I think that all sock knitters have done it, bought one (or many) more skeins of self striping sock yarns than they want to knit plain vanilla socks! Those socks show off the stripes so very well...but are...so.....very....boring...to...knit. At least for me they seem to go on forever! And while I love the finished look they do tend to be the socks that I am tempted to suffer from Second Sock Syndrome with!
In June, one of my favorite dyers, Unplanned Peacock, was showing me some of her self striping colorways and of course I fell in love with them and a special skein came home with me. And inevitably asked myself..."Why?" I have a stash of self striping sock yarns beyond compare!
To amuse myself I looked up how to say "why?" in a couple of different languages...and inspiration struck!
Pourquoi?
Because...
Pourquoi stories from
Vietnam are Origin Stories that explain why an animal or plant looks or acts
the way it does. One of the many
folktales told across Asia tells of the proud Tiger and his desire to obtain
the wisdom that only Man seemed to possess. Instead of obtaining wisdom however,
Tiger is outsmarted by man and in the process burns his magnificent golden
coat, leaving him with permanent stripes.
That skein of self striping sock yarn was rapidly on my needles and Tiger got his stripes!
This piece is worked flat, in garter stitch (so the knitting is really easy!) then seamed to produce a long infinity loop. I added an optional clasp (actually that was an entire rabbit hole of its own...so many ways to make accessories for your accessories were swatched!) so that it would hold in place the way you loop it if you wrap it around your neck multiple times.
The
loop itself is 7 inches wide and 50 inches long, as written, but if you
have more or less yarn you can adjust that quite a bit and still have a
wearable piece.
You can get the pattern now in my Ravelry Store (no account required, but if you are a knitter you should join anyway! It is a wonderful home for crafters on the internet.)
My test/beta knitters had so much fun with it that one has been working on three versions using different yarns!
Now I am off to see what other Just So, Pourquoi, Tinga Tinga....etc....stories I can convert to knitting patterns!
Elephants, camels, snakes...oh my!
In upcoming news...stay tuned for some information about a nice, relaxing, pre-holiday knitting frenzy knit along some friends and I are planning!
Until next time...Happy Knitting!
~M
.
