Yuletide – WYS Christmas 2024 yarn

It’s the end of the August and that can only mean one thing … it’s the WYS 2024 Christmas yarn launch!  Hooray!  This is the 9th special edition Signature 4ply Christmas yarn and with only 17 Wednesdays left until Christmas, it’s here just in time to be knitted up ready for the big day.

Every year, I am sure that it gets harder for the WYS team to come up with something new and original, yet every year they do!  I am always so excited to be asked if I want to be part of the Christmas launch and if I could snatch someone’s hand off through email, I would be doing just that.  Sometimes, I get asked about the pattern before I see the yarn and I find myself waiting as impatiently for it to arrive as I used to wait for Christmas when I was little – and I am never disappointed!  (Although I must say, that I am disappointed that my suggestion of a “Slush” colourway has never been seriously considered … urgh, imagine that! 🤣)

The colourways that have made it through to production in previous years are Holly Berry, Candy Cane, Fairy Lights, Robin, Silent Night, Vintage Tinsel, Gingerbread and Nutcracker, all produced in solid and/or sparkly versions so this new yarn had a lot to live up to … all I knew about this year’s colour ahead of time was the name and I had to imagine for myself what the colours would look like.  Can you guess what it might be this year?

Let me put an end to your waiting by showing you …

Yuletide!

Isn’t it lovely?  It’s red, green, gold, copper and cream, and has a vintage feel to it that made me feel immediately calm.  It reminded me of the quiet moments when everything is done and the house and family are waiting for Father Christmas to arrive, and I loved it straight away.

Yuletide is designed to be similar to the Country Birds yarns so if you’ve knitted those before, you’ll recognise the stripes of solid colour broken up by stripes of “Fair Isle”. There’s a slight difference with Yuletide, though, in that the Fair Isle stripes are wider and they are the ones that change colour and the solid stripe is green and narrower.  I love it!  And it’s got added Christmas sparkle too, so that just adds to the festive flavour!

This yarn would be just perfect for plain knitted socks (and if you’re short of a pattern, please let me direct you to my Basic 4ply Socks pattern!), and also mitts, hats, shawls, scarves … this yarn is so versatile that you don’t have to use it just for socks, but if you do, it makes the BEST socks! 🙂  It comes in 100g balls and is available worldwide from WYS stockists.  Just in case you’re not sure where your local stockist is, there’s a nifty search page on the WYS website which you can find here.  That’s another reason why the yarn is launched at this time of year, by the way – it takes time to get those yarny parcels overseas and WYS don’t want anyone to miss out!

I am always thrilled to be asked to design the pattern to go with the Christmas yarn, it really is one of my favourite designs of the year.  I thought long and hard about what sort of pattern would go with the theme of “Yuletide”, and I must admit that I didn’t find it that easy at first.  Yule is part of the pagan wheel of the year; Yuletide is linked to that and a pre-cursor to the later festival of  Christmas, “Yuletide carols” are mentioned in Christmas songs … it all felt more complicated and religious than I wanted to be with a sock design, so instead I focussed on creating something that would work with the yarn – and would be a bit less complicated than last year’s Nutcracker bootlace cables!

Would you like to see?

Doesn’t that yarn knit up into beautiful Christmassy stripes?

Now, you may have noticed that these are ribbed socks but those bold stripes do make it little difficult in the photos to see the pattern that is at the top of the sock.  It’s a smaller section of textured pattern around the top of the leg – it’s quick and easy to knit and it’s a pattern that will suit everyone so is perfect for all your Christmas knitting!

I’ve worked up a sample in Signature 4ply Spruce so that you can see it more clearly …

The ribbing shifts across for a short while before lining up again, and it’s very easy to knit – it’s just knit and purl stitches!  There’s a chart and written instructions for this pattern so you can choose whichever works best for you, and it’s written for four sizes  so it should fit everyone you want to knit for too.

The heel flap is a standard heel stitch heel flap which gives a nice, comfy, cushioned heel, and there should be no need to make any adjustments for wider feet as the ribbing will mean that the sock will stretch to give a good fit.

I am very happy with this design and you can make of it what you will … stepping out of the ordinary for a short while for the Christmas holiday?  Streamer decorations twisting across a ceiling?  Or maybe you just like it for what you can see – an easy-to-knit textured pattern that will actually work with any yarn but does add something to this new Christmas yarn too.

There’s no reason why you couldn’t repeat the pattern section down the leg and the foot if you wanted to, but I wanted to show off the stripes of the yarn so I chose to work the rest of the sock in rib – and that also makes it a good choice for socks that you’re knitting for someone you might not have knitted for before, as ribbing will stretch in the most accommodating way to fit any foot!

You can get a paper copy of the pattern free with your yarn purchase, and you can also download the pattern from some yarn shop websites, the West Yorkshire Spinners website, the Winwick Mum shop (where you can find more free patterns 🙂 ) and here by clicking on the link or the photo

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN

And there you have it – Yuletide yarn and Noelle socks!  There’s also a crochet pair called Ember designed by Anna Nikipirowicz and that’s free to download too.  Oh, and there’s another pattern booklet designed by Jenny Watson called “Home for Christmas” which has blankets and accessories in it – you’ll find that at your local WYS stockist or the WYS website.

What do you think?!  I do hope you enjoy the pattern and the Yuletide yarn – and of course, it’s not just for socks so you might want to use it for something else … this yarn would work really well as a hat, scarf or cowl, and all of those knit up quickly for gifts – don’t forget that there are some shawl and cowl patterns on the blog which you might like – and even if you’re not celebrating Christmas, I think these colours would make a perfect addition to anyone’s wardrobe.

Here’s wishing you happy festive knitting!