The average pair of socks requires 100 grams of yarn, give or take a bit. If you want to knit striped socks that will skew how much yarn you need. If you want to stick to the 100 grams, you can obtain two 50 gram balls, each a different color and work stripes of equal size for the entire sock (think rugby shirt). In this manner the two colors will be used evenly. However, if you want to be creative and do a sock mostly one color with narrow stripes, that will skew the amount of yarn needed. You will require a larger percentage of the 100 grams to be in the main color and a smaller amount in the contrast color. This is where one says, “no problem, I will just use that bit left over from the last pair of socks for the stripes”. But, are you sure you will have enough yarn for all the stripes on both socks?
Enter the fraternal twin. When I want stripes but I want to use the two colors that I have and not worry about playing chicken with “leftovers”, I knit the pair of socks as “fraternal twins”.
The stripe pattern is the same. All the blocks of color are the same size. I just reverse the colors. In the photo, the finished sock has Rapscallion Jelly as the main color and Adventure Sprinkles as the contrast color. The sock in progress uses Adventure Sprinkles for the main color and Rapscallion Jelly for the contrast. Two 50 gram balls of yarn used equally for a very fun pair of socks.
Who said socks had to be identical?
Knitting details:
Gauge is 8 stitches to the inch on 1.5mm needles. (I am using ChiaoGoo circulars and a 40 inch cable, my personal favorite). Sock Bandit has a tight twist and is a bouncy sock yarn.
Pattern is my own recipe for perfectly fitting socks.