Thursday, July 28, 2005

Sockapal2za progress

hand dyed cotton/elastic yarn, fir cone stitch pattern I have not started knitting my sock pal socks yet. That doesn't mean I haven't invested significant time, energy and thought into them! I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with an "original" and appropriate idea to please my sock pal. I blogged about the sock yarn I had in my stash. Lots of folks even helped me come to a decision by offering opinions. I swatched the hand dyed cotton/elastic yarn using the "fir cone" lace pattern. It's okay but not "it".

Fleece Artist Merino from Simply Socks Yarn Company, (l-r)Ivory, Hero, Mahogany
Nothing felt right. So, do you know what I did? I bought some yarn! This is Fleece Artist Merino from Simply Sock Yarn Company. The colors are (l-r) Ivory, Hero and Mahogany. I was a little disappointed with the Ivory. There is so little variation in the color that it looks like a solid color even in person. The Mahogany colorway is so rich and warm. I'm keeping that for myself! The color Hero is beautiful. It is mostly dark blue with bursts of brilliant, clear colors. I selected this color to begin swatching.
Fiesta Feet instep pattern
Fiesta Feet sole patternI had Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Feet pattern so I started swatching the sole and instep stitch patterns. The solid cream color is NatureSpun Fingering yarn from Brown Sheep. Unfortunately, the NatureSpun is too small to use with the Fleece Artist Merino. Although I love this pattern and I still plan to make it someday I don't think it's time has come yet.

Fleece Artist Merino yarn, colorway Hero, fir cone stitch pattern
So I put Fiesta Feet aside but I still liked this yarn. I cast on a bunch of stitches to see what the colors looked like using the fir cone pattern. The reason I love this stitch pattern so much is that it makes the color stripes curve up then down. It seems to have s little bit of a swirly feel to it. I like this color in this stitch pattern and this swatch may lead to a pair of socks with this yarn in this stitch pattern. But not for my sock pal. I want to make her something that will be really unique. I don't know much about her but I think I've found the pattern that I'm going to use. The pattern has been ordered and I've been notified that it has shipped. I expect to receive it in the mail today. I haven't settled on the right yarn yet. I've searched and searched. I may end up dying it myself to get the colorways I want. I'm going to customize the pattern a little to make it more perfectly suited to my sock pal. I'm not going to tell the details about the pattern but when I start the knitting I'll post pictures for you to see!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of swatching for one pair of socks! But I guess that's the only way to make sure they will be beautiful, and they will be :).

Lou Schiela said...

I love swatching. What I ended up with (so far) is swatches for two pairs of socks (though, woefully, not for my sock pal's socks.) I don’t think the Fiesta feet swatch (it’s one swatch with two different stitch patterns – just like the socks would be) was successful. The other two were. 9 yo A wants a pair of socks from the cotton/elastic and I think I’m going to make the blue variegated socks for me.

Jan said...

Lou, you know, I think maybe that Peacock lace would work. It does the same "swirly thing" and it would make a nice curvy top edge for the socks. All your swatches are beautiful. I really like the colors of the swatch at the top of the page.

Anonymous said...

Whoa! And I thought I was obsessing. I change my mind about, oh, every five seconds or so. "It should be special," I think. "The yarn should be special," I think. "I should really just cast on and knit," I think. I am going nuts! I did cast on today and I am hoping that it all works out. I'll be blogging abou them tomorrow, hopefully. If I don't rip them out and start something different. Speaking of which.....where did you say you found the fir cone pattern? I love it!

Anonymous said...

Your swatches really are beautiful. What fun to find just the right thing for someone. I love to knit and sew for others but because my time is so spars right now, I've just been knitting for myself so I don't have to be so concerned about mistakes and rip. I love what you've done.