About a month ago, Courtney and I came back from the Nordic Knitting Conference armed with exciting new knowledge and quite a few newly cast on projects on our needles. Over the last few weekends, in between finishing up the designs for our new yarn collection to be released in February and samples for a few upcoming publications, I also managed to finish the Skolt Sámi Boot Socks I began in Laura Ricketts class.
Sámi patterns tend to use natural colored wool (cream or white) for the main color, and red, green, or black for the contrast colors. For my sock I used The Fibre Co. Cumbria, and took some liberties with the palette. For the main color, I choose Scafell Pike, the undyed shade that is used as the base for the rest of the dyed line. The grey/brown tone comes from the brown Masham wool that makes up 30% of the Cumbria blend, and the end result is a really lovely neutral heather. For my contrast colors, I used Cowberry, Buttermere, Helvellyn, Yew Tree, and Coniston.
The socks are knit from the top down, and are shaped using decreases at the back. I played around a lot with the bands of colorwork on my first sock, and tried to balance the traditional patterning with the bright palette. Once the first one was sorted out, the 2nd worked up really quickly. Unfortunately, I don’t think Laura has a design for the socks available for download – but that is just one more reason to take the class from her if you ever have the opportunity!
I’m really happy with the socks as is, but I’m considering adding some leather bottoms to make them more like house slippers rather than boot socks. Now that the weather has finally cooled here to seasonally appropriate temperatures, either way I’m sure to get a lot of use out of them over the coming months!
(All Images by and © Linette Kielinski)
I love the socks with the clogs. They look fantastic together.
Thank you!
What is the make of clogs please?
Swedish Hasbeens. They’re some of my favorites!