Month / July 2025

by TechnicolorMom

Wave Function Socks

Hello, crafty friends!

(Re-)Introduction

We have a lot of new subscribers here on the website, so I wanted to take a moment to welcome everyone who is just joining us. (Seriously, every time I get a notification that I have a new subscriber, I have a little \*squee\*.) I’m Amanda, and I am an aspiring professional knitter and knitwear designer in my free time. In my not free time, I am lucky to be a stay at home mom for my two children. You’ll see that a lot of my patterns are science-inspired. I earned a Ph.D. in chemistry (many) years ago and spent (many) years teaching college students how to safely work in the laboratory and how to draw organic reaction mechanisms. Now I get to apply all of my skills to crafting and keeping things semi-organized for my kiddos and amazingly supportive husband, @Technicool_Dad. I am lucky to get to volunteer at the kids’ school and to take them to all of the soccer practices and art clubs, and of course, car line pick up is one of my favorite activities — getting to see their smiling faces first thing after school is just the best feeling.

Pattern Inspiration

Today I am so excited to share that my newest pattern, the Wave Function Socks, has finally been published! When I took physical chemistry in college, quantum mechanics was one of my favorite topics. It was all math and functions and complex formulas, and my brain just loves a good problem. The wave function of a particle describes a few things, including the probability of a particle’s location being in a specific place. My friends and I liked to make jokes about how parts of our wave functions were vacationing on the beach — admittedly, this was a very low probability, but we thought we were funny and clever.

The Wave Function Socks presented a few good design challenges that I was keen to tackle. The first problem I tackled was determining the perfect formula for cable spacing so that the waves would be visible both on a sock blocker and when worn. After many swatches, I think I ended up with the perfect wave cables! For these socks, I really wanted to have the cable panels centered on the sides of the sock instead of on the instep, and for the cables to transition neatly to the foot and the heel. To accomplish this, I created a modified Strong Heel. This variation features slip-stitch reinforcement where your socks rub against the back of your shoe, and the symmetric increases on the side allow the cables to gracefully flare out over the ankle. Best of all, we have a look and fit similar to that of a heel flap and gusset, but with no picking up of stitches.

The Wave Function Socks feature an easily memorized pattern that will allow you to take them on the go or allow part of your mind to wander off on its own wave function beach vacation. Carefully placed increases and decreases mean that you don’t have to debate which size to knit — just cast on for your normal size!

The pattern will play nicely with any fingering weight merino/merino nylon blend yarn in solid, tonal, lightly speckled, gradient, or low-contrast colorways. The pattern has been tech edited and test knit and is all ready for you to cast on!

Coupon Code!

Thank you so much for subscribing to my newsletter! Please enjoy 50% off of the Wave Function Socks pattern now through August 8th with the code TECHNICOLORMOM.

by TechnicolorMom

New Free Pattern: Watering the Trees Beanie!

I’m so excited to share my newest pattern, the Watering the Trees Beanie! This pattern was designed intentionally for gift and charity knitting and is my gift to you. You can snag your copy of the Watering the Trees Beanie Pattern here.

For the past couple of years, I have endeavored to knit hats for my growing number of nieces and nephews in lieu of toys. In 2024, I knit a dozen hats in December. Although I failed to capture a photo of all of them together, I did share a reel on Instagram. Not all of the designs that I used have been published yet, but I did manage to get one of them written up, tech edited, test knit, and finally published!

Pattern Inspiration

The Watering the Trees Beanie is the hat version of my Watering the Trees Socks pattern that I designed a couple of years ago. The idea came about after my then-six-year-old and two-year-old decided to “water” our backyard trees. The event mostly involved the two of them running around and spraying each other with the garden hose, but they had fun, and the two maple trees in our backyard did manage to get a bit of water. When the light caught the droplets of water just right, a little rainbow added joy to our backyard fun.

The design features two mirrored cables to represent our two maple trees, and the textured ribbing makes me think of the streams of water from the garden hose. The pattern features my signature use of increases and decreases to make the cables pop without bunching or gathering the fabric beyond the cables.

Sizing

The Watering the Trees Beanie pattern includes sizes for the whole family, including baby, toddler, child, adult s/m, adult l, and adult xl sizes. It is designed to fit head circumferences from 14″ (36 cm) to 26″ (66 cm) comfortably. I prefer a generous fit in my hats, so I size my patterns with a looser fit in mind; you can size down for a snugger fit.

I have a 23″ circumference head and prefer the adult l size. You can see it here in purple.

I suspect that the most commonly knit size will end up being the adult s/m size, which I am modeling here in green.

Matching Socks

Should you decide that you need some matching cozy socks, check out my Watering the Trees Socks pattern. These socks are cozy and cabled, and my use of increases and decreases for the cables makes choosing a sock size easy – just pick the cast on number closest to the one you use for your favorite vanilla socks. You’ll want to stick with a similar favorite yarn and needle size for socks.

Gift Knitting

This hat knits up rather quickly using DK weight yarn, and I love it for gifts for anyone. I hope you’ll join me in making a few of these hats for yourself, your friends and family, and for donations to individuals and organizations who may need some extra love in the coming seasons.

Do you have any preferred organizations that you knit for? Let me know here! I’m planning to send a few pieces up to Knit the Rainbow and already have a couple saved away for them.