I’m working away at my yarn stash – these yarns are turning out interesting socks. I like how the golden pair has dark accents. The long repeat on the blue sock creates an interesting colour flow.

The blue sock was a surprise! I knit the contrasting cuff from a 4-ply yarn in my stash – that’s all I ever use. However, I’d bought the blue yarn at Woolworks in Mahone Bay not realizing it (and the three other balls I had picked up) were a 6-ply! When I started knitting the leg the yarn felt funny…heavy in my hand, uncomfortable. I’d probably knit close to 20 rows before I thought to look at the label – only to discover I was working with 6-ply yarn. I had three choices: unravel what I’d done and substitute a different 4-ply, change my needles to a larger size (needing to unravel what I’d done and work with a different number of stitches), or keep knitting the socks. I decided to keep knitting.

As it is, the cuff, heel and toe are knit from 4-ply; the rest of the sock is 6-ply. I’m confident that whoever gets these socks won’t ever notice the difference. What surprised me was how different the heavier yarn felt in my hands. I didn’t like it. And of course, using the smaller 2.5mm needles I’ve used to knit at least 100 pair of socks made the sock more dense than if I’d knit using 3.0mm needles. The problem with the larger needles is having to use fewer stitches if I wanted the socks to turn out the same size – the number of rows would also be different – everything was an unknown. I kept working with my 2.5mm needles.

I knit almost every evening for relaxation – the sock production is a by-product but not my primary motivation. I find my mind slows down when I’m knitting in front of the TV. My attention isn’t on the screen entirely and at the end of the evening I’ve another 20-30 rows completed – I’m not wasting my time but I’m also not rushing to finish the socks – I’m just relaxing!

I returned the other three balls of 6-ply yarn even though they each had a lovely colour scheme. I exchanged them for 4-ply balls. I didn’t like the colours as they appeared in the ball but I’m discovering they’re knitting into interesting socks! I’ve one sock completed, the second half done – a pattern I didn’t expect emerged. It was challenging finding a starting place to match the first sock but I succeeded in the end. I will end up with a pair of matched socks from this new ball of yarn.