Sock Club!
Thanks for the sympathetic comments and emails, everyone. I am back on the dress-making horse, having fought and eventually won a gruesome battle with alteration math, and almost ready to cut out in my fashion fabric (about time). In addition, I'm feeling quite a bit more cheerful today, partly because of a couple of exciting packages that arrived on my doorstep this afternoon. One of them? Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott's Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure, which happens to be the first printed book featuring a pattern from yours truly!
You've seen it before, of course: the Indiana Jones socks (here on Ravelry), which were originally a sock-club exclusive for Kate over at Knit it up!. Non-members of that club interested in knitting this pattern have been super-patient, and now it's available to the general public in lovely, paper-and-binding form, along with 22 other sock patterns. A couple favorites of mine:
"Low Country Light" by Beth Parrott (click on the photo for a larger view) makes beautiful use of a Gradience colorway from The Unique Sheep. I've been drooling over these unique color-spectrum yarns for quite a while, but was having trouble visualizing something to do with them that would be interesting to knit. I think Beth does a great job here developing a stitch pattern that provides some visual interest but doesn't clash with the gradience colorway. I even like her use of dropped stitches, of which I'm normally not a fan. Now that I've seen it can be done, I'm more anxious than ever to try my hand at designing something in a Gradience yarn. Maybe even a sweater! Wouldn't their Cafe au Lait or Herb Garden colorway make a gorgeous cardigan?
And look at this pretty and unusual heel construction on Charlene Schurch's Havana Lace pattern (neither of these are in Ravelry yet; sorry for the lack of linkage):
Love it! So cool and retro. I dig the idea of these in a dark, smoky charcoal or black-green; there's a skein of Sundara's "Irish Laughter" sock yarn in my cabinet that may want to become a pair of Havana Lace socks.
Those are my two, somewhat idiosyncratic, faves, but I suspect that Terry Morris's Cozy Cable Socks and Debbie O'Neill's Ariel Socks will appeal to lots of folks, and Adrienne Fong's Tea Time Socks are full of charm. Want to see for yourself? It's for sale at Powell's and Amazon, and hopefully at your local yarn shop, as well!
Congratulations! I love those socks too. :}
Awww, I remember back when those socks were just a wee tube on the needles! :)
Congrats, Emily! It's a great-looking pattern, and the book looks fantastic.
Delighted that your sock was in the book. Thanks for the kind words about mine. Lovely write-up!