Wednesday 25 July 2012

An exception

Stocking progress by Asplund
Stocking progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.
Normally, I don't knit socks - for no particular reason, I just don't enjoy it very much. (But I admire hand-knitted socks and the work and skills behind them.)

However, I'm in the middle of an exception after agreeing to knit a pair about a year ago, getting the yarn about half a year ago. What attracted me was knitting something to be part of an 18th-century style costume (they're for a member of the society of Gustafs Skål), trying to create something that could have been worn in the late 1700s.

What didn't attract me is knitting a lot of stocking stitch with hardly any patterns. Fortunately, I thought of a picture in a book I one saw: a pair of knee-length stockings with a stars on the calves, stars that grew smaller to harmonize with the decreases - and perhaps to accentuate and draw attention to a shapely calf? (Or a trompe-l'œil effect to make a less fortunate wearer's calves look shapely?)

However that may be, I tried to do something similar here - to make them less tedious to knit - even though I'm certain those stockings weren't that old, and for all I know stockings may not have been decorated like this in the 1700s.  

I had a lot more fun knitting Marianne Isager's Viften/The Fan for the fourth time, now a red one using Drops Silke-Tweed (discontinued) from my stash. I reused my modifications from last year.

5 comments:

Marie said...

I love the color of your new Fan! It's gorgeous!
Good luck for the second stocking!

Mariew

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness we are not all the same - I love sock knitting because it IS mindless. hahahaha I do really admire yours and have never knit a pair of stockings. Your textured knitting is always so nicely done. And who gets the lovely new "Fan"? It is gorgeous.
Ron in Mexico

dqpage said...

Beautiful 'Viften' and 'knit and purl'.
I understand why you don't enjoy sock knitting :o) I look forward to seeing your 1700 year socks.
Mona

Madam Munch said...

Coming home from Estonia I really regret that I did not buy the book The Haapsalu Shawl,it was as cheap as 20 Euro in a bookstore, men it would have caused me overweigth.

Anonymous said...

I don't enjoy knitting socks either (or on dpns generally) but your project looks very interesting from a number of different points of view! How tall are those stockings? How will they be worn?

And the colour of your new 'Fan' is really lovely.