Bacchus Socks
For the past week, I've been focusing my knitting time on a new pair of socks. When I saw the Bacchus Socks by Alice Bell in the Fall issue of Interweave Knits, I reeeeally liked them, and at the same time something clicked in my brain, and I knew I had the perfect yarn with which to knit them.
At least a year ago, I stumbled across this beautiful handpainted superwash merino/nylon on a blog or somewhere around the internet, and ordered a skein from The Knittery in Australia. This colorway is called Cherries, but it sure looks like it could pass for a glass of red wine to me.
I'm off to a slow-ish start to this project - I guess I've been spending too much time on other stuff like spinning and general everyday drudgery. Because this yarn is on the thin side of fingering, I added a few extra stitches to the circumference of the socks. Because my feet are freakishly long, I added an extra repeat of the plain branches of the vine pattern before I dug into the bobbles.
So it was only a couple of days ago that I started the bobbles, and when I did, I had to do a little puzzling about the pattern. In the stitch guide on the pattern, the bobble stitch is described as follows:
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
Well, that just doesn't work out right. If you purl back the 5 stitches, then turn your work, the 5 bobble stitches will be on your left needle. My first instinct was to assume that the instructions should have had us knitting across those 5 stitches before binding passing them over, but I went and checked what Barbara Walker had to say about it in her first treasury. Her instructions agreed with my guess, so I ran with it.
And at first, I was happy with what I got...
It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but although my bobbles were making nice circular shapes, they're kind of flat on the outside (above). They insist on popping out on the inside, even when I push them back out mercilessly - below is a picture of how lovely they look on the inside of the sock.
So I started thinking maybe I needed to rip back and try something else. I posted a question about it over on Ravelry and got a response back from someone who had interpreted the instructions to mean that they should pass the extra stitches off the left needle, then slip the remaining one back to the right needle. That seemed plausible to me, although obviously it would make a smaller bobble with one less row of stitches involved.
I liked the size of bobbles I was getting, and I think they match pretty closely with the size of the bobbles pictured in the pattern...so I thought maybe I would try working the bobble stitches so the purls were on the outside of the work instead of the inside. A small swatch was in order...
Again, it's hard to get a super-clear idea from the picture, but there are three columns of vines with bobbles here.
On the left, I tried the purl-on-the-outside version -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, k5, turn, p5, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
In the middle, I tried the smaller bobble suggested by the nice lady on Ravelry -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on left needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again, slip remaining st to right ndl.
On the right, my original bobble as I first interpreted the instructions -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, k5, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
I think I'm leaning toward ripping back and using the bobble on the left. I like the size, and it's doing a better job of popping out on the right side. I think the bobble in the middle is a nice, cute shape, but I really think it needs to be bigger to show off well.
D'oh! I really wish I knew what the designer had actually done to get the nice-looking bobbles shown in the pictures.
At least a year ago, I stumbled across this beautiful handpainted superwash merino/nylon on a blog or somewhere around the internet, and ordered a skein from The Knittery in Australia. This colorway is called Cherries, but it sure looks like it could pass for a glass of red wine to me.
I'm off to a slow-ish start to this project - I guess I've been spending too much time on other stuff like spinning and general everyday drudgery. Because this yarn is on the thin side of fingering, I added a few extra stitches to the circumference of the socks. Because my feet are freakishly long, I added an extra repeat of the plain branches of the vine pattern before I dug into the bobbles.
So it was only a couple of days ago that I started the bobbles, and when I did, I had to do a little puzzling about the pattern. In the stitch guide on the pattern, the bobble stitch is described as follows:
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
Well, that just doesn't work out right. If you purl back the 5 stitches, then turn your work, the 5 bobble stitches will be on your left needle. My first instinct was to assume that the instructions should have had us knitting across those 5 stitches before binding passing them over, but I went and checked what Barbara Walker had to say about it in her first treasury. Her instructions agreed with my guess, so I ran with it.
And at first, I was happy with what I got...
It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but although my bobbles were making nice circular shapes, they're kind of flat on the outside (above). They insist on popping out on the inside, even when I push them back out mercilessly - below is a picture of how lovely they look on the inside of the sock.
So I started thinking maybe I needed to rip back and try something else. I posted a question about it over on Ravelry and got a response back from someone who had interpreted the instructions to mean that they should pass the extra stitches off the left needle, then slip the remaining one back to the right needle. That seemed plausible to me, although obviously it would make a smaller bobble with one less row of stitches involved.
I liked the size of bobbles I was getting, and I think they match pretty closely with the size of the bobbles pictured in the pattern...so I thought maybe I would try working the bobble stitches so the purls were on the outside of the work instead of the inside. A small swatch was in order...
Again, it's hard to get a super-clear idea from the picture, but there are three columns of vines with bobbles here.
On the left, I tried the purl-on-the-outside version -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, k5, turn, p5, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
In the middle, I tried the smaller bobble suggested by the nice lady on Ravelry -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on left needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again, slip remaining st to right ndl.
On the right, my original bobble as I first interpreted the instructions -
Work [k1, p1] 2 times all in same st, then k1 in same st - 1 st inc'd to 5 sts. Turn, p5, turn, k5, pass the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts on right needle over the first st - 5 sts dec'd to 1 st again.
I think I'm leaning toward ripping back and using the bobble on the left. I like the size, and it's doing a better job of popping out on the right side. I think the bobble in the middle is a nice, cute shape, but I really think it needs to be bigger to show off well.
D'oh! I really wish I knew what the designer had actually done to get the nice-looking bobbles shown in the pictures.
posted by Shelly Kang at 10:41 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks for sharing your experiments - these socks are in my want to knit queue too. I think anything that pops to the outside automatically has got to be good, and botht he middle and centre bobbles pop visually - unless you really really like popping bubble wrap in which case you could reinvent them as bubble wrap socks - pop all the bobbles through to the outside in moments of stress!
Alice is on Ravelry as slippedstitch.
I have a skein of that colourway in the merino cashmere sock yarn from the Knittery - just waiting for the right project. Your sock looks great.
What beautiful work! I can't wait to see the finished project.
The response you got from the person on Ravelry was the correct interpretation of the bobble directions. I would hope that that was the way the designer had knit the bobbles in the picture!
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