Friday, January 18, 2008

Wonder Woman lost her bosoms, flying TAA


A bit before Christmas 2007, I dared to pull out those fishnets and tried them on again.


Edited to add: Just realised I forgot to tell you about another 'design issue'. Once I had decided to let the lines spiral around the leg, of course, both legs spiral the same way. I would really prefer them to be mirror imaged. I played around a bit with getting them to go the other way, but couldn't get it to happen.

They looked ok. I wasn't sure they were something that my sis would wear, but they looked quite pretty hanging up, and I wouldn't put it past her to use them decoratively. So I decided to give them to her.


Then I had another look at the start of the green lace sock. I had originally thought it would be too tight and narrow. But when I recently made the red-and-white socks for this sister, I was thinking they would probably be too small and yet they actually fit fine. I concluded that these lace ones which were pretty good on me, would fit her too. (Sorry darling sister, clearly I thought you had wider feet than you actually do!)

I hadn't written down the needle size but I was pretty sure it was 3.25mm, so I ploughed on. There wasn't much time and I wasn't sure she would wear knee highs, so I made them into shorter socks instead. She loves them, but would love knee highs too, it turns out. A small part of me wishes I had pursued the original plan, especially keeping in mind the photo potential, but, well, sometimes I do have to face up to how time actually works. As in, I don't actually know how to stretch it beyond the laws of physics.

For the ribbing, this time I increased the stitch count one and a half times (K1, Kfb around) and used 2.25mm needles for an eyelet rib pattern I found somewhere online. Sorry, I can't find a link now, but I'm happy to share the pattern if anyone asks.

After that, the second sock worked up pretty quickly, and despite a panic about them being different sizes, they came out very nearly (almost) the same. Most importantly, she is very happy with them. I now think it was just a slight tension difference and not the wrong needle size.

On the day they both seemed to love their socks. The blue fishnets, in particular, were almost a little bit hard to let go after all that went on with them. Not because I want them for myself, but because they still showed some mistakes that I might not make if I started again now. But I was glad I did hand them over. And if I persisted in making the green ones into knee highs, they might still be hanging around this house, half done, with me trying to work out where to put the increases, or doing crazy repairs. It was time to say, c'est tout! I am willing to take a long time over things, redo things, have a go at slightly crazy things, but in the end I am not a perfectionist. I do like to surprise my loved ones, and they certainly seemed surprised and pleased.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Hooray for happy sisters!

I think the socks look fabulous!

Donna Lee said...

They look great! I saw the fishnet pattern but haven't worn knee socks (or fishnets) since I was a kid. That is many more years ago than I want to think about. I love the lacy green pattern. Making socks for others is great because you know they're comfortable and they make loved ones feel loved.

DrK said...

i too would be pleased and surprised if someone made me such lovelies. nice work!

Anonymous said...

Oooh, sisters who appreciate handknits!

But who wouldn't appreciate those awesome socks?

Anonymous said...

love the blog on this Livvy i like how you show your process nice for everybody to see what you actually go through sometimes to get to the finished product and gee it is appreciated.