Tuesday, October 16, 2007

zen socks

arrrgh enough ranting and raving. people are stupid. get used to it kylie.

today i have been practising zen by thinking about socks and socks alone. i went down to nowra to teach my second last class with these guys for this session and i am sad because they are a great class and i will miss them. on the way i stopped in berry and popped into a little yarn store there. debbie bliss, sublime, noro, mission falls. i bought none of it. thats right, if its not sock wool, im not buying. applaud my fortitude please!

i went there with one purpose in mind and that was to acquire trimmings for the finishing of the berry stripey picot socks. i did, and now i cant decide.

pure silk ribbon in 'pansy':

or black velvet?:


i like the effect of the silk but fear it is too little and gets lost among the sock. the black stands out and is striking but my ribbon threading/tying leaves something to be desired and looks a little clunky. i have them here side by side, if you can tell me what you think honestly i would be most grateful:


while looking at (and now wearing) these gorgeous socks, i am reminded of why toe up socks are NOT zen. i frogged the stupid short row heel this morning. it was disgusting:


i like the challenge of this, and i like the 2x2 rib oddly enough, but i just dont think that this way of knitting socks is going to give the proper construction that one gets from the top down. and the whole yarn over thing and p3tog tbl, good god. on 2.25mm dpns? please!! over it.

but, being zen, i will finish them, as they are a gift, and i will finish them with love, and give them in the same vein (she says through gritted teeth).

k xx

11 comments:

Taphophile said...

"black velvet with that slow, southern, style" sorry - couldn't resist.

Good luck with the whole zen thing, BTW. :)

DrK said...

dont think i havent been going there since ms spider suggested the whole black velvet thing. goddamn that song to hell! ooops...not very zen...sorry...!

happyspider said...

yep, it's the black one for me too. and yeah, totally with you on the short-row heel. not me at all :p

Anonymous said...

I'm with the ladies: black velvet all the way. It has that whole 19th century bordello thing going on.
As for the heel on your toe-ups, try a gusseted heel with a flap, but worked toe-up. There's plenty of them out there: Cookie A's Baudelaire and Brooke Chenoweth's Widdershins are both free on Knitty. Wendy Knits has some similar heels on her website, too.

Fernicle said...

Hi Miss Kylie, sorry to hear you are stressed (do I want to know the details?) glad to hear you are practicing being zen! Took the nerd quiz cos I got curious and my answer was "Not nerdy, but definitely not hip", feel like that is the worst, I don't belong to the nerds or the cool crowd, which is pretty accurate really! Also, LOVE the socks, both decorations good. If you want me to give you one opionion either way though I would go silk, subtle but sweet...xxx

Bells said...

Black!! It's gorgeous.I do think the other one works, too but not with that va-va-voom of the black.

Keep up the zen. It helps deal with the stoopid people.

Georgie said...

Yup, black velvet for me too. I do like the purple silk, but its a bit fine. Now that purple in a wider velvet....

Remember that you can only change the way you feel and act, not the way stoopid people act.

Rose Red said...

I'm with Georgie - both on the ribbon and the stupid people.

And the yarn store in Berry has Mission Falls...mmm will have to make a trip down there some time! Just to look, of course...

Margie said...

I like the pink one but I think I'm outnumbered.
Either is a good choice! :D
You'll get there with the pensky file. And when it's all over you won't ever have to think about it ever again! Yays!

Stell said...

black, and short row heels are not the only toe up sock, so please don't ditch toe up till you have done widdereshinesque or simillar.
pppssst - i was a 30 something phd candidate a few years back, I miss it - strange but true.

Denise said...

I love the black ribbon too! And I agree about toe-up socks and short-row toes and heels... but it's good to have done them at least once so you know. They're still hand knit socks, after all, and will be well loved :)