Do you know what day it is?  Not just any day at the end of August, today is the launch day for the WYS Christmas 2025 yarn – and not only that, this is the 10th gorgeous West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply Christmas yarn.  What an exciting day! 🎄  (And in case you’ve just thought “Ugh, it’s too early!”, then let me tell you that there are only 17 more Mondays before the big day so maybe not that early at all!)

I’m thrilled to be able to tell you all about it and the new pattern that I have designed especially for this yarn.  The WYS Christmas yarns are a solid tradition now, and I can’t tell you how delighted I am every year that I’m asked to be part of it and design the knitted socks pattern to go with it.

I’m going to show you the yarn first and then the pattern – but before I do, a little test.  Can you name the nine other Christmas yarns?  Maybe you’ve knitted them all and perhaps you’ve got a favourite?

OK, here’s the answer!

They are Holly Berry, Candy Cane, Fairy Lights, Robin, Silent Night, Vintage Tinsel, Gingerbread, Nutcracker and Yuletide, all produced in solid and/or sparkly versions.  All so festive and Christmassy … every year I worry that the WYS team are going to run out of ideas and every year they come up with something new and never let us down!  (I suspect that my suggestion of a “Slush” colourway is held on a list somewhere in case of dire design emergency 🤣 )

All of the yarns so far except for Silent Night have been stripes and my goodness, I love a striped yarn!  I couldn’t wait to see what the team were going to come up with this year as all I had to go on for quite some time was a name and I had to imagine what I thought the yarn itself might look like.  I wasn’t far out!  You’ve also had the name before you saw the photo … did you guess too?

Mulled Wine!

Isn’t it lovely?  Rich reds and gold … I could see the dark reds of the warm, fragrant wine, brighter holly berries and Christmas gold both from the colour running through the reds and the sparkly thread spun into the whole ball.  This is a yarn that shimmers and I loved it from the minute I saw it.  My mind was full of swirling design ideas and I couldn’t wait to see how it knitted up!

I really like the way that WYS have redesigned the ball bands on their yarn.  The colourway name is front and centre so you don’t have to go looking for it on the side or try to work out what a number represents, and there’s a sample swatch image as well to help you decide if the yarn knits up in the way that you like.

I think one of my very favourite parts of being part of the behind the scenes process with West Yorkshire Spinners is getting the yarns before the official ball bands are on them, so my yarn didn’t have a sample swatch photo, and WYS never spoil the surprise for me either.  There’s only one way to see how a yarn is going to knit up – and that’s to knit it!  Within a very short space of time of ripping the yarn out of the delivery bag (no time for niceties when there’s a new yarn to be sampled), I had it on my needles to see what the stripes would look like this year …

and they’re not stripes at all!

Well, not obvious stripes … there is a repeat in the colours but I didn’t find that I needed to try to find it to get a match.  This is much more like the Silent Night yarn and as much as I love stripes, I think that the way the colours seem to swirl and blend together is much more fitting for a yarn themed around a drink which will swirl and blend with fragrance and spices in your mug or glass.

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!

Along with the yarn, every year West Yorkshire Spinners have a new free knitted sock pattern and this year is no exception.  I’ve been working with WYS for a long time now and I’ve got to tell you, the conversation we have about the knitted Christmas sock pattern and me designing it is one of the best ones I have all year!  It’s such a privilege to be asked and I never forget that.

As soon as I knew that the yarn was going to be called Mulled Wine, I was thinking of swirling patterns like steam rising from a hot drink.  Not cables, they would be too heavy, but lace … and nothing overwhelming as the lovely yarn needs to be seen … and I wanted the pattern to be intricate enough to look impressive for gifts, but not so much that it would become a challenge that nobody needs on the run up to Christmas and the holidays.  No pressure there, then!

Here’s what I came up with.  I am so happy with this design – and I hope you’ll like it too.  These are the Nutmeg Socks …

They’re knitted cuff down in my usual style (this pattern is based on the Basic 4ply Socks shape so if you’ve knitted that, the format of the pattern will be familiar) with a slip stitch heel flap.

The lace pattern swirls up the leg from a ribbed foot – think curling steam from a mug – and as the sock is knitted cuff down, you work this backwards from the swirl at the top to the rib which can go on for as long as you need to for the foot size you’re knitting for.  The pattern is mirrored on the front and back of the sock so you get the pattern meeting on the side of the leg in this bigger motif, but each “swirl” is only 8 stitches wide and is created from a combination of decrease and yarn over stitches.  The whole pattern is written out and charted for both the leg and the foot so you just follow each row as it’s written and voila – your pattern is done!

You’ll also see that the pattern doesn’t go all the way up to the top – there are three “swirls” and each one is a different size so there’s not actually as much lace knitting as you might think!

You can see here how the lace blends into the rib on the foot, and you can also see that there’s no obvious pooling or flashing of the colours in case that’s something you might have been worried about.

This yarn and the pattern have photographed beautifully this year and I don’t know that I need to add my own sample photo in but I’ll show you anyway so that you can see what it looks like flat.  The lace pattern goes straight into the heel flap and then you’re only working the lace on the foot through the gusset decreases.

Doesn’t the lighting make a difference?  I’ll have taken this photo in daylight shortly before I took the socks over to WYS much earlier in the year and it’s very different to the Christmas lighting of their photos! 🙂

Is this pattern too hard for a beginner?  Well, I’m always going to say “no” to that because I want everybody to be a fearless knitter and launch into whichever pattern calls to them!  If you’ve never knitted socks before, you can use the Sockalong tutorials to help you with the main sections of the sock, and if you’ve never knitted lace before, then take a look at my Easy Lace Socks pattern and tutorial because that uses the same decrease and yarn over technique to create the pattern so you can see how it works.

It also talks you through how to read a chart which personally, I think is far easier than trying to follow the written instructions of a pattern as once you understand how to read them, you can see exactly where you’re up to.  I cross out each round of the chart with a pencil when I’ve worked it so I don’t lose my place, but you can use a ruler (as long as your pattern won’t get knocked), buy or make magnetic row marker strips, or even cut a strip of card and paper clip it to each side of your pattern so that you can move it up as you work each round.

Once you’ve worked all the rounds as they’re written, you’ll be set up for the rib and you work that to the end of the foot which is easy peasy!

You can get a paper copy of the pattern for free when you buy a ball of the yarn (it’s quite a long pattern so I don’t think it contains the charts but you can easily find those through a QR code), or you can download a full copy of 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 that’s this year’s WYS Christmas yarn – Mulled Wine yarn and Nutmeg socks!

What do you think?!  I do hope you enjoy the pattern and the Mulled Wine 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!

 

 

Photo credits: All photos by West Yorkshire Spinners except for the pattern sample.

 

** at the time of writing there is an issue with goods being sent to the US from the UK because of the recently-imposed US tariffs which mean that all sales, no matter how small, will be subject to customs duty – absolutely not what you want when there’s a lovely new Christmas yarn to be knitted!  The tariffs are affecting all businesses which sell to the US but as you’d expect, the people who own those businesses are doing their best to find out what’s going on and what they can do to keep supplying their US customers.  I am sure there will be updates on the store websites as they find out more – please be patient with them whilst they work it out, this is not their fault xx

 

 

This pattern is based on my Basic 4ply Socks pattern, which means that you can find photo and video help in the Winwick Mum Sockalong tutorials.  You can find out more here:

HOW TO KNIT SOCKS

 

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