Saturday, January 24, 2009

Love's Illusions

It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all.
                                                  -- Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now (1967)

The dayHot chocolate after Christmas my local CVS had Valentine's Day stuff out; the other day the clerks were yelling, "The Cadbury eggs are here!" Yeesh. Christmas may indeed be over, but Easter isn't until April 12 (or 19 for Eastern Orthodox) and, anyway, I'm holding out for marshmallow chicks. So I started a Love Me Knot sock by Alice Bell.

It's a fun knit – my first illusion knitting project. I swatched a whole bunch of combinations before settling on MC Vanilla Wildfoote and CC Poppy Claudia Hand Painted. So far as I can tell, color saturation is more important to the illusion effect than position on the color wheel. That is, saturated neighbors, such as red and orange, are effective combinations, but even complimentary soft pastels are not. The taboo against variegated yarn seems exaggerated, although there's no question vibrant op art colors work very well. The biggest surprise to me is the texture of illusion knitting is almost as delightful as the scintillating visual effect.

Love Me Knot sock in progress

More surprises: there's a rumor that a certain lamented sock designer isn't dead after all... Loopy Yarns in Chicago has been receiving nasty phone calls, because they hosted an inauguration party last weekend... the sock pattern for a cause that I was planning to knit for February Sockdown!, Pink Ribbons by Lisa Lloyd, apparently isn't cause-y enough. Sigh. I do try to look at both sides, but it would seem [breaks into song] I really don't know sooooocks... at all!

7 comments:

Bezzie said...

Those are some cool looking socks! I've only seen illusion knitting on scarves and dishcloths.
I'm not on the Obandwagon, but even I think that's kinda childish of whomever. Plus there would be a lot of other businesses they'd have to bitch about if they're going to complain!!!
And is that a peep in your hot chocolate???

craftivore said...

I like your Love Me Knot sock, I think your color combo is going to look even better than the original. As for the scintillating rumors in the last paragraph, I'm dying to know more, I feel like I'm reading celebrity dirt.

Kristen said...

Cool sock!

Daniele said...

That's coming out great! Love the colors you picked. :)

Deborah said...

you are too, too clever! I just love your blog!

ZantiMissKnit said...

I think you may have broken the Scandal of 2009. I don't think it has hit Ravelry yet, though.
(and yes, I know)

Kim said...

Those are great socks and I'm glad to have seen them in person last week. MC Vanilla Wildfoote would be a good hiphop name. Just saying.