Zig Zag Socks : Vintage Yarn Cuff - 4 June 2024

I was tempted to try a contrast cuff for the pair of socks using that Zig Zag yarn.

Here’s the first attempt:

I’m happy with the stitch definition and neatness. I've used 2.25mm double pointed needles, also known as dpns. The yarn I found was from a charity shop and you can see how old it is on the ‘vintage label’

The plan is to make the cuff a different colour as a contrast feature. The purpose is to do a similar design as the previous sock I wrote about here.

I think the earthy tone of that brown vintage yarn suits the variegated Zig Zag yarn really well. I envisage it’s going to look like a Yorkshire landscape!

That brownish contrast colour is 3 ply - not 4 ply as I expected. I’m hoping this slight difference will not have such a big impact on the finished product.

The photo below shows you the label a bit more clearly:

Interestingly the label does not have any information on knitting gauge or recommended needle size, but it does contain some historical points :

I’ll tell you three reasons why this is a bit special :

• It reads ‘Made in England’ but most commercial yarn nowadays is made elsewhere (eg Turkey) under license.

• The weight given on the label is first in Imperial 1 oz (1 ounce), then in parenthesis it gives the Metric measurement which is 28.35 g. Very rarely do you find yarn sold like that now.

• It says knit from outside which I actually did not see in time so I’m knitting from the middle.

I had a look online to see what I could find about this yarn. Apart from the yarn being discontinued and a few lots being sold on Ebay and Etsy, I found that Lister Mills was based in Yorkshire and was well known for silk manufacturing. Due to the increasing use of man-made fibres it had to close in 1999.

Thank you for reading !