Monday, March 07, 2011

Sock school


Yesterday was Lucy Neatby workshop day! I woke up to a dump of new snow over the recent batch of ice, so I slipped and baby-stepped out to the Bata Shoe Museum for an all-day sock-knitting session taught by Lucy Neatby.

Lucy Neatby, not really in focus or well lit or looking at the camera.

There was a table of fantastic samples. I didn't take other pictures, but you can see some of her work on her Ravelry patterns page.



We made a couple of very weird looking swatches. To start, naturally, one must cast on. (She gave us a hand-out which you can download as a .pdf at her page, called there How to Knit a Perfect Sock).

We did a Channel Island cast on, which is my new favourite thing in the world.

swatch number one!

Look at that cute picot-ish edge! Very stretchy, very neat.

We made a little bit of a garter-stitch short-row heel, and we cast off in a cool way. After lunch, we did a different cast on, which I had tried once before from Victorian Lace Today, and which is my new favourite provisional cast on in the world. I had avoided provisional cast ons, but now I am emboldened!

I ended up with some funny looking bits of knitting, but some great ideas rattling around in my head. (Idea #1 is that if my temples get any greyer, I'm going for the bottle of wild coloured dye....)

4 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm so jealous, that sounds like so much fun, off to download the PDF right now.

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  2. Thank you, this all looks useful for the mittens I am thinking of making next. The video says Channel Island CO is for garter stitch but it looks like you used it for rib, which is what I'll need. And that crochet provisional thing for above the thumb I think.

    Glad you had a great time. Your picture of Lucy is great -- even not "well lit" she glows!

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  3. That looks like an incredibly useful day.

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  4. oooh! what a fun day!

    and i think we could all do with a bit of shocking pink hair now and again!

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