I’ve finished my first project of the year! And my first non-sock use of sock yarn.

Yonks ago, for Knit From Your Stash, I knitted up a vest out of leftover black Bendy Colonial with the intention of adding a wide front band/collar of pretty green, black and gold handspun. I grossly underestimated the amount of handspun I had, barely managing to knit one row of knitting around all the edges, so I put the vest aside to finish when I had a more suitable yarn.

I was going to spin the yarn, using one ply of black, another of a subtle multicoloured roving and the added glamour of a thread of silver. But it was while dying of boredom spinning for this project that I realised that spinning wasn’t for me.

Then when I was examining the sock yarn stash thinking about what I could make other than socks it suddenly occurred to me that I had some sock yarn rather like the multicoloured roving – The Knittery ‘passionfruit’ colourway. And Patonyle black. So why not knit the two together – with the silver thread?

And why not crochet instead? After finishing the bottom edge with a single row of trebles (double crochet to US folks), I continued up around the front band/collar. Then turned and crochet back, hooking twice into the back loops to make a ruffle. Then I turned again and crocheted in what was now the back loops, one treble per loop. Then repeated the ruffle and plain rows twice more. Finally, I finished the armholes with a single row of trebles. The mix of colours works beautifully, and the little ruffles make me want to do a little girly ‘squee!’ every time I see them. And I so love a little bit of sparkle.