Muslim socks

First of all, thank you, guys, for your kind words to my yesterday's anniversary post! We had a really nice evening, with a bottle of bubbly and a box of Lindt Swiss chocolates, yummy! *^v^*

Here are the photos of the finished Muslim socks I made as a commision for my friend Lukasz.

Pattern: I recreated the archaeological finds from medieval XIII century Egypt, supporting myself with the diagrams and tips from the book "Folk Socks" by Nancy Bush. My socks are almost identical with the originals apart from one point on the foot - I had to add two more diamond-like patterns rows because Lukasz has longer feet than the person who wore the medieval socks in the XIII c. Apart from that, they are almost the same size! ^^

Yarn: Wendy's Merino 100% wool, 4 skeins of blue and 4 skeins of white. The originals were made of cotton but I'm not an expert in colourwork so I wanted an easier option, and cotton is more rigid than wool. The socks came out quite heavy, almost 800 grams altogether! ^^

Needles: 3,5 mm dpns

Gauge: 27 sts x 31 rows=10 cm

As you may remember, I started to knit a pair of socks from this pattern last year, following the instructions in the "Folk Socks" by Nancy Bush. Unfortunately I got the wrong gauge and the sock turned out way too small for me (I checked it when I was at the heel flap...), so I just frogged it to some point, finished the seam, felted it and ended up with a cellphone cozy.

I know I should have recalculated the number of stitches and re-knit the sock, but at that time I was way too scared to alter the pattern myself. I decided that I'd try them again when I get the yarn with a proper gauge and forgot about them.



But then Lukasz came to me and asked if knit them for him, this time totally like the medieval original. It woke up my inner historical reenactor and I decided to give it a try.




I knew from the start that it would require from me a lot of recalculating, because Lukasz is a tall man, with wide calves and long feet, so I had to fit the pattern to fit him. I took all the measurements, compared it thousand times with the diagrams, and... it suddenly was rather obvious! As long as I kept the right gauge and the proper number of stitches for each pattern - it all went so smoothly! *^v^*

Well, it took me over two months to finish these, because colourwork is time consuming and I had to reknit some rows because I was too hasty sometimes (and I've been doing other things than knitting as well! ^^), but I can feel I tamed this type of knitting and I'm oh so ready for another two-colour project: namely the stunning Norwegian gloves from the Japanese knitting book I bought last year.

I think I'll use the same yarn as for the socks, Wendy's Merino (it seems to give the right gauge), but in white and red or maroon. Going yarn shopping sometime this or next week. *^v^*

I'll leave you with some reading: something very interesting and giving a perspective for people like myself - path seekers in arts and crafts: how to be creative by Hugh MacLeod.