Holly Berry Socks

So this year I never got round to making a “to make list” or a Make Nine or anything like that that I have always tried to do in the past. Partly because I never actually end up making the things on them and partly (mostly) because my motivation to make things is next to non-existent at the moment. I don’t know what it is but in the last 9 months I have barely touched my sewing machine and didn’t even pick up my knitting needles for ages!

But tentatively I want to say that that has changed, a bit. My New Riddari is in the naughty corner AGAIN… I knit the whole thing (up to getting ready to steek it) and I cut it apart and ripped back the bottom half of the yoke and reknit it in a different colour scheme! But I managed to miss an increase in the pattern so it wouldn’t match up with the bottom of the sweater… So I have added the increase beyond the bottom of the colourwork and re-attached the body, but it looked quite lumpy so it is in the naughty corner (otherwise known as on top of the dresser next to the sofa so I see it every day!) partly so I wouldn’t get annoyed with it and throw it away and partly to relax for a bit and wait for me to waft the steam iron over it to try and block it and see if that will make it better.

With that in the naughty corner, I started on the vest that I was planning with some of the other mid-blue Lettlopi wool that I have, this time being held with a very thin thread of green wool that I picked up on a cone at a local charity shop. I am probably 3/4 of the ay through it so far, but with some of the wool being on a cone it isn’t the most portable of projects so I needed a smaller project to take over to Nans.

Cue my latest pair of socks… When down in Devon before Christmas I had to go into the local craft shop to try and find some elastic to fix some pairs of safety goggles for my parents so I had to buy a ball of wool. It’s a bit of a habit of mine to buy wooly souvenirs of our holidays. So I snagged a ball of WYS signature 4-ply in Holly Berry, but I couldn’t cast on straight away as I was still knitting my mum’s Christmas present socks…

Well once I finally finished my Christmas knitting in mid-Jan I cast on for myself, using my highly customized sock pattern and knitting the toes in the Cherry Drop colourway which is a surprisingly good match for the light red in the Holly Berry Colourway. I also used this wool to bind off the cuffs which I quite like as it ensured that the bind off was all in one colour as the repeats are quite short on this colourway it often changes colour during the bind off as the bind off uses a lot more wool than a normal row.

Even after having to wait to cast on these socks have been both the fastest I have ever knit a new ball of sock wool into socks and the fastest pair of socks I have knit. I cast the first one on, on 11th January and cast off just over a week later on the 20th, the second sock was knit in just 7 days on the 27th. Meaning I got a pair of socks in just 17 days! Although my hands haven’t been thanking me for it really. I plan to wait a little bit before casting on the next pair of socks, but I need to find another portable project to keep my hands busy whilst I go over to see Nan and spend a few hours compleating crosswords with her.

Vital Statistics:
Pattern: Based on Vanilla Socks by Jo Torr, But modified to what fits me better over the numerous times I’ve knit it.
Yarn: Main Colour: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply, in Holly Berry
Contrast Colour: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply, in Cherry Drop
Amount: 68g of MC with 9g of CC (71g in total, approx 285m)
Needles: 2mm circular needles. (100cm and 20cm)

I currently have 38g of the Holly Berry left and 35g of the Cherry drop, so my plan is to try and knit a pair of socks with just these two leftover balls, but it will be cutting it fine as I only have 2g to spare… But I am going to try knitting socks with plain red toes and heel flaps and cuffs. Weighing the socks/balls of wool as I go to ensure I use equal amounts in both socks and also to have a record of how much each component uses so that I can work out how I can use up my other part balls.

I am looking forward to adding more socks to my sock drawer and am planning to try and knit through a lot of the balls of sock wool I have before buying any new balls (except where a ball of wool will be combined with an existing part ball to make use of the “scraps”) – Let’s see how that resolution goes!