Guinevere's Wedding Stockings

Yarn: Panda Silk, soft blue-grey

Needles: Knitpicks DPNs 5-in size 1.5mm

Pattern: My own (soon to be available on Ravelry)



As soon as I saw these socks in my mind's eye, I realized that they had an almost medieval elegance. I could see them in a soft kid shoe strolling across a green castle lawn, or covering a dainty foot as the queen bestowed her ribbons on the knights jousting for her favour. This is the way my mind works - always thinking about legend, symbol, myth, philosophy, the meaning of life and all that...

But perhaps that gives these stockings too much prominence. After all, they are just socks. Just a pair of hand knit hosiery... and yet, and yet....

Aren't all our patterns the children of dreams?

I've also been doodling during meetings. These inevitably lead to designs for knitting and crochet. This particular batch is for some charity projects for children:



I wanted these items to be fast and simple to make and available in either knit or crochet so that a wide variety of people in a Ravelry group I'm in could participate.

As you can see, its a very simple pattern for a small blanket - something to swaddle an infant or to comfort a toddler. On the other side, I'm experimenting with three small stuffed toys that could be included. Simple increases and decreases and then the faces - embroidered - are the hardest parts of these patterns. I hope to get them written up soon with a couple of the completed prototypes, so I can share with the group.

Lately I've been somewhat sad. It's rainy here, and dark, and work has been overwhelming, but it's more than that. It's that I've seen too much of Man's inhumanity to Man lately - people acting in retribution and control, not protecting the innocent but punishing small infractions, wars of words and retaliation, spiteful gossip and condescension. Where the heck have I been hanging out, you ask? Ah, there's the answer - Internet Forums! I wish that I could find a quiet group of gentle people, not without drama but without spite, with whom I could hang out online...a place that's similar to the real life I have here - tea and fibercraft, writing and relationships, charity and nature....

Do you know of such a group?

up to no good

I have been having a great deal of fun trying out new ideas for quick and gratifying projects! I guess when the doldrums of summer come, I need a fix that only knit or crochet can fill. I am trying to work from my stash (though I am seriously craving some yarn coloured like pale pink-white cherry blossoms), so I have a few brilliant choices.

This yarn is Panda Silk, in a light sky blue-grey. It has very little silk in it - 5% - and is mostly bamboo, but its soft and slinky and would make wonderful thigh-high stockings. I have two skeins of it, so we'll see how far I get. Kind of embarrassing - you can see in this photo how skinny my feet are (6.5 AA) that means I usually get good mileage from a skein of sock yarn. That whole solid toe part? Yes - those are where my toes begin and end - super long toes! I can play piano with my toes! (Anybody else know "Swans on the Lake", my favorite first-piano-book song of all time? I practiced playing this song with my toes all the time between the ages of 7 and 9) Enough about toes - back to the socks!



This design is one I'm making up as I go along. I have my own way of doing sock toes and I've named it "Sophietoes". If this pair turns out well, I'll write up my method on Ravelry, in this pattern. As you can see, I'm experimenting with a traveling lace pattern. It got boring fast, being not as challenging as I thought it would be (I love a needlework challenge!) but I'm going to stick with it, as I think the finished pair of stockings with be very nice.



At the same time, I'm crocheting the vest from the Spring Interweave Crochet:



This is from an Alice-blue Corn Fiber yarn! It's as soft as a favorite T-shirt, but is very twisty to work with, so that the whole time I'm crocheting (usually 3 hours at a time through Top Chef reruns) I'm muttering under my breath "this is so not worth it - I'm going to rip this out!" But then I look at the resulting fabric and it's actually pretty nice and I keep going. I will definitely repeat what Amy Singer says in No Sheep For You: work from the outside of the ball, not the inside, even if you have a center pull ball! There is just not enough 'cling' in corn fiber yarn to keep the center pull ball together and it becomes a muddled mess...

I'll leave you with the final image of my lunch today - homemade bento! I have shrimp and celery salad on a little bit of sliced avocado, and teriyaki sesame rice crackers with yogurt-dill dip, and finally a few ripe cherries.



What are you eating today, on the first day of summer?