Sometimes a particular ball of yarn catches your eye, and you know you need it even if you have no idea what you’re going to make with it. This design started like that. I saw the Candy colorway of Rico Twirl and was instantly smitten. I resisted buying it for months, until one day I saw it on sale and that was that. A few days later I had the “I want candy” song from the movie Hop stuck in my head for hours and realised it was because I kept passing this cake of yarn! The colors in it reminded me of the scenes in the candy factory so I set to work charting the Peep bunnies, Easter eggs, and flowers for this design.

Method: Featuring motifs of Peeps bunnies, Easter eggs, and flowers, these stranded colorwork socks are knit in the round from the cuff down with a round heel and gusset decreases placed on the sole. The colorwork is charted to minimize pattern jog and the start of the round is placed at the side of the leg and the center of the sole.

These socks can be knitted on dpns, by magic loop, or on a short circular (in which case you will still need dpns for the heel and toe decreases).

Please note the colorwork design in this pattern is charted not written out. You need to be prepared to read and work from charts in order to enjoy knitting this design.

Size: This pattern is written in 4 sizes. All instructions that differ depending on the size you are knitting are color coded and indicated with parentheses like this: S (M, L, and XL).

Size - Sock Circumference - Approx. UK Sizes
S - 7” (18 cm) - Children’s 13-4, Ladies 1-4
M - 8” (20.5 cm) - Ladies 5-8
L - 9” (23 cm) - Men’s 8.5-10.5
XL - 10” (25.5cm) - Men’s 11-13

Yarn: You can use any 4 ply (fingering) sock yarn that you like and with which you can get tension/ gauge.

Please note I do not recommend using yarns with a high cotton content as cotton doesn’t stretch as much as other fibers and this will affect the fit of your socks.

The charted pattern in this sock works well with a solid and a long gradient yarn (as in the pair pictured), or you could knit each motif band a separate solid color.

I have chosen to use three colors in total for the pair shown; CC2 is used for contrast cuffs/heels/toes only, but this is optional. Be creative, have fun, but keep in mind changes will affect yardage and number of ends to weave in. The amounts of each color required will depend on how many colors you pick, where you choose to use them in the sock, and which size you are knitting. As a guide for the pair pictured (size M) I used the following:

MC – West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in 11 Marshmallow approx. 140 metres (153 yards)
CC1 – Rico Superba Twirl in 5 Candy approx. 140 metres (153 yards)
CC2 – West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in 360 Bubblegum approx. 80 metres (87 yards)