December 2009 – Vickilicious Knits

It feels like so long ago that I photographed these, and even longer since I finished them, but I’m happy to finally present one of my favorite FOs yet, yellow knee socks:

Pattern: Evening Stockings for a Young Lady (Ravelry link) by Nancy Bush, from the book Knitting Vintage Socks
Size: lady’s US size 9 with 9-inch foot circumference and 9.5-inch foot length
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette 4-ply fingering weight, color 6240 Semolina, 100% wool; I used 2.14 skeins, which was 107 grams/3.76 oz or 494.3 yards/452 meters.
Needles: Knit Picks 6″ nickel-plated double-pointed needles, set of 5 size 1.5 (2.50 mm)
Modifications: Added 10 lace repeats after calf decreases to lengthen leg; used toe from Hedera instead of star toe in pattern

Started: September 1, 2009
Finished: September 27, 2009

These were my first knee socks, and I actually followed the pattern, despite my general reluctance (should I call it extreme aversion?) to knitting socks from the top-down. That Nancy Bush, man. She can write a pattern!

Usually when I knit socks, I take the lace or stitch pattern and plug it into my preferred method of toe-up sock knitting. I was really tempted to do that with these socks as well, but when I started reading all of the calf-shaping instructions, I realized that these were a totally different game, and if I wanted socks that would fit, I should do them the way Nancy wrote them. I’m so glad I did!

The calf shaping is wonderful. It was written to transition smoothly within the lace pattern, so there was no tricky math or problematic recalculation of where in the lace to work increases or decreases. The lace pattern itself was wonderfully intuitive, and I memorized it in the first repeat. Because it was so easy and logical, these socks literally flew by, and I loved every minute of them.

I was iffy about the star toe in the pattern, since I was definitely planning to wear these socks with shoes and I wanted something that would lay as flat as possible. I opted for the toe from the Hedera pattern, which was one of the only top-down toes I’d done before, but which I noted fit my toes very comfortably and worked unobtrusively in shoes.

And I have to admit that while I wasn’t a fan of working the heel and gusset (the pattern was very clear, easy to follow etc – it’s just a personal thing), it looks pretty lovely and it fits very comfortably into my shoes. Shockingly, these socks actually stay up while I walk too, which is a major bonus for any knee socks.

I knit these socks as part of the September Sock Knitters Anonymous Sockdown challenge, where one of the options was knitting yellow socks. I was surprised at how many people started out hating on yellow, since I adore it. I had been dreaming about yellow lace knee socks for a while (perhaps I have a bit of Malvolio in me), so I found this a perfect occasion.

The yarn was a pleasure, as I expected. While not as soft as some of the pricier sock yarns I’ve used, I found Palette to be a really good yarn for this project. The socks didn’t stretch out with wearing, they didn’t felt or pill at all, and they seemed comfortable and durable, yet soft. For the price, I don’t think you can find a better value in fingering-weight wool, and I genuinely adore its color.

If it’s not overly obvious, I love these socks and I’m thrilled with this project. I wore these to work and my labmates were all coveting them like crazy, asking where they could buy a similar pair. I love having something so unique and so specifically suited to my personality, which I enjoy wearing as much as I enjoyed making them!

Usually when you title a blog post with a question, it implies that that question will be answered and perhaps remedied, rather than contemplated at length, but I can’t make such a promise in this instance.

My interest in blogging certainly waxes and wanes, both here and on my regular blog. I have a plethora of “life excuses,” including another long trip to Italy in October and November that I forgot to mention, crazy lots of stuff going on at work, and all kinds of illnesses ranging from bronchitis with borderline pneumonia (which almost prevented that Italy trip) and my current malady, swine flu. Bleh.

This blog, unlike my everyday blog or my non-sequitor Twitter and Facebook updates, is so focused in its subject that if I don’t have something specific to say about knitting or crafts, I tend not to say it.

More to the point, the way I “say” things here is largely through photography. It’s not that the words are just spacers between photos – I care a lot about those too – but I am not likely to write about a project if I don’t have photos.

(People who read a lot of knitting blogs are probably all “Ha, photography, that old chestnut!”)

I used to live in a light-filled apartment, with a photographer. It’s not that he shot my knits for me (at least not without some begging), but our whole apartment was set up in a way that was conducive to shooting (along with painting). We had white counter-tops and white windowsills, white desktops, off-white curtains and white walls that wouldn’t distort colors, and plenty of fill lamps and photography stuff that would block out the clutter or shadows or what have you. If I needed to take modeled shots, I lived in Brooklyn and was never shy for a backdrop.

Now I am living in my parents’ house, where there is very little consistent light. Every room is a different color, and there are all kinds of furniture and decorations (lovely stuff, of course). You’d think this would make for easier shooting, since it should be more interesting (and unlike our apartment, it’s usually very clean), but I struggle to find anywhere that doesn’t overpower the knits themselves with pattern and texture. More often than not, when I am shooting my knitting projects, I find myself laying them out on a large sheet of drawing paper on my bed or resorting to the top of the washing machine, to get a neutral background.

It should have been easier in the summer, since my parents have a truly lovely garden, but I struggled with boats, coolers, neighboring houses, and so forth always intruding in the background. And while my mother is patient and a very talented photographer, she doesn’t seem to understand, the way my ex-boyfriend did, that sometimes I need a couple dozen photos to get one where I don’t look agonizingly awkward and uncomfortable.

That said, I haven’t fully sorted out the photography situation, but I will at least make some attempts soon. I have quite a growing pile of FOs, which I’ve been mentioning since the spring, and I’m either lacking proper photos or am fairly dismally unhappy with those that I have. But I’m going to work on them and try to get back in the habit of posting more frequently.

I’m really looking forward to it.