can get them over your heels!

Hippo Motif

The Hippos motif is from AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary (page 114) and it’s a 24-stitch motif. There are some pretty long floats, so I opted to catch my floats whenever they were longer than 7 stitches, which works well for me in fingering weight yarn. Another option would be to catch the floats every other stitch to keep the back very tidy. That method creates a tiny bit of a waffle texture, so if you want to try it, I suggest swatching to see if you like it or not. Just be sure not to catch the float in the same spot on subsequent rounds.

So is it going to be a pattern for sale?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: I considered writing this up as a pattern, but decided against it. The main reason is that the 24-stitch hippo motif fits perfectly into my size of sock (which happens to be 72 stitches around), but adding or subtracting a hippo would mean the intervals between sock sizes were several inches. That’s not really practical, since foot size doesn’t vary that much. I did think about adding a few extra stitches in between the hippos to spread them out (the floats are already super long, so it seemed like an option), but because there are only 3 repeats, it wouldn’t have made enough of a difference.

So this one is just a fun thing for me to get some joy out of every time I wear them. If you also happen to wear a 72-stitch sock, you can make this project if you’ve got the Checklist of Birds pattern (or your favourite vanilla sock pattern) and AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary to get that hippo motif.

Back view of Andrea’s feet up on tippy toes showing the heels of her bright rainbow hippo socks.

Make it Your Own

Hippos aren’t your thing? Good news! My books AlterKnit and KnitOvation Stitch Dictionaries are packed with other cute animals, sweet geometric designs and lovely botanicals! Whatever your sock stitch count, you’ll be able to find a motif that’s perfect to fit. Every motif is labeled with stitch and row count repeats so you can tell right away if it’s a number that will fit. Plus, there are indexes in the back that list the motifs by name and stitch count.

This One Weird Trick

And here’s a hint: to find out which repeat numbers will fit into your total, just google your number plus the word, “divisors.” So for example, to find out what numbers fit into 72 evenly, I just google, “divisors of 72” and what pops up at the top of the search results is:

72 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,8,9,12,18,24,36 and 72.

I’m not sure what’s with the weird lack of spacing, but that gives me all the info I need to choose a motif. Any motif with a repeat that’s one of those numbers will fit evenly around my 72-stitch sock! Handy, right?

How about you?

Tell me in the comments about your customized project using motifs from AlterKnit or KnitOvation!

Oh, and the Yarn!

You can get that 76 Rainbow yarn on Gauge’s website.

Rainbow Hippo Socks! 🌈🧦🦛