Oct 08 2009
Unsung Sock Heroes
Many of us are familiar with the beautiful creations by the sock knitting “big names” like Anna Zilboorg, Nancy Bush*, Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby, Cookie A*, and the handful of other prolific and talented designers who have shared their amazing innovations and interpretations with the knitting community…
And for every amazing knitter whose work makes it on to countless needles, there are so many other amazing knitters and designers out there who inspire, offer great tutorials, teach classes, and design their own patterns.
Over my years of sock knitting, I have admired many people for their sock knitting skills – I have mentioned many times how Terhi’s work amazes me – and each year I meet new people who continue to inspire… here are four friends I would love to introduce you to!
~~
If you follow Flickr, you may be familiar with Osloann – she is also on Ravelry as Pinneguri - and designs and knits *amazing* socks in Norway. Do yourself a favor, and check her work out!
Not only does she knit beautiful socks with the greatest of skill – she also designs adorable (free!) patterns like the Bumblebee socks:
~
Although Chawne is very much on a quilting, embroidery and blanket-knitting kick of late (equally amazing!) it was her amazing sock knitting skills that first turned me on to this crafting virtuoso of a woman. She has SO many beautiful sock creations to her name – and she is just so darn clever!
Chawne’s free pattern for the Socks of Kindness (Ravelry link)
Whatever C does – and the sheer devotion that she puts in to it! – inspire me each and every day.
~
Dan and Virginia have created a beautiful little space on the web over at ScratchCraft. If you have not seen their work, you are really missing out. They are both in to fiber arts, and as their blog name implies – creating things from scratch (that includes food, furniture, home improvement, and lots of other goodies!) Dan’s fiber work runs the gamut from weaving, spinning, knitting, and most recently needle felting. Virginia is really in to knitting, socks in particular (but also beautiful mittens, blankets, and sweaters). She has participated in the 52 Socks a year challenge and has succeeded (more than once, I believe!) Her sock posts are like an overload – she knits so many pairs in a short amount of time that each post contains about 5 finished pairs!
Can you think of anything cuter than a husband-wife knitting team? Dan’s amazing Beau sweater in his own handspun yarn was the inspiration for the Beau that I made for Kris in 2008.
You can see all of their galleries over on Flickr - knitting, weaving, cooking, spinning, photography… everything these amazing people do!
~~
Who are your “unsung sock heroes and heroines”?
Is it a person in your knitting group who is just so clever? who knits like lightning? Someone whose work you admire and want to emulate? Someone whom you have never met, but see their work on the internet?
Please share!
*In Socktoberfest 2006, I did interviews with BOTH Nancy Bush and Cookie A – you can see all the Socktoberfest archives here 
What a great post! Such a lovely thing to do! Had you not written about Ann, I would have claimed her as my unsung sock heroine. She is such a beautiful person, inside and out, and a great knitting friend. Virginia and Dan are awsome too. Now I just have to go check out that Chawne…
OMG! Lolly, you have got to check out this blog:
http://weheartyarn.blogspot.com/
I would love to have her abilities. She has completed 41 socks this year!
Lolly, I don’t want to sound silly here, but YOU were one of my first knitting inspirations, an unsung heroine, of sorts. I found your blog before I learned to knit and was amazed and determined by your talent. Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed was another, and those clever girls at Purl Soho too. In the time since I’ve learned to knit I’ve discovered many, many knitting heros/heroines…and I’m 100% hooked.
I love Hunter’s socks over on ravelry. A very very talented sock designer. A star is born.
Oh, but yes, there is Claudia from my knitting group, who started sock designing recently. I think her sock designs are fabulous: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/claudia-eisenkolb
My knitting buddy Lynne designs beautiful socks. I haven’t knitted any of them yet because I have yet to try toe-up socks but her stuff maked me want to learn. She can be found at http://www.ravelry.com/designers/lynne-wardrop. My other knitting friend Mary (who is not on Ravelry if you can believe it) makes the most beautiful cabled sweaters for her grown daughters, most of them of her own design. She made the most beautiful cabled afghan for her brother & SIL’s 25th wedding anniversary. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.
Thanks for the post and for introducing me to some fabulous new (to me) knitters and designers.
i love the above sock and designers
have started knitting socks in may, and not stopped!
i just finished a sock designed by Jeannie Cartmel
hedr ravelrysite: http://www.ravelry.com/people/jeanniefanihi
her blog: http://jeanniefanihi.blogspot.com/
Not only am I totally blown away by her designs & work but the speed in which she finishes the projects!!! All I’m left to say is….WOW!
Unsung alright! Those are some amazing sock creations, thanks for sharing!
Can you tell me the pattern for those lovely sky blue socks (fourth photo from the top)? I simply must know! thanks!!!!!
I love that you featured Chawne! She is one of the nicest and most talented people I’ve encountered on the internets.
This was very nice of you, but … Well, it’s always nice to get praise so what can I say but thank you ♥
On the sock knitting market there are great knitters like spillyjane (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/spillyjane), mariannan (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MariannAn?set=socks&view=thumbnail), Stephanie der Linden (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/stephanie-van-der-linden), Robyn Gallimore – is she famous in America? I didn’t know her before Ravalery though (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/robyn-gallimore).
Some people like Marianne (http://www.ravelry.com/people/Giram), Åsa (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Northknitter/reindeer-socks-no-4) og Tobi (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/tobi-beck) has only designed a few patterns but they are doing great stuff too.
I actually didn’t know Chawne had done her own design, so thanks for telling.
Wow to those colourwork socks. Some people are so talented.
Thanks so much for the list–there are so many great sock designs out there that are by less well-known folks! I’ve heard of most of these but was happy to get a link to ScratchCraft. And I never realized Chawne had designed the socks of kindness. Beautiful design and concept!
I stumbled onto those amazing socks of Osloann’s a couple of weeks ago and was totally blown away. WOW. Thank you for linking to Chawne’s design – I had somehow missed that and it looks fab!
One of my sock heroes is Kirsten (Through the Loops). She just blows me away with how prolific she is in terms of designing (not to mention knitting) – and of course that’s everything, not just socks. And she’s just so generous, both with her free Mystery KAL for Socktoberfest and with offering patterns in exchange for donation to Alzheimer’s research. I am just so impressed with her and her work.
Thanks for sharing your inspiration. Your husband always has such nice, smiling eyes
I don’t know if she’s unsung, but Tiennie’s (http://tiennieknits.typepad.com/tiennie_knits/) version of Veronik Avery’s Spiral Boot Socks really jumpstarted my interest in sock knitting!
Lolly – thanks for all of those great socks! Those light blue ones at the end of the post are beautiful. Are they yours? What pattern did you use?