Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

I was a knitter as a kid, and just picked it up again during the shut down last year. I'm now addicted to socks (can't get enough!) and now I think I want to add using sock yarn for other projects too. Can you suggest specific projects that you really vibed with? Things you would want to knit over and over? I would like to stick with ones that use a single skein of sock weight yarn because I seem to have collected several loners.

I've looked on Ravelry and have queued one named Hitchhiker. Can you propose other ideas? I tend to choose wacky colors like some of these, if that helps.

Thanks from cold Indianapolis,

Ellie

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Comments

[Jackielemon]

Hitchhiker is a great choice. Any shawl or scarf by Martina Behm fun to knit with outstanding wearability. For a skein of yarn that tends to pool or flash Reyna is a really good pattern, easier to knit than it looks.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/reyna

[ElizabethD]

Check out the Ravelry group called Sock Yarn Lovers Who Don’t Make Socks. SO many choices. Scarves, hats, baby sweaters . . . Grownup sweaters, gloves . . . If you can make it with yarn, you can make it with sock yarn. Also, once you make Hitchhiker, you will want to make more Martina Behm designs . . .

[Diane]

Along with Hitchhiker, Nurmilintu and Reyna are two others that I’ve enjoyed using single skeins for.

[Dana Snyder]

I have made the Pensive Cowl several times. It takes 1 skein of sock and is an easy knit to watch tv with. It’s on Ravelry!

[Susan]

I love my “Sockhead Cowl”, it’s really simple and great for winter walks. I’m also a super fan of the “Jessica Jones” double wrap cowl (can be made with either 1 or 2 skeins), and I have made one for almost all my family and friends. I’ve used different types of skeins, and both the tonals and more multi coloured ones both look great.

[Jeanne]

I really like bandana style cowls. The Anguli Cowl on Ravelry is a favorite and uses less than a skein.

[Kim M.]

I will second/third/etc. Nurmilintu and Reyna. I also like Cross Me Knot (shawl) that has long crossed stitches that are really entertaining to work on an otherwise easy peasy shawl.

[Kate C]

Pembroke, a narrow shawl / scarf is a great pattern for knitting up the entire skein of a fabulous hand dyed fingering. Available on Ravelry.

[Kristi]

Lightweight Hipster by Joji Locatelli is so cute!

[Anne]

Ohh - so many good ideas. Some patterns I have made again and again:
Mitts - Long Striped Handwarmer.
Cowls - Social Cowl, That Nice Stitch.
Sockhead Hat and Cowl.

[Diane]

The Downtown cowl is also a good one-skein project.

[Suzanne]

I will second any Martina Behm pattern. My favorite is Lintilla but Hitchhiker and Trillian's are fun, too. Vary the Gate by Casapinka is also a fun knit for variegated yarn.

[Michele]

I love the Rikke hat which is a free pattern. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn but I have made it in DK, sport, and sock-weight yarn. I cast on 140 stitches on a 2.75 mm needle for sock weight and it uses a good portion of the skein depending on how slouchy you make it. Congratulations on your return to knitting.

[Nancy]

I knit one skein projects almost exclusively.
I suggest One and Done by Casapinka. (No Ravelry link because I don't use it.) I have others of her's. Zomboni and Manny I believe are two others.
I knit a lot of Super Stretchy baby hats by Simply Noteable with partial balls.
Also baby socks or no scratch gloves with bits of sock weight yarn.

Good luck. I like Instagram's various one skein hashtags for ideas.

[Diane]

I enjoy making any of Casapinka's one skein shawls and use them as scarves. I just made Woven, an easy knit that uses the "wacky" colors I love well.

[Jessica]

Sockhead hat and cowl. I've made both many times over!

[Carol]

Fabulous for variegated (wacky!): That Nice Stitch, by Susan Ashcroft (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/that-nice-stitch)

I knit this with SSYC-purchased yarn: Interlude, by Janina Kallio (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/interlude-4)

I knit this free pattern without the picot border: Ravens Land, by Sandra Marie Dooley (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ravens-land)

[Michelle]

And now for something completely different!
I have been totally charmed by Loani Prior's wild tea cosies so it was a bonus to find a chapter in her book: Really Wild Tea Cosies that had cosies made from sock yarn. Amazing stuff. I got the book at our public library. Loani is a knitter from Australia. I can't wait to make a few myself.