Bells are Ringing
As some of you may have guessed (clue = Pattern Purdah…) I actually finished this sock weeks ago. In fact, I finished writing it up some time ago. But with the end of Octvember looming over me I just couldn’t bring myself to blog it until it was not only well and truly out my door but also well on its way out Jennifer’s door. There have just been too many jinxes lately, too many inconveniently timed computer crises and illnesses and production problems and holidays and overall insanities. A little extra superstition never hurt anyone (except my Uncle Blair, but that’s a story for another time).
It is a relief to me to be able to take the lid off this one, I can tell you.
So without further ado, I give you… our penultimate club sock for 2007: The Nine Tailors. Not anywhere near as labor-intensive as Vintage, believe it or not, but undoubtedly my thinkiest-geekiest design to date.
I’m not going to go into exhaustive detail about the plot connections right now because, um, been there done that - not only here on the blog over the past few months (for a refresher, check out the change-ringing category, dating back to February) but really intensively on paper during the past few weeks - and I swear I’m still a little dizzy from organizing the material.
(”We give ourselves mental vertigo… so you don’t have to!”)
At any rate, to cut to the chase - the change-ringing method Kent Treble Bob Major appears in two forms here: as a coded colorwork panel…
…and as a twisted mini-cable:
Here is one of the angels of the Angel Roof…
… with emeralds nestled at its feet - some of you know why, and I hope others will find out why.
As stipulated a while back the sock has a flap and gusset heel:
And as usual there are optional decorative features on toe and heel - on the heel it’s the continuation of the twist pattern (looks very cool with an open-backed clog!), and on the toe it’s this little eyelet bell:
I’ll have more to say about this sock in particular and about my further adventures in campanological knitting in general… but for now I’m feeling kinda burnt-out from this one, and I think I’d better go have a nice lie-down before I leap back into the next project on the needles, the club sock for… Decuary.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Squeeeee! There are emeralds! Stunning! Beautiful! Want! Emeralds!
November 29th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I love the patterning you’ve done in the flap and gusset heel. And I think the two versions (cable and colourwork) of Kent Treble Bob Major are great. I really look forward to getting my kit.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
have you seen this?
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Mathematics-Needlework-Papers-Projects/dp/1568813317
?
Sarah-marie Belcastro is also a member of Ravelry.. (in the geeky knitters group..)
Too bad you just completed the pattern now.. it could have gone into the book..
by the way most of the math explainations are available free on line..(none of the patterns are!)
November 29th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
There’s so much attention to detail: the colors (thanks, Jennifer), the cables, the heels and toes. Oh my. I’m going to be stalking the mail woman.
November 29th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
You already know, in exhaustive detail, what I think about the background of this sock. It only remains to tell you how fantastic it is to finally see it in its ‘public’ guise! Congratulations!
On to “Fearful Symmetry”!
November 30th, 2007 at 1:19 am
As usual, the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and what parts they are! The golden angels with their emeralds peeking out from their feet, the floodwater-gray sock, Jennifer’s colors popping (nice choice from the gazillion possible permutations!), the change-ringing cabling, the little heel and toe details that are the icing on the cake (and we’re talking buttercream icing here, not the cheap stuff!). Ar-mazing. Little works of art for one’s feet, indeed.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:34 am
wow. that is one amazing piece of sock art!!!! all the work that went into it - all the details! it’s amazing!
November 30th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Oh my God I’m plotzing!!!
November 30th, 2007 at 9:32 am
You are the geek of my heart, I swear it.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Wow! You and Jennifer have quite outdone yourselves — the yarn colors are amazing ( the variegation in the main sock color is especially fine), and the pattern is just astonishing. The tiny bell on the toe! The cables down the heel! The wee angels! The insanely beautiful colorwork panel! Count me number one on the waiting list when the pattern is released to the general public.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
GORGEOUS! That’s just….I’m speechless. What a stunningly gorgeous sock.
I can’t wait to get it when they’re available to non-club members. Also can’t wait for my paycheck to clear to sign up for 2008 sock club, get my boyfriend another Oktoberfest kit to replace the first one he lost on the bus *grumble* and maybe get myself a Vintage or Kitri kit to keep me from freaking out over the prospect of not being able to get my hands on Nine Tailors quite yet (I know how Veruca Salt that sounds, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that your sock kits have that effect on me).
November 30th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Fantastic. Dorothy L. Sayers and Lord Peter must be laughing their socks off.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Laughing their ….. Oh, no. Surely not. Chuckling a little at this highly idiosyncratic (and beyond beautiful) tribute, I will grant you, but really. Lord Peter’s far too gentlemanly, and –I actually know much less about his creator than he himself, but I am sure that D.L.S. wouldn’t do anything so irreverent.
The emeralds — and the delicate reference thereof — are splendid. I, personally, am rather glad the kit is currently only for sock clubbers –I would be *obliged* to buy it for myself, and probably derail everything I’m knitting for the next month. Not a good thing for Christmas knitting (I am undertaking only two items, but one is a) a complex pattern, and b) undertaken with the sketchiest of information. Very nerve-wracking).
I swear I will buy it. I will buy it, and the Imbas, and I will learn how to cable. (And I will *totally* keep them both for myself, because no one else in my family properly appreciates handknits.)
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:06 am
These socks are truly beautiful, and so unique.
I am catching up on your blog, after several hectic weeks, and this particular entry stopped me in my tracks.
I must sign up for the 2008 sock club - Lord knows when I get the knitting done - but you have TOO MANY BEAUTIFUL SOCKS THAT I DON’T WANT TO MISS.
Congrats on an especially beautiful design.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Bravo!
Don’t worry folks, there’s another geeky knitting book in the works. This pattern will be SOOOOOO showcased. It will take a while, certainly, but I think you’ll enjoy it.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Okay, I may need to retrieve my copy of The Nine Tailors from wherever it lurks and reread. Gorgeous sock!
December 10th, 2007 at 2:01 am
If Astrid is first on the list for the sock when it goes beyond-club, let me be second!
Congratulations, L-lisa.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Good Lord. Wow.
(Here via the LordPeter discussion group, where someone linked this post.) Is the book Beth in WI mentioned anywhere near extant yet?
April 14th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Oh, oh, oh, I NEED to knit these socks. How soon, how, when, where, can I get kit and/or pattern?
Carolyn in Leesburg, VA (change ringer in Frederick MD and knitter since 1966)
May 19th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I NEED that sock pattern (change ringing). I’m not a tower ringer but am devoted to hand bells. Has that pattern been published? It is sooo-ooo-o cool!
July 2nd, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Love it! Thanks!