Vine Leaf Socks

Ahhhhhh — finally, I can sit back, relax and blog a little bit.  And it’s great that I can now write about something that’s recently been taking a lot of my time.

If I were to tell anyone else how things have been just "crazy busy" lately in the world of knitting, well, they’d probably just laugh.  I mean, how busy can a knitter be if she has time to make all those tiny little stitches?

But, for those of us for whom it is a business, it can be as crazy as any other job sometimes.  (You should hear about my boss — she’s a complete nut case.)  (Oh yes, I am self-employed.)

First of all, I have been doing a huge amount of teaching in the past couple of weeks.  The teaching side of the knitting biz always seems to fall off in the summer here in Oregon, what with all the daylight, and the nice weather, and the kids out of school and so on and so forth.  Once the kids go back to school, the teaching thing tends to pick up again.  But this fall, you guys came back with a vengeance!!  Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but it has kept me too busy to blog much.  Or even to knit very much.

And when you’re knitting and designing to a deadline, well, that can get a little stressful.

Case in point:  the new sock pattern that I just designed for the November installment of Fearless Fibers‘ mini sock club, run by my pal Deb Kessler.

 Of course, since it’s a sock club pattern, I had to keep this project on the down-low.  And this one didn’t exactly go according to plan, either.

I started with one idea and began to knit it, and let me tell you, it looked very cool.  Then I discovered that it looked a whole lot like the sock Deb had already designed for October.

Well, great minds think alike and all that, but in this instance — not so cool.

Next, I tried another idea, but it just kinda didn’t work out so great.  I won’t go into the gory details…  but let’s just say that they were, um, baggy.  And "Baggy Lace Socks" really doesn’t have a ring to it.

But third time’s a charm, right?

(drum roll, please)

Polar Bear Patterns proudly presents —  "Vine Leaf Socks"! 

Came out pretty nice, eh?  I love the way the central rib "vine" has that nice, graceful wave to it.  And the leaves have just a delicate little touch of lace at the base, and a really cool 3D effect.  Very fun to knit.

Originally, I tried to do something "artistic" with the ribbing at the top, but it just looked like a mistake.  So instead, the ribbing symmetrically frames the tops of the leaves, in a très classy kind of way.

Unfortunately for those who aren’t in the sock club, the pattern isn’t available to the general public yet — but Deb will put it in her online Etsy shop in a month or two.  Don’t worry, I’ll remind you!