My mother’s birthday was last month. I didn’t finish her present until this weekend… but that didn’t seem to matter too much. She liked them all the same!

Juta’s Stockings
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns
Source: Stitches East 2006 (Baltimore)
Pattern: Folk Knitting in Estonia, by Nancy Bush
Needles: Size US 1 (2.25mm) DPNs

These socks were very photogenic. I took many many pictures of them throughout their time on the needles. Started for the Green Sock Knitalong (way back in January), I didn’t really start working on them until April. The yarn is one of my favorites, and after this weekend’s activities, I now have a little more of it in my stash. The yarn did pool a little bit around the ankles - but I have never had this problem with Tess yarn before. Once I turned the heel, it started to lightly stripe, which looked better to me.

My mom and I have about the same size of foot, so if I wasn’t such a generous soul, I would have easily kept these beauties for myself! The good thing is that momma knows how much time went into these, and she cares well for them.

My first finished knit in over a month - you were starting to think I just buy yarn and never use it, weren’t you?

Juta’s Stockings (which I actually changed to more of an anklet…) are coming along quite nicely. Sock one was on the needles for many moons, gestating in my knitting bag for about three months. Once complete, I cast on for sock two quickly, not wanting to lose any of my momentum.

I turned the heel while enjoying a nice telephone conversation with Jenna. The funny this is that while we were talking, she was ripping out her progress on her Miranda sock…

This is my second pair of socks with Tess Designer Yarns, and I think I am beginning to love the yarn even more. It is a smaller gauge (the best socks are on size 1s, or even 0s, but I draw the line there) so it takes me even longer to complete a pair. It’s worth it though - the fabric is so strong and durable, and after a year of wear (loads of wear!) my Dublin Bay socks, also knit with Tess, look like they just came off the needles. I will definitely be stopping by the Tess booth at this weekend’s festival (yeah yeah, I know I have a few skeins in the stash already…)

Progress is slow right now - I have a lot on my plate. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend preparing for a one-week detox plan, and also worked in our garden. We just finished getting the plants in the ground!

Interested to hear more about my detox plan?
Check out my Weight Loss page!

I have three pairs of socks on the needles right now, and two of the pairs are part of my own personal project, the Nancy Bush Compendium. This is a long-term project that I am combining with this month’s Project Spectrum colors.

Remember Juta’s Stockings that I started in January? They were cast on as part of the informal sock knitalong that Maritza and I started, called the Green Socks Knitalong.

Now that we are all about green, it was time to pull them back out!

At first, I was not very happy with the way that the yarn (Tess Designer Yarns) was striping and flashing. I had not seen this effect in any of the other Tess yarns I have worked with, or the samples.  However, it really isn’t that noticeable in natural light, and it has kind of grown on me. I don’t remember seeing any other yarns with this same shade of green. The pattern is a simple arrowhead lace on the side panels of the cuff, and on the top of the foot - called “Juta’s Stockings” from Nancy Bush’s wonderful Folk Knitting in Estonia.

My second sock project is from Nancy’s mail order service, The Wooly West. It is the Shades pattern, and instead of using the different yarns as Nancy does in the pattern, I chose to use the self-striping Trekking XXL in the #107 colorway. I finished sock one, and sock two will be cast on very soon. (I am telling myself to finish the first Juta’s Stocking before I start on it!)

Nancy Bush’s work has greatly inspired me over my (few) years as a knitter. I greatly admire her meticulous research and methods, as well as her modern adaptations of traditional patterns from Europe.  I have collected all of her books, several of her magazine features, and some single patterns.

Folk Knitting in Estonia : A Garland of Symbolism, Tradition, and Technique
Folk Socks: The History & Techniques of Handknitted Footwear
Knitting on the Road
Knitting Vintage Socks: New Twists on Classic Patterns

I even had the great opportunity to interview Nancy for last year’s Socktoberfest - in two separate interviews, she shared some great information:  about her methods, her knitting style, and about her future plans.  In my second interview with her, conducted over the telephone, she told me one of her fondest sock knitting memories. 

Nancy’s work inspires me because it is living history.  It is part of a greater tradition of knitting, taking into account the cultural and societal motivations behind the craft, as well as sharing the stories of the various regions and communities. 

I started an informal study last year of her patterns, represented in her multiple publications. The three pairs of socks I have made thus far are all patterns from her well-known Knitting Vintage Socks. 

I plan to knit selected and representative patterns, primarily socks (but it may include mittens, lace, and other accessories from her work as well) from her various books and patterns for my Nancy Bush Compendium project.

compendium: a concise but comprehensive summary of a larger work

I am not limiting myself with a deadline, but rather enjoying the body of her work, and learning more about the history behind each knit design. 

