8 September 2010 · 37 Comments
As I explained once before, I started designing socks mostly through an (oh so fetching) combination of laziness, bossiness, and inability to follow directions. I kept it up because knitters seem to be disproportionately awesome and kept making me feel good. Designing has turned into an important part of my life and has let me do all sorts of things I never thought I’d do. I’ve met marvelous people, gone off on exciting trips, and am almost done with my first book. How cool is that? I mean really, who would have ever thought knitting socks would turn into all that?
So I want to be sure to say thank you. Thank you to the people who say nice things about my socks on ravelry, thank you to the people who read this site (especially those of you who aren’t even knitters, though I can’t quite figure out why you’d bother without some wooly leanings), thank you to the people who test my patterns and catch all my silly mistakes, thank you to my intrepid sample knitters (without whom the book wouldn’t be possible), thank you to the people who buy my patterns, and thank you to the people who knit my socks. This really is a team effort, and without your encouragement and support, I’d have wandered off to my next hobby long ago.
So to serve as a little demonstration of my thanks, I’m making the pattern for Gramercy available for free. Enjoy it!
And to make it even better for one of you, I’ve got yarn to give away! These are made in Handwerks Sock Plus 8 in London Fog. I love this yarn. It’s an 8 ply yarn with amazing stitch definition. It’s just a tiny bit more substantial than most sock yarns, but still thin enough to fit easily in shoes. The colors are gorgeous, and Laura is just wonderful to work with. One lucky reader will win enough yarn to make the socks. To enter, just go over to the Handwerks site, find your favorite color, come back here, and leave a comment letting me know what it is. I’ll leave comments open trough the weekend, and email the luck winner early next week (be sure you use a working email address, I promise not to use it for anything other than to contact the winner).
2 August 2010 · 2 Comments
Just a quick update. Back in May, I mentioned that the pattern for Scatterling was up over at Knitcircus. Their 3 month term over there is up (the new fall issue should be out any day), so now they’re available here. They’re a nice versatile (unisex and stretchy) sock written in 2 sizes. Perhaps they’d be a good start to your <whisper>Christmas knitting</whisper>?
Also, thanks to everyone who voted in the SKA poll. I’m going to be the designer for October. That’s a bit before the book comes out, but I’m going to see if I can’t come up with a way to do a quick sneak peek of at least one of the patterns. I have a feeling I can sort something fun out!
16 July 2010 · 82 Comments
Alrighty, after much delay (we’re pretending it’s so I could take the socks far away for a photo shoot, not because I was lazy) the pattern for Peregrinate is out.
I had great fun with these. They came with me on my trip to DC for Savor and on my trips to Rochester and Pontiac to see Jukebox the Ghost and on a few other smaller trips too. The vast majority of them were knit on the road, which seems fitting given the name. I finished them shortly before my excursion to Port Ludlow, so I thought it was only reasonable to take them with me to get some pretty pictures.
The yarn is by Barking Dog Yarns. Suzan just launched her new website. To celebrate, she’s kindly agreed to donate a skein of her sock yarn to one lucky winner. To enter, head over to her site, look through the sock yarn, and come back and post a comment with the name of your favorite color. If you win, she’ll send that yarn off to you (and I’ll send you the pattern or refund your purchase if you already bought it). Just be sure you use a real email address when you leave a comment (I’m the only one who can see it) so I can find you if you win. I’ll leave comments open through Tuesday or so.
And yes, because someone will ask, the second picture does show the left sock on the right foot and the right sock on the left foot. I promise it’s ok…your socks won’t suddenly unravel and no one will yell at you if you wear them backwards. I just wanted to show off the way that lovely acid green ended up in the purl field on both socks. It happened with no intervention on my part (though I was prepared to force it if I had to) and entertained me to no end.
23 June 2010 · 4 Comments
Funambulist \fyu-ˈnam-byə-list\ noun
- One who performs on a tightrope
(No really, it’s a real word…not even some 1970s made up word…an actual, real live, been around for a long time word.)
Just a tiny sneak peek today. These socks are for the From Robin’s Nest Four Seasons Sock and Fingerless Mitt Club (quite a mouthful that is). They will be exclusive to club members until next summer. However, I’m more or less shameless and will use just about anything as an excuse reason for a post.
What can I say? Most of my knitting at the moment is super duper secret swatches for the book. It’s fun, eventually it will lead to lots and lots and lots of chatter, but for now — very boring for you guys. Sorry about that. The good news is that this part of the process should be done in the next week or so and I should be back to more public knitting shortly after that. And of course I’m off to the Yarn Harlot’s Silk Retreat in early July and I’ll be posting from there too.
7 June 2010 · 45 Comments
Anemochory are out!
These were made with the lovely Hedonist Sock from SlackFord Studio, and you’ve been watching me work on them for the last few weeks. They’re smooshy and warm and indulgent and just the sort of thing I love to put my feet in…when it’s not hot. I’m pretty sure it will get cold again eventually, and I’ll be breaking these out just as soon as I can bring myself to put anything on my feet again…say some time in September.
Now this temporary sock wearing hiatus does not reflect a sock knitting hiatus, at least not for me. On the off chance that’s the case for you too, I have good news. Susan, the force behind SlackFord, has a present for you. She’s giving everyone 10% off all purchases made this month if you enter the code “Hunter” (I’m blushing) during checkout.
As if that wasn’t enough, Susan’s also offered a skein of the yarn I used here to one lucky reader (and of course I’ll send along the pattern). You guys know the procedure, head over to SlackFord Studios, find the name of your favorite color (it will be a challenge, the colors are beautiful), come back here, and leave me a comment with the name of that color. I’ll leave the comments open for at least 3 days and will announce the winner at the end of the week. Just as a reminder, you’ve got to use a real email address. I won’t use it for anything other than notifying the winner.
14 May 2010 · 1 Comment
Diluvian are ready to go. Alas, it’s suddenly turned far too hot for wool socks. I feel somehow cheated. I’m still rather taken with them though, even if I won’t be wearing them for a few more months.
I never did quite decide if I like them right side out (above) or wrong side out (below). Did you?
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