Maidenhair and Socks
The Maidenhair Shawl is coming along nicely.
It’s getting boring — I’m on the fourth main pattern repeat out of 11, and the end is not in sight.
For more immediate satisfaction, yesterday I cast on for a pair of socks. While I’ve had an Opal Dreamcatcher sock on the needles for a long time, I haven’t worked on it in ages. I like Opal socks — this Rodeo pair are the first I reach for when they’re clean — but my standard Opal pattern takes forever and is boring. (Toe-up, Sherman heel and toe, 72 stitches, 10 stitches per inch, pure stockinette and rib.)
Not only longing for something quick, I also wanted something tactile and fun. “I know,” I thought, “I have a huge stash of luxury sock yarns that I never use.”
Enter a pair of Nancy Bush’s Oak Ribbed Socks in Fleece Artist.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever knit an entire sock in a day. It’s also the first time I’ve used Fleece Artist. While I normally avoid knitting with handpainted yarns, fearing that they look better in the skein, I’m very happy with how this stuff knitted up. I’ll have to buy more. (When I have a job.)
The Oak Ribbed Socks are from the series of heel and toe technique exercises in the front of Knitting Vintage Socks. Back when I first started knitting socks, I was really interested in experimenting with different heels and toes, but now, I know what fits, and I don’t want to waste expensive yarn on something that might not. Thus, I chose the pattern with the round heel.
The pattern originally calls for a gathered toe — one where you draw the final stitches into a circle, rather than grafting them off. Not only do those toes not fit me well, but I think they’re ugly. I’ll take Kitchener stitch any day, so I chose the book’s “flat toe” instead. It’s your standard sock toe, with two matched decreases on either side of the sock.
