WinterWonderland Socks
July 9, 2025
Project recap
- Ravelry: PurringYarn’s MKAL Winterwonderland Sock
- Time spent: 41 hours
- Yarn
- MC Blue: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply
- CC White: Colourmart 3/10NM Cashmere (Sparkle White)
- Needle: US 1.5/2.5mm
- Duration: -
- Pattern: MKAL Winterwonderland Sock
- Designer: Heleen’s Knithouse
Yarn planning
I have white socks yarn, but I’m planning to use the sparkle white from Colourmart as the contrast colour to make it more interesting. I think it goes well with the pattern - very winter-ish - even though I’m knitting in summer, haha.
I wanted the two socks to match the colour stripe, but I only have one skein of WYS yarn so it really took me a while to divide them. It’s quite difficult to figure out where the colour starts because the blues are similar.
Modifications
Very straight forward pattern so I only did some minor mods based on my size and experience:
- German twisted cast on
- After knitting the 2x2 rib, I also knitted a plain row for a smooth transition.
- I did not do the repeat for all chart.
Initially I was using the CC as the heel, but this way makes me end up with too much yarn left, which I hate.
Figure 1: Left sock: Using CC as heel; shorter leg with less chart repeat /n Right sock (final ver.): Continue with MC as heel; longer leg with more repeat
Project timeline
- – Cast on.
- - Finish the first sock. Not quite happy with how leg and the heel looks so I’m making some changes on the second pair.
- - Finish the second sock. Planning to frog the first sock.
- - Bind off and block.
Retrospective
Gauge when using different weights of yarn
The CC is a DK weight yarn while the MC is heavy fingering weight, so the circumference of leg where the colourwork located is noticeably bigger than the foot. Not a big deal for me but I can definitely feel the difference when wearing the socks.
I should probably avoid mixing different weights of yarn (thinking back on that now… I made the similar mistake when knitting Treysta Sweater, it’s just less obvious). But I have to say, the sparkle in CC is subtle yet super beautiful!
Figure 2: Very subtle sparkle in the white CC yarn
Reduce the ladder with DPN
See Knitlog [2025-07-09 Wed]. I found my ladder is more significant when knitting with DPN comparing to magic loop. After trying few tips and techniques, the best and easiesst way works for me is to *adjust the needles’ angle so that the angle between three needles are perpendicular to each other. This small adjustment minimize the ladder and did not slow me down. Love it.