socks!: January 2007 Archives

I've had a really busy time at work lately. I had to scale back my normal 1.5-2 weeks off at Christmas to just a single day.

The knitting time? Not so plentiful either.

While I have lots of ideas for sweaters, I just don't have the capacity for them now. But socks, they're just my speed.

After finishing the hem on my first lattice sock I went with something new. It's another long-time member of the stash.

I've been working almost exclusively with hand-dyed yarn lately, and this machine-dyed yarn is a nice change of pace. It's behaving so well -- no pooling, no flashing. Hand-dyed is beautiful, but a little distraction can be a good thing.

Oh, about that lattice sock pattern. I've kept notes, and I'll probably release a pattern at some point. The lattice makes fit a bigger challenge (less stretch, but you still need a good amount of cling so the sock fits right) so I'll need to write up a pattern in several sizes and have it test knit first. Given my schedule I don't see that happening for a while, but if you're an experienced sock knitter and interested in test knitting it let me know.

I've been in a girly mood lately. Can you tell? Smocking, lace, eyelets, picot. It's so girly it's almost too sweet.

The yarn -- Hand Jive Knits' Nature's Palette Sock Yarn in the colorway Odd Duck #1 (Odd Duck indicates their variegated colorways). I bought this yarn at the Stitches 2005. A true stash yarn.

The pattern is something I made up as I went along. I knew I wanted the smocking, and then I wanted some eyelets, then some lace, and finally a picot trim (which isn't quite sewn down all the way yet). Here's a closeup of the top half of the leg. I'm very happy with how the different stitch patterns work with each other. The lattice reduces the stretch though, so the sock has about 10 more stitches than normal to compensate.

True knitter that I am, I finished knitting the sock on Monday, but it's remained in this partially-hemmed state since then. This is one of the rare moments when I think knitting a sock cuff-down is better -- no picot edge to sew down, and kitchner is way more fun.