Java

I can’t tell you how happy I am.  After many tries, I finally made it into Knitty with my socks, Java!

 

 

I hinted at these socks back in March of 2010.  They were designed during one of my “ribbing periods.”  That’s a (short) length of time where I am obsessed with ribbing.  I think that it’s the bee’s knees.  I think that ribbing is misunderstood.  I think that it will change the face of knitting as we know it.  This usually passes when I remember that, in general, I don’t enjoy actually knitting ribbing.  But, often after a complicated project, I crave the predictability of a ribbed pattern.  Lucky for these socks, the ribbing period coincided with a desire to design men’s socks.  I thought to myself, “What’s more classic than a ribbed dress sock?”

 

 

 

Then the other, bitter part of me said (in a voice like Tim Gunn), “Classic means it’s been done to death.”

With that less-than-helpful advice in my head, I tried to find a balance between interesting and “classic.”  When I was first dating Lowell, he described his criteria for clothes to me.  He told me that colors and bold patterns mattered less than the close-up textures- the small details that weren’t obvious from a distance.  I thought about that idea while I worked on these socks.  I wanted to stick with the spirit of a plain dress sock but to play around with the details.  So these socks have a little caffeinated wiggle every other rib.  From a distance the wiggles look like regular k2 ribs, but the texture is great up close.  Fun to knit, too.  And the gusset isn’t just patterned- the decreases aren’t normal either.  Also, I kept the pattern going down the toes because, well, why not?  Plain toes are no fun!

 

 

 

 

 

I had plenty of fun knitting Java, which is good, because I knit it twice!  Which I suppose is really four times, since there are two socks in each pair.  The men’s pair is made with String Theory Blue Stocking.  I loved working with that yarn.  It has great stitch definition (always a priority for me) and is still soft and lofty.  They’re modeled by Lowell in our kitchen, who was a really good sport about the photo shoot.  The women’s pair is made with Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock which is always a great sock yarn.  The women’s size is modeled by my sister Katie and taken at 3 Cups in Chapel Hill, NC.  They were really nice to let us photograph there (and they only gave us a few funny looks).  Good coffee, too!

 

 

I am over the moon about this.  I think Java is a great pattern and I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did.

 

   

 

 

 

If you’ve just hopped over from Knitty and haven’t been here before, welcome!  Check out the blue menu (top right) for illustrated lists of projects, tutorials, and patterns; the green sidebars have tags and archives, etc.  Enjoy!

 

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go drool over the rest of this issue!