Victorian Writers Knitting Club: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[This post includes spoilers for the club mentioned in the title]

Last year Woolgirl announced a new club inspired by the writers of the Victorian period. I signed up for only two of the shipments: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (February 2011) and Bram Stoker (October 2011).

The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes package arrived yesterday:



It includes a sock pattern designed by Anne Hanson and a skein of Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock (Hound of the Baskervilles colorway) as well as a bunch of other goodies (stitch marker, bookmark, notion bag, etc). I'm quite pleased with it. Russell has already claimed the little wooden clock-face box and the soap (orange clove goat's milk from Dancing Mooney). Since I've knit with the Serenity sock before I know that it is a luscious merino/cashmere/nylon blend.

I've also been inspired to read some Sherlock Holmes stories. I have The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on my Nook. I read the first two stories ("A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red-Headed League") before I confessed to Russell that I'd expected them to be the first of the Holmes stories and he dug out his Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes so I could start from the beginning.

hoity-toity

hoity-toity
- assuming [of superiority], haughty, petulant, huffy.

Yesterday I finished knitting a pair of socks. I wouldn't normally consider the socks themselves worthy of a blog post if it weren't for the yarn I used.

The Plucky Knitter's Primo MCN in the Hoity Toity colorway, which was inspired by Caroline Bingley from Pride and Prejudice. There's the literary connection.

Hoity-toity is a perfect adjective for Caroline Bingley, who is the epitome of snootiness.

I was interested to learn, however, that the meaning I've always associated with the term is its secondary one. Apparently hoity-toity can also refer to "riotous or giddy behaviour; romping, frolic; disturbance, ‘rumpus’; flightiness" (OED).

New Pathways, take two

I posted about New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi after completing my first project from the bookk two months ago (this post). I mentioned in that post that I'd wanted to try out one of her coriolis patterns.

Bordhi's Coriolis architecture takes its name from the Coriolis effect and features a column of stitches that masks the increases in the arch area and then continues to spiral around the sock.

This week I completed my first coriolis project following the Spiraling Master Coriolis Pattern and using the "master numbers" (numbers based on foot measurements and gauge that are supposed to ensure a perfect fit).* I used A Swell Yarn Shop's Duets Sock Yarn (Original) in the Beau Monde colorway and size US 3 (3.25 mm) double-pointed needles.

I have to admit that I'm not completely sure about the master numbers. They didn't seem to work for me in this pattern. Coming out of the first toe I noticed that they were going to be too big, so I ripped back and proceeded to tweak the numbers as I moved from section to section. I'll admit that I may have been overzealous in my adjusting of the numbers, but the result was a very short sock (this image shows the second sock unstretched next to the first). They fit well, but only because the yarn is very stretchy and I know that I'm going to be wearing holes in the toe.

It seems that I'm not the only one who had problems using the numbers with the coriolis patterns. I won't give up on the master numbers just yet. I'll try them with one of the other architectures before I determine whether they work for me or not.

* Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks in my earlier post didn't utilize the master numbers. I knit two pairs using that pattern.