Lady Arya

I'm sure it's seemed quiet to those of you who follow the blog, but in fact, I've been a busy bee, working on two new knitting designs. Today I finally finished polishing up the first one and it's now live on Ravelry!


If you're a fan of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones novels (as I am) then you know that one of the most beloved characters is a little tomboy named Arya. She is a spunky little girl, with lofty ambitions that definitely don't include being a proper lady, as befits her birth. Her journey through the books is a difficult one, full of danger and drama, and I wanted to design something that would reflect that.

As the second season of the HBO series begins, I'm preparing to watch this leg of her journey. She is forced, at this point, to disguise herself as a lowborn boy, to keep herself safe, but there is much more danger and excitement to come.


The design of this sock is a fairly simple one to knit and memorize, consisting mostly of two motifs: ropes and chains, to reflect not only physical bondage, but also the mental prison of being forced to hide her true identity. Just as all men must die, so must all types of bondage eventually come to an end: the ropes and chains trail off into nothing, both in the heel flap and also as the pattern nears the toe. Despite being a simple pattern to memorize, the socks do present a bit of challenge, if you're up to it - the left sock has a small Braavosi coin hidden in the inner gusset, and the right sock has a column of stitches on the back leg that marks a perfect spot to conceal a small knife in your boot, in case you can't access Needle when you need it.


The yarn I used for the sample pair is some Hazel Knits Entice MCN in the colourway Arroyo, a perfect colour for a little girl disguised as a lowborn boy named Arry, or a Weasel, or even a Cat. Although the colourway may look muddy, don't be fooled: this yarn secretly contains soft luxurious cashmere, suitable for a highborn lady. I actually bought this yarn at the Sock Summit, last summer, with exactly this project in mind. I saw it sitting there in the Hazel Knits booth and I thought: that is perfect for Arya! I was actually reading the second book while I was in Portland, and with the second series starting on HBO now, the timing of these is perfect in a number of ways.

If you're interested, you can buy them here, for $5.00:

Maddie & Molly

I've given you a couple of teasers on this project, mostly because I was confident that no one would ever guess the truth: that I was knitting a set of conjoined twins.

I hope you will agree with me that they are just the cutest things, and that everyone needs a pair. I have named mine Maddie and Molly, and you can see that, though they are so much the same, they have their own personalities, too. Maddie is clearly the more outgoing one, although wary of strangers. Molly is the shy one, and mostly only talks to her sister.

Revealing the dolls to people I know has been funny, because of the way they look confused and then astonished (and then mention that I'm crazy.) It's funny how everyone questions the anatomy of the dolls, wondering why there are three legs instead of four, for example. Like snowflakes, no two sets of conjoined twins are the same, and this duo happens to be joined throughout the torso, and have two arms and three legs. Nuf said.

I took a page from Ysolda when I designed these dolls. Having knit Ysolda's Sophie bunny a while ago, I realized how great it is to construct a doll completely in one piece, in the round, without having to sew pieces together at the end. That was my goal with these dolls, as well. It begins with knitting and stuffing the body, then you pick up stitches to add the legs, then the arms, then the two heads. You stuff it all as you go, so once the second head is done, your dolls are finished. Awesome.


The girls are wearing a pretty basic blue stockingette dress, with puffed sleeves and garter stitch trim. There is a single button closure in the back of the dress. They also have a white pinafore over the dress, with eyelet details and i-cord straps and ties. It would be great to make a bunch of outfits for the girls, to play dress-up, although the third leg would certainly make pants more of a challenge to knit.

I anticipate some people feeling that these dolls are, shall we say, inappropriate, but I disagree. I think it is always a good thing to show children that people come in all shapes and sizes and are just as loveable no matter how unusual they look.

Pattern forthcoming.

Vine Lattice Socks

It won't look like anything new, since I've made several posts about these socks, previously, but I just wanted to show off the finished product (and wear them, as an extra bonus) to prove that I eventually finished them.

I am still in the process of writing up the pattern -- it's hard to find the time, when I want to spend my time knitting, not writing about it. Once it's ready, I'll show that off, too.

Have a happy Friday!

Red Letter Day

After a few people on Ravelry admired my Real Love socks and showed some interest in seeing a pattern for them, I decided I would try to write it up. It would give me some practice for the next pair I have designed, and if I offer this one up for free, then I won't feel guilty about the unpolished nature of the pattern, this time, while I get some experience and feedback for the next pattern.

So I wrote it up over a couple of days and plugged in my unprofessional photos and some charts and popped it up on Ravelry, last night.

It's already been downloaded 150 times! Now I know that I have downloaded a lot of patterns that I haven't knit, yet, so I'm not expecting that many to actually be knit, but still... that's pretty cool. Even to see one or two pairs would really make me proud.

If you want it, you can have your own copy, too: download now

Distraction

I have been knitting, and quite a lot, actually, but I really don't have much to show for it: mostly what I've been doing is knitting up the sleeves on a new yoke sweater I started, and they don't look like much, yet, being as they are solid black stockingette. I've nearly finished the first of my Pomegranate socks, and yes, I ripped out the whole lace mobius wrap (sigh) and I started the first (and probably only) knitted holiday gift I am making.

But let's look at something else today, shall we? I found the Family Trunk Project a year or two ago, but I don't think I've ever shared it with all of you.

Emily Johnson is designing a series of garments inspired by the folks in her family tree. Look here to see them. There is also a series inspired by literary characters. Look here to see all of her designs. They are really gorgeous patterns by a great fiber artist, and you can buy them if you like, but the really lovely part about it is that you can pay for the patterns either with money (how old-fashioned) or by telling her a piece of your family history. Different designs will cost you a different number of pages of your family's story, usually between 2 to 4 pages. What a great concept!

Inspiration

Okay so both the Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits Holiday Gift issues were a bit lackluster, and there isn't a lot of great stuff in the upcoming Interweave Knits Winter issue, either... Where is a knitter to go for something inspiring, something spectacular?

Here.