Feb 21, 20202 min read

200 Words for Snow

On Valentine's Day weekend knitters gathered again to the Toivola Old Courtyard for the third annual Knit Fest Winter. This small, yarny event takes place each February as a way to tide over the wait to the Jyväskylä Summer Knit Fest 2020 in July. And it was sorely needed as this has been a very dreary, gray, and gloomy winter.

I had the immense honor of being asked to design a secret pattern for Knit Fest Winter 2020. Although it's been eternal November since, well, November, we did eventually get a bit of snow to brighten the days. And snowy winters are the inspiration behind the Nuoska socks.

Nuoska :: colorwork sock knitting pattern

First, a bit of an explanation for the pattern name (and the blog title). They say there are over 200 words for snow in the Finnish language, nuoska being just one of them. 'Nuoska' is a sticky, packing snow that is perfect for making snowmen, snow castles, snow anything! It usually comes down in massive snowflakes when the temperature hovers around 0 Celsius or just below the freezing point.

Nuoska socks evoke memories of childhood winters with dripping icicles and frost flowers growing on windows. These socks are worked from the toe up in two colors of sport-weight sock yarn. My sample is knit with Tukuwool Sock (80% wool, 20% nylon, 160 m/50 g) with Humu (a light gray) for the main color and Kajo (teal) for the contrasting color.

The socks feature contrasting toes and cuffs that flow into a simple icicle colorwork section. The ribbing on top is a simply 1x1 twisted rib, my favorite. But the majority of the socks are knit in the main color in a delicate Frost Flowers stitch pattern, made with cleverly placed knit-below stitches. There's no chart for the Frost Flowers but the a step-by-step photo tutorial included in the pattern! The colorwork portions come as charts only.

The socks come in three sizes: 54, 60, or 66 stitches. In addition, both foot and leg length are freely adjustable to your liking and measurements. In sock-knitter terms: you can start gusset increases on any round of the stitch pattern! Even though the pattern is written for sport-weight yarn, it can be easily adapted for fingering weight, too.

Right and left socks are identical. These socks can also be knit two-at-a-time in magic loop since there are no moving stitches.

Nuoska socks are now available for purchase in my Ravelry store and on LoveCrafts. Share your childhood winters on Instagram with the hashtags #nuoskasocks and #talviknits.