Friday 3 April 2009

F is for...

Formulation

traffic island socks by yours truly
in yarning yenta sock yarn in
red fraggle
and a&e bfl sock yarn in
berries


Okay, so I may be reaching the outer limits of my thesaurus, but I wanted to add  my first foray into pattern writing somewhere here and this looked as good a time as any.  Especially considering I think my 'F' post is a tad late and I'm hoping to earn some brownie points to perhaps minimize the period of procrastination to perhaps only a day or two...!


i really must find some sock blockers

Well, these babies came into being after I spent an afternoon with my nose in several volumes of stitch dictionaries.  I pore over them occasionally, usually for inspiration for afghan squares...  I'd been looking for a simple pattern that would morph well into being knit in the round, challenging enough to keep my fingers busy, but my head angst-free; something to keep my brain exploding with too-long hours spent on complicated and concentration-draining (albeit very satisfying) travelling-cably, gazillion-row-repeatly, tear-your-hair-out-in-bunches, tricksy sock patterns that I was currently working on...  Knitting sorbet, if you will...

The chevron pattern I found had tonnes of potential, and after knitting an initial few rounds I knew that it would be pretty to knit up, fast to finish and potentially brain-'splody free!  After some tweaking, frogging and a little more tweaking, I arrived with some Traffic Island Socks.  I also realised that the resulting yarn configuration looked a bit like the famous 'Jaywalker' pattern, but with the more lacy pattern and wider bars it meant that the fitting and sizing wouldn't be so tricky to manoeuvre around.  I also tweaked things further to include 3 sizes, plus ideas for different yarn weights.



ziggy-zaggy, holey goodness

Why the Traffic Island appellation?  Well, with the wider 'fixed bars' running up and down the socks, and with the added lace holes (and also after the street reference) I was reminded of a computer game that came out many moons ago, called 'Frogger'. A game where you had to guide a frog over highways and waterways to freedom, using the traffic islands in between as breathing spaces, avoiding cars, lorries, snakes, alligators and submerging turtles!

chevrons and lace

The name seemed apt!

If you'd like a copy of the pattern, you can now get it as a free Ravelry download.  

6 comments:

Susan Friday 3 April 2009 at 16:20:00 BST  

Oh I remember frogger and I remember that my frogs had quite a short life expectancy. The pattern looks great and I agree it will be an easier fit with the lace bits. Great job!

Mary Friday 3 April 2009 at 16:22:00 BST  

Very nice! Pattern has been downloaded. Thank you for sharing it.

Anonymous Friday 3 April 2009 at 18:38:00 BST  

These are fantastic! Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to try them out. For the record, I'm terrible at Frogger. Poor Frog.

Màirianna Sunday 12 April 2009 at 11:28:00 BST  

Aye quine, bonnie chaussettes! Tha iad brèagha.

Diane Wednesday 22 April 2009 at 21:04:00 BST  

I love the red fraggle sock yarn! I tend to go to dark colors when I make socks and so nobody notices I'm wearing handmade socks. How boring is that? I decided to change it and my last pair were bright pink.

RedScot Tuesday 7 June 2011 at 19:11:00 BST  

I'm delighted these socks are such a hit with everybody! 69 projects and counting...! :D

Mair Bloag Weejits

Footerin' Aboot

Footerin' Aboot
Heh! I'm so funny!

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