Shot of the completed pair of socks. Close-up of the mock cable pattern.
Pattern Yanagi
Size Women's size 10
Needles US 1 - 2.25 mm
Yarn
BrittyRaeKnits Comfy Sock, Pride Not Prejudice - 1 skein, 463 yards, 100 grams

So my wife has, for years, attended these conventions where Romance writers come together with their fans to meet, sign books, gush, and generally have a great time as a community, and I’ve made a habit of joining these excursions as photographer, book hauler, and general assistant. This year we attended two such events–the first since before the pandemic, if my memory serves–one near Dallas and the other in Anaheim, and at both we met up with an author my wife knows by the name of April White. Authors at these events usually bring along someone to help them wrangle books and fans and generally keep things organized, and Ms. White is no different, enlisting Britney as her right hand.

Well, Britney hand dyes yarn under the brand BrittyRaeKnits and brings skeins along to sell at these events, and while in Texas I fought the urge to add to my collection, in Anaheim I was not so successful.

And so it was I found myself in possession of a skein of book-themed yarn in need of a project, and with the Fall Finish Along starting up, I figured I should dive in and use the yarn ASAP before it got lost in the stash.

Finding a pattern for a variegated yarn can be tricky, as they don’t tend to show off fancy stitch patterns that well. I ended up picking Yanagi, which is a simple yet elegant mock cable design, and I have to say I’m really happy with the way they worked up!

Now, in this case I tried to make this pair a bit more roomy, so the pattern is sized up just a bit relative to the way I used to make socks. I’ll definitely be doing that again in the future, as they’re reportedly pretty darn comfortable.

Basic template is:

  1. Cast on 36 stitches with Judy’s magic cast on.
  2. Increase to 76 stitches, arranging them across four needles with 20 stitches on each of the top two needles and 18 stitches on each of the bottom two.
  3. Motif is worked as per the pattern.
  4. Gusset is 18 stitches per side1.
  5. Reverse dutch heel with an 18 stitch heel flap over 36 rows.
  6. Heel is joined and decreased down to 80 stitches arranged 20 per needle for the ankle.

  1. I originally used 12 stitches per side but the sock ended up being too short from toe to heel so I had to frog back and add more gusset stitches. ↩