So there I was the other day, a bit unhappy that I couldn’t blog about anything I’ve knit recently – and didn’t realise that I could have shown you one of last year’s projects, since Sockupied Fall 2015 was released last week! And along with an article on the rich sock-knitting history in the Baltic states and a special on the featured designer, Debbie O’Neill, there are six brand-new beautiful sock patterns, one of them mine: Checkers Socks!
I worked on these during our holidays in the USA last year, and actually this pattern started off with the yarn. My Ravelry friend Shelley, who I had the pleasure to meet last year in person, recommended to me a yarn store in Santa Barbara, Loop and Leaf, and there’s where I came across some Ella Rae Lace Merino, a yarn I hadn’t worked with before. And I fell in love with the colour combination ‘Deep Purple’ and ‘Mustard Green’ right away, so without hesitation I bought the skeins and wound them right away in the shop.
And I was sure they had to be used together. So while travelling along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway I pondered on pattern ideas and happily swatched away. And frogged. And tried anew and eventually (and I can’t deny that I might have been influenced by the look of a fast food chain) came up with the idea for Checkers.
The back of the leg is knit in a textured checked pattern, while the front of the leg and the instep is knit in stranded colourwork. The pattern combines knitting in the round and knitting flat, so there is some ‘assembling’ required in that there are stitches to pick up to connect the front and the back of the leg, but the only grafting there is to do is closing the toes. I admit that I am usually not the biggest fan of knitting socks in rows, but I was intrigued by this technique, because possibilities to combine different patterns in one sock are endless. Which reminds me that there are two more ‘socks-knit-flat-idea-WiPs’ waiting in my knitting basket…
Anyway, I was thrilled when Checkers was accepted for Sockupied Fall 2015 and that Amy Palmer, the editor of Sockupied, liked the colour combination of my swatch so much, that she required the sample in a similar combination. The yarn used is Cascade Yarns Heritage, an affordable sock yarn that is available in more than 60 different colours, and I used ‘Italian Plum’ and ‘Primavera’.
Read more what’s included in the brand-new Sockupied edition and get your copy here.
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