FO: Holly Jolly socks
FO: Holly Jolly socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Bare DK weight superwash merino handdyed by me
Pattern: Made up
Needles: US3/3.25mm
Gauge: 6.5 sts=1″
Notes:
Dyeing this yarn was a test run for my Yarnomatic ™. It’s basically a bunch of lengths of PVC pipe which I can combine in different ways, Tinkertoy style, to drape the yarn around in various configurations. This was one gigantic hank, longer than I am tall, acid dyed using cold pour and then steamed on the stovetop. I’m pleased with how this turned out. The color repeats are about 3 yards long for the red and a bit longer for the green. It striped up just as festively as I hoped. So festive, in fact, that it’s tough to get a good shot of the finished sock that doesn’t blow out the red and make the green look blue. The “in progress” one probably has the most accurate color.
This was knit toe-up starting with 20 stitches and increasing to 44. The heel was an afterthought heel, great for preserving the pattern in self-striping yarn. These took 160 yards. The ball band calls for a size 5 needle but I’m a loose knitter. I think I could have gotten away with knitting them on a 4, but I wanted them to be sturdy.
My daughter is enthralled with Christmas, so my father suggested this would make something nice for her. She agreed. The bad news is that she has big feet for a kid, at 9 inches long and 8.5 inches around. The good news is that she likes ankle socks. These are very thick and I think they’ll be good for sleeping and lazing around the house.
I’m thinking over what else I might like to do with 84 yards of Holly Jolly yarn.