Monday, September 28, 2009



No, well, it doesn’t seem that the Scandinavians shaped the soles of their stockings after all, as far as my books go. Vibeke Lind, McGregor, Pagoldh, and I threw in Nancy Bush on Estonia. These books include photographs of museum specimens. The feet are patently unshaped.

Perhaps slightly surprising, given all those elegantly shaped calves. Calfs?

So for the time being, at least, EZ must have the credit for getting there first.

I was happy to renew my acquaintance with Susanne Pagoldh’s “Nordic Knitting”, definitely my top favourite among the books I own but have never knit from. This time my eye is caught by the Portom sweater (that’s Finland) on page 76. Maybe it’s having grown-up grandsons that makes the difference. I’ll add it to the HALFPINT list – but it’s a long one.

Anyway, here’s the current state of the Oliver bedsock. I’ve finished the gusset, and another oddball. I do the increase-decrease thing every three rounds, and the line of decreases has now curved around to the outer edge of the instep stitches. Great fun.

Back to the Griswold. Here it is: six feet long and about a foot across. I took a picture of the whole thing, but it’s pretty meaningless without a context, so I zoomed in on the middle to show you how smooth and invisible my grafting is. And look at that:

I can assure you there’s no such visible line in real life.

(Next summer, if I get to Knit Camp, I expect the classes I hope to take with Jared and with Donna Druchunas to be inspiring and fun, but I expect to do the serious learning in Franklin’s class on photographing fabric.)

The Griswold may be dry enough to unpick today. I am so glad to have it, as a tangible part of that happy weekend in CT and in particular as a souvenir of the day spent with Cynthia and Sue (who gave me the yarn and pattern) at the Florence Griswold Museum. It is not unlikely to be the last full day I ever spend on my native soil, and it was a good one.

Left-over sock yarn

It is sad to learn that you find yours a life-complicating issue, Ron. Life is bad enough, without further complication. I can’t remember when I passed the point where I realised that I’m not going to finish knitting all the yarn I’ve got. Maybe it was 15 years or so ago, when I got online and learned that it’s called “stash” and that everybody’s got lots of it. It’s not that I don’t still try to stay on top of things.

But specifically, sock yarn. Jean’s suggestion of a mitred blanket is a good one. And, apart from bedsocks, I use oddballs for the toes of gents’ socks, these days. I like to knit them long in the leg, and 50 grams is not quite enough for one sock. So instead of buying three balls, I get only two and finish off the toe with something from the oddball bag, harmonious or outrageous depending on the disposition of the gentleman for whom the sock is intended.

9 comments:

  1. I agree that that Kaffe Fassett yarn is a dream to knit with. I have some socks all ready to give to my female family members in Seattle.

    Thank you for reminding me about the Florence Griswold Museum - I'll be in Connecticut this weekend and will try to get there.

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  2. Cynthia11:19 AM

    I'm so glad that the Griswold came out so beautifully. It WAS a happy day.

    I haven't knit socks in more than one year, being involved in Princess, etc, and happily dug out my arch shaped pattern yesterday. I also looked at Grumperina's blog, which I forgot to add to my new computer's favorites list, and she discusses the Reversible Knitting book that you've ordered. Looks like a great book.

    Oh yes, I'm also knitting a mitered sock odd ball blanket. Do you think we're living parallel lives on different continents?

    I certainly hope that 2009 wasn't your last visit to the US. You can always come stay with me if we plan our times right. I'm even tempted to attend the knitting camp in Scotland next summer!

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  3. My mom makes her "wacky" socks with leftover sock yarn- using different colors for different parts of the sock. I, on the other hand, tend to make baby socks with leftovers because I have so many friends who are having babies these days....

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  4. I took a photographing fiber class from Gale Zucker at She Shoots Sheep Shots.
    http://ezisus.blogspot.com/
    It was great fun and has really improved my photos. I've some very sorry specimens on my latest post, from some old snaps, and was sorry I didn't know more years ago. Of course, I didn't have a digital camera 15 years ago either!

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  5. Anonymous2:17 PM

    You have jolted me into action. I figure I have enough yarn for 15 pairs of socks and have started them this morning. Made a resolution to work on socks for an hour a day. Thanks
    Ron in Mexico

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  6. Martha3:46 PM

    I started to do the mitered blanket in sock yarn and, lo and behold, it morphed into a shawl....once I had a bit of it done, I was showing it to my life-long friends and, for some reason,
    threw it around my shoulders--and the unanimous agreement was that it would make a stunning shawl...
    the squares automatically form into a triangular shape, but I'm playing with the edges to see how I want to "stairstep" down the sides and whether I want it to come to a point or have three or four squares across the bottom....keeps me thinking.
    Griswold is beautiful...

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  7. MaureenTakoma4:41 PM

    I say don't worry about your stash outliving you. When my Nana (surrogate grandmother) passed away many years ago her daughter gave me a few things to remember her by. One of those things was her small stash of oddballs. Most of the wool I've used to make hats for the Afghans. The acrylic I use for provisional cast-ons, stitch holders, and such. They are the colors of all the cardigans she wore over the years and provide great memories.

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  8. Hexagons (and blankets made thereof) are particularly stunning with handpainted sock oddballs. We all knit some on a baby blanket for a member of my knitting group. There are a few on Ravelry.

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  9. You will have such fun with Franklin (and learn quite a lot in the process), should you take his Photographing Your Knitting class.

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