With the Compedium Project in mind, I have several Nancy Bush patterns planned for Project Spectrum crafts, and for various other knitalongs in which I am participating.  Remember the Green Socks Knitalong, that Maritza and I are co-hosting?

I started these socks in January, before Project Spectrum started, and after I finished up my last pair of socks, I returned to the pair that I already had on the needles.  I find it is easy for me to cast on for something new, but very hard to return to an old lingering project.  However, once I picked up the needles again, I was ready to go.  This yarn, Tess Designer Yarns, is one of my all-time favorite sock yarns.  This particular skein has some minor pooling issues - and usually pooling is a deal-breaker for me.  However, I don’t seem to mind this light and dark green… 

The pattern is Juta’s Stockings, from Folk Knitting in Estonia (which is now available via Amazon!).  It is a simple arrowhead lace pattern on the cuff, and continues into the top of the foot. (Picture of socks here)

I have several other patterns planned in conjunction with Project Spectrum’s colors: I can take my pick for next month’s color triad, and the Schottische Kilt Hose, featured in Folk Socks will most likely be one of my summer projects for the red month (did you see Terhi’s finished kilt hose!?).  I am hoping to take on “my dream socks” as a Socktoberfest 2007 project as well.

My photo gallery will have a sub-category for the Nancy Bush Compendium, and I am also maintaining a Flickr Photo Set for the project, for any of you that are interested in following along!

*Hope you all have a nice weekend!  Kris and I are traveling to North Carolina this weekend to visit my sisters.  I am looking forward to the trip (and to the car knitting!)  

*** 

The beauty of socks: they always fit. 

While your tummy and thighs may fluctuate in size,

Your feet remain the same. 

***

Yeah, there are a few exceptions, but usually, socks fit.  You make them, and as long as you measure correctly and take good care of them, you can wear those socks until your dying day.  You gotta love something that has that kind of consistency.

Last November, Maritza and I set up a little swap.  She sent me a skein of lovely Socks that Rock yarn (I didn't have a skein to my name), and I sent her a hank of my beloved Tess Designer Yarns, fresh from Stitches East market. 

Since I also bought a skein of the same lovely green colorway that I sent to her, we decided to do a little informal green sock knitalong at some point. Well, turns out that neither of us could really hold off that long.  I mean, come on, look at that yarn!  You can see why, right?  So, although we both have full plates already, we decided that now is as good a time as any to cast on for the green socks. 

Maritza's button creation!

There is a big stress on the informal nature of this little knitalong - no signups, no deadlines, nothing like that.  It is really just about using green yarn and making socks. Feel free to download the cute button and join us!   For me, this knitalong comes at an interesting time - on the cusp of Project Spectrum 2.0 - which looks like it will be another successful round of the colorwheel! Green is not the first two-month span of colors, but there is some time before PS2 officially is underway, so I went ahead and chose a pattern and cast on.  I know I won't finish in time (socks take me forever), but that will give me something to pick up again once April and May's green comes around!

I decided to use the "Juta's Stockings" pattern from Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting In Estonia.  The pattern is simple and sweet, and a nice complement to the yarn's ever-so-slight variegation.

If you have a good eye and keen observational skills, you will see that I am using my new rosewood needles.  Wow, what a great set.  I think I may be spoiled now.  I didn't think there would be too much of a difference, but I can now report:  there is a difference.  These particular needles are wonderfully pointy, very sturdy (I am hard on my double points - nearly all of my aluminums are bent, and my bamboos are definitely "bowed").  Plus, there is a great "grab" on the yarn, but also a smoothness when sliding yarn across.  Very nice indeed.

Alas, I am also knitting socks for my mister.  I finished sock one of the Plain Winter socks from Nancy's Knitting Vintage Socks.  I am so pleased with the fit.  It is hard enough to get socks that fit me well, let alone Kris's big man foot.  Knitting socks for other people is often a challenge, but this one turned out well.  Now onto sock two!

Thanks to Chawne, it looks like I have the perfect sock yarn for April and May's color triad. I won a little contest on her blog a few week's ago, and she sent along this lovely skein of self-striping Mama Llama.  So pretty!  Thanks C! (Check out her lovely knits - she makes some amazing things!)

Inevitably, many of my Project Spectrum crafts will be knitting related.  Of course, since I encourage people to "think outside the box" in terms of crafting in color, I am doing the same thing.  I am planning to expand my crafty repetoire with some sewing, paper crafts, beading, quilting, and crochet.  The idealism that comes early in the project!  Savor it now!  :) 

I am beginning to feel the call of the sweater again - goodness me, I have enough stashed yarn for many more! - but I am trying to resist for a short while to work on these socks, and some other lovely accessories… more on that later!

In closing, I was overwhelmed by your kind words and sweet wishes on my anniversary post.  Thank you so much.  Kris is wearing his sweater at work today!