Frills and Lace Socks

I have finally released a new sock pattern, Frills and Lace socks.  This pattern has it all:  simple cables, simple lace and beads as well as a small band of contrasting yarn to help highlight the beading.  This is a very simple pattern with a 4-row repeat and a short row, Eye of Partridge heel.  It is appropriate even for relatively new sock knitters who want to try the various elements without becoming overwhelmed by a complicated pattern.  Instructions are both written and charted and include both cuff down and toe up versions.

The pattern is available exclusively through Ravelry.com (See my links) and is just $4.00

Short Row Heel with Gussetts

I promised a couple of days ago to get this heel written up and posted here since I have used it for socks for someone with a high instep.  I am writing it for cuff down, as that is the way I normally work.  I am not sure yet how to do it for toe up, but I am working on it.  If someone normally does toe up and wants to help with it, I'd appreciate your imput, and would happily share credit with you...
This is being offered for free for anyone to use with any pattern.  I am sure the idea is not original to me, but if you plan to these instructions in a pattern you are offering for sale, I'd appreciate a note from you first...

Start with half the total number of stitches you have for your sock.  This pattern is done in all stockinette, but you could continue the leg pattern on the heel if you so desire.  You will be working over the stitches that are/were the back half of the leg.  Make sure you have a stitch marker on either side of the section you are working on if you are not using a seperate needle(s) for the heel already (I use a 9" circular, and use the SMs instead of a seperate needle).

Work across the heel section until you reach the last stitch before the marker before you would start the instep.  Turn your work and you are now going to work on the wrong side of the work, so knit stitches will be purled and purl stitches will be knitted. work across the heel until you have 2 stitches left before the stitch marker.  Turn and now work on the right side again, continuing in this manner, always turnning one stitch before where you turned the last time.  When you have between 8 and 14 stitches remaining as working stitches (depending on the width of your heel).

Now you will begin picking up stitches while working on the wrong side of the work.  From here on out, you will purl only on the wrong side and knit only on the right side.  When you reach the end of the worked stitches, pick up the next stitch and then make one stitch (M1) by stiching your left needle into the yarn between the stitch you just picked up and the next one from the back.  Now Purl that new stitch thru the front of the loop that is on the left needle. Turn your work and go back across the work on the right side, knitting all stitches until you reach the last worked stitch.  Now work the first unworked stitch and again M1, this time by slipping the left needle under the yarn between this last stitch and the next one from the front side.  Knit this stitch through the back loop. Turn the work and continue in this manner until all stitches are worked. 

Now continue with your foot pattern by working your pattern across the instep stitches and decreasing the extra stitches out every other row by SSk the 1st 2 stitches on the heel side (after the marker) and K2Tog the last 2 stitches (before the marker) on that side.  Since I usually have my start of row marker on one of the 2 side SMs, and your gussetts are actually a part of the foot instead of the instep, you don't have to move the start of round to the center of the heel, and you will still have your decreases on the same round.  When you are back to the number of stitches that the pattern calls for your cast on, you do not need to continue decreasing, and should continue with the pattern as written.

Sock ramblings...

A dear friend and someone else, who is in Keep it Simple Socks (a group on Ravelry), recently asked me why I was designing my sock patterns for specific foot issues when most socks will stretch to fit almost any foot shape.  They do, but for some people, the socks don't fit well, and in my way of looking at it, that is a problem. 

Feet are an important part of the body that are usually ignored as they are so far away from our heads that we hardly ever think of them.  But they are important because they are what support and carry around the entire body, and pain and problems with your feet can transfer to other parts of your body and contribute to ill health in the rest of the body in ways you wouldn't expect.  So to me, having comfortable and therefore healthy feet is important.  That means wearing socks and shoes that don't pinch or bind or are too loose or too big.  Your feet will have to work to get comfortable in socks and shoes that don't fit well, and the adjustments they make to do that will affect posture and how your feet carry your body around.  After a while, that is going to translate to aches and pains in places far from your feet (not to mention the aches and pains in your feet as well).  So, socks should fit well.

I also think that if you are going to take the time to make handknit socks, you might as well make nice handknit socks that are pretty or handsome (if you are making them for or are a guy).

To me, that translates to interesting patterns with lace and cables and other design elements.  I have spent much of my life as a fat broad who likes style, but for whom designer clothes are not designed.  Never mind not well, most designers don't even recognize that the human body comes in all shapes and sizes - they only want to design for skinny model types.  I also sew and learned to make my own clothes so I could wear things that looked good on me and had some sense of style.  Granted it isn't the style seen in Vogue or other high fashion magazines, but it looks good on my body.  Not that I care that much anymore - I'm older now and comfortable is more important than style these days. 

