The solution to the problem of too much work for too little wear, is free-sole socks. These are socks knit so that the whole sole or any part of it can be removed and re-knit leaving the rest of the sock intact.

These knee socks were the first free-sole socks I made. I wanted to use up lots of small scraps of color and, if I was knitting so far up the leg, I wanted to be able to re-knit the sole easily.

I used five colors for the wider stripes and five colors for the garter ridges between them. For the wider stripes, I used the same sequence of colors aligned on both socks. While this regularity is not my usual choice, I thought there was vitality enough in these stripes without confusing the eye further. However, I saw no reason to maintain or align the color sequence of the garter ridges.