FO - cheshire cat socks

A bit of a 'vintage' FO as I finished it ages ago. It just took a while for the pattern to go up and me to get round to linking to it - here it is (WARNING: links to pdf).

A (cheshire) cat. He hides, you seek. Go on. You know you want to knit some. Because everybody needs a pair of kitty-illusion socks where the feline appears and disappears as you point your toes and the tail twists itself leisurely up your leg.


For Purlescence's luxurious style, I used cashsoft, so have given them leather patches on the soles (for slipper socks), but the pattern would work just as well in a more hard-wearing sockyarn.

Thanks to Robynn for her great competition which inspired the project and Kirsty for acting as legs model for the pics.

Chasing the Cheshire Cat

I don't normally theme my knitting to my research output. In fact, I never do; this is just coincidence. Two recent FOs.

One, a recently published essay applying the concept of 'invisible boundaries' to a version of Alice in Wonderland retold to teach quantum physics (much is made of the Cheshire Cat's appearing and re-appearing). Nestled on top, the storytellers socks, complete with illusion knit (cheshire) cat.

You aren't getting full photos of the socks. Those have been taken, but are to be emailed to Robynn later today, along with the pattern, you'll have to check out the storytellers site for that.

My next paper's on branding. Maybe I should knit a logo.

EDIT: My essay is pretty obscure. But if you're looking for books that use stories to explain modern physics, the best place to start is with this author.

catching up

I'll catch up with what the photo is of in a moment. Firstly, from the comments of the last post. The shoes are from Office, but about three years ago, at the end of a sale. The fabric is from cottonpatch; they have loads of similarly beautiful ones (and great service). The skirt is made up of six triangle-ish panels. And thanks for the complements on my legs, but the photo was taken in the mirror, which, I fear had a slight lengthening effect (I suffer from muscular calves - but, hey, it's not that much of a distortion!).

I'm very excited about the Ester-along in all it's purple glory. Also in the knit-o-sphere, Storytellers have a blog, and their first question is 'What Would Buffy Knit?' (something with wooden needles, naturally...). On the subject of storytellers, my cheshire cat socks are going well. I think I've finally sorted the ear issue, and hope to have them done and dusted by the weekend.

The best catching up this week, however, was the return of one of my best friends, who's spent the last year traveling. A few months before she left she gave me a giant ball of pink boucle acrylic and told me to make her something. I ummed and erred and swore at the snaggy-ness of the yarn before finally deciding on a giant crochet wrap. It's the sweat pea shawl from the Happy Hooker. I'll finish with a close up of the boucle-ness of it all. It's so wonderfully pink and plastic it actually smells like a My Little Pony.

resurfacing

I've not died. Or given up knitting. I've just been busy. I've had marking, lecturer training, seminars to go to, a seminar to write, a chapter draft to finish and things to do for a conference I'm organising.

But now, at last, I have a day off. The marking is done. The chapter draft isn't, but it's at a stage where it needs to be left for a day. I have coffee, I have porridge. I have a vintage Dr Who DVD and it's a lovely sunny day so I think I'll go for a bit of a walk up to the Horniman.

And the knitting? I have been doing some, but it's still at that dull WIP stage. This big pile of fluff is the edging for the print o'wave stole.


And this? This is a hint of a Cheshire Cat. First one done, second is a good 1/8th of the way in. I'm going to change the ears and tail slightly for the second sock (and final pattern) but it'll do.

in the shadow of the easter bunny

Tail aside, I know it looks more like a rabbit than a cat, but trust me, illusion-wise (i.e. the right way around, looking at an angle to see the picture through the bumps and valleys of purls and knit-stitches) it's a cat.



Took FIVE times to get it right. But it looks like cat, and is small enough to fit on feet smaller than mine, even at sportweight (which I believe cashsoft 4ply really is, much heavier than a standard 4ply).

wanna see?

You have to love BST. Enough light to take photos after work. Admittedly I came home a bit early this afternoon, but lo, the light!

Wanna see some WIPs?

A Print O' The Wave stole in kid silk haze. Marcus and I spent ages choosing the colour, and decided this shade had just the foam-sea quality. The really amazing thing to see here though are the needles - part of my storytellers prize. These needles are amazing - smooth but not slippery. They could turn me into a serious needle snob.

And here's the start of the storyteller's project itself. I've re-knit this several times... but I want the cat's tail to be perfect.


Right, I'm off to a Science Literature conference tomorrow and have a slide show to finish.

Storytelling

I'm going to start the socks for Purlescence soon. As a tease, here's the story I submitted to the competition. It sets the scene for the pattern, and gives clues to what it'll finally look like.

Alice lay under a tree. It was a sunny afternoon, just an hour or so before dusk. A book of Very Hard Sums sat on her lap. She was supposed to be reading it, ready for an exam on Monday. Instead she stroked her cat, distracted by the softness of his fur.

The cat, uncharacteristically considerate that Alice needed to finish her homework, gave her an accusing look and shuffled down to settle round her legs. She picked the book up again and tried to read. But she was in one of those dreamy moods, and sleepy with it. The lines of text started to blur, to intermingle, forming strange, shadowy shapes on the page. Like clouds in a summer sky.

She looked down at her feet. They were warm and cosy, with the cat wrapped around the brand new stripy socks she had cast off only that morning (sock knitting being perfect exam procrastination). She tried to wake herself up by wiggling her toes. She pointed them back and forth like a ballerina, bending her ankle to arch her whole foot. The cat gave her a meaningful look, as if to say "stop shifting my bed, you annoying girl". She pulled a face at it back and went back to her maths homework.

But the lines of text were still swimming, and Alice's eyes were starting to drop. She yawned. But it was too late. She was too tired, too warm, and too comfortable and she started to fall. Falling asleep. Falling asleep. Falling. Falling down. Falling down? Falling down a tunnel?

She landed. Thump. And for no reason she had time to consider here, started chasing a rabbit. The rabbit disappeared and she encountered a very Mad Hatter and all sorts of strange card games. She thought she might have to play chess, untangle a sheep’s lacework, talk to plants and discuss literary theory with Humpty Dumpty, but it turned out that would come another day. And then there was that cat. A very odd cat. An odd cat that grinned broadly and kept disappearing and re-appearing. Occasionally giving her meaningful stares, to which she replied by pulling a face.

It's all very confusing. And it's all so very stripy. The cat was a tabby. The rabbit wore a striped waistcoat. As did the Hatter and his friend the dormouse. Even the tunnel has forms of stripes, with all its stalagmites.

Exhausted and confused, Alice awoke. Back at her original tree, with her book of Very Hard Sums still sitting unread on her lap. She realised all those rabbits and card-games were merely a dream. She wiggled her feet again, pointing her toes back and forth as before, gradually building herself up to move and get home for dinner.

She looked around for her cat. He was no where to be seen. Disappeared again, Alice thinks. That bleeding cat, he's probably chasing that tabby-point Siamese from next door.

She points her toes again, looking down to admire her new stripy socks once more. But something had changed. There's an odd shadowy shape running down the side of her ankle and onto the top of her foot. She points her toes tightly, arching her foot forward and the shadow becomes more pronounced. It's a cat. A cat silhouette on her socks.

Curiouser and curiouser.

If you'd not already guessed, they're illusion socks, like these. It'll be done in cashsoft 4ply, in shades of brown (tabby cat style).