Socks: January 2007 Archives
Woohee! The knee socks, they are done!
The specs: The "body" of these socks were knit with Sock Hop handspun sock yarn from Crown Mountain Farms in the colorway "Say a Little Prayer". The heels, toes and cuffs were knit with my own hand spun, made from Crown Mountain Farms hand dyed superwash merino in the colorway "Hang on Sloopy". Gauge for both yarns is 7 stitches/inch on US Size 1/2.25 mm needles, and the socks are 56 stitches in circumference increased up to 80 stitches at the widest dimension.
The process: The socks were made toe up using a "standard" wedge toe which was started using a provisional cast-on technique. the instep was done in straight stockinette, followed by a shortrow heel. The sock leg is embellished on both sides using the "Ears of Grass" motif from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting patterns, which was knit in conjunction with the increasing required for the calf shaping. The sock was completed with a cuff of K2 P2 ribbing and bound off with the standard cast-off method on larger needles.
The knitter: The knitter is happy. The knitter wore her socks to work today, and even though no one but the knitter knew about them, they added a little bit of sunshine to her day. The knitter did observe that they might be just a tad looser than is perfect, but they still pretty much stay up on their own. After a day of wear at work the stitches and yarn look good.
A few small details:
The increases and decreases are visible on these socks, but I sort of like the pattern they create.
I think this is a great sock stitch pattern, and some time in the future might have to make a sock where the pattern extends all the way around (it's an easy pattern and doesn't really slow the knitting down too much). I charted it in Excel with a knitting symbol font (the instructions are just written out in the BW book) and would be happy to share it with anyone who would like to have it.
Since a number of folks expressed interest in knee socks, I though I'd spend the rest of the week doing an impromptu toe up knee sock tutorial to share what I learned and to help anyone else out there who "needs" a pair of winter knee socks get a running start at it. Stay tuned tomorrow for a discussion of toes and heels.
In spite of my Red Scarf committment, I have to be honest and admit right now that when it comes to new projects it's really all about me. You would have thought that after I finished my pair of Sloopy Socks that I'd have gotten right onto making John's pair of handspun socks. No, I got side tracked from that after taking the time to discuss pattern stitches with him. And when I started to think about pattern stitches, I realized that I wouldn't have a simple sock project that could run around town with me. So I decided that it was time to start another pair of socks for me -- after seeing a few pairs of knee socks show up in the knitting blogosphere, I knew I wanted a pair for me, too.
Mine started when I placed my handspun Sloopy (orange) sock yarn next to the Say A Little Prayer (lime green) Sock Hop (also handspun) sock yarn. It reminded me of those orange and green sherbert mixtures that used to show up in the summer time when I was a kid. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought, to have green socks with orange heels, toes and cuffs. Cheerful and summery, I figured, the perfect remedy for Chicago winter. Can you believe that I've never knit a sock with a contrasting heel and toe?
As if contrasting colors in a sock weren't radical enough, I also decided that I wanted to make the most out of my Sock Hop -- what better then, than knitting from the toe up? I'd been resisting toe up sock knitting because while I like short-row heels, I don't really dig short row toes. But after some small amount of digging, I discovered what most of you have known for a long time: it's possible to start a toe up sock from a provisional cast on and then knit in the round with increases so that I could have the 4 point increase/decrease toe that I like best.
When I cast on, my intention was to keep everything very simple and just knit in plain stockinette. But right around the time I turned the heel, I got to thinking that it would be fun to play with a pattern or motif to see how the striping played off against it. Given that the striping in the Sock Hop yarn is pretty dominant, I figured that the pattern would need to be simple. And to keep the knitting more or less simple, I decided that I would keep the motif at the sides of the sock. So I pulled out my Barbara Walker Second Treasury (of all of her 4 pattern stitch books, I have to say, this is the one that I keep going back to) and found the "Ears of Grass" stitch -- I loved the simple eyelets and gentle curves. And as a panel of 15 stitches, it was almost perfect as a motif for these socks, given the 56 stitch circumference I had started with.
I did a test swatch to make sure that I liked how it would turn out. After deciding that I loved it, I continued on with the sock. This sock took me a little less than 5 days to bring to life. To say that I love it would be an understatement. I was a bit worried that the pattern detail when combined with two color socks might be a little overwhelming, but I think the final result is well balanced.
This detail shot shows you what I love about this pattern motif -- you get a subtle biasing that creates a little wave in the striping. Nothing too extreme, just a gentle undulation. It also shows that the pattern motif doesn't get lost in the striping. Something else that also makes me very happy. After all, why go to the trouble of knitting eyelets if you're not going to see them?
Although this sock is 16.5" from cuff to the bottom of the heel I still have a little bit of the Sock Hop yarn left. Not sure if I could have gotten the heel, toe and cuff from it, but it probably would have been close.
So now I'm chomping at the bit to get the second sock started. But I've told myself that I can start or finish nothing else before my Red Scarf is ready to send on it's way.
