Socks! Socks! Socks!

Last night at the Baronial meeting, I was asked how many pairs of socks I've made. I had to think about that. Counting them up in my head, I came up with more than 15. Here's a run down of the ones I could come up with...there are more.

Most recent finished pair: the Midnight Blue socks! These knee socks were made with fingering weight midnight blue wool on size 1 needles, producing about 9 stitches to the inch. While it's not as fine as the socks made in the Middle Ages, I am also considering what the average person in the Middle Ages would have worn--not fine silk, but wool. It's my leap of logic and I'm stickin' to it.

One green sock with Eleanor of Toledo-inspired cuff. It is made with a heavier sock weight yarn on size 1 needles and has about 8 stitches to the inch. Unlike the midnight blue socks, this is a toe-up sock and has a "make one" increase which created a lacey pattern up the center back. This is part of a rather silly competition from Yarn Harlot's blog--the Knitting Olympics. While I'm impressed with Bode Miller's Medal Hat Trick and Apolo Ohno's record number of medals for any Winter Olympics, I'm thrilled that I finished one sock of this size starting at the opening ceremonies and finishing yesterday noon. I still have a few more days to finish the second, but I don't think I'll get it finished before the closing ceremonies.

Previously, I made a number of modern socks for myself and family in a rainbow of colors. There are a few pairs missing from this collection--at least one other pair of pink socks (smaller for the smaller kid).


This is my first attempt at knee socks. I just found some yarn I liked rather than look for a solid yarn. The colors pooled up really funny on the sock on the left...I don't know why. I made a little lacey pattern at the top in the Eleanor of Toledo style. Like the green pair, I had to make some adjustments so the cuff didn't extend all the way down to my knees again.


Here is my first plain knee socks with the same yarn as the green socks that I'm working on now. I have since added garters to keep them up, as was typical for the Middle Ages.

My first pair of Egyptian reproduction socks. I followed the pattern provided by the links to the left of the screen, except adding more stitches in the back to accommodate my calves.

Socks for Hat trade. After posting pictures on Facebook, a got an email asking if I could make a pair in trade for a wool and fur hat...heck yeah! I asked that one be made for my hubby. This was the first of two pairs made for Duchess Lao.

Birthday gift for a Baroness. I didn't get a photo of the finished product, so here is one finished and one in process. This Baroness loaned me a book on Turkish socks, which is the style in which these are made.

Second pair of socks for the Duchess in trade for another hat...mine! This has some of the same motifs as the first Egyptian socks I made for myself, but some of the others are from links to the left. The Tree of Life pattern is one I designed myself.

Turkish socks for a friend who really liked the Baroness's gift...which reminds me, she still owes me for those....


I've got many more in the works, and many more to post with smaller needles and finer yarns. Stay tuned!

Elewys

Making progress on the blue knee socks! There are just a couple more inches left to knit on the foot, then I can start reducing down to the toes. I hope to have it done in the next day or two.

Unfortunately, I've had to temporarily abandon the bamboo socks--they're not quite laying correctly, so clearly it's a pattern problem. I think I added stitches wrong, so I'll have to check the directions and try again.

In the meantime, I've borrowed the 0000 needles to start a swatch for this new chartreuse yarn. So far this yields about 17 stitches to the inch. I'll have to figure out this toe-up sock pattern so that I can make this into a pair of socks. There is 1460 yards of this stuff--nearly 3/4 of a mile, and it knits up pretty nicely. There should be plenty for a pair of knee socks! I'd love to have a pair of really fine knee socks--at least for show. Who knows if I'd actually wear them often--after putting a few thousand hours into making them, I think I'd probably not want to wear them out too quickly or risk snagging them.

More to come, as always!

Elewys

A Few New Things

I finally finished the hat for Countess Oktavia and gave it to her on Friday evening as we were setting up the event. She requested a Greek Key pattern with crenolations to indicate her rank as a Countess. Her sweetie liked it so much, he may commission a hat from me as well. I'll have to get his colors and design requests so I can start on that.

On Sunday, I was called forth to receive an award that was received by Their Excellencies Aquaterra on my behalf at Day of Dance in November. I knew that the award was given, as they announced it at a business meeting a couple months ago (since it was going to be in the Crier anyway). I asked that it be given to me at Ursulmas, but I didn't realize that they had another surprise for me.

Instead of the Jambe de Leon, they presented me with this scroll! This is the Baronial Order of the Plate, the first level arts & sciences award. Perhaps I'll earn the higher awards once I step down from the A&S office. ;) Afterwards, they said to stay put while they gave me the Jambe.

Here are the tokens associated with both awards, as well as the token received to enter the event.

I was able to get some knitting done while I sat at the A&S booth, did a bit of chatting with mundanes and new SCAers who asked questions, and visited with some artisans who stopped by to see what was new and interesting in Aquaterra's artisan front. Mistress Goran recommended a magazine that just came out with an article on Historic knitting. I will have to check it out...

Elewys