pepperknit

We here at Pepperknit strive to serve the public. So as of tonight, you can download the pdf patterns for the Anastasia Socks or the Zokni Socks all by yourself! No more middleman (i.e., me). No extra step. A loss of personal touch, of course, but you can send me an email (mintyfreshflavor at gmail dot com) to say hi if you want. Any time.

One HUGE, ENORMOUS, I-cannot-stress-this-enough reason I got the patterns up and ready to go was the HUGE, ENORMOUS I-cannot-believe-I-did-this error that Laura found. I had the wrong number of stitches in my chart! Purely an oversight, but a pretty bad one. The file that is on the site is correct and updated as of this evening–please download it to replace the file I emailed you, if you already have the pattern. Thanks so much for mentioning it, Laura!

My friend who was the intended recipient of these socks arrived for a long visit, and the first order of business was to have a photo shoot with her new socks!

They fit her perfectly; I was so relieved and thrilled. She also loved them, though she couldn’t wear them for long because they were making her feet hot. She was a trouper though, and let me take a zillion pictures of her feet, in all different areas of the apartment.

We’ve decided on an official name for the socks: the beautifully redundant Zokni Socks. My friend’s heritage is Hungarian, and zokni is the word for socks in Hungarian. (We used an English-Hungarian online dictionary; she doesn’t know any Hungarian besides the names of foods.) We considered adding the word for leafy, but there comes a point where the name just starts to get confusing or weird, so plain ol’ Zokni Socks it is. I suppose they should rightly be called “lace leaf socks,” or “elm leaf socks,” but let’s hope that people still find the pattern even with this nondescriptive title.

I finished the pattern this morning and can send it out via email. As I say in the pattern, I’d love, love, love to get photos of any finished pairs e-mailed to me. I can make a gallery of shots.

For now, the pattern will be available via e-mail only (mintyfreshflavor at gmail). Don’t feel weird e-mailing me to request it, please! I will be able to send out the pattern almost immediately so there shouldn’t be a long time from wanting it to getting it.

Minty and her teammate, who arrived at the Pit Stop last Saturday, are now ready to leave. Teams will head into the most extreme of locales, to perform the most extreme feats. Teams are given $2 in quarters. (”Count the money!”)

Minty knows what’s coming as she rounds the corner. “Oh my god. No, it’s not . . . You’re kidding me! They can’t be serious.”

Oh yes. Amazing Lace goes to Xtremes.

On Saturday, Minty and her teammate rounded the corner and approached the mat, where Phil was standing by along with a local (Ben Franklin? Some other colonial person?) waiting to welcome them in.

Welcome to the first Pit Stop.

“Phil! I can’t believe how quickly this leg of the race went. It’s all thanks to Minty’s single-mindedness. She just would not put these socks down!”

“It was so fun to work on them; my teammate really came through. I love the color, and though the yarn didn’t feel all that luscious on my finger as I was knitting, the end result is really quite nice.”

“Minty, do you want to tell us a little about this leg of the Lace?”

“Of course! Here are the details:

Elm Leaf Socks (Zokni Socks)
Pattern: My own down-and-dirty pattern, involving picking a stitch pattern, writing it out as a chart, and doing a short-row heel and simple decreased toe. I will try to write it up for anyone who’s interested in the next few days. Anyone know how to post a pdf to a blogger blog? Is it possible?
Yarn: Knit Picks’s Essential sock yarn in green
Needles: Addi Turbo US 1s
Method: Magic Loop
Size: Women’s 5 1/2
Gift for: My oldest friend, who recently expressed a desire for a pair of knitted socks. They aren’t technically a surprise, though she hasn’t seen the pattern. I did call her in the middle of the first sock to get her to measure her foot. When compared with the measurements given in Sensational Knitted Socks, she was a dead-on 5 1/2. The question is whether I executed that correctly.
Started: Saturday, June 3
Finished: Saturday, June 10
Notes: I had a lot of fun working up this pattern, from figuring out the chart to actually executing it. Funnily enough, despite my familiarity with the pattern, I never got to the point where I could read my knitting—I could never remember if the yo was before or after the k1 toward the “stem” on rows 1 and 7. Once I’d done one repeat, I could do the others, but for every row, I had to glance at the pattern. Here’s the pattern slightly opened up (on my hand; not the best representation):

Randomly, I should add that kitchenering was a breeze. I have always been able to execute a kitchener stitch effectively, but I approached the process with trepidation. This time I just did it, and it went smoothly, so I think I’m no longer intimidated by kitchener. And there was no second sock syndrome!

Now I just have to fret until June 30, when my friend comes to visit, to find out if they fit okay!”

Stay tuned to find out how Minty will “eat, sleep, and mingle with the other teams” while on this Pit Stop–and to see how the next leg of the race goes!

Yesterday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, as many of you know. I’m not friends with any knitters in Philly, so I innocently suggested a picnic for me, the boy, and a friend. They humored me, and besides, who would turn down a picnic on a day like yesterday? Despite the wind, it was beautiful.

So at 1pm, after yoga, we picked up the boy and walked over to Whole Foods, where we loaded up on sandwiches, salads, and absolutely perfect berries (straw- and black-). We made our way to the western side of the city, plopped down on the eastern side of Rittenhouse Square, and dug in. I was feeling sheepish and didn’t want to pull out my knitting until I saw someone else working on a project. Then I found one!

So I joined in.

I knit for a while on the second sock of my Amazing Lace socks, while my friends made fun of me. Eventually they were too tired to continue the ridicule, and normal conversation resumed. By then I was tired, too, so we all left to get some coffee.

In all, I didn’t knit for very long, and I kind of wish I’d walked around, looking for knitters, but I’m still happy I did what little I did. I will say that I wish I’d been sitting on a bench—it’s not comfortable to knit while sitting cross-legged on the ground. Maybe there’s a reason I mostly knit while sitting on the couch!