I had a good time

at The Sow's Ear yesterday, and I came home with this:




It's a funny little sampler that is a basically a sock minus most of the leg and all the straight section of the foot. (I made it at a class taught by Nancy Bush, one of my knitting idols.) It has a heel turn and a toe construction that are both new to me, but in themselves are rather old. The class was based on a pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks, so the toe and heel come from sometime in the mid to late 1800's. It's a that book I don't currently own, but after seeing some of the samples I may want to pick it up.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the class was Nancy's introductory talk on her research for the book, and the place of her major source "Weldon's Practical Knitting" in the history of hand knitting. And I loved seeing her original models, both from the vintage socks book and a few from Knitting on the Road.

The top of the sampler is a bit flared, because she had us cast on with a double strand of yarn for a thicker and more elastic edge - a trick that seems worth repeating. The heel is called a "Welsh Heel" and is one of the many variations on turning a heel flap heel. It was pretty easy to work. The toe is unusual in that is worked like a standard wedge toe, but with three lines of decreases instead of two. Don't know that it has any particular advantages (other than avoiding grafting for those who dislike that maneuver), but it's always good to have another arrow in your quiver.

A pleasure completely unrelated to the class was walking through the store and spotting the original model of Elizabeth Morrison's "Kate" cardigan. It's just as pretty in person as in the picture.