The joy of sock yarn

I just love the versatility of sock yarn. It’s not only wonderful for socks (and I’m still addicted to sock knitting) but is equally great for other projects, including baby garments. For me, the colour changes also keep boredom at bay, even when knitting very simple designs. My current work in progress is a baby’s domino cardigan, from a pattern designed for Viridian by Frances Fletcher:

The cardigan takes only one or two balls of sock yarn (depending on size). The one shown here is the smallest size (to fit a newborn). As you can see, there’s quite a bit of wool left and I’ve only the last part of the sleeve and the edgings to go. The yarn I’ve used here is the fabulous Jawoll Magic Degrade in shade 050, Parrot. The cardigan is knitted in mitred squares that you join up as you’re going along – I’ve got a few ends to sew in but, apart from that, there are only the side seams to sew up. The pattern is available at http://www.knitncaboodle.co.uk/acatalog/Viridian-Patterns.html

I’ve also been working on my own designs using sock yarn and am absolutely thrilled to have my first pattern published in issue 20 of Knit Now magazine. The Tiffany Shawl is a rectangular shawl knitted with just one ball of Kunstgarn sock yarn.

The pattern is a six-row repeat with only two ‘lace’ rows  – and they are both the same. I deliberately kept the pattern simple because I didn’t want to detract from the colours of the yarn – the shawl in the picture is knitted in Kunstgarn 05 bright. This sock yarn, from Danish company Hjertegarn, comes a range of beautiful colours – I just want to knit them all:

That’s the trouble, really, too many projects and not enough time….