Sunday, February 8, 2009

The first installment

The socks that are the first installment of my 2009 Personal Sock Club are finished.

grey socks 5

They are Nancy Bush's Child's French Sock, re-sized for a woman, in grey Araucania Ranco. It's one of the designs from 'Knitting Vintage Socks' in which Nancy Bush adapts patterns from the nineteenth century 'Weldon's Practical Needlework' series for more modern yarns and times.

grey socks 2

I'm very pleased with my socks. I like the combination of the lacy panels, which the original pattern apparently called Citron Pattern, and the busy, dense regularity of the background - originally called, somewhat mysteriously, Diaper Knitting. I have no idea when or how I'll wear them, but I like them so much that I've found myself plotting a shoe purchase to show them off.

I also liked the pattern. I'm not a particularly experienced sock knitter, and I've not yet developed strong preferences for particular techniques. So, Nancy Bush's quite detailed instructions, which I followed assiduously, not only resulted in socks I like, but also reassured and comforted me along the way.

grey socks 3

The next 'delivery' from my Personal Sock Club is due on 21 February. This rather odd date is the result of my finding a seventh skein of rather boring grey patonyl yarn I'd missed in my original accounting and then re-plotting my year's schedule to have new sock yarn every 52 days. This is beginning to sound very obsessive! I'm quite envious of MissFee, RoseRed and JP who have wonderful and exotic yarns to spice up their personal sock club. I think I've missed part of the point of this activity, in that most people view it as a substitute for receiving some wonderful and surprising (but expensive) yarn from a sock club. I think my activity is more like just knitting up rather ordinary yarn I already have - a much more boring activity.

Anyway, I'm ahead of schedule and - rather surprisingly - looking forward to the 21 February lucky dip.

6 comments:

missfee said...

they are gorgeous Lyn - and don't be dispondant with a plain colour - you can have heaps of fun with pattern and texture then..

Rose Red said...

Oh yes, plainer colours are often the best for socks, really! These look great Lyn, and I very much like the idea of a shoe purchase to go with them!!

jp said...

Indeed solid or semi-solid yarns are great for playing with patterns.

I have to laugh at Rose Red advocating a shoe purchase!

Cecilia said...

Beautiful!

Melinda said...

They look amazing! The colours compliment the pattern really well. Hope they go well with your future shoe purchase!

Lynne said...

Hey, you give me hope and inspiration. My sock yarn is fairly 'boring' - it is mostly to knit socks for charity although there are a few special purchases there to knit for my self or loved ones! Nothing 'exotic' though!

And I feel the same way about wearing handknit socks - they might feel good but no-one ever gets to see them under my jeans inside my lace up leather shoes!!