Saturday, April 30, 2005

I wonder if my aunt likes lace?

I've been getting a little bored with K2P2, so I thought I'd try branching out a bit, try something a little different. Here is an experiment with Vivienne Shen's "Gull Wings" pattern from Socks Socks Socks (XRX, 1999).



In "Thunderhead" from Bearfoot, the overall color is nice but the yarn is too dark for the wing pattern to show. But that's not my biggest concern: I don't know if anyone I knit socks for would want lacy patterns on their feet.

Unexpected bonus of knitting lacy socks: that hole that sometimes appears where the heel meets the instep? Not a problem. Blends in with the other holes.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Months of socks

Am I the worst blogger ever? So yeah, I taught the class in March. Here are the socks I worked on as teaching aids. First, my "Slytherin Sock," to match the Slytherin house colors. (Personally, I think I'm a Ravenclaw, but these colors are better).



The color changes were an experiment with the Golden Ratio. Not the greatest. I like how the "wire hanger sock blocker" turned out, though.

More snake-like, however, is this pair, which I call the "Nafferton Chimes Socks."



They're made from black, green, and yellow Frog Tree alpaca, and the color pattern is based on the three bell chiming pattern of the Nafferton Church in Sheffield. Basing stripes on chime patterns is an idea I lifted from Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop, a fantastic book. I like these, but I make it a point not to keep -- or give to people I love -- socks that have to be treated so delicately as alpaca, so I'm selling them for charity.