Now what?

By | March 17, 2010

Last fall, I was surprised and pleased when Mona of Dye Dreams asked if I’d like to design a sock for their sock club. Choice of yarn base? Choice of nearly solid colorway? Sure, sign me up!

Fast forward to Stitches West, where I had a delightful meeting with Mona and Stephanie, and walked away with this:

ball of Dye Dreams merino/tencel

Dye Dreams merino/tencel

Lovely stuff, just lovely. And oh so shimmery.

I’ve swatched a number of stitch patterns since then, looking for just the right sinuous feel that invokes water: waves lapping on a beach, rivulets in the sand, that sort of thing. Here are two top contenders:

swatch of Dye Dreams in “rivulets” stitch pattern

rivulets

swatch of Dye Dreams in “little Waves” stitch pattern

little waves

I love the flowing, overlapping look that both of these stitch patterns have. The question is: now that I’ve found stitch patterns that I like, what do I do with them? How do I place one or both within a sock design?

I’m tempted to use both. Unfortunately, their row repeats aren’t compatible (rivulets is 12 rows tall; little waves is 8), and tweaking the patterns to make them compatible would muck up the patterns too much, destroying what I like about them. (Ask me how I know.) So if they were placed side by side, they wouldn’t bend and sway in unison. Bummer.

Another option: use little waves in a foldover cuff, with rivulets flowing below. Hmm… maybe. I do like foldover cuffs for summer socks.

One more option: use little waves in a toe-up sock with a round toe, and end with the waves flowing into ribbing. Hmm… could be. Guess I have more swatching ahead of me.

What do you think?

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