But I still want pretty and stylish socks.  That fit well.  I have flat wide feet, and I need socks with a lower heel than most folks, so that is why I mostly knit socks with a short  row Eye of Partridge heel.  It fits my heel and foot better.  I don't have high arches, so I normally forego a gussett in the foot of my socks.  Gussets make the sock too large on my foot, and makes the socks feel sloppy to me. 

But other people don't have flat feet and square toes.  Some have incredibly high arches.  Some have tiny feet.  Some have thick ankles.  A sock that fits me won't fit some of these other feet, and I think it's time we realized that. 

Making socks that fit isn't really difficult.  It's learning to take what does work for you and applying it to the patterns you want to knit.  For a person with a high arch, that means a heel that has a gussett in it, and normally, that means a heel flap and gussett heel.  For a person with flat feet and no arch to speak of, that means a short row heel. 

The problem to me is that I abhor the heel flap style of heel.  It's what is taught to most first time knitters, and it's very counter intuitive.  It doesn't sound like it will fit or will even make a heel, so for someone like me, who sees things in the mind's eye, it's the hard way to go about making a heel.  The short row heel is much more intuitive and makes more sense, so I like it better.  Not to mention, it fits my heel, so that's what I use.



Currently however, I am designing a sock for a woman with a high arch.  The short row heel doesn't fit her, so I had to go back to the drawing board.  I needed to make a heel that would fit her foot and her high arch, but I just can't abide the heel flap mess.  I had to come up with something different.  So I did. I altered my basic short row heel to include extra stitches that could become a gussett and would provide the extra space she needs to make a sock fit comfortably.  It's probably not a new idea; I am certain that some knitter somewhere in the annals of time has done this same thing, but it's new to me, so  I will try to get the new heel written up and include it here free of charge for anyone who needs a longer heel than I do.  I will also edit this to add pictures of the sock with the new heel design as soon as I get the sock finished and the weather clears up so that I can get a decent picture outside. 

Changes are afoot...

You may have noticed that I have changed the title of my Blog... This is because I am getting ready to launch a new venture... some sock knitting patterns that will be sold on Ravelry, a free site for those who enjoy the fiber arts.  The patterns will be sold under Greyhound Bend Designs.  Greyhound Bend is the name of our home here in Missouri; we live on a bend in the road, and we have LOTS of greyhounds, hence "Greyhound Bend."  Anyway, I am hoping to do more blogging about the knitting venture, announce new pattern releases and tell you what all I am working on (with pictures) to help get the word out.

At this point, Ravelry will be the only location where my patterns will be available for purchase.  It will just make life simpler to have only one place to get the patterns and for me to have to keep track of what and how things are selling.  Since Ravelry is free for all users, and there is a rather large membership of folks who are into knitting and other fiber arts (well over 2,000,000 at this point), it just seems like a logical location.

So what am I working on now?  I am in the final steps of readying a pattern that I am working on for publication.  At this point, the pattern is called Frills and Lace Socks...

... this is just the first of the socks from this pattern that is completed.  I am currently working on sock #2 of this pair, as well as a second pair that started like this...

... it has blue beads that match the blue mohair and the blue flecks that are in the main color (Lisa Souza Sock! in Delft).  This is the yarn that inspired the pattern to begin with, but we have had a lot of rain the past couple of days so I have not been able to get a good picture of the sock as it now looks.  I am also still on the foot as this is a pair that I am making for a friend from Ravelry who sent me the yarn and a foot model.  She has a very high arch, and the reason for designing a sock for her in the first place is to learn how to devise a pattern for her type of foot needs.  I am working on a new heel design to go on her socks that includes a gusset within the short row heel set up to give her more room across the instep.  I will get more pictures as soon as we are past this and the weather cooperates.

I also have a couple of other patterns in the works... a series of patterns based around a rather simple cable and lace design that will have the series title of "As You Like It Socks."  There are going to be 3 different patterns (thus far) in this series, but I am still looking for names for the individual patterns and still have a LOT of writing and editing to do.  But here are a few glimpses of what these will look like...

And there will be 2 distinct but related patterns called "Temptress Socks"  and "Seductress Socks" that are lace with a diagonal rib.  These were specifically designed to deal with another common foot issue, very large ankles (known as 'cankles').  The pattern is very stretchy and will accomodate large ankles while still conforming to thinner portions of the foot and leg.  And it is a pattern that will look nice on the leg of ANYONE, not just those with large ankles! The first pair of  "Temptress Socks" is pictured below, but the picture of the first pair of "Seductress Socks" is not available for publication yet as they are a birthday present for a good friend whose birthday is not until October.  The patterns for these socks are also only partially written, but I hope to have all of these patterns released before Christmas. 

Here are a picture of the "Temptress Socks"...

Oh yes, and lest you think the greyhounds are being ignored or neglected... here's Fritzie in his new greyhound hat for the coming winter...

This pattern is not my own, but is available on Ravelry as "Pointy Greyhound Hood" and is FREE (although a donation to a local greyhound rescue is recommended).