In our house there are snacks and there are meals. But there is also an in-between category - a fancy snack which is known as a Smackerel. And when I started working on these scrappy socks, the word Smackerel kept coming to mind. They are a bit fancier than a plain scrappy, striped sock but don’t require the effort and preparation needed for a full blown meal.

They are the perfect happy medium. Simple to work but fancy enough to show off. And each colour band uses just a hair over 1g, meaning that you can use up the tiniest bits of sock yarn leftovers that you have hanging around.

Actually yes it does, as the pattern is written with both toe-up and cuff down options - just pick the option you want at the pattern download stage.

Materials and Pattern specifics

• 2.5mm 100cm circular needle for magic loop (the instructions are written for magic loop but are easily adaptable to other methods of small-circumference knitting)

• 1 x 100g sock yarn (MC) sample knit as shown used approx. 55g MC (for a UK size 6)

• Approx 20g sock yarn scraps (CC). Each colour band uses less than 2g yarn.

• GAUGE: 32 stitches x 44 rows = 10cm/4” in stocking stitch, blocked

• SIZE: M (L): 20 (22.5)cm/8 (8.75”) circumference, designed to fit with approx 2cm/0.75” negative ease