I realize now that I forgot to tell you about a recent yarn acquisition.
It just so happened that a very kind and thoughtful person I know took a trip to Scandinavia recently. And she brought me back the best kind of souvenir: wool! Honest to goodness Norwegian wool. From Norway.
Neat, eh?
And the wool has spoken to me. It says it wants to be socks.
But not just any ole kind of socks. It wants to be argyle. (Wool after my own heart!)
So here we go-
Here’s the lineup: two shades of green are the norwegian, white for the crisscrossing lines is from the stash. Pattern is ancient, gift of a friend, from the cast-offs of an elderly neighbor (2nd from the right, just not so much ribbing).
I’ve never done argyle socks before. I have done a sweater vest, but socks present a whole new kind of challenge. I played around with the idea of doing the argyle with a very clever, short-row construction techinique but finally decided that I needed to learn how to do it the old-fashioned way. Flat. Seamed. Like so:
That upside-down T shaped chart is for the cuff and instep. You knit it flat and then wrap the two sides of the cuff around and knit the heel down from there. Then you pick up stitches on the sides of the heel and knit the side gussets- but get this: the gussets aren’t attached to the instep yet. Only once you get past the patterned section do you knit around down to the toe. The poor gussets just out there flapping the breeze, until you’re all done and you go back and sew them up! (And the back of the cuff, too.)
Yes, really. I do generally try to avoid seams in my knitting.
I’m making a big exception for these socks. So lets hope they’re worth it.
Pretty, eh?
I do so love argyle.