Danger, Will Robinson!

Betwixt working on Ravel*****s projects, I finished three singleton socks. Each showcases fascinating technique. For me, they're pure temptation and sheer knitting bliss.

There's Split-Toe Sweethearts by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, in Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn.



I've blathered on about the tabi toe visible above, but the sock also boasts an eponymous intarsia in the round heart and a seamless turn (it looks like a seam, but it isn't) which are no less entrancing to knitters who enjoy technique.



Then there's Traveler by Janel Laidman, in The Enchanted Sole, with its cables, beads, and secret pocket.



And there's Love Me Knot by Alice Bell, a pretty illusion knit revived from suspended animation. For the moment this static pic must suffice. If I can figure out how to upload a video, I'll show off the illusion effect.



I'm determined to keep them all off the Clothesline of Shame. Gentle readers may wish to indulge in a genteel guffaw and/or to recite the immortal admonition: Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

Ravel*****s spinning continues, although according to a great and powerful mod (her preferred form of address), Ravelry is for knitting or crocheting or weaving projects only. There can be handspun stash, but no spinning projects – spinning projects constitute a Core Spirit Violation. Huh. I'm inclined to think that's simply a limitation of the construct and no reflection on either fibery reality or my personal state of grace. However, if some wish to construe it as sin, then let me sin boldly. Go Team Spindlers!

Redacted 6/26/12: The Ravelry event formerly known by a name that rhymes with and supposedly infringes on the Olympics™.

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 day 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.



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!