Sample Sock Knitter

On the topic of blog commenting, to bring up my last post. I got some great comments from people that definitely make me feel much less dweebish in commenting on the blogs that I read (and make me feel less guilty for not commenting in the past). it's been a few weeks of me actively trying to comment and I'm happy to report I now feel like I have something worth adding rather than just 'nice scarf, great colours.' And I give myself permission to not force a comment for the sake of commenting (ie. not comment).

Someone asked me how I feel about people commenting here. I personally really look forward to getting comments. It kind of bums me out if I don't get many, making me feel like no one reads this blog except my family. The smelly thing is that my motivation for posting also wanes if I don't get many comments, hence the sporadic posting this last year. I should just get over it and post as I like and not care about the comments. But I do really like them even if Blogger doesn't let me email reply to each one (I do try to for the ones it does let me).

Right. So back to knitting. I've started hanging out a lot at Effiloché and I've been knitting many socks lately. One day Ginette asked if I'd be willing to knit some sample socks for the store to show off the different sock yarns. I was like, uh yeah! All the fun of knitting a sock AND getting to work with all the pretty yarns? You betcha!

Pattern: Interlocking Leaves by Kelly Porpiglia
Materials:Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight
Modifications: Plugged the lace repeat into a 60 st top down sock
Start Date: October 31, 2009
End Date: November 6, 2009

This latest sock is using Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight and I am really enamoured with how the sock turned out which is why I'm posting about it. I had the hardest time settling on a pattern to use for this yarn. The request was for a lacy sock and I had the hardest time trying to find a sock I thought was lacy enough but would be a good display sock for the yarn. It was down to two contenders, Hourglass by Bev Elicerio and Interlocking Leaves by Kelly Porpiglia. I even worked a couple of pattern repeats of the Hourglass pattern before switching. The pattern just wasn't doing it for me. I think the acid green in the project photos is just too perfect for the pattern.

I really just used the lace chart from the pattern and plugged it into my usual top down sock construction. I was partway through knitting the foot of the sock before I realised that the pattern is for a toe up sock and that my leaves were going the wrong way. Duh! Don't tell Ginette! I also kind of goofed when turning the heel. I started leaving out the k1 after the decrease and unintentionally made a square heel. It looks really cool so I went with it rather than taking it out. Oh and for the final repeat of lace on the foot, I changed the reverse stockinette to stockinette so that it would blend more seamlessly into the toe of the sock.

Now I'm going to rave about the yarn. I really LOVED working with the Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight (longest yarn name evers). It was super nice to knit with. And the colour! Really nicely saturated Peacock blue with nice subtle variations of other blues in there. Nothing strong enough to draw your attention to any kind of patterning but enough to give depth. And when I steam blocked the sock, the yarn really got a gorgeous drape to it. Slinky silky wonderful.

Oh and I did really enjoy the lace pattern too. This pattern (in all it's toe-up glory) is in my queue for a future pair of socks.

Comments

Ali P said…
Cool gig, chickie! Isn't it lovely to play with the nice yarns without having to break your own bank? You do great work, in my opinion.:oD

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