Norwegian Stockings, over and out

*prance prance* Why hello there! I just skipped down off a mountain covered in flowers and butterflies...





Notice the fraternal toes? :D



Completed project: Norwegian Stockings, Nancy Bush, "Folk Socks"

Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull. Grey (two balls), Watermelon (one and a bit more), and Peach (less than a quarter of a ball.)

Needles: 2.75 Bamboo double-points.

Modifications: A shitload!

-Knit inside-out to improve tension, especially at the corners of the doublepoints.
-Knitting in fingering weight yarn meant I had to change just about every number in the pattern. I cast on 100 stitches, decreased to 98 for cuff motif, then to 96 for leg motif--beyond that, I couldn't tell you what my numbers were. Gauge was about 8 stitches/inch. Getting patterns to line up correctly, such as for the heel flap and foot, required several rounds of ripping and reknitting.
-I began calf shaping after one full repeat of the two leg motifs; The stockings measure about 15" from top of cuff to bottom of heel flap, because I have short little legs.
-One toe is knit as the pattern specifies, the other is patterned slightly differently (due to my impatience and inability to read directions!)
-Elastic has been sewed into the cuffs, not the best craftsmanship, but it will do the job.
-Heel shaping: I ditched the Dutch heel and did a regular heel turn for a better fit.

Overall thoughts on the project: Despite all the fussing and ripping, the reknitting and reconsidering of everything from colors to tension to sizing, I am VERY happy with the finished product. As my first major fair isle project (I don't really count the Fairly Easy Fair Isle cardigan because I had no earthly idea what I was doing) I think I came through with flying colors. (Heh heh.) Once I grasped the mechanics of working with two colors in one hand, continental-style, I was able to concentrate on perfecting my tension and building up speed and rhythm. There were some rough spots towards the end of the second stocking's leg where my hand simply refused to feed the yarn smoothly, but blocking helped even it out quite a bit.

There are, of course, a few things here and there that could be improved upon. Certainly if I reknit these I'd do a more careful job with the feet, so as to improve the fit...as they are now, they are a bit loose, but still look fine when stuffed into my shoes. I could definitely have gotten away with more gusset decreases. I'd also like to the try knitting the elastic into the ribbing, I've heard tell of such a technique and I think it would look nicer than sewing it in post-knitting. I'm still undecided about whether or not doing these on dpns was the way to go...inside-out knitting was a HUGE help in keeping an even tension on the floats, but I had such awful ladders (which I usually can avoid on dpns) that next time, Magic Loop might be the best way to go. I think I'll try my next fair isle project right side out, and from there I should have a better idea of what works best for me.

Overall, I think these are just fantastic. I'm ridiculously proud of teaching myself fair isle. I can't believe I managed to get these to fit as well as they do. I'm proud of sticking with the project and enjoying the process as much as product. I think they make my legs look sexy as hell. And they were a ton of fun to knit.

But guess what?

IT'S TOO FUCKING HOT TO WEAR THEM.