On Socks - Part Three

Ariel Socks

The thing that most fascinates me most about knitting is:  strip everything else away and there's really only one stitch - Knit. All other results, especially stitch patterns, are generated by manipulating and combining the knit stitch.  That's magical.

For a long time I had been admiring a stitch pattern titled Fish-Scale Lace in the perpetual calendar '365 Knitting Stitches a Year' (May 31).

Last Fall I bought a very lovely skein of J. Knits and chose to use this stitch pattern for a pair of socks. I always admire sock patterns that offer something a bit unusual and I worked the lace pattern into the heel. My friend Candy really admired my socks and suggested that the pattern ought to be published.

So I went to visit Sheri at the Loopy Ewe (those of us who live near the Loopy Ewe and can go there in person are so lucky - are we not?) to see if she thought this would be a marketable pattern.  Sheri said they looked great, but wait - isn't this the same stitch pattern as 'the Monkey Socks' from Knitty?  

I had heard of the Monkey Socks but wasn't really familiar with the pattern.  It turned out that Sheri was correct - it was the same stitch pattern.  It's a weird phenomenon that seems to repeatedly happen... knit designers coming up with strikingly similar designs.

Back to the drawing board.  Still loved the stitch pattern and the back of the heel treatment.  What if I used the stitch pattern in a panel format rather than an all over design?  Place twisted ribs at the sides for stretchiness, turn the panel the opposite direction for the front/instep to lead into the toe, maybe try that box toe shaping I found on the internet, use the pretty J. Knits SuperwashMe Light that I bought while at Loopy Ewe - hmmm.......

.....and thus we have ARIEL SOCKS (fish scale lace --> mermaid ---> Ariel - get it?):

and Back..... 

Ariel socks are a lot of fun to knit. They seem to go quickly - completing each repeat of the 14 row stitch pattern keeps it moving along. The one/one twisted rib cuff is 2.25" deep which not only looks really nice but provides enough stretchy rib to keep the sock from sliding on the leg. The box toe looks good too and is comfortable to wear. I love, love, love the SuperwashMe Light yarn - there are 550 yards per skein - plenty there to make a much longer sock. Although any light-ish weight sock yarn will work (i.e. Opal, Trekking, etc.). Also subtle color changes will look best (i.e. stripes would be too busy for the stitch pattern).

The color 'Iowa' is actually more of a cinnamon and very pretty, but after photographing these socks in several different sessions I never could get my camera to pick up the color properly - they really are not as orange as they look in the photos.

My friend Barb was the first to knit a pair - she wrote:

    "The pattern is fun.
     They are fun to make but not so hard you can't remember the pattern.
     I thought about giving these as a gift but I like them too much!"

'Ariel' will soon be available for purchase from The Loopy Ewe and is also currently available in the St. Louis area at:

Chris' Needlecraft Supply http://www.chrisneedlecraftsupply.com/

Hearthstone Knits (http://hearthstoneyarns.com/)
Kirkwood Knittery (http://kirkwoodknittery.com/)
Knit Escape (http://www.knitescape.blogspot.com/)
Knit N Caboodle (http://www.knitandcaboodle.com/)
The Weaving Department at Myers House (http://www.gslkg.com/weavingdept.html)

UPDATE 09/24/2008:

The Ariel sock pattern is now also available in my Ravelry Pattern Store, or by clicking the link on the righthand side of this page.

On Socks - Part Two

Man's First Socks:  -  A Short Story

Once upon a time (recently) a Knitter (me) asked her husband (mine) if he would wear hand-knit socks if she were to knit a pair especially for him.  The Husband (poster child for the typical blue, brown, gray male wardrobe) said, "Do they have to be in those funky colors [read: like those that you wear]?"

And so the Knitter carefully chose a conservative solid dark color in a soft light weight yarn.  She settled on a ribbed pattern with a simple stitch motif to keep herself occupied for the duration of the leg.  Hoping that the Husband would actually wear his first pair of hand-knit socks, she knew that scenario would be more likely if the socks were as similar as possible to commercially manufactured (read: Gold Toe Fuzzy) socks that the Husband preferred.  Therefore she chose to knit a short row heel instead of a more knitterly flap/heel/gusset combination.

Now the Husband proudly shows off his hand-knit socks and the Knitter will never tell the Husband that the pattern is named 'Man's First Socks' or that knitting patterns even have a name – Knitter's are entitled to a few secrets.

Perhaps he'll soon receive another pair.

On Socks - Part One

First Socks

Not long after I became a Knitter, my friend Barb said to me "you should try socks – they're fun".  Socks, I thought, who'd want to knit socks ?  They look hard and there are all those tiny stitches on itty bitty needles – no thanks.  But as I attended knit-ins and guild meetings all around me knitters were knitting socks! Well – there must be something to this, I thought, perhaps I should try it. That first pair was certainly confusing – it took several tries to find a pattern that made any sense - the instructions that worked for me were in Sally Melville's book, The Purl Stitch.

But Barb was right – it was fun!

I was so excited – I had actually made a pair of socks !

As much fun as the first pair had been, I was not satisfied with the common heel or the fit of the ankle or the pointy toe.  Barb explained that she uses several size needles to achieve the perfect fit – the smallest size for the ribbing/heel/toe, the largest size for the calf, and a middle size for the ankle and instep.  That would take care of the sizing issues but what about the weird heel (to me, a new knitter, the 'common heel' [flap, heel, gusset] seemed weird) and pointy toe.

Off to the library and to the internet I went in search of the perfect (for me) sock techniques.  I was amazed by the myriad of choices – cuff down/toe up, common heel/short row heel, wedge toe/modified wedge toe/rounded toe/anatomical toe, double points/two circ's/magic loop needles, not to mention the myriad of colors, fibers and stitch patterns.  This was so exciting – I could be my own designer!