Stitchin' Bints: Ginkgo socks, chart for reduced number of stitches

This was another really quick project, spurred on by wanting to see how the gorgeous fibre looked when knitted ('woodland', merino / nylon from Yummy Yarns UK) and by the advancing autumn and the desire for a new pair of handknit socks.

I had some 'firsts':

For the first time I tried splitting the fibre down the middle and spinning each half separately. That should have made sure that the socks matched. I'm not sure why they don't but they look great together regardless. I suspect it's because the second half was a few yards longer than the first
For the first time I tried plying from a centre-pull ball. This worked beautifully. It's a great way to 2-ply one bobbin-full with itself

I went for 2-ply for yardage reasons, also that the singles weren't as thin as I'd hoped. Even so, it was quite thick (almost DK I think) and so I went for bigger needles and reduced the number of stitches in the pattern. This made it a very quick knit - I did each sock in two sittings.

The reduction took a little bit of jiggery-pokery because of the lace pattern. The pattern is Cotton and Cloud's Ginkgo Socks, my favourite sock pattern (this is my fourth pair from that pattern) and the designer Kyoko Nakayoshi has said that she's happy for me to post the reduced chart here. So here it